Actors referred to by real name in a film they are acting in

[Tom Bancroft]

I was watching "Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome", The villain 'Gruesome' is played by Boris Karloff. Early in the film, one of Tracy's crew says, "This is worse than being stalked by Boris Karloff" (or words to that effect). Can anyone remember similar situations where an actor's real name has been mentioned in a film he is appearing in as someone else?

[faginsgirl]

Not a name, but your question reminds me that I always have to laugh when I watch carry on screaming as Harry H Corbett pulls up at the shop on a cart to steal the dummy and they play the music from steptoe and son .



Not the same I know but its a humorous part of the film I think.



xx

[penfold]

name='Tom Bancroft']I was watching "Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome", The villain 'Gruesome' is played by Boris Karloff. Early in the film, one of Tracy's crew says, "This is worse than being stalked by Boris Karloff" (or words to that effect). Can anyone remember similar situations where an actor's real name has been mentioned in a film he is appearing in as someone else?

A similar in-joke is in Arsenic and Old Lace....in the film Raymond Massey character, a victim of plastic surgery conducted by a drunk Peter Lorre, is upset at a comment comparing him to Boris Karloff.

In the Broadway stage version, it had been Karloff in the Massey role....

[Brief Encounter]

Obvious one springs to mind for me. in 'Spring in Park Lane', a character observes that the character being played by Michael Wilding looks like MW!

[CaptainWaggett]

name='penfold']A similar in-joke is in Arsenic and Old Lace....in the film Raymond Massey character, a victim of plastic surgery conducted by a drunk Peter Lorre, is upset at a comment comparing him to Boris Karloff.

In the Broadway stage version, it had been Karloff in the Massey role....

I've always been puzzled why Karloff wasn't in the film version - I don't think it because he was still on Broadway as I read an interview once with either him or Massey commenting on being on adjacent lots while the film was being made. Anyone know?

[bhowells]

name='faginsgirl']Not a name, but your question reminds me that but I always have to laugh when I watch carry on screaming as Harry H Corbett pulls up at the shop on a cart to steal the dummy and they play the music from steptoe and son .



Not the same I know but its a humorous part of the film I think.







xx

That reminds me of Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster in the Munsters Go Home film spin-off making a reference to his earlier comic hit,"Car 54 Where Are You."

[batman]

name='CaptainWaggett']I've always been puzzled why Karloff wasn't in the film version - I don't think it because he was still on Broadway as I read an interview once with either him or Massey commenting on being on adjacent lots while the film was being made. Anyone know?

Karloff was under contract to someone else. He had also been suffering a recurrence of the chronic back problem that plagued him most of his life so was on a bit of 'go slow' ..... only 243 films that year!

[Wicked Lady]

In Seven Year Itch, when Tom Ewell is asked who else is in the apartment and he replies:



"Maybe it's Marilyn Monroe"



and it is!

[batman]

Tom Conway played a private eye called 'Tom Conway' in Blood Orange.

[dremble wedge]

name='penfold']A similar in-joke is in Arsenic and Old Lace....in the film Raymond Massey character, a victim of plastic surgery conducted by a drunk Peter Lorre, is upset at a comment comparing him to Boris Karloff.

In the Broadway stage version, it had been Karloff in the Massey role....

And in Curse of the Crimson Altar where Mark Eden upon viewing the spooky house says "You expect Boris Karloff to turn up" - which he does!



On not dissimiliar lines Jon Pertwee in The House That Dripped Blood refers directly to one of his co-stars in this little speech "That's what's wrong with the present day horror films. There's no realism. Not like the old ones, the great ones. Frankenstein, Phantom of the Opera, Dracula - the one with Bela Lugosi of course, not this new fellow."

[m35541]

The Pertwee comment was probably added late on since "the other fellow", Christopher Lee, was originally offered Pertwee's role but declined (he appears in another segment of the film).

[McGill]

Then of course there's the Cary Grant film where somebody mentions Archie Leach "Sounds like a real cut throat to me"

[Marky B]

name='McGill']Then of course there's the Cary Grant film where somebody mentions Archie Leach "Sounds like a real cut throat to me"

That film,MCGill,was the ultrahilarious His Girl Friday with the gorgeous Rosalind Russell and Ralph Bellamy. There was also a scene where Grant is trying to describe the Ralph Bellamy character:"What does he look like,er...he looks like that guy from the movies,what's his name,Ralph Bellamy."



Yesterday,watching Road To Rio,Bob Hope and Bing Crosby get Dorothy Lamour to pose as a singer Ginger Roark.

"Can she sing?"

"She looks like Lamour,she'll sing like Lamour."

Ta Ta

Marky B

[CaptainWaggett]

There's also Oceans 12 in which Julia Roberts plays both herself and someone who just happens to look like her but I fell asleep so I don't know if they actually met or indeed if anything netertaining happened.

[alan french]

Hi.

Phil Silvers did a special on BBC late 1950's. He appeared as both Sgt. Bilko and himself.



Larry Parkes, in one of the two films in which he acted as Al Jolson, was also seen as himself impersonating Al Jolsen.



Alan French.

[Mark O]

Can't recall the title of the Film off the top of my head (maybe someone can?) but Sylvester Stallone says "Rambo's a Pussycat", in one of his non-Rambo Movies!

[bhowells]

In the Elvis movie G.I. Blues Presley in the role of Tulsa Mclean is pushed against a jukebox in a fight scene, this causes the jukebox to start playing and we can clearly see that the selection played is Blue Suede Shoes by Elvis Presley, albeit an inferior remake recorded especially for the film.

[batman]

name='Mark O']Can't recall the title of the Film off the top of my head (maybe someone can?) but Sylvester Stallone says "Rambo's a Pussycat", in one of his non-Rambo Movies!

It was actually Eddie Murphy in Beverley Hills Cop 2, he said 'Rambo's a pussy' when he saw a Rambo poster on Judge Rheinhold's wall. Apparently Murphy included this in the script after Stallone accused him of shagging Brigitte Neilson (who was also in BHC2).

[torinfan]

Not a film, but I've an episode of Lost In Space called "The Space Trader" and you know who says he has to attend a trade fair on the planet Torin. Yeah.

[McGill]

name='Marky B']That film,MCGill,was the ultrahilarious His Girl Friday with the gorgeous Rosalind Russell and Ralph Bellamy.

Couldn't think of the name of it without looking it up, so thanks for that Marky.