TheScreamfranchise is rife with recognizable actors silently lurking in the background just like the Ghostface Killer himself, and re-watching the movies can lead to some pleasant surprises. Some of themost influential slasher filmsaround, theScreamseries has mastered the art of weaponizing celebrity actors for brief appearances ever since Drew Barrymore was shockingly killed off in the opening moments of the original 1996 classic. Since then, the franchise has swelled to include all sorts of familiar faces that are shockingly easy to forget.
Famous actors that can somehow go unremembered throughout theScreamseries hide their presence in a multitude of ways. The appearances of some performers are so brief and so long ago in the canon ofScreammovies that it can be frighteningly easy to forget they were ever there. Other times, character actors with familiar faces that tease recognition on the tip of the tongue can lurk in the foreground, being vaguely remembered for other work but hard to place. Either way, mostScreammovies feature at least one easy-to-forget star.
10Wes Craven
Scream
Like most directors, Wes Craven is certainly willing to partake in the time-honored tradition of making a cameo in his own film as a minor background character. InScream, Wes Craven makes a snapshot appearance as Fred the Janitor, a blink-and-you’ll-miss-him character briefly seen swabbing the floors of Woodsboro High School. True to his name, Fred’s striped sweater and fedora are a clear reference to Wes Craven’s infamous slasher villain Freddy Krueger, a supernatural serial killer with a claw-tipped glove who kills people by invading their nightmares.
Thehorror movies of Wes Cravencement his place as one of the most iconic names in the genre to ever do it, more than earning him a small nod to his most well-known character. Craven would go on to star in additional small cameo roles in subsequentScreammovies, including a doctor inScream 2,a videographer inScream 3,and a coroner in a deleted scene inScream 4.Few realize that Craven contributed to the franchise beyond his work as a director.
9Linda Blair
Of course, being a love-letter to the horror genre as a whole, it’s no wonder that Wes Craven is far from the only horror icon to get a cameo appearance in the originalScream.Blair is credited as “Obnoxious Reporter” in 1996’sScream, a fitting title for her character who tactlessly asks Sidney Prescott how it feels to be brutally butchered. Underneath her audacious black-and-white tiger-print outfit, it’s difficult to even realize it’s her.
Linda Blair is most well-known for her child role as the demon-possessed Regan MacNeil inThe Exorcistfranchise. It’s only fitting that she is given a nod inScream, even if she’s less recognizable as an adult. It’s a shame Blair doesn’t have as many notable roles later in her career, as her clear talent in even such a brief scene stands out. That being said, it’s certainly still not easy to place her for the uninitiated.
8Kristen Bell
Scream 4
One of the best parts of theScreamfranchise is just how meta it can get, openly referring to and playing with common slasher movie tropes in real-time as they happen. The presence of theStabmovies, afilm-within-a-filmseries that canonically exists within theScreamuniverse based off the actual exploits of the Ghostface Killer. The opening scene ofScream 4sees Kristen Bell cast as Chloe, the 7th Ghostface Killer of theStabfranchise.
Kristen Bell first rose to fame thanks to her time on TV as the titular plucky protagonist ofVerionica Mars.In more recent years, she wowed TV audiences again as Arizona scumbag Eleanor Shellstrop, the charmingly sleazy protagonist of the supernatural sitcomThe Good Place.Confusingly enough, inScream 4,it’s revealed that the previousStabmovies also exist in the universe ofStab 7, making them a film-within-a-film-within-a-film. With all those narrative hoops to jump through, it’s no wonder Bell is so easy to forget amidScream 4’s cast.
7Heather Graham
Scream 2
TheStabmovies represented a chance for theScreamfranchise to squeeze in some brief appearances by well-known actresses long beforeScream 4,with the concept of them first appearing as early asScream 2.Scream 2parodies the opening scene of its predecessor by showing the firstStabfilm’s adaptation of the Ghostface Killer murder of Casey Becker that started it all. TheStabadaptation of Casey Becker is played by Heather Graham in an easy-to-miss performance.
As an actress, Graham has quite the versatile portfolio, appearing in comedies likeThe Hangover,Bowfinger, andAustin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. She’s also something of a TV character darling, appearing in supporting roles in shows likeTwin Peaks, Scrubs,andCalifornication.Graham might not quite be a household name, but she’s certainly a familiar face, even if viewers of theScreamfranchise aren’t able to immediately place where they know her from.
6Patrick Warburton
Scream 3
Another prominent actor to appear as a minor character in theScreamfranchise is Patrick Warburton as Steven Stone. InScream 3, Stone acts as the bodyguard of Jennifer Jolie, a rising star in theScreamuniverse’s Hollywood circuit thanks to her success in theStabmovies. Stone is the fourth person to be killed by the Ghostface ofScream 3, taken out while patrolling the perimeter of Jolie’s house.
Patrick Warburton is better known for his iconic voice rather than his face, with some of his most famous characters being Kronk fromThe Emperor’s New Grooveand Joe fromFamily Guy.Beyond that, Warburton’s animated credits are impressively numerous, fromThe BatmantoThe Bee Movie.ButWarburton is no stranger to live-action actingeither, playing both the eccentric titular hero ofThe Tickand David Puddy onSeinfeld.Even for those that might know his face rather than his voice, he’s hard to recognize under his shades inScream 3.
5Sarah Michelle Gellar
Screamfamously shocked audiences by wantonly killing off Drew Barrymore’s character in the famous opening scene, a bold and shocking move at the time due to Barrymore’s popularity.Scream 2would pull a similar trick by killing off none other than Sarah Michelle Gellar, who stars as Casey “Cici” Cooper. Cici is a freshman film major at Windsor College who is the third to die by the new Ghostface Killer’s hand, murdered while on “sober sister” duty.
Sarah Michelle Gellar won over TV audience’s hearts for years as the titular killer of the undead inBuffy the Vampire Slayer, a widely-beloved and long-running supernatural high-school drama series. Funnily enough, Gellar has few degrees of separation from theScreamfranchise, with her husband, Freddie Prinze Jr., being referenced inScream 3, and herScooby-Dooco-star, Matthew Lillard, played one of the original Ghostface Killers. Sarah herself is also referenced as an actress later on inScream 3, as well.
4Carrie Fisher
One of the more famous names easily forgotten as having taken part in theScreamfranchise is Carrie Fisher, yet another famous star hidden within the busy cast ofScream 3.Fisher plays Bianca Burnette, an archivist and former actress who works at Sunrise Studios in Los Angeles, California. Bianca bemoans the fact that she was almost cast as Princess Leia intheStar Warsfilms, only for the role to go to “The one that sleeps with George Lucas” instead.
Obviously, this is a tongue-in-cheek reference to Carrie Fisher herself as the one who played the famous science fiction royal in both the originalStar Warstrilogy and the first two films of the Disney-owned sequel trilogy. Fisher was also a beloved creative outside of her work inStar Wars, writing the hit novelPostcards From the Edge,as well as her autobiography,Wishful Drinking.Fisher’s willingness to poke fun at herself inScream 3is a great distillation of her unique sense of humor.
3Tony Revolori
Scream VI
It isn’t just the earlierScreammovies that were fond of casting actors whose faces are just barely shy of being easily recognizable. Enter Tony Revolori as Jason Carvey, a film student at Blackmore University who acts as an early antagonist inScream VI.Carvey gets his comeuppance early on as the third victim of the New York Murders depicted inScream VI, making him one of the few villains of the series to quickly be dispatched by a bigger fish.
Tony Revolori got his big break as Zero in the beloved Wes Anderson filmThe Grand Budapest Hotel, keeping up with dazzling performers like Ralph Fiennes despite his tender age. He’s also known in Blockbusters as the bully of Peter Parker, Flash Thompson, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Spider-Man films, putting a modern twist on the generic archetypal high school jerk. Revolori gets replaced as the villain ofScream VItragically early.
2Timothy Olyphant
Timothy Olyphant represents yet another gem buried within the stacked cast ofScream 2is Timothy Olyphant, whose distinctive face is easy to forget amid the cavalcade of characters. Olyphant stars as Mickey Altieri, another film student at Windosr College and the third officially revealed Ghostface Killer of theScreamfranchise. True to the first film, he’s quite difficult to suspect as a suspect the first time around, making Olyphant’s presence surprisingly hard to remember despite being unmasked as the killer.
Timothy Olyphant is best known for his TV characters, including Seth Bullock inDeadwood,Danny Cordray inThe Office, and Raylan Givens inJustified.More recently, he starred alongside fellowScreamseries alum Drew Barrymore in thetragically-canceled horror comedy Netflix originalSanta Clarita Diet.Considering Mickey spends most of his time on-screen as in the Ghostface mask with Roger L. Jackson’s snickering evil voice, it’s shockingly easy to forget Olyphant is there at all.
1Anthony Anderson
The incompetence of police forces are yet another recurring trope in slasher movies that theScreamfranchise plays with in characters like Anthony Perkins, played hilariously by Anthony Anderson. Perkins is one of two police officers assigned to guard Sidney Prescott after threats against her are made. They also ending up protecting Kate and Jill, only to fall prey to the Ghostface Killer like so many others when push comes to shove.
Anthony Anderson is a comedically gifted actor with a wide range of appearances in different properties who is easy to recognize, but less easy to name. His hit characters include comic relief hacker Glen Whitmann inTransformers, one of the co-protagonists inKangaroo Jack, and the lead sitcom father of the ABC seriesblack-ish.Anderson is one of the many barely-unrecognizable stars tapped for their hilarious comedy chops in theScreamfranchise.
