This past Thursday night I caught the series finale of Star Trek: Picard, which brought to an end the 36-year odyssey of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It was a finale that left me cheering, laughing, crying, and not wanting it to end. But during the finale I, like many other viewers, spotted two cameos that left me going, “What the…?” One at the beginning and one at the end. If you’re not a Star Trek fan, or if you’ve not seen the finale yet, I’m not going to spoil them for you.

But it got me thinking about some of the various cameos that surfaced in the Superman films, those little bits and pieces of film moments where you never know who’s going to show up in the films. Here’s a few of them:

Kathleen Carroll

In this quick moment, Carroll—at the time a film critic for the New York Daily News—tells Lois Lane about meeting a fantastic guy at a dude ranch.

Rex Reed

This quick encounter between the ever sardonic Reed and Lois occurs outside the Daily Planet where he doesn’t give Clark Kent the time of day. In an interview shot for the Making of Superman: The Movie documentary, Reed talks about his cameo in the film but also gives the viewers a look like he really doesn’t care about his cameo.

Richard Donner

Our beloved director who made everyone believe in the concept of verisimilitude made two cameo appearances in the films. First, in the 1982 extended TV cut of Superman: The Movie, he is seen talking to Clark and asking, “That’ll be the day when a guy can fly, huh?”

Then, in all versions of Superman II, Donner makes an almost Hitchcock-like appearance as he walks in front of Lois and Clark’s car outside Don’s Diner.

Donner’s voice can also be heard at the start of the helicopter sequence alongside Christopher Reeve’s voice, as well as the voice of the missile convoy talking to Mother Bird at the start of the missile hijacking sequence.

Leonard Nimoy

While not an actual walk-on cameo per se, an image of the world’s most famous Vulcan can be seen on a bus behind Christopher Reeve during Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut as Clark uses his super breath to save Lois by falling into a fruit cart. Nimoy’s image was used to promote his appearance on Broadway in the play Equus, which had just started only a couple of weeks earlier toward the end of June 1977. (See my blog for the full story.)

Stuart Freeborn

The makeup artist who worked on all four of the Superman films appears in this brief sequence sitting behind Reeve and Marc McClure as Jimmy rambles on to a disinterested Clark about how his family prefers to cook their stuffing.

Leslie Newman

The screenwriter, who, along with her husband David Newman, co-wrote the scripts for the first three films, made a brief cameo appearance as Ross Webster’s secretary in the extended TV cut of Superman III.

Pamela Mandell

Not all cameo appearances in the Superman films were limited to production crew members. Actress Pamela Mandell had a small role as the waitress in the Don’s Diner scenes in Superman II, followed by a quick cameo as Maury Stokis’ wife in Superman III.

Robert Beatty

Beatty had a small role as an oil tanker captain in Superman III and a cameo as the US President in Superman IV.

John Hollis

Best known as Lobot in The Empire Strikes Back, John Hollis had a brief cameo as a Kryptonian elder in the first two Superman films and a brief cameo as a Russian general in a deleted scene from Superman IV.

Les Kimber

He served as a production manager on Superman: The Movie and made a brief cameo appearance as the bus driver in Superman III.

Shane Rimmer

Rimmer had a supporting role as a NASA controller in Superman II, then made a quick cameo as a sheriff in Superman III.

Peter Whitman

He was Deputy Dwayne during the East Houston scenes in Superman II, then he had a brief cameo as the guy at the ATM in Superman III.

Frank Oz

The famed Muppeteer who brought to life the voice of Miss Piggy and Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back had a cameo in the extended TV version of Superman III as a neurosurgeon during the nationwide blackout.

Larry Hagman

The former Major Tony Nelson of I Dream of Jeannie fame shot this quick cameo for Superman: The Movie in early August 1977 before going on to even greater fame as the devious and manipulative J.R. Ewing in the long-running nighttime drama Dallas.

David Michael Petrou

The writer of the acclaimed Making of Superman: The Movie book made a quick cameo in the film as a coaching assistant reminding young Clark Kent to get all of the football uniforms washed and prepared for Smallville High’s upcoming game.

Those are some of the cameos that occurred throughout the production of the Superman films. There are obviously others, but these are some of the more notable that come to my mind. Can you find other cameos in the movies?

(Some of the screenshots in this blog are used courtesy of CapedWonder.com.)