brad pitt

He’s the heart-throb of billions and the father of Angelina Jolie’s brood of six. But Brad Pitt started out as a sidey in a couple of films, the most notable being Charlie Sheen’s 1987 film No Man’s Land in which he has an uncredited, wink-and-you-miss appearance as a waiter! Today, Sheen’s a waster and Pitt a superstar.

marilyn monroe

The iconic blonde went through four uncredited appearances — telephone operator to waitress — before she landed her first proper role in the 1948 musical Ladies of the Chorus. In fact, the comedy film Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! is now best known as the film in which Marilyn had her earliest speaking role: “Hi Rad” was her sole line as she sits in a canoe.

RENEE ZELLWEGER

‘Girl in blue pickup truck’ — that’s how Renee Zellweger, the Oscar winning star of Chicago and the woman we know as Bridget Jones, is credited in the 1993 Richard Linklater film Dazed and Confused. Renee, then 23, makes an appearance in a short scene where she is seen, yes, in a blue pickup truck, as one of a group of three girls funnelling beer into plastic glasses (inset).

channing tatum

He may currently count as Holly’s hottest hunk, but the star of films like 21 Jump Street and White House Down had a rather low-key debut — as an uncredited extra in a church scene in the 2005 Steven Spielberg-directed Tom Cruise alien invasion film War of the Worlds.

sylvester stallone

Holly’s muscle man started out small with a host of uncredited cameos, the most noticeable one being in Woody Allen’s 1971 film Bananas where he played a subway mugger. The same year he had an uncredited appearance as a nightclub patron in the Jane Fonda film Klute. Rocky was to happen five years later.

ben affleck & Matt DAMON

Best buddies Ben Affleck and Matt Damon may have hit big time pretty early on in their careers (they won a Best Original Screenplay Oscar together for Good Will Hunting) but the two had a rocky start — they both played baseball fans (uncredited) in the Kevin Costner film Field of Dreams.

bruce willis

The man who urges you to ‘live free or die hard’ struggled in bit roles before his power-packed turn as John McClane came calling. While the 1980 film The First Deadly Sin has him credited as ‘Man Entering Diner as Delaney Leaves’, he is acknowledged as ‘Courtroom Observer’ in the Paul Newman legal drama The Verdict.

jackie chan

Asia’s biggest superstar — with actor, producer, writer, director credits — started his film journey as a child artiste at age five, playing side roles — beggar kid... — in many films between 1962 and 1970. As a teen, he made uncredited cameo appearances in Fists of Fury (1971) and Enter the Dragon (1973), where he is shown in a scene being pummelled (inset) by Lee!

MUMTAZ

The top star of ’60s and ’70s Bollywood played an extra in six films between 1961 and 1963. For five years after that, she mainly appeared in

B-grade films opposite Dara Singh, before being cast as the vamp in the Biswajeet-Asha Parekh starrer Mere Sanam. The 1969 hit Do Raaste was the first of her many blockbuster films with Rajesh Khanna. By the mid-’70s, Mumtaz was a star with films like Khilona, Aap Ki Kasam and Ram Aur Shyam.

shahid kapoor

Six years before his debut in Ishq Vishk, Shahid, who has appeared in many ads as a kid — including one for Complan with Ayesha Takia — was a background dancer in the Dil To Pagal Hai number Le gayi. However, he was first noticed as a dancer in the Kahin aag lage number (inset) from Taal that was picturised on Aishwarya Rai and has a shot of Shahid draping her in white!