Every Quentin Tarantino Cameo In His Own Movies (& Where To Spot Them)

Quentin Tarantino has appeared in almost every movie he has made, either as a proper character or in voice cameos – and here’s every one of them. Tarantino’s career in the film industry officially began in 1992 with Reservoir Dogs, a crime movie that follows a group of six criminals – all with different code names – whose planned heist of a jewelry store goes terribly wrong. Although Reservoir Dogs was a hit with critics and audiences, Tarantino’s big break came two years later with Pulp Fiction.

The film tells several interconnected stories in a non-linear style, with violence and crime also at the center of the story. Pulp Fiction gave Tarantino worldwide recognition and established his narrative style, which has continued throughout his career. In total, Tarantino has directed 10 movies (though both Kill Bill films are counted as one), which are part of the same movie universe, and written a couple more, such as From Dusk Till Dawn (directed by Robert Rodriguez) and True Romance (directed by Tony Scott). In addition to that, Tarantino has also taken part in some projects as an actor, including his own movies.

Tarantino has assigned himself different characters that are either on the background, don’t stick around for long, are passing by in the stories of the main characters, or are off-screen. Here’s every Tarantino cameo in his own movies, from Reservoir Dogs to Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.

Reservoir Dogs

Reservoir Dogs introduced the audience to Mr. White (Harvey Keitel), Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen), Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi), Mr. Blue (Edward Bunker), and Mr. Brown (Tarantino), all part of a heist planned by Joe and Eddie Cabot. As mentioned above, the heist went wrong and it was every man for himself, as it turned out there was an undercover cop among them. One by one, they made it to one of Joe’s warehouses, except for three characters: Mr. Blue, Mr. Blonde, and Mr. Brown. Mr. Blue’s fate wasn’t addressed in the movie but in a video game released in 2006; Mr. Blonde eventually arrived with a kidnapped policeman, and Mr. Brown was killed when the police arrived at the jewelry store.

Nothing else is said about Mr. Brown after that, but even though his role was brief, he made a big impression in the opening sequence, with a speech about the real meaning behind Madonna’s “Like a Virgin”.

Pulp Fiction

Tarantino played a character that didn’t die (nor did he discuss the meaning behind one of Madonna’s greatest hits) in Pulp Fiction. His character was that of Jimmie Dimmick, a friend of Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) who helped him and Vincent (John Travolta) deal with the mess caused by Vincent accidentally shooting Marvin in the head. Jimmie let them hide their car in his garage but demanded that they took care of the problem before his wife came home. Marsellus then sent his cleaner, Winston Wolfe (Harvey Keitel), to help them clear the car and hide the body. Whatever happened to Jimmie Dimmick after that is unknown, but his marriage surely survived.

Jackie Brown

Tarantino’s cameos in his own movies have also been off-screen, instead lending his voice to answering machines, narrators, directors, and more. Jackie Brown has his first voice role within his movies, voicing an answering machine that simply said “you got a message”.

Kill Bill: Volume 1

Kill Bill: Volume 1 introduced the audience to the Crazy 88, a group of assassins and O-Ren Ishii’s (Lucy Liu) personal army. When The Bride (Uma Thurman) arrived to get her revenge against O-Ren Ishii, the latter ordered the Crazy 88 to attack, but The Bride quickly dispatched them. Tarantino has a cameo role as a member of the Crazy 88, and one whose throat was slit by The Bride.

Death Proof

Death Proof is Tarantino’s contribution to Grindhouse, and is the sister-movie to Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror. Considered as the weakest entry in Tarantino’s filmography, Death Proof is an exploitation thriller with his trademark dose of violence and blood. His role in the story was that of Warren, the bartender, who joins Arlene, Shanna, and “Jungle” Julia’s table and takes shots with them.

Inglourious Basterds

Tarantino’s alternate version of World War II, Inglourious Basterds, is the first of his movies where he played two characters. First, he played a Nazi soldier getting scalped by the Basterds, in the scene where Donny “The Bear Jew” Donowitz is introduced. Later on, he played an American GI in the movie-within-the-movie Nation’s Pride, and even though this character is facing away from the camera, he delivered the line “Colonel, I implore you, we must destroy that tower”.

Django Unchained

Following the steps of Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino played two characters in Django Unchained. First, Robert – or Bag Head #1 – in the scene where Spencer “Big Daddy” Bennet (Don Johnson) and all his henchmen go from discussing how to attack Dr. Schultz (Christoph Waltz) and Django (Jamie Foxx) to complaining about how badly done their bag-masks were. Later on in the story, he played Frankie, an Australian miner (with a terrible accent) transporting Django as he was going to be sold to a mining company and worked to death. As Frankie was carrying explosives, he died when Django shot him.

The Hateful Eight

Tarantino took a break from on-screen characters when The Hateful Eight arrived. Instead, he decided to play the role of narrator, which was very obvious given his peculiar voice and style. Tarantino helps the audience with the story between the first and second acts by explaining what happened during the shoot-out, and there’s a crucial detail in there.

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood also had its dose of Tarantino cameos. Once more, Tarantino decided to stay behind the camera, but he lent his voice to two different characters, and one was a meta-type of cameo. First, Tarantino served as the Bounty Law announcer, and then he jumped to the end of the movie to play the role of director of the Red Apple Cigarettes commercial, where he simply yelled “and cut!”

About The Author

Adrienne Tyler
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Adrienne Tyler is a features writer for Screen Rant. She is an Audiovisual Communication graduate who wanted to be a filmmaker, but life had other plans (and it turned out great). Prior to Screen Rant, she wrote for Pop Wrapped, 4 Your Excitement (4YE), and D20Crit, where she was also a regular guest at Netfreaks podcast. She was also a contributor for FanSided’s BamSmackPow and 1428 Elm. Adrienne is very into films and she enjoys a bit of everything: from superhero films to heartbreaking dramas, to low-budget horror films. Every time she manages to commit to a TV show without getting bored, an angel gets its wings.

When she’s not writing, you can find her trying to learn a new language, watching hockey (go Avs!), or wondering what life would have been like had Pushing Daisies, Firefly, and Limitless not been cancelled. Breakfast food is life and coffee is what makes the world go round.

Guillermo del Toro said “hi” to her once. It was great.

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