Quentin Tarantino: The Actor

Named by his father after Quent Asper, a Burt Reynold’s character in the 1960s series Gunsmoke, Quentin Tarantino is now a household name in the film industry. Hey welcome to watchmojo.com, I'm your host Derek Allen and today we’ll be taking a look at the acting career of Qunetin Tarantino. Unlike many other top Hollywood directors, Tarantino’s acting career has also attracted some attention. [Movie Stream] Claiming to have been taught the craft by the actor James Best, Tarantino’s first on-screen performance was in the 1987 black and white film, My Best Friend’s Birthday. [Movie Stream] A complete film also written by Tarantino, unfortunately, never saw the light of day after lab accident resulted in the final real being burned. [Movie Stream] Following the setback and after realizing his inexperience in the acting world, Tarantino lied on his resume to help land auditions. This aspiring actor gave himself acting credits for the 1978 film Dawn of the Dead, in which he looks strikingly similar to a biker, as well as in 1987 Ken Leer, a film that Hollywood knew a little about. The resume in enhancement paid off and Tarantino landed a role on an episode of the Golden Girls as an Elvis impersonator. [Series Stream] And later as an asylum guard in the 1992 film, Eddie Presley. Tarantino’s first more significant role came in 1992 Reservoir Dogs, which also marked his entrance unto to the scene as a director. Tarantino took the role of Mr. Brown, one of seven strangers working together to pull off a heist. [Movie Stream] This began a trend of Tarantino writing himself into many of his later films, proving just how small these cameras could be, he’s only appearance in the 1997 film Jacky Brown, was this electronic voice on the lead character’s answering machine. [Movie Stream] In his 1994 hit Pulp Fiction, Tarantino cast himself as Jim Dimmitt, a man who helps Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta’s characters stash a dead body. [Movie Stream] Following the success of his first two films, Tarantino wrote and directed the segment, The Man from Hollywood, in the anthology comedy Four Rooms, in which he also ironically played the role as a hot new director celebrating a breakout success. [Movie Stream] As a favor to his friend and fellow director, Robert Rodriguez, Tarantino appeared briefly as a joke telling cowboy in 1995 Desperado. [Movie Stream] And then starred opposite George Clooney as criminal Richard Geko in 1996’s From Dusk Till Dawn. [Movie Stream] Later in their careers, Rodriguez and Tarantino would team up as directors for 2007 double feature Grindhouse in Rodriguez’ plan of terror, Tarantino played a missionary soldier turn zombie. [Movie Stream] And in its own film Death Proof, Tarantino appeared as a bar tender. [Movie Stream] In Adam Sandler’s 2000 offbeat comedy Little Nicky, Tarantino appeared as a memorable and accident prone street preacher. [Movie Stream] Branching away from film acting, Tarantino appeared on the first season of Alias in 2002 as McKenis Cole, an agent turned traitor. The role appealed to Tarantino as a featured common threads from his own films, such as A Heist, philosophical dialogue and a torture scene. [Movie Stream] He also voice the character Master Moloch on the cartoon series Duck Dodgers, a character that had been modeled on his own character, apply May from Kill Bill. [Movie Stream] At the insistence of director, Takashi Miike, Tarantino appeared as a gun slinging cowboy in the film Sukiyaki Western Jango. Miike said that he “needed Tarantino’s unique cinematic flare as a guy who doesn’t play by Hollywood rules.” [Movie Stream]