The 14 Hollywood Actors With the Most Acting Credits in History
It’s amazing what you can achieve with a trombone, a dream and the last name “Astor.”
Robert Loggia: 234
Loggia worked right up until the year he died, putting out three films in 2015 (and four more since then).
Ward Bond: 278
Bond and fellow USC football player John Wayne met director John Ford when the team was invited to appear in 1929’s Salute. Bond and Wayne caught Ford’s eye, and the two were recruited to appear in a ton of his films.
Michael Ironside: 285
Frederick Reginald Ironside has made his mark playing authority figures in movies and shows that conservatives love to interpret as instruction manuals for fascism, from Top Gun to Starship Troopers to Barry.
Christopher Lee: 288
Dracula, Dooku, Ludwig Karnstein, Drago, Frederic Regula, Borgia, Ottokar Graf Czerin… this guy loved playing Counts!
Mickey Rooney: 344
Joseph Yule Jr. began his career as a child actor in vaudeville performances and silent films, and worked right up until he was 92, when he put out four films.
Gertrude Astor: 350
She began her entertainment career as a trombonist, then became an important figure in the transition from stage productions to silent films to early talkies. She holds the record for most appearances in films in the National Film Registry.
John Carradine: 354
His six-decade career saw him in everything from Westerns to Shakespeare. He gained the most notoriety as a spooky freak in horror films, but racked up the most credits in B-movies in the second half of his career.
Mark Hamill: 370
Sure, his film debut was in a once-in-a-generation power franchise, but he’s also had a more prolific voiceover, video game, stage and TV career than many of his peers who specialize in just one medium.
Richard Riehle: 435
The trained theatre actor didn’t get his first film credit until he was nearly 30, and it took another 10 years of grinding before his signature mustache got him regular work and Hollywood notoriety.
Danny Trejo: 468
Trejo spent most of his early life in jail, and didn’t start his film career until the age of 41 when an addiction program he volunteered for sent him to the set of Runaway Train to work with a teenage actor. He was offered a role as an extra on the spot, immediately jump-starting an unexpected acting career.
James Hong: 463
Hong got a degree in civil engineering from the University of Minnesota, but got into acting in the ‘50s. He’s appeared in everything from Airplane! to Wayne's World 2 to Everything Everywhere All at Once to every single Kung Fu Panda.
Harry Strang: 520
He was active from the 1920s through the 1960s, but really made his mark as everyone’s go-to sheriff or cop figure in the Westerns of the ‘30s and ‘40s.
Eric Roberts: 851
Julia Roberts’ big brother has appeared in more than 10 times the amount of films his A-list sister has. His first role was the lead in 1978’s King of the Gypsies, which got him a Golden Globe nom, and he’s been relentlessly chasing that high ever since.
Bess Flowers: 1,045
Flowers was an industry good luck charm, holding the record for most appearances in Best Picture nominees at 20. She was known as “The Queen of the Hollywood Extras,” since most of her parts were non-speaking roles, and she helped found the Screen Extras Guild (which later merged with SAG).
