15 Times Actors Posthumously Starred In A Movie
![15 Times Actors Posthumously Starred In A Movie](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/5/9/879759_320x180.jpg)
Just because a beloved celebrity is dead… doesn't mean they should be deprived of the opportunity to star in a blockbuster movie, or a keystone moment of prestige TV, or a commercial they'll never benefit from monetarily.
Oh, you disagree? So you're saying Marlon Brando shouldn't have been able to appear in Superman Returns? Just because he hadn't acted, or been alive, in years? You're telling me that Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, and Louis Armstrong don't deserve to appear together in an ad for Diet Coke? Because they're “dead?” Because they “didn't agree to do that?” Because they “probably wouldn't have given permission to digitally exhume their corpses, if they could even wrap their minds around the idea that that technology might one day exist?”
You expect me to believe… that Aubrey freaking Hepburn… might object to a chocolate company casting multiple people who kind of look like her… 3-D scanning their faces… and Frankensteining them together to make a somewhat passable replica of her face?
Well buddy, I suppose there's just no common ground for us to find.
Carrie Fisher in 'The Rise of Skywalker'
![CRACKED Old footage of Carrie Fisher was used for The Rise of Skywalker. The team at ILM had to incorporate Fisher into TROS after her death in 2016. They did this by piecing together unused footage from The Force Awakens. The challenge was to make sure her performance came across as authentic.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/7/0/879770.jpg)
Lucasfilm
Nancy Marchand in 'The Sopranos'
![GRACKED Nancy Marchand's death caused a scene in The Sopranos to be rewritten using CGI. In Season 3, CGI was used in a scene between Marchand's character Livia and her son Tony. Many fans were confused by the decision. David Chase explained that he didn't want to recast the character, and decided it would be best to kill off Livia instead. Не believed that their final onscreen interaction was necessary for the narrative.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/7/3/879773.jpg)
HBO
Roy Scheider in 'Iron Cross'
![CRACKED With Roy Scheider's death, the production team had to get creative to finish his last movie. After the death of Scheider, those working on his final project, Iron Cross, were left with a big problem. The film had not yet been completed, and a crucial scene had not yet been filmed. Thanks to computer- generated imagery and prosthetic latex masks made to look like Scheider, they were able to complete the movie.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/7/4/879774.jpg)
BBE Productions
Harold Ramis in 'Ghostbusters: Afterlife'
![CRACKED Old footage and concept art were used to bring back Harold Ramis as Egon Spengler for Ghostbusters: Afterlife. MPC Film gathered reference material and scans of old footage, focusing on key angles and expressions. They also studied concept art of an aged Egon, supplied by the filmmakers. With all of this information, MPC was able to create a convincing likeness of Ramis that honored his memory.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/6/5/879765.jpg)
Columbia Pictures
Laurence Olivier in 'Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow'
![CRACKED Laurence Olivier was resurrected for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. The filmmakers used archival film footage and fresh soundtrack dialogue to create a scene where Olivier speaks lines he never spoke and makes gestures he never made.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/7/1/879771.jpg)
Paramount Pictures
Bruce Lee in 'The Game of Death'
![CRACKED Bruce Lee's death left Golden Harvest scrambling. When Lee died from a cerebral edema, production company Golden Harvest pieced together unused footage and shots of lookalikes to create The Game of Death. Director Robert Clouse reused scenes from other Lee movies, and even shot a cardboard cutout of the actor.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/7/5/879775.jpg)
Golden Harvest
Audrey Hepburn in a Chocolate Commercial
![CRACKED They recreated Audrey Hepburn's face from scratch for a Galaxy chocolate commercial. In order to make a realistic computer- generated image of Hepburn, the VFX team had to completely recreate her face. This meant finding lookalikes, scanning their faces, and experimenting with new software renderers until they got it just right.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/6/7/879767.jpg)
Mars Inc.
Oliver Reed in 'Gladiator'
![CRACKED Oliver Reed's death caused problems with Gladiator. Reed, who struggled with alcoholism, had promised director Ridley Scott that he wouldn't drink during filming, but instead only drank on weekends. When he passed out and died in a bar, they used digital images of his face to finish his scenes.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/6/9/879769.jpg)
DreamWorks, Universal Pictures
Paul Walker in 'Furious 7'
![CRACKED In the pre-digital era, Paul Walker's death would've made finishing Furious 7 a huge pain. Because of digital filmmaking techniques, they were able to use shots of Walker and his brothers standing in for him to make it work. Weta Digital scanned Caleb and Cody Walker's faces and used them as reference points for creating a computer-generated version.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/6/8/879768.jpg)
Universal Pictures
Peter Cushing in 'Rogue One'
![CRACKED Peter Cushing is in Rogue One as a digital version of Grand Moff Tarkin. John Knoll, the film's visual effects supervisor and chief creative officer for ILM, says they used actor Guy Henry as a digital stand-in and employed motion-capture and a facial-expression tracker to animate footage and photographs of Cushing.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/6/3/879763.jpg)
Lucasfilm
Brandon Lee in 'The Crow'
![CRACKED The Crow was completed with CGI and body doubles of Brandon Lee. After Lee tragically died during filming, creator James O'Barr was guilt-ridden and devastated, as he had personally hand- picked him. Work on the film continued by using body doubles and CGI until it was completed according to O'Barr's vision.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/6/6/879766.jpg)
Miramax Films
Coolio in 'Futurama'
![CRACKED YS KIA DIC WHAT THE HELL IS KWANZA? pike Coolio 10 recorded lines for Futurama just weeks before his death. The rapper played Kwanzaa-bot, Santa Claus' counterpart that flies around the world annually to distribute a book called, What the Hell is Kwanza? The episode in which he appears was dedicated to him.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/6/1/879761.jpg)
Featureflash Photo Agency/Shutterstock, 20th Television
Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, and Louis Armstrong in a Diet Coke Ad
![CRACKED A Diet Coke ad brought Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, and Louis Armstrong together. FX people spent 1,700 hours piecing together footage from different movies to create the illusion of the icons hanging out at a nightclub.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/6/2/879762.jpg)
Coca-Cola
Marlon Brando in 'Superman Returns'
![CRACKED Superman Returns used old footage of Marlon Brando. The screenwriters wanted to establish a connection between the movie and the original 1978 film, so they decided to bring back Brando. They contacted his estate and were given access to hours of unused footage and recordings.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/7/2/879772.jpg)
Warner Bros.
Fred Astaire in a Vacuum Cleaner Ad
![CRACKED Fred Astaire's widow thinks he would've been OK dancing with vacuum cleaners. Ms. Astaire gave permission for Dirt Devil vacuums to use movie clips of the late dancer in their commercials, in the first time she has let an advertiser use her husband's image. She said her husband would've seen nothing wrong with using vacuum cleaners as dance props, and that he was always receptive to new proposals.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/6/4/879764.jpg)
Dirt Devil