Actors Everyone Forgets Appeared In The Halloween Movies

Since director John Carpenter turned out his iconic horror masterpiece "Halloween" in 1978, the franchise has grown, expanded, twisted, and turned. It's currently one of the longest-running horror franchises, with 2022's "Halloween Ends" marking nearly 45 years of storytelling. For more than four decades, the infamous masked slasher Michael Myers has been terrorizing audiences.

Following two initial movies, a third tried to spawn an anthology series, while three further sequels were ultimately erased and written over by "Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later," which essentially served as a reboot of sorts. The follow-up to that, "Halloween: Resurrection," proved a disappointment, however, and a pair of remakes from director Rob Zombie started everything over once again. A decade after that, David Gordon Green revealed his own trilogy, which wiped everything away except for Carpenter's original film.

While some of the films have garnered fame, others have been largely forgotten, and with them, a number of actors who starred in them have been dismissed from our minds. Some have gone on to have big careers, while others were big stars at the time whose parts are often overlooked today. So board up the windows and turn out the lights, because there's a madman on the loose, and he's found a list of actors you probably forgot appeared in the "Halloween" franchise.

Starting out as a cover model in the early 1990s, Tyra Banks soon become one of the biggest names of the decade. She was VH1's Supermodel of the Year in 1997 and seemed to be on every newsstand nationwide by the end of the decade, so it made perfect sense when she debuted the modeling reality competition series "America's Next Top Model" in 2003. Since then, she's become a reality TV icon as host of the series for the better part of two decades, and she's also accumulated an impressive number of film and scripted TV credits. As an actor, Banks may be best known for her recurring role in "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," but in 2002 she also made an appearance in "Halloween: Resurrection."

Ironically enough, the eighth entry in the series is all about a reality TV series called "Dangertainment." The fictional game show pits a variety of teen contestants against one another in a battle of wills as they're tasked with a stay in the broken-down home of serial killer Michael Myers. Eventually, Myers himself — who was believed dead — resurfaces and goes on a killing spree. Banks turns up as Nora Winston, the director of the reality show. Perhaps if the movie had been made even a year later they'd have cast her as the on-screen host.

If you're on the younger side, you may not recognize Malcolm McDowell, the British icon probably most famous for his starring role in the groundbreaking Stanley Kubrick masterpiece "A Clockwork Orange." Horror fans may recognize him for his role as Dr. Longtooth in an episode of the 1991 anthology "Tales From the Crypt," while Trekkies remember him from his villainous turn in "Star Trek: Generations." With a career stretching back to 1964, there's any number of famous movies and television shows we could cite from his filmography, but one that many people forget is his appearance in the "Halloween" reboot films from musician-turned-director Rob Zombie.

Zombie started from scratch with an all-new reinvention of the franchise in 2007, which is essentially a remake of the original "Halloween." For this new version, McDowell was chosen to replace Donald Pleasance as Dr. Loomis, the psychiatrist who works with the disturbed Michael Myers during his younger years. McDowell reprised the role for the sequel, "Halloween II," in 2009, though his part in the saga became like everything else in the films — erased with the release of David Gordon Green's "Halloween" in 2018.

Oh, did you think Josh Hartnett and LL Cool J were the only big names that people had forgotten from "Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later?" Well, we're just getting started, because the 1998 film had a bevy of big names that nearly nobody remembers. To be fair, unless you're a diehard "Halloween" fan, you probably don't remember much about the movie at all and likely haven't seen it since it came out. But sure enough, right alongside Hartnett and Cool J is future "Inception" and "Looper" star Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

At the time, the young actor was starring in one of TV's hottest sitcoms, the sci-fi comedy "3rd Rock from the Sun." He had a few minor film roles under his belt, but he wouldn't really hit it big on the big screen until after this "Halloween" sequel, in which he plays teenager Jimmy Howell — one of Michael Myers' first victims in the story. He's only in the film for a few brief minutes, so even if you do know the movie, it's understandable if you've forgotten him. But just a year later he got a much bigger and more memorable role in the teen rom-com "10 Things I Hate About You." By the end of the 2000s, he was a household name.

As you can see by now, "Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later" was a veritable who's-who of "before they were stars," and we've got one last name that you probably forgot was in that movie. She was a main cast member on "Dawson's Creek," playing Jen Lindley, the New York bad girl who relocates to Capeside. After finding success on television, Michelle Williams transitioned to the big screen, earning an Academy Award nomination for her role in "Brokeback Mountain" — the first of many. But the same year she debuted in "Dawson's Creek," Williams also had a small role in "H20," ironically playing the girlfriend of Josh Hartnett's character, who'd later turn down a role in "Brokeback Mountain."

In the "Halloween" sequel from 1998, Williams plays Molly Cartwell, who sticks by John Tate's side even when it's discovered that Michael Myers is intent on killing them all. She's there with John and his mother Laurie when Michael shows up in the film's climax. Though she and John don't pop up in any sequels, they do manage to survive "H20" thanks to Laurie, who helps get them safely out of harm's way before the final showdown.

There are some who might be surprised if they learned that Danny Trejo wasn't in a "Halloween" film, given his long and diverse catalog of credits. Known for his roles in violent Western action movies like "Once Upon a Time in Mexico," "Desperado," and "From Dusk Till Dawn," Trejo also appeared in family films and even voiced a character in "Minions: The Rise of Gru." But he may be best known for his signature role of Machete, who starred in his own series of films and appeared in others like "Planet Terror," and (ironically) four "Spy Kids" movies. In 2007, though, Trejo had a role in Rob Zombie's reboot of "Halloween."

In the film, Trejo appears as Ismael Cruz, a sympathetic guard at the Smith's Grove Sanitarium where Michael Myers has been held since his first childhood killing spree. As he shows Michael kindness, it's all the more surprising when Cruz is viciously slaughtered when the killer escapes — his head smashed with a television set. As Michael beats him to death, Cruz can be heard crying "I was good to you!" in a heartbreaking final moment.

Margot Kidder is most famous for her role as Lois Lane, intrepid Daily Planet reporter and romantic interest of Superman in the 1980s films based on the comic book superhero. But shortly after her first appearance as Lois in 1978's "Superman: The Movie," Kidder also starred in "The Amityville Horror," an iconic horror film. Kidder's role in the "Halloween" franchise is less famous and didn't come until much later in the series — specifically, Rob Zombie's "Halloween II" in 2009.

In the film, Kidder plays Barbara Collier, a psychiatrist who's seeing Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton) to help her deal with the trauma related to her violent encounters with Michael Myers. It's a small but memorable role, with Collier recognizing that the Halloween season can be a trigger for Laurie as it's the night that Michael came back to Haddonfield to stalk her.

LL Cool J isn't the only rap star to make an appearance in the "Halloween" franchise, oddly enough. So too did hip-hop legend Busta Rhymes, who expanded his career beyond the music industry in the early '90s by trying his hand at becoming a TV and movie star. He's still known best for songs like "Woo Hah!! Got You All in Check," but some may still know him for his brief time in the Hollywood spotlight.

His lone appearance in the "Halloween" franchise came during that period when he dipped his toes into the world of acting, making a few on-screen appearances in movies like "Higher Learning," "Shaft," and "Finding Forrester." The year was 2002, and the film was "Halloween: Resurrection," — the movie that all but killed the series before Rob Zombie's reboot. Rhymes plays sometimes creepy, always sleazy TV director Freddie Harris in the story. Though he's not hard to miss in the film, "Resurrection" is so forgettable — and bad — that few have bothered to remember it, let alone revisit it.