Here's Why Quentin Tarantino Owes His Whole Career To A Bizarre TV Bit-Part

Hit movies such as Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill brought Quentin Tarantino worldwide fame. But before he made it big, the director had a brief appearance in a sitcom, and it paved the way for his future rise to stardom. Perhaps surprisingly, it’s quite a departure from his own visceral extravaganzas. 

Thanks to Tony Tarantino’s career as an actor, his son Quentin had cinematography in his blood. It was Tarantino Jr.’s grandmother, though, who really brought his love of film to the fore. Once she took the then-four-year-old to watch a John Wayne movie, and that was it: the future director was well and truly hooked.

Tarantino’s mother Connie McHugh once informed magazine Entertainment Weekly that elements of his unique directing style had appeared early on. “He wrote me sad Mother’s Day stories,” she revealed. “He’d always kill me and tell me how bad he felt about it. It was enough to bring a tear to a mother’s eye.”

Thankfully, instead of matricide Tarantino channeled his energies in a much healthier direction. A movie rental store called Video Archives hired him. There he met like-minded film buff Roger Avary and the two indulged their shared passion by writing screenplays. Tarantino’s access to a range of films probably played a contribution to his signature references, too. 

Those in the know won’t need reminding that Tarantino loves to recreate scenes from other films. Or “steal” from them, as he told Empire magazine in 1994. But did you know that he has an interest in acting, too? That’s right, the renowned director often steps out from behind the camera for some on-screen appearances.

Before you go mentioning Tarantino’s appearances in 1978’s Dawn of the Dead and 1987’s King Lear though, hold up. Despite the rumors, he never actually had a role in either of those films. The story began when Tarantino himself lied about them on a resume and some sources still believe it.

So if he wasn’t in either of those films, which ones did the movie director star in? Well, Tarantino played a character who shared his first name in the straight-to-video 1989 movie Vegetables. In case you’re wondering, the film was about murderous vegetarians who targeted non-veggies as their victims. All in the name of their cow god, of course. 

He also put in an appearance as an asylum attendant in a 1992 movie called Eddie Presley. The story followed an Elvis lookalike who suffered from a mental illness. After a while you’ll probably notice that most of Tarantino’s roles in films are short ones. Take his part as a bartender in 1994’s comedy drama, Somebody to Love, for example. 

Of course, if Tarantino really wants to be on screen he has plenty of opportunities. He is a director, after all. Indeed, he’s squeezed himself into virtually every one of his own movies, either in an acting or voice role. Actually, when a new Tarantino movie drops, it’s quite fun spotting where he will be next.

In the lauded Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino appears as Mr. Brown in the film’s intro, albeit briefly. He’s Jimmie Dimmick in Pulp Fiction, a friend of Vincent and Jules Winnfield. He becomes an accessory to murder when they hide their vehicle on his property. What a good pal!

Tarantino has a single line of dialogue during Jackie Brown as the voice on an answering machine. And in Kill Bill Vol.1 he plays a member of a gang called the Crazy 88. Tarantino gets killed by Uma Thurman’s character The Bride in that one. 

The director even had two different parts in Django Unchained. To begin with he was a character complaining about his face-concealing hood. Tarantino appears again later as an Australian miner who meets his end at Django’s hands, or more accurately, his bullet. But what about the director’s first films? 

Back in 1983 Tarantino directed a short dark comedy film with Scott Magill called Love Birds in Bondage. He plays the boyfriend of a woman who suffers head trauma after an accident. Four years later Tarantino directed My Best Friend’s Birthday and stars as Clarence Pool, the main character’s best friend. 

It was Tarantino’s third role, though, that you might find a little more surprising. In 1988 the director made a small cameo in a popular sitcom called The Golden Girls. Maybe you’ve heard of it? Well, Tarantino credited the cast for giving him the part he needed to prolong his career. 

Tarantino elaborated in a TV interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in 2020. He said, “One of the jobs I did get, and not because I did a wonderful audition, but simply because they sent my picture in and they said, ‘He’s got it,’ was for an Elvis impersonator on ‘The Golden Girls.’”

The director continued, “It became a two-part ‘Golden Girls.’ So I got paid residuals for both parts. It was so popular they put it on a ‘Best of The Golden Girls,’ and I got residuals every time that showed.” It turned out to be the financial boost the aspiring director needed to make one of his biggest movies. 

But just how much did Tarantino get from his short cameo? He revealed, “I got paid maybe, I don’t know, $650 for the episode. But by the time the residuals were over three years later, I made like $3,000. And that kept me going during our pre-production time trying to get Reservoir Dogs going.”

Reservoir Dogs became Tarantino’s breakthrough movie, albeit after a shaky film festival public screening. According to the director, everything that could go wrong actually did. Firstly, the scope lens film was shown without the proper equipment, then a power cut ruined the film’s climax. And at one preview show, no fewer than 33 people walked out! 

But the Sundance Festival saved the movie: it picked up a cult following after its introduction there. Perhaps this was partly because of the film’s gratuitous violence, which caused some controversy. They do say there’s no such thing as bad publicity though, and in the case of Reservoir Dogs it was true.

In 2017 Tarantino told The Guardian newspaper how he felt getting famous producer Lawrence Bender’s support with Reservoir Dogs. He said, “It was an amazing experience and I think we danced around. That was the beginning of the beginning.” Indeed it was: the big-screen hit paved the way for both his signature style and future fame and success.