It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World - Cast - Cameo Appearances

Cameo Appearances

• Jack Benny as a man who drives by in a Maxwell, offering to help, but is put off by Mrs. Marcus
• Paul Birch as a Santa Rosita Police Department officer
• Ben Blue as the vintage biplane pilot
• Joe E. Brown as the union official giving a speech at a construction site
• Alan Carney as a sergeant with the Santa Rosita Police Department
• Chick Chandler as a detective outside Chinese laundry
• John Clarke as a helicopter pilot
• Stanley Clements as a local reporter at police station
• Lloyd Corrigan as the mayor of Santa Rosita
• Howard Da Silva as an airport official
• Andy Devine as the Sheriff of (fictional) Crockett County, California
• Selma Diamond (voice only) as Ginger Culpeper, Captain Culpeper's wife
• Minta Durfee as a crowd extra
• Roy Engel as a Santa Rosita Police Department officer
• Norman Fell as primary detective at the "Smiler" Grogan accident site
• James Flavin as a Santa Rosita Police Department officer
• Stan Freberg as a Deputy Sheriff of (fictional) Crockett County
• Nicholas Georgiade as supporting detective at the "Smiler" Grogan accident site
• Louise Glenn (real name: Sarah Louise Golden) (voice only) as Billie Sue Culpeper, Captain Culpeper's daughter
• Leo Gorcey as a cab driver bringing Melville and Monica to the hardware store
• Stacy Harris (voice only) as police radio voice unit F-7
• Don C. Harvey as a Santa Rosita Police Department officer
• Sterling Holloway as a Santa Rosita Fire Department fire captain
• Edward Everett Horton as Mr. Dinckler, owner of the hardware store
• Allen Jenkins as a Santa Rosita Police Department officer
• Marvin Kaplan as garage/service station co-owner Irwin
• Robert Karnes as Simmy, a Santa Rosita Police Department officer
• Buster Keaton as Jimmy the Crook (boatman)
• Tom Kennedy as a Santa Rosita Police Department traffic cop
• Don Knotts as the nervous motorist
• Charles Lane as the airport manager
• Harry Lauter as a Santa Rosita Police Department police dispatcher
• Ben Lessy as George the steward
• Bobo Lewis as vintage biplane pilot's wife
• Jerry Lewis as the man who runs over Culpeper's hat
• Bob Mazurki (presumed) as Eddie, the miner's son
• Mike Mazurki as the miner bringing medicine to his wife
• Charles McGraw as Lt. Matthews of the Santa Rosita Police Department
• Cliff Norton as a reporter
• Barbara Pepper as an ice cream counter waitress (scene deleted)
• ZaSu Pitts as Gertie, the Santa Rosita Police Department Central Division's switchboard operator
• Carl Reiner as the Rancho Conejo airport tower controller
• Madlyn Rhue as secretary Schwartz of the Santa Rosita Police Department
• Roy Roberts as a Santa Rosita Police Department officer (scene deleted)
• Eddie Ryder as Rancho Conejo air traffic control tower staff member
• Charles Sherlock as a crowd extra
• The Shirelles (voices only), singing "31 Flavors" in Sylvester's bachelor pad scene
• Eddie Smith as an extra
• Arnold Stang as garage/service station co-owner Ray
• Nick Stewart as migrant truck driver forced off the road
• The Three Stooges (Moe, Larry, and Curly Joe) as Rancho Conejo Airport firemen (they have the shortest cameo appearance; five seconds)
• Sammee Tong as a laundryman
• Ernestine Wade as a migrant truck passenger forced off the road
• Doodles Weaver as a hardware store employee
• Jesse White as a Rancho Conejo air traffic controller

Stunts (doubled for in parentheses)

• Carey Loftin (Terry-Thomas)
• Bill Couch (Buddy Hackett)
• Chuck Couch (Terry-Thomas)
• John Hudkins (Jonathan Winters)
• Jack Perkins (Jonathan Winters)
• Loren Janes (Eddie Anderson)
• Regis Parton (Milton Berle)
• George Robotham (Dick Shawn)
• Carl Saxe (Sid Caesar)
• Helen Thurston (Ethel Merman)
• Jesse Wayne (Mickey Rooney)
• Marvin Willens (Phil Silvers)
• Janos Prohaska (Peter Falk, Arnold Stang)
• Philip Crawford
• John Daheim
• Bob Herron
• Richard E. Butler
• Walt LaRue
• Robert F. Hoy
• Fred Scheiwiller
• Buddy Van Horn
• Paul Stader
• Chuck Hayward
• Fred Gabourie
• Tap Canutt
• Frank Tallman
• Paul Mantz
• Tom Steele
• Sol Gorss
• George DeNormand
• Gil Perkins
• Dale Van Sickel
• Dick Crockett
• Max Balchowsky
• Gary Eper
• Carol Daniels
• Bill Shannon
• Stephanie Epper
• May Boss
• Alex Sharp
• Dick Geary
• Paul Baxley
• Wally Rose
• Harvey Parry

See for names and pictures of many of the cast members. The film's opening credits list forty-eight names clearly: all of the "main" and "secondary" names above and twenty-nine of the "cameo appearances", each group approximately or exactly in alphabetical order, though not grouped according to the "main", "secondary", "cameo appearances" groups above. An "explosion" displays other names not in any of the three lists (a number of which refer to animation department members), including Ade Woolely, Irene Wyman, Bernard Halderson, Bernards Kids, Mary Mathews, Carl Pederson, Oscar Hansson's, Federal Internal Revenue, Francis A. Smith, Bernie Gruver, Carl Person, Danny Smith, Kennedy's, Torty Maumau, Mad Mad Dog Gees, Los Angeles, Elenor Faith, Mary Cane, Ed Levit Artist, Colonal Rhe, Understable, Yorty, McKinley, Tab Collar, Art Goodman, Hugh Childs, Bob Carlson, and (particularly) Bill Melendez (see below), and a smattering of letters and otherwise unassociated names, all of which drop out to show five (Stang, Stewart, Stooges, Tong, White) of the twenty-nine. Right after the "explosion", the last "secondary" cast member mentioned is Durante.

Of the film's many actors and actresses, as of October 2012, only Caesar, Chase, Clarke, Freberg, Georgiade, Glenn, Kaplan, Jerry Lewis, Bob Mazurki (youngest), Reiner, Rooney (oldest), and Winters were believed to be still alive, evident from the cast members' biographies and other available information. Kennedy (1885) and Horton (1886) were born the earliest, while (excluding Bob Mazurki (1952)) Rhue (1935) and Provine (1935) were born the latest. Harvey died the youngest (51) and earliest (1963), and, to date, Falk died the latest (2011), Lane died the oldest (102). Tracy died more than eight years before Ford, the second of the main or secondary cast members to die.

Film and television comedian Ernie Kovacs was originally scheduled to play the character "Melville Crump" before his untimely death in an automobile accident on 13 January 1962. Kramer subsequently filled the role with comedian Sid Caesar. Kovacs' wife, Edie Adams, remained on board as Caesar's screen wife, in part due to the enormous tax obligations that Ernie left behind.

Wally Brown was going to be given a role but died two months before Kovacs died, not long before filming began. According to Davidson, the role of Irwin was originally offered to Joe Besser, who was unable to participate when Sheldon Leonard and Danny Thomas could not give him time off from his co-starring role in The Joey Bishop Show.

Judy Garland, Groucho Marx, Stan Laurel, George Burns, Bob Hope, Don Rickles, Judy Holliday, and Red Skelton were among the many celebrities offered or considered for roles in the film. Ethel Merman's role was originally written for Groucho (as Finch's father-in-law), who reportedly demanded too much money; so the part was rewritten. Laurel did not want to be seen in his old age, especially without his comedy partner Oliver Hardy, who died in 1957.