Why Ray Foster From Bohemian Rhapsody Looks So Familiar

When Bohemian Rhapsody hit theaters in 2018, it shocked the whole of the cinematic world by becoming one of the year's biggest box office hits, netting close to $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales. Perhaps even more surprising than the film's box office take was the fact that it also became a major player at the 2019 Academy Awards, landing five nominations and ultimately four wins to boot.

One of those wins was for Rami Malek's grand-standing performance as Queen's late-great frontman Freddie Mercury. And few could argue it wasn't worthy of such praise, as it lent an air of soul-stirring gravitas to a film that, according to some critics, didn't entirely do the band's legacy the justice it deserved. Nonetheless, "Bohemian Rhapsody" remains one of the most crowd-pleasing "greatest hits" styled rock biopics of recent memory. While Malek's performance remains both the heart, and the highlight of the film, his work is bolstered mightily by the efforts of his supporting cast, including the familiar faces of Lucy Boynton, Aidan Gillen, and Tom Holland.

A few sharp-eyed viewers might have noticed another familiar actor in the "Bohemian Rhapsody" landscape too, though you may have had trouble placing the face of the smarmy record exec who categorically refuses to release the titular song as a single. Here's why Ray Foster from "Bohemian Rhapsody" looks so familiar.

While his face was hidden behind smoky lenses, a puffy wig, and a grizzled beard, it was indeed funnyman Mike Myers hilariously cameoing as the "Bohemian Rhapsody"-hating Ray Foster in the film. It's hardly a surprise Myers would appear almost completely masked in makeup, of course, as the actor and comedian has essentially spent his entire career donning one costume or another to bring his characters to life. And that was never more on display than during Mike Myers' six year stint on NBC's legendary sketch comedy series "Saturday Night Live."

Myers made his first appearance on the series in 1989, and in the ensuing years helped create some of the most memorable characters not just of the show's bristling 1990s era, but of all time. Those characters include his uber-German intellectual Deiter, the frequently verklempt "Coffee Talk" host Linda Richman, the hyperactive adolescent Philip, and most notably as everybody's favorite hard-rocking cable TV host Wayne Campbell, which would eventually serve as an unexpected springboard for the actor.

That last character found Myers fronting the iconic "SNL" sketch "Wayne's World" alongside Dana Carvey. It is arguably the most popular sketch in the history of "Saturday Night Live." And its success may well have played a role in Mike Myers leaving the show in 1995. That's because said sketch became the foundation for Myer's big screen breakout — 1992's deliriously funny and maniacally irreverent romp, "Wayne's World," which would go on to become both one of the year's most successful movies, and a legitimate comedy classic of the era.

In bringing the beloved creation to the cinematic realm, Myers and company wisely didn't try to reinvent the wheel, simply expanding on their already hilarious concept by putting the lovable slackers Wayne Campbell (Myers) and Garth Algar (Carvey) on a kooky adventure worthy of the big screen, and smartly adding a romantic subplot. If you're wondering exactly why Myers' "Bohemian Rhapsody" cameo was so devilishly funny, it's because the song featured prominently in the most iconic scene from "Wayne's World." And yes, both that scene, and the film itself put Myers on the path to big screen fame.

With big screen success with "Wayne's World," a starring role in "So I Married an Axe Murderer," and a steady gig on "Saturday Night Live," Myers seemed set for the foreseeable future. But then he surprisingly left "SNL" in 1995, and even more surprisingly, he didn't appear in any film or television projects for almost two full years.

When Myer's returned to action, however, he did so with a fury, delivering both his most memorable character, and his biggest hit to date in 1997's swinging spy-movie spoof "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery." 

We'll assume that you've seen "Austin Powers" a dozen times or so by now, and spare you a synopsis, because the franchise-launching farce has become one of the best-loved — and most endlessly quotable — comedies of all time. As for Myers, he's literally never been funnier in a role ... even if, to be honest, there have been seriously diminishing returns with each "Austin Powers" sequel so far.

As it happens, "Bohemian Rhapsody" was hardly the first time Mike Myers turned up unexpectedly in a high-profile movie behind loads of special effects make-up and a boasting a spot-on English accent. In fact, Myers had done the very same thing roughly a decade prior, making a far less cheeky cameo in Quentin Tarantino's immaculate, revisionist World War II fable "Inglorious Basterds."

Yes, that was Mike Myers portraying the reserved UK General Ed French in the film, the very man who put Michael Fassbender's Archie Hicox on the ill-fated path to helping the titular unit end the war once and for all. That path led to an undercover mission, and one infamous mistake that nearly upended the daring plot to infiltrate Adolf Hitler's inner circle and take him out. It also led to one of Tarantino's most distinctly Tarantino-esque scenes in the famed bar room standoff. 

While Myer's beleaguered General was nowhere near that brutal shootout, it's safe to assume he was still pretty happy with how everything turned out in the end.