10 Actors Who Appear In Wes Anderson’s Movies The Most, Ranked By Appearance Count

Bursting onto the scene with 1996’s acclaimed crime-comedy Bottle Rocket, Wes Anderson has collaborated with certain actors several times, with some names having appeared in more than 10 of his movies. Renowned for his inimitably distinctive visual style, Anderson’s best movies include the lauded likes of The Royal Tenenbaums, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Moonrise Kingdom in a career that has seen the director’s work receive an impressive total of 16 Oscar nominations across various categories since 2001.

A frequent collaborator with a host of well-known stars, the American director is notorious for casting a selection of the same actors throughout his movies. Anderson’s creative partnership with Bill Murray is arguably his most high-profile and long-running collaboration to date, but the Ghostbusters star is far from the only Hollywood big-hitter that Anderson has called upon on multiple occasions throughout his career. A veritable who’s-who of prominent A-listers, the actors with the most appearances in Wes Anderson’s movies have given some of their career’s best performances in his films.

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10

Jeff Goldblum

4 Movies – The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle Of Dogs, & Asteroid City

Appearing in some of cinema’s highest-grossing movies, Jurassic Park star Jeff Goldblum’s creative partnership with Wes Anderson dates back to 2004’s cult classic The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. The sci-fi icon’s first appearance in one of the director’s movies saw him charged with the role of Alistair Hennessey, nemesis to Bill Murray’s eponymous protagonist.

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It would be a decade before the pair worked together again, but Goldblum soon made up for lost time by appearing in three of Anderson’s movies in the span of nine years. Beginning with a role in 2014’s acclaimed outing, The Grand Budapest Hotel, the actor would follow up his bow as the ill-fated Deputy Kovacs with a voice-over role in 2018’s Isle of Dogs and a brief appearance as an alien in 2023’s Asteroid City.

9

Edward Norton

5 Movies – Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle Of Dogs, The French Dispatch, & Asteroid City

The star of movies such as Fight Club, American History X, and Birdman, multiple-time Academy Award nominee Edward Norton numbers among Wes Anderson’s most critically acclaimed collaborators. Turning in a well-received performance as Scout Master Randy Ward in 2012’s lauded coming-of-age drama, Moonrise Kingdom, Norton has subsequently gone on to appear in four more Anderson productions to take his tally of appearances to five.

Edward Norton’s Academy Award-nominated movies by year	Category	Result
Primal Fear (1997)	See more : What Champion Says This? Follow my blade! Loldle Quote Answer Today Best Supporting Actor	Nominated
American History X (1999)	Best Actor	Nominated
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)	See more : What Champion Says This? Follow my blade! Loldle Quote Answer Today Best Supporting Actor	Nominated
A Complete Unknown (2024)	See more : What Champion Says This? Follow my blade! Loldle Quote Answer Today Best Supporting Actor	TBD

Invariably forming part of Anderson’s array of impressive ensemble casts, some of Edward Norton’s best movies include roles of varying prominence in the likes of The Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle of Dogs, and The French Dispatch between 2014 and 2021. The American’s latest bow in one of the director’s films came as the ill-fated playwright Conrad Earp against the backdrop of the 2023 sci-fi comedy-drama Asteroid City.

8

Anjelica Huston

5 Movies – The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, The Darjeeling Limited, Isle Of Dogs, & The French Dispatch

A staple of cinema for more than half a century since debuting with 1969’s A Walk with Love and Death, Anjelica Huston has collaborated with Wes Anderson on five occasions. Starring as Etheline Tenenbaum in 2001’s The Royal Tenenbaums, Huston’s first Anderson movie is regarded by many die-hard fans as the director’s masterpiece. She also starred as Eleanor Zissou, the estranged wife of Billy Murray’s titular character in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.

Huston has not featured in a major role since her bow in the 2004 adventure comedy-drama but has continued to work with Anderson in a somewhat reduced capacity. The Oscar-winning actress appeared in 2007’s The Darjeeling Limited and boasts a tongue-in-cheek credit for 2018’s Isle of Dogs to complement her more substantial bows under the Anderson banner. Huston was most recently featured as the narrator during the Obituary segment of 2021’s The French Dispatch.

7

Tilda Swinton

5 Movies – Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle Of Dogs, The French Dispatch, & Asteroid City

Credited with appearances in five different Wes Anderson movies between 2012 and 2023, acclaimed British actress Tilda Swinton has starred in the same quintet of the director’s films as her fellow Anderson stalwarts, Edward Norton and Bob Balaban. A mainstay of popular culture who has worked with industry titans in the vein of Bong Joon-Ho, Luca Guadagnino, and the Coen brothers to name but a few, Swinton is one of the industry’s most recognizable and talented actors.

…Swinton is tied alongside four other actors as Anderson’s fourth-most-frequent collaborator as of 2025.

Starting with a role as a social services worker in 2012’s Moonrise Kingdom, Swinton’s most notable Anderson role is likely her bow as the writer J.K.L. Berensen, forming part of an ensemble cast in 2021’s The French Dispatch. However, with appearances in The Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle of Dogs, and Asteroid City to round out her numbers, Swinton is tied alongside four other actors as Anderson’s fourth-most-frequent collaborator as of 2025.

6

Bob Balaban

5 Movies – Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle Of Dogs, The French Dispatch, & Asteroid City

While he may have appeared in the same five Wes Anderson movies as Edward Norton and Tilda Swinton, Bob Balaban is probably not the first name that comes to mind in terms of frequent Anderson collaborators. The actor has been plying his trade since the 1970s, but Balaban’s most notable credit before his partnership with Anderson was arguably a supporting turn in 2005’s Best Picture nominee, Capote.

Beginning their collaboration with his most meaningful involvement to date, Balaban’s most significant role in an Anderson movie was his first appearance in 2012’s Moonrise Kingdom, playing the narrator against the backdrop of the director’s acclaimed coming-of-age tale. Since then, he’s featured in increasingly minor roles in four more of his films, with the actor’s most recent credit coming in the form of a cameo appearance in 2023’s Asteroid City.

5

Adrien Brody

5 Movies – The Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The French Dispatch, & Asteroid City

Thrust back into Hollywood’s spotlight off the back of his second Oscar-nominated bow for the 2024 epic period drama The Brutalist, Adrien Brody remains the youngest performer to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, a record that has stood since he first took home the gold for his turn in 2002’s The Pianist. The actor is also one of Wes Anderson’s most called-upon creative muses, appearing in five of his films in the space of little under sixteen years.

Adrien Brody’s Academy Award-nominated movies by year	Category	Result
The Pianist (2002)	Best Actor	Won
The Brutalist (2024)	Best Actor	TBD

While Brody’s starring role as Peter Whitman in 2007’s The Darjeeling Limited sees his most prominent involvement and is likely his most high-profile Anderson credit to date, special mention must be reserved for the actor’s smarmy bow as the entitled villain, Dmitri Desgoffe-und-Taxis, in 2014’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. Providing Brody with the opportunity to flex his comedic muscles in gleefully unrestrained fashion, Dmitri serves as a memorable antagonist for one of Anderson’s finest outings.

4

Willem Dafoe

6 Movies – The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The French Dispatch, Asteroid City, & The Phoenician Scheme

Willem Dafoe’s diverse blend of mainstream and arthouse roles has earned the actor a reputation as one of popular culture’s most instantly recognizable and universally respected performers. Working with fellow cinematic auteurs in the vein of Robert Eggers and Lars von Trier on multiple occasions, Dafoe also lists Wes Anderson among his most high-profile collaborators. Appearing in five of the director’s movies to date, Dafoe is also slated to make his sixth bow in Anderson’s upcoming project, 2025’s The Phoenician Scheme.

Having debuted as one of Anderson’s best sidekick characters in 2005’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Dafoe’s best role outside his sidesplitting take on Klaus Daimler is likely his bow as the sinister J.G. Jopling in 2014’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. A complete departure from his first Anderson performance, Dafoe’s cartoonishly evil henchman is one of the movie’s unsung success stories.

3

Owen Wilson

7 Movies – Bottle Rocket, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, The Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Grand Budapest Hotel, & The French Dispatch

 American Empirical Pictures

While Wes Anderson is renowned for casting the Wilson brothers throughout his films, none of the trio of siblings have appeared in more of the director’s movies than middle child, Owen. Starring alongside his brothers Andrew and Luke, Owen made his first major film appearance in Anderson’s directorial debut, 1996’s Bottle Rocket, and has never looked back, reuniting with the director on six more occasions across a span of nearly three decades.

Andrew and Luke Wilson appear together in Anderson’s first three movies; Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, and The Royal Tenenbaums.

Before a hiatus that began with his last credit as Coach Skip in 2009’s Fantastic Mr Fox, Wilson would star in every one of Anderson’s four movies from the 2000s, before a break that saw the duo put their long-running creative partnership on hold for five years. However, this wouldn’t last for long; the Wedding Crashers star would soon return to the fold with roles in 2014’s The Grand Budapest Hotel and 2021’s The French Dispatch.

2

Jason Schwartzman

7 movies – Rushmore, The Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The French Dispatch & Asteroid City

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse star Jason Schwartzman has been cast in numerous high-profile productions throughout his career, but the actor always finds his name inextricably linked with that of Wes Anderson. In sharp contrast to the supporting bows and minor cameos traditionally associated with many of the director’s collaborators, Schwartzman’s best movies include major roles in no less than three of Anderson’s movies; 1998’s Rushmore, 2007’s The Darjeeling Limited, and 2023’s Asteroid City.

A member of the Coppola family on his mother’s side, Jason Schwartzman’s uncle is none other than The Godfather director, Francis Ford Coppola, while his cousin is Longlegs star, Nicolas Cage.

Boasting seven total appearances in the director’s movies across the course of a creative partnership that began with his own feature film debut, only one other actor has worked with Anderson on more occasions than Schwartzman. While he isn’t slated to star in 2025’s upcoming project The Phoenician Scheme, the likelihood of future films involving the pair appears to be a near certainty.

1

Bill Murray

10 Movies – Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, The Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle Of Dogs, The French Dispatch, & The Phoenician Scheme

The actor who has appeared in the largest number of Wes Anderson movies by a considerable stretch, Groundhog Day star Bill Murray is the director’s most called-upon creative muse by some distance. A partnership that began with Murray’s bow as Herman Blume in 1998’s Rushmore, 2025’s The Phoenician Scheme will mark the tenth occasion that Anderson has cast the American comedic icon in one of his pictures.

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6

Except for Anderson’s directorial debut, Bill Murray was in all but three of Wes Anderson’s films. This includes an incredible run of nine consecutive movie appearances, beginning with 1998’s Rushmore and continuing all the way to 2021’s The French Dispatch. While Murray didn’t join the cast of 2023’s Asteroid City or 2024’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More, the actor’s looming return to the fold rubber-stamps his status as a performer who is virtually synonymous with Wes Anderson at this point.

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