Every Peter Jackson Cameo In The Lord Of The Rings & The Hobbit (With Timestamps)

Peter Jackson is the master of Middle-earth adaptations. The director and producer helmed the award-winning "Lord of the Rings" trilogy that launched a golden age of fantasy cinema. He returned a decade later to put together a less perfect but still epic trilogy for "The Hobbit" book that preceded Tolkien's Ring epic. The legendary filmmaker has also agreed to executive produce Warner Bros upcoming "The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim" anime prequel to "The Two Towers" and is busily helping put together a prequel film for Gollum .

While he spent most of his time behind the camera, Jackson also slipped into a scene here and there. In fact, while it remains to be seen if he'll do so with movies going forward, Jackson managed to get a cameo in each of the six Middle-earth movies he created across his two great trilogies. Here are those cameos, along with time stamps for both the theatrical and extended editions of each movie. They're presented below in order of movie release, beginning with the one that started it all: "The Fellowship of the Ring."

Jackson's first glimpse on screen comes just before the hour mark in "The Fellowship of the Ring." The scene in question takes place as Frodo and his Hobbit companions arrive in Bree. As they're let into the rainy, muddy town, Jackson crosses the screen. His official uncredited IMDB-listed character name is Albert Dreary, and it fits the bill. Jackson looks out of sorts, wet, and his hair is hanging across his face. He's also munching on a giant carrot, Bugs Bunny style.

The cameo takes place at the following points in the theatrical and extended editions of the movie:

Theatrical 50:10

Extended 58:20

Jackson pops up in "The Two Towers" during the Battle of Helm's Deep. This is one of his fastest cameos, and it's a blink-and-you-missed-it moment. As Saruman's Uruk-hai charge up the ramp to the fortress of the Hornburg, they reveal a battering ram and prepare to strike the door. In response, the Rohirrim brace the door and hurl objects from above. One of the latter is none other than a shouting Jackson in a mail coif chucking a spear at Rohan's foes. The clip is as brief as it is fearsome.

The cameo takes place at the following points in the theatrical and extended editions of the movie:

Theatrical 2:19:47

Extended 2:56:37

"The Return of the King" has one of the longest and most complex of Jackson's cameos. This time, he appears dressed up as one of the mercenary Corsairs of Umbar sailing in the Black Ships that attack Gondor from the south. In the theatrical version, he pops up for a split second. This also happens in the extended edition, but then an hour later, we see him again as Legolas' arrow (nudged by a bellicose Gimli) hits him square in the chest, taking him down in an instant.

The cameos take place at the following points in the theatrical and extended editions of the movie:

Theatrical 38:34

Extended 54:20 AND 2:07:35

Jackson wastes no time kicking off his cameos for "The Hobbit" trilogy. Less than ten minutes into "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," he pops up as a Dwarf fleeing from the destruction of the incoming Smaug the Golden. He's hard to see as the cameo flashes across the screen, and the director is hard to recognize due to some clever Dwarven prosthetics. Nonetheless, it's there right before Thorin shouts in vain for help from the nearby Elves.

The cameo takes place at the following points in the theatrical and extended editions of the movie:

Theatrical 7:51

Extended 8:01

Jackson's first cameo is as Albert Dreary, the grumpy unofficial Breelander — and it is a character that he brings back in the opening sequence to "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug." (The character even gets another uncredited nod in IMDB .) This time, the cameo takes place just over a minute into the film. As we enter a flashback to Bree to kick off the story, Dreary is seen exiting a building, taking a chomp out of a carrot (again), and heading off across the street. That's right. Jackson is so good at what he does that he even turns his random cameos into recognizable in-story characters. (He did the same thing for Bret McKenzie's Figwit across both trilogies. )

The cameo takes place at the following points in the theatrical and extended editions of the movie:

Theatrical 1:11

Extended 1:11 (the same)

Finally, we have "The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies." This time, we don't get a live cameo, though, and it doesn't show up until the final moments of the movie. As the story wraps up, Jackson appears as Bilbo's father, Bungo Baggins, depicted in a hand-painted picture the hobbit hero hangs over the fire. The best part? The reminiscent artwork is hung next to Bilbo's mom, Belladonna Took — a picture that doubles as a cameo of Jackson's wife and fellow Middle-earth filmmaker Fran Walsh.

The cameo takes place at the following points in the theatrical and extended editions of the movie:

Theatrical 2:09:43

Extended 2:29:10