So this post was inspired by the following ebay auction:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/SIGNED-Morta.../322304170163?
It's an autographed copy of Mortal Kombat II for Sega Genesis, signed by Daniel Pesina, who played Johnny Cage and all the ninjas (Scorpion, Reptile, Sub-Zero, etc.) in Mortal Kombat I & II.
It got me thinking... in the '90s, with the influx of FMV style games and developers using digitized actors in games (like MK did), there was a whole era of games where real actors were used in video games. Nowadays, there might be a few famous voice actors to sign a game (say, for example, David Hayter as Solid Snake), and certainly game designer signatures on popular games are always a big deal.. but my question is, has there ever been a bigger in-game actor than Daniel Pesina in Mortal Kombat I & II? To be honest, I can barely even think of any other games that used in-game actors, let alone notable ones. Maybe Dana Plato in Night Trap. And Hulk Hogan appeared in a CD-i game for Thunder in Paradise, but like 1% of gamers have even heard of it. And those two were already celebrities, whereas Daniel Pesina and Ho Sung Pak (who played Liu Kang in MK 1 & 2) became famous because of the games. There has to be others, though. Who am I forgetting? What other popular games used in-game actors?