Top Musicians Turned Actors

By: Kendall | in: Movies, Music |

These days it seems that everyone wants to have their cake and eat it too. Actors want to be musicians, and musicians want to be actors. This can have pretty disastrous results, if not comedic. Mind you there are always exceptions, and our focus today will be a handful of the top musicians acting in movies.

David Bowie – First of all, David Bowie is my favorite musician on this list, but that has little to do with his acting. Between 1969 and 1972 David experimented in his music between an acoustic folk sound and hard rock. But in June of 1972 he invented Ziggy Stardust a concept album about an extraterrestrial rock star. After that he gathered the nickname, The Chameleon because of his persistent change in looks and sound. Bowie’s first major film role in The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) earned acclaim. Many great films followed after that, but one of his greatest roles came was that of a killer mane courtesy of 1986, and lots of eyeliner as the singing and dancing king of goblins in Labyrinth. Many of the songs were also composed by Bowie. He played several roles between Labyrinth and today, and was even considered for the role of the Joker in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman movie. Most recently he played Nikola Tesla alongside Christian Bale in The Prestige.

Will Smith - Will has covered music, TV, and movies successfully. In the 80’s DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince came onto the hip hop scene. Their first single was “Girls Ain’t Nothin’ But Trouble”, and followed with a string of other huge hits like “Parents Just Don’t Understand” and “Nightmare on My Street”. During this time he nearly went broke, and ended up taking a role in the NBC sitcom the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. The show gave him enough leverage to release the 1991 comeback album Homebase. Code Red became the last album that was released as DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. While doing the show he made a great, but little known dramatic film debut in Six Degrees of Separation in which he played against type as a gay con man. Will’s first major lead role came out as an arrogant cop in Bad Boys and several action-comedies followed like Independence Day. With his Role in Ali, he returned to Drama and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best actor. Not many of today’s leading men can travel from Romantic Comedies to Robot Sci-Fi flicks, and then back to amazing drama like The Pursuit of Happiness. Like him or hate him, Will has been box office gold, and seems that he can do no wrong.

Mark Wahlberg - He’s done some minor modeling, but was first known as Marky Mark, in 90’s hip hop group Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. His album Music for the People spawned two huge hits “Good Vibrations” and “Wildside” shooting him to the top of the charts in 1991. His follow-up album You Gotta Believe was a relative flop. After this he began to turn his focus to movies. His first Performance in 1995’s Basketball Diaries put him on the map as he starred with Leonardo DiCaprio in this stunner of a drug flick. Boogie Nights was the movie that made him a big bright shining star as lovable pornstar Dirk Diggler, who’s penis was almost as big a star as he was even though it didn’t make an appearance until the final minutes. He’s played a Rock Star, a man who gets caught up in trying to understand the fabric of the universe, and a police officer trying to bring down the mob. He has even extended his career to include Executive Producer for the TV show Entourage.

Meatloaf - Not only has is album Bat Out Of Hell never left the charts, but he is a persistently working actor. According to www.IMDB.com he has logged in 59 performances on TV and in movies. Some are not as notable as others, but he shined in The Rocky Horror Picture Show as Eddie the biker, and as Robert Paulson in Fight Club.
Ludacris - I have honestly been fighting putting Ludacris on this list. After further thought, and comparing him to other Hip Hop Artists, I have decided that he is probably the most worthy. I felt the same way about his music… I didn’t like it at first and finally gave in. His current album Release Therapy has won him a Grammy, and two of his last movies have been nominated for Academy Awards. In Crash he played a car-jacker that finds himself intertwined in the lives of many other people around the LA area. In Hustle and Flow he plays a rapper. I know that a lot of people out there will say that neither seems to be a huge departure from the man he portrays on his albums, but the characters are believable, have depth, and are much more easily swallowed than many of his rapper-turned-actor counterparts. On a side note, you have to admit his feud with Oprah, and Bill O’riley is pretty humorous.

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Posted on March 5, 2007

Comments

17 Responses to “Top Musicians Turned Actors”

Rustycat on March 6th, 2007 4:18 am

Here are some more rappers truned actors:
DMX - http://imdb.com/name/nm0229422/
Ja Rule - http://imdb.com/name/nm0750019/

Charbarred on March 6th, 2007 6:16 am

There aren’t many rappers who haven’t dabbled in acting:
Ice Cube
LL Cool J
Mos Def
Snoop Dogg
The list can go on forever if I only knew more than 4 hip hop artists…

Kendall on March 6th, 2007 7:01 am

There are many rappers turned actors. Most of them are not very good. Mos Def is the best from the group above. Method man was only good in Garden State. Snoop Dogg is Snoop Dogg. There are many other musicians that could make this list, but those are my pick for top 5 currently.

Emon on March 6th, 2007 7:08 am

Mos Def is one of the best rappers to get into acting, or maybe he got into rapping from acting, who knows. ‘Something the Lord Made’ made me realize how good he is as a film actor. I think he is a better rapper than Will Smith. But what do I know about rap anyway. By the way, noticed how you have left out 50 Cents’ Academy worthy performance in ‘Get Rich or Die Trying’? Just kidding.

Charbarred on March 6th, 2007 7:52 am

And still no one is mentioning Eminem or Queen Latifah

c on March 6th, 2007 9:51 am

tupac was an awesome actor - juice, anyone?

janet jackson, also (was) very good back in the day.

Rustycat on March 6th, 2007 10:09 am

What are we saying here, that rappers are better off as actors?

Kendall on March 6th, 2007 12:04 pm

Ok, I wrote the article, I’m out of this debate. Good luck to all of you!

Charbarred on March 6th, 2007 12:52 pm

So it looks like the next post should be “Top 3 Rappers Who Have Never Acted in a Movie”

I know 3 is a challenge, but I bet we can find them ;-D

Emon on March 6th, 2007 1:37 pm

How about ‘Top 3 Rappers Who Can Rap A Little, Act A Little, But Croon Like Sinatra’?

Charbarred on March 6th, 2007 1:53 pm

Looks like you win Emon! Now there’s only that pesky task of actually finding them.

Rustycat on March 6th, 2007 2:36 pm

Isaac Hayes

charlesf on March 7th, 2007 3:17 am

What about Frankie Avalon from the Beach movies with Annette and Ice T is great in Law and Order, Special Victims Unit.

RoosterCogBurn on March 30th, 2007 9:24 pm

Cher…..one oscar, one emmy and 3 golden globes, id say she is near the top of the list. And mos def is def one of the best, he is a very versatile actor, unlike will smith who is good but plays the same role over and over again…..

lanre on July 28th, 2008 11:36 am

Pls,send pictures of top American musician to the above Email address

natedawg on November 29th, 2009 1:12 am

what about cher? she won an oscar for best actress

Bentus on January 31st, 2010 1:44 pm

Ghanaian musicains lateley have taken fast inclinig steps towards the movie industry in Ghana which obviously is making us the young and vibrant actors very jelous for the fact that”we may die out of the industry gradually”.
There is one common phrase that most Ghanaian movie producers use; “WHO KNOWS YOU”.
A producer once said ” i don’t make stars, i use stars”. they however think it is a waste of time, resources,capital and sometimes even more risky to cast fresh faces in thier movies.
To them, the use of already known faces is the best strategy in selling thier movies, hence; the rampant use of musicians.
Now the question is; what do you think can be done to correct this inbalance in order to favour both existing/upcoming actors and musicians turning actors?
please HELP with your comments.