Who does?
To be fair, I understand they were all musicians before they were assembled into the musical ensemble/crime fighting team known as the Monkees, but yeah, they did branch off from TV into straight up music after a while.
Did anyone mention Jenifer Lopez? I don’t know if she’s the next Bruce Springsteen or anything, but she seems to have done alright.
Julie Delpy put out an album a couple years back. What little I heard was… well, I didn’t buy it, anyway. YMMV
Peter Noone was a child actor in British TV, most notably in the soap opera Coronation Street. He switched to music and became a major success as the lead singer for Herman’s Hermits.
Woody Allen is a decent clarinet player - I think his band performs regularly at some Manhattan club. I don’t know whether that counts as “succesful”, but I think he’s really enjoying it.
I’ve got a few to add:
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If we’re doing child actors, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, and Justin Timberlake were all Mousekateers.
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Jack Black has been incredibly successful with “Tenacious D”
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Stephen Segal, alternately, has been incredibly unsuccessful pretending to be Eric Clapton.
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Jamie Foxx’s album was pretty successful—plus he sang the hook on Kanye West’s “Golddigger”
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Juliette Lewis has a band that tours pretty consistently. By most accounts they kinda stink though.
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William Shatner’s had a couple kind of successful albums and the oft parodied “Rocketman” performance which still makes my brain bleed a little bit.
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Scarlett Johansson released a Tom Waits cover album that can best be called “hilariously superfluous.”
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“Party All the Time” should be mentioned in every post.
No, not the poor stepchild.
Just the gay stepchild.
Edit: Dammit, missed post #4.
(Original: Harry Shearer, Michael McKean, and Christopher Guest - as both Spinal Tap and The Folksmen. Besides their appearances in films they’ve toured before, have released albums, and are on tour right now as well. They play their own instruments, sing, and write their songs.)
Gay Jewish stepchild.
Christiana Applegate and John O’Hurley have both done Broadway.
Natalie Imbruglia was an established actress before releasing that damn song that I cannot for the life of me get out of my head.
Re: Milla
Oh my, not a prop at all. She’s an honest-to-goodness musician, and extremely talented and interesting too. Seriously, listen to at least a couple of the album songs. They’re all good and worth hearing though. This is someone who just doesn’t sing normal, boring songs.
Guitar, mandolin, ukulele, other stringed instruments. She’s not Charo* and I think she is better as a singer and songwriter than player, but she’s still good.
- If that made you (general you) laugh, then you just don’t know enough about Charo.
I remember that one!
Sex and steak: my favorite pair
I have 'em the same: very rare
I think several different phenomena are getting confused here.
When an “actor” or “comedian” takes a stab at a singing/recording career, there are several possibilities:
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The performer has always been a “triple threat.” He/she sang and danced all through drama school, and has worked in several media, including muisical theatre. He/she may have gained stardom and fame in a dramatic film, but has ALWAYS done a lot of singing. If he/she decides to make a record, it’s not REALLY so odd. Hugh Jackman and Mandy Patinkin, for instance, would fall into this category.
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The performer has dabbled in music on and off, perhaps playing with a rock band on the side while trying to make it as a dramatic actor. If he/she achieves a certain level of fame, he/she may try to USE that fame to get some exposure for the band, which may or may not be very good. Russell “30 Odd Foot of Grunt” and Keanu “Dogstar” Reeves fall into this category.
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An actor with little or no particular background or talent in music has achieved popularity with the young crowd, and cynically figures he/she can make some quick bucks by selling pop recordings to the teen set that loves him/her. Leif Garrett fell into this category once upon a time.
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An actor with no real background or talent in music decides to make a recording as an ego trip (Nimoy and Shatner?).
Oh, that reminds me - that girl from I, Carly has a music video out.
I am pretty sure I heard that Kevin Costner was touring with a country band a little while ago.
I just wanted to add that yes, Milla is freaking amazing. I knew her as a model when I was a teen, and bought Divine Comedy back then. Years later, i still listen to that album all the time, and love her so much that I have now bought two of her overpriced Jovovich-Hawk dresses just because it’s her. She’s a goddess.
Bijou Phillips, descendant from the screwed up Phillips clan made an album called “I’d Rather Eat Glass” or something and for some reason I bought it. Awful, I never got more than five minutes of play out of it. Just awful.
James Marsden from Buffy has a great voice and plays guitar, I don’t know how often he plays live, though.
Maybe this is the reverse, but Fred Armisen was a drummer who turned into a comedian.
James Marsters, not Marsden. Man, I always do that!
The M.G.s, right?
I’ve been looking around for something new to listen to and, wow, this thread really got me geared up to hear Milla Jovovich. So I clicked on the links … and … well, de gustibus and all that but … bleargh. I like the album cover though.
Regarding the Monkees – Peter and Michael were musicians, Davy was a Broadway singer, but Micky was just an actor, not a musician, before the show. He turned out to be a damn good singer though.
It’s my impression that back in the 1960s, nearly every TV star took a stab at recording music as a secondary revenue source.
Ultimately, I think that it’s far too common for actors to have musical interests for this kind of a list to be meaningful at all.