I suppose it remains to be seen if Joaquin Phoenix will be a musical success.
Anthony Steward Head, most noted as Giles from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, started in musical theater and has put out an album, “Music for Elevators”.
Chris Jericho (the professional wrestler) has had some minor success with his band Fozzy (something).
Rick Moranis is now mostly playing country music. Not sure how successfully, but he’s not doing much acting anymore.
Hillary Duff of Lizzie Maguire fame seems to be doing fairly well as a pop singer (one of her recent videos, “Reach Out” is… interesting in a mildly NSFW kinda way:D)
Hmmm… lots of actors… how about athletes?
Wayman Tisdale had a huge college and pro basketball career, then became a rather successful jazz musician.
Barrowman can also be seen belting away as the blond Nazi singing “Springtime for Hitler” in the film musical version of The Producers.
The Milla links didn’t do much for me, although the throat singing is impressive.
While still playing for the Rams, Deacon Jones tried a singing career in the late '60s. His backing band went on to become War.
It’s just Fozzy.
And speaking as a rock and metal fan, I much prefer Chris’s in ring work.
Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork were musicians of a sort (playing around with various bands, doing gigs and jams) before the show. Tork had a serious affiliation with Stephen Stills, IIRC. Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz were both child actors and had done musical theatre. So while they all may have changed their style of music, and were certainly playing for larger audiences than they’d previously had, it’s not fair to suggest that they weren’t musicians before the show.
Similarly, the whole bunch from the “Band from TV” are all people who became famous for acting/TV work but have been musicians all their lives, but aren’t “known” that way by the general public.
I wouldn’t say he was quite like that. He was already well established in musical theater before he became known for other stuff. He just wasn’t known in America.
And that’ll teach me to read both pages of a thread.:smack:
He was to musical theatre people.
Jamie Blows me away. I had no idea when I watched his sitcom and thought “ho hum” how talented the guy was.
Absolutely.
He played in town at the Grand ole Opry. I believe he wrote the songs. I saw some clips on the news. Songs and his vocals were both mediocre.
Come to think of it Stephen Segal played in town also and his musicianship is just as good as his acting.
One of my favorites for the older folks is Ken Curtis who played the great character Festus on GunSmoke. How could you guess with that Fetus voice that the actor stared out as a singer, singing with Tommy Dorsey before being replaced by Frank Sinatra. He also sang with the Sons of the Pioneers a famous country vocal group.
Here he is in Festus Garb singing Tumbleweeds
Walter Brennan another old time fabulous character actor had a hit with “Old Rivers” although it was a recitation {early rap}
Lorne Greene from Bonanza and BattleStar Galatica fame recorded a couple of country folk albums in the 60s and had a hit with the gunfighter recitation Ringo. He could actually sing. I remember seeing him doing a comedy musical number on some old variety show and being surprised and how good his voice was. Lotta resonant bass quality.
Pernell Roberts who played Adam on Bonanza was also a singer and used to sing on the show. He did some recording but I don’t think it went anywhere.
Both Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby had “hits” in the 70s/60s. Both, as I remember them, were the, music, music, music, Cosby/Pryor’s voice, music, music, music, Cosby/Pryor’s voice, etc.
Robert Duvall demonstrated some definite musical ability in the film “Tender Mercies” (I think that was the name of it) and as I remember, he toured with a couple of musicians to get his character right before the film.
Didn’t Sly Stillone have his voice appear on the album of Dolly Parton’s “Rhinestone”. He definitely attempted to sing in the film. Speaking of attempting to sing, was there ever a cast recording of the musical film of Bert Reynolds’ “At Long Last Love?” Bert’s voice definitely appeared in the album of “Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.”
Jack Benny actually played his violin seriously a couple of times. I remember my parents being upset, but impressed at the same time, when they went to the Hollywood Bowl and listened to Benny play, and not tell jokes.