# Best acting by actors who aren't actors. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 5, 2006, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-by-actors-who-arent-actors/379178 "2006-11-05T11:41:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-by-actors-who-arent-actors/379178/61 "2006-11-08T20:05:31Z")
Joe Strummer wasn’t bad in **Mystery Train** , but Screamin’ Jay Hawkins stole the movie. ---
**Author:** ![cactus\_waltz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@cactus\_waltz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cactus_waltz)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-by-actors-who-arent-actors/379178/62 "2006-11-08T20:24:58Z")
I entered the thread to mention the Bicycle thief, so I guess I’ll just second that. And I think I have to agree on the notion that musicians are used to expressing feelings in similar ways to actors. They are also used to performing in front of audiences. Not saing that musicians and comedians are automatically capable actors, but I think their profession gives them a clear advantage compared to your average person. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-by-actors-who-arent-actors/379178/63 "2006-11-08T21:45:40Z")
Vinnie Jones has turned a football/soccer career into a reasonable acting career. ---
**Author:** ![cactus\_waltz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@cactus\_waltz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cactus_waltz)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-by-actors-who-arent-actors/379178/64 "2006-11-08T21:49:00Z")
[QUOTE=Gangster Octopus] Vinnie Jones has turned a football/soccer career into a reasonable acting career. [/QUOTE] But surely he must be the most typecasted actor of this generation. ---
**Author:** ![Sonia\_Montdore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Sonia\_Montdore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sonia_Montdore)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-by-actors-who-arent-actors/379178/65 "2006-11-09T20:43:44Z")
Let’s not forget Lady Chablis in _Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil_. To be sure, she was playing herself in the movie so it wasn’t a huge stretch, but considering that she’d never had a professional acting job, she turned in a fine performance. I’m disappointed that we haven’t seen more of the lady in films and on tv since. ---
**Author:** ![buns3000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c89c15/32.png) [@buns3000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buns3000)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2006, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-by-actors-who-arent-actors/379178/66 "2006-11-10T08:38:43Z")
I thought Huey Lewis was really cool in Short Cuts. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2006, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-by-actors-who-arent-actors/379178/67 "2006-11-10T14:25:13Z")
Erykah Badu in The Cider House Rules. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-by-actors-who-arent-actors/379178/68 "2006-11-11T16:58:15Z")
Little Stevie Van Zandt’s transfomation from a Springsteen backup to Dante on “The Sopranos”. He’s really just doing a Mafia goomba impersonation, but well. ---
**Author:** ![Agnostic\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@Agnostic\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agnostic_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-by-actors-who-arent-actors/379178/69 "2006-11-11T21:20:48Z")
Mick Jagger in Freejack. It was not a great film, but he certainly helped make it much better than what the dreck it could have been. [quote=Vacendak] Get the meat. [endquote] ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-by-actors-who-arent-actors/379178/70 "2006-11-11T22:04:27Z")
[QUOTE=Rilchiam] [Henry Rollins](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0738433/), who despises cops, has had a couple of small roles in which he plays a cop. It’s hilarious, of course. Shame he’s never been asked to play The Punisher, since he looks **exactly** like the character, but I suppose he couldn’t carry a whole film. [/QUOTE] The hell you say! He’d be great! He was also in _Heat_. ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-by-actors-who-arent-actors/379178/71 "2006-11-11T23:22:27Z")
I know they’re only commercials, but I think Lebron James has been very good in the Nike “The Lebrons” ads. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-by-actors-who-arent-actors/379178/72 "2006-11-12T01:36:50Z")
In the 1985 film _Marie_, starring Sissy Spacek, and based on a true story, Fred Thompson played himself, the attorney general for Tennessee. He went on to a lot of other acting, left for a while an was a US senator, now he’s back acting again, in \*Law and Order \* I think. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-by-actors-who-arent-actors/379178/73 "2006-11-12T03:52:26Z")
While we’re toting up the numbers of rappers-who-can-act, no love for Mos Def? ---
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-by-actors-who-arent-actors/379178/74 "2006-11-12T07:07:32Z")
John Sweet in **A Canterbury Tale** (1944) ---
**Author:** ![stochastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e19b73/32.png) [@stochastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stochastic)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-by-actors-who-arent-actors/379178/75 "2006-11-12T07:31:04Z")
I would include Rosey Grier in **The Thing with Two Heads** but the OP said the best acting by non-actors… Maybe we need another thread for worst acting by well-known non-actors. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-by-actors-who-arent-actors/379178/76 "2006-11-12T15:09:21Z")
I just watched _The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada_ last night (rent it, it’s totally worth it!), and two relative amateurs gave great performances- Dwight Yoakam, used to play a little music. Levon Helm, who played a bit as well. Damned fine performances. Tommy Lee Jones directed, so I applaud him as well. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-by-actors-who-arent-actors/379178/77 "2006-11-12T15:25:40Z")
In that case, we could mention Harry Connick Jr. as the tailgunner in _Memphis Belle_ - just as bland a performance as his piano work. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-by-actors-who-arent-actors/379178/78 "2008-02-11T19:43:08Z")
[QUOTE=ElvisL1ves] In that case, we could mention Harry Connick Jr. as the tailgunner in _Memphis Belle_ - just as bland a performance as his piano work. [/QUOTE] I quite liked him in _Little Man Tate_ and _Will & Grace_. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-by-actors-who-arent-actors/379178/79 "2008-02-11T20:09:23Z")
Don Rickles was very good in a straight dramatic role as the floor boss in _Slingblade_. Abe Vigoda was new to film acting in _The Godfather_ and nailed it. (I think he’d been an extra before, but never an actual supporting actor.) Several non-actors have made surprisingly funny SNL hosts: Rudy Giuliani, Garth Brooks, a football player whose name I don’t remember but who was hysterical in a parody of himself “helping” inner-city kids, Jesse Jackson, etc… She’s an old pro now, but Irma P. Hall (_The Ladykillers_, _Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil_, etc.) didn’t start acting until she was middle aged and “duck to water”. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-by-actors-who-arent-actors/379178/80 "2008-02-11T20:21:42Z")
[QUOTE=Sam Stone] Might as well add **Eminem** , **Mark Wahlberg** , and **Will Smith** to that list of rappers who can act. [/QUOTE] I don’t know if I’d count Will Smith. By now, it seems like he’s more of an actor than musical artist. I mean, he did a good job back when he was seguing but now when I think of Will Smith, I think “actor.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-by-actors-who-arent-actors/379178.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-by-actors-who-arent-actors/379178.md?page=5)