Joe Strummer wasn’t bad in Mystery Train, but Screamin’ Jay Hawkins stole the movie.
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.
Vinnie Jones has turned a football/soccer career into a reasonable acting career.
But surely he must be the most typecasted actor of this generation.
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.
I thought Huey Lewis was really cool in Short Cuts.
Erykah Badu in The Cider House Rules.
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.
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]
The hell you say! He’d be great!
He was also in Heat.
I know they’re only commercials, but I think Lebron James has been very good in the Nike “The Lebrons” ads.
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.
While we’re toting up the numbers of rappers-who-can-act, no love for Mos Def?
John Sweet in A Canterbury Tale (1944)
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.
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.
In that case, we could mention Harry Connick Jr. as the tailgunner in Memphis Belle - just as bland a performance as his piano work.
I quite liked him in Little Man Tate and Will & Grace.
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”.
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.”