Can’t believe nobody’s mentioned Peter Frampton’s… uh… interesting performance as Franz Liszt.
The TV movie Daydream Believer about (obviously) The Monkees was better than average for a TV biopic.
Lawrence Fishburne and Angela Bassett were both great in the powerful (if only occasionally factual) What’s Love Got to Do With It. (Among other license taken- Ike is portrayed as the father of both of Tina’s children [he wasn’t- her first was by his drummer], even Tina states that Ike wasn’t as evil as he was in the movie [his main problem was addiction] and her own problems with infidelity and dependancy are glossed over [Tina herself did not gloss them over] to make it more a G v E marriage). No mistake: Ike was abusive and Tina did walk away from the marriage broke and bitter only to reinvent herself like a phoenix on speed, but few of the details are true.
An interesting but little seen musical biopic is Why Do Fools Fall in Love? with Halle Berry and Vivica Fox as 2 of Frankie Lymon’s 3 widows (he had a problem with getting divorced before remarrying) fighting for the rights to his recordings and money due his estate. (Lymon died penniless and addicted and was generally bad news to anybody who loved him, but a few years after he died he was worth far more than he ever was alive.)
I can’t believe nobody’s corrected you yet. It was Roger Daltrey, fresh from another weird colaboration with director Ken Russell, the adaption of the Who’s Tommy.
Roger Daltrey, actually.
I thought of Grace of My Heart, too, and The Rose as inspired by Janis Joplin.
Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows (Judy Garland/Judy Davis)
Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows (Judy Garland/Judy Davis)
It was a TV movie, but fits the mold well.
Actually we’re both right. It was Peter Frampton as Roger Daltrey as Franz Lizst. Most people agree that his Daltrey makeup was better than his Lizst makeup, though, so I can see why you’re confused.
Living Proof: The Hank Williams Jr. Story – which I believe was made for TV
Your Cheatin’ Heart (Hank Williams)
and, it may not belong here, but it was, if memory serves a really great film:
Bound for Glory (Woody Guthrie). I vaguely recall some alcohol issues being present in this film.
Amazing what a good makeup team can do. Maybe they can even make a mid-forties Mike Myers look like a teenage-to-early-thirties <a href=“http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0482630/”>Keith Moon</a>.
The TV movie John & Yoko: a Love Story had good performances but, with Yoko as an executive producer, it was very whitewashed (especially her role— homewrecking smack addict? Who? Me?). Some trivia: the role of John Lennon originally went to English actor Mark Hunter, who all agreed was great in the role, but he was fired (at full salary) when it was revealed Mark Hunter was not his real name. He had changed it for the audition- his real name is Mark (Lindsay) Chapman- Lennon was murdered by Mark (David) Chapman.
The Lennon estate sponsored documentary Imagine is also good (though still a bit flowery in the retelling of his relationship with Cynthia and Yoko).