Eight Best Actor Oscars for playing a musician...

That’s what Entertainment Weekly says: eight Best Actor (not Supporting or Actress) Oscars have been awarded for playing a musician. But I can only think of seven.

James Cagney, Yankee Doodle Dandy
Robert Duvall, Tender Mercies
F. Murray Abraham, Amadeus
Geoffrey Rush, Shine
Adrien Brody, The Pianist
Jamie Foxx, Ray
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart

I cannot think of another. And I’ve been scouring the list! “Nicolas Cage? No, his character was a screenwriter. Richard Dreyfuss? No, actor.” What am I not thinking of? Or did EW get it wrong?

never mind, read the OP wrong.

Would Bing Crosby as Father Chuck O’Malley in Going My Way count?

Darn! Ninja’ed by mere moments! That’s what I was going to suggest. Sure, Father Chuck was a priest, but he also played piano, sang, and wrote songs.

This might be a stretch, but according to the plot summaries Emil Jannings’ character in The Way of All Flesh, although a bank clerk, teaches his son to play the violin.

Marlon Brando’s character “sings” in On The Waterfront.:wink:

Didn’t J.K. Simmons get one for Whiplash?

Yup. J.K. Simmons - Awards - IMDb

Oh wait. That was Supporting. Damn.

Sissy Spacek in Coal Miner’s Daughter?

ETA: D’oh! You said no actress.

See, I thought of that, but O’Malley’s profession was “priest”, not “musician”. I’ve never seen the film: was there any talk of his having given up music to answer a higher call?

Cornell Wilde, 1945, playing Chopin in** A Song to Remember**.

Whoops - only nominated. My bad

We see Jack Nicholson play the piano in As Good As It Gets and Frederic March the organ in Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, though neither are musicians in the professional sense of the word. And of course, Rex Harrison and Yul Brynner won for being in musicals, though neither plays anything that I recall.

Okay, I sent a succinct email to EW. I really think the character has to have music as their profession, not a hobby or an aid in their work. I thought of Rex Harrison, but Prof. Higgins’ profession was linguist. Speech therapist? Whatever, it was not musician. And Yul Brynner’s character’s didn’t have a profession, unless being king is a profession.

(Hey, there’s another trivia tidbit: how many people overall have won for playing royalty? And how many broken down by category?)

Lead
Yul Brynner
Colin Firth
Charles Laughton
Helen Mirren

Supporting
Judi Dench

Heh, you posted that while I was Wiki’ing it!

Best Actor:

Charles Laughton, King Henry VIII of England, The Private Life of Henry VIII

Laurence Olivier, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Hamlet

Yul Brynner, King Mongkut of Siam, The King and I

Colin Firth, King George VI, The King’s Speech

Best Actress:

Katharine Hepburn, Eleanor of Aquitaine, The Lion in Winter

Helen Mirren, Queen Elizabeth II, The Queen

Supporting Actress:

Margaret Rutherford, Duchess of Brighton, *The V.I.P.s *

Judi Dench, Queen Elizabeth I, Shakespeare in Love

**Supporting Actor: **

None.

Arguably:

Best Actor: Charlton Heston, Judah Ben-Hur, Ben-Hur. He was a slave during the events of the film, but he was born a prince.

Best Actress: Ingrid Bergman, Anna Koreff/Anastasia, Anastasia. IRL, Anna Amnesia was proven not to be a surviving Romanoff, but in the context of this film, it’s strongly implied that she’s the real deal.

Review of the film version of Guys and Dolls (1955):

Brando sings! Sinatra acts!

Jack in 5 Easy Pieces

Yeah, but he didn’t win for that.

Joaquin Phoenix, Johnny Cash, “Walk the Line”

Never mind just nominated IMDB can be confusing on this point.

Sinatra had already acted in From Here To Eternity, and had the Best Supporting Actor Oscar to prove it.

Hot dog: I think I have a wiener! Chiwetel Ejiofor for 12 Years A Slave! Solomon Northrup, when he was free, was a violinist!

:: pant pant:: Well, I was thinking, “Actor, scientist, president, fur trader, another actor, AIDS activist, or however you classify Ron Woodruff…Hey, what did Solomon Northrup do before, when he was free?” I haven’t seen 12YaS, but according to Wiki, his being a musician comes into the story a bit. So that must be it.