My husband was surprised to see Kris Kristofferson on a stage, playing guitar and singing. He didn’t realise that Kristofferson was a singer/songwriter of some renown (“Me and Bobby McGee”, anyone?) as well as acting.
Chris Isaak.*
Even Lyle Lovett’s now done some acting, but I think of all three as musicians first, and actors second.
*Hubba hubba hubba, what a hunk o’ man.
Adam Busch (Warren on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, head of the Legion of Dim; the guy who Willow ripped the skin off of) is in a band called Common Rotation. I saw them opening for someone else, and liked them before I realized who he was.
Have seen them once more since; they’re good.
Best soap-star/guitarist: Rick Springfield.
Robbie Rist, who played cousin Oliver in the Brady Bunch is a musician and producer.
From his Wikipedia page:
“Rist is also a musician and producer. He has performed as the lead singer/guitarist for several rock bands in the Los Angeles including Wonderboy, the Andersons, Cockeyed Ghost, Nice Guy Eddie, and Steve Barton and the Oblivion Click. The list of west coast pop bands Rist has performed with numbers in the hundreds. He currently divides his time between film and music production, performing with Los Angeles alt-country band KingsizeMaybe and rock band Jeff Caudill & The Goodtimes Band (with Jeff Caudill of Orange County punk band Gameface and Michael “Popeye” Vogelsang of Orange County punk band Farside). Rist has also produced a number of records for bands, including Backline, Ginger Britt and the Mighty, Jeff Caudill, Steve Barton and the Oblivion Click, Nice Guy Eddie, Kingsizemaybe and The Mockers.”
I understand Harry Dean Stanton is a musician, though I’m not familiar with his work.
Scarlett Johansson released an album this year; I think she meets the OP’s requirement.
I think Billy Bob Thornton has his own band, I’ve never heard the music so can’t comment but I think he is a fine actor. One of his co-stars in Sling Blade was Dwight Yokum, who seems to pop up in movies every now and then. But I would still categorize him as a musician, first.
David Bowie? Not sure if he still acts.
Kevin Costner is apparently touring with some band that he’s put together. He played a show around here a couple of months ago.
Jennifer Love Hewitt has released a few albums.
I honestly don’t know wether Jennifer Lopez is better known as a musician or an actress at this point but she should probably be on the list.
Martin Mull. He’s best known as a character actor, usuall on TV (Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman; Roseanne; Sabrina the Teenage Witch; and, of course, Gene Parmisian in Arrested Development, but back in the early 70s, he put out several very good humorous music albums. His best album was Martin Mull and His Fabulous Furniture Live in Your Living Room!, but he was a very talented songwriter. And before that, he gained success as an artist.
Hamilton Camp had a long career as a TV actor, but started out as a highly influential singer-songwriter in the folk movement in the early 60s (His song “Pride of Man” was popularized by Quicksilver Messenger Service).
Mary Kay Place recorded two country/western albums in the '70s, and got some radio play with “Something to Brag About” (a duet with Willie Nelson).
Thirded!
I have a couple of Milla Jovovitch videos up on YouTube. Sadly, 75% of the comments are about her looks than her talent. She is a talented singer and songwriter, as well as a talented actress (see her in Chaplin or He Got Game instead of Resident Evil)
There’s a little known movie that came out 10 years ago called “The Big Lebowski” that featured the musicians T Bone Burnett, Flea, and Ami Mann.
Flea’s bandmate Anthony Kiedis appears in “Point Break”, and Ami Mann’s husband Michael Penn appears in “Boogie Nights”.
Art Garfunkel did a bit of acting as well.
Another musician who has done some acting: Singer/songwriter Sam Phillips (ex-wife of T-Bone Burnett) played one of the terrorists in the third Die Hard movie.
Rebecca Pidgeon is a dreadful actress, but a talented singer/songwriter. She’d have no film career if she weren’t sleeping with the director.
John Doe. Bass player for X.
Also the bartender who was skimming in Road House.
Also the lead in a movie I highly recommend called Roadside Prophets, co-starring another musician, Adam Horovitz of The Beastie Boys.
An album of Tom Waits covers, no less!
Crosby
Sinatra
Both had successful careers as both actors and singers. I’ve never seen anything of Crosby’s to write home about, he was fun in most stuff I saw him in, but Sinatra was a damn good actor.
Terrence Howard and Emmy Rossum both put out CDs recently. Both have gotten good reviews and the couple of songs I heard off Howard’s CD were pretty good.