You could say that about anybody!
How about former child actor Ben Affleck? You may remember him from the Oscars and the Golden Globes, where he’s won as a writer and a director and a producer but never as, y’know, an actor, even though he’s currently top-billed in a movie that’s at $850 million and counting. He’s top-billed as the newcomer in someone else’s sequel, which – has that ever even happened before?
Singer/guitarist Bob Mould has also been involved in professional wrestling, mostly behind the scenes although I understand he got in the ring a few times.
Probably doesn’t count, but could Robert Cummings be considered to have simultaneous acting careers, since he was generally billed as Robert in dramatic roles and Bob in comedic roles?
Justin Timberlake as a singer and an actor
Leonard Nimoy, author of I AM NOT SPOCK and I AM SPOCK, earned three straight Emmy nominations playing Spock, and had little trouble directing Trek movies like THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK because he’s obviously in his element when folks are talking about phasers or warp drive or Vulcan logic or a Klingon cloaking device.
And then, since he has an unrelated knack for handling light comedy, he directed the biggest American box-office hit of the year: THREE MEN AND A BABY.
Huh.
Merv Griffin first came to fame as a singer in the Big Band era. He then moved on to success as a talk show host and as a quiz show mogul.
Frank Oz - Voiced a bunch of Muppets, as well as Yoda, had bit parts as an actor in Spies Like Us, Trading Places and An American Werewolf in London, and director of a number of movies.
Adding a bit more to the Rob Zombie entry above, he is also an artist who painted some of the White Zombie artwork, as well as designs on the MTV Headbangers Ball set, animated parts of Beavis and Butthead to America and did set design on Pee Wee’s Playhouse
Beat you to it in post #64.
But I don’t see that anyone’s mentioned Mel Gibson, who after acting in blockbusters decided to start directing and won an Academy Award for it; and then started writing and directing and producing successful films he wasn’t even acting in.
I’d like to add that he also embarked on a career change as a performance artist who plays a bigoted character, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.
Watching an old rerun of “Double Dare” on BUZZR the other day, I was surprised to see the name “Markie Post” in the credits as a producer, and sure enough, it’s the same woman who went on to star in Night Court. It looks like she went from Game Show Producer (Double Dare) -> Game Show Model (Card Sharks) -> Actress.
Speaking of Markie Post, her immediate predecessor on Night Court was Ellen Foley, who played public defender Billie Young. Foley sang Paradise By the Dashboard Light together with Meat Loaf on the latter’s Bat Out of Hell album.
At that, George Clooney directed CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND, just like he did for THE MONUMENTS MEN.
And for GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK, Clooney got nominated for Golden Globes as a writer and a director – the same year he won for acting in SYRIANA. And then he picked up more writer-and-director nominations for THE IDES OF MARCH – the same year he won again for acting, in THE DESCENDANTS.
Well, consider Rob Reiner: nominated for Golden Globe after Golden Globe after Golden Globe after Golden Globe after Golden Globe for acting on ALL IN THE FAMILY; and then nominated for Golden Globe after Golden Globe after Golden Globe after Golden Globe for directing films he didn’t act in, which is to say STAND BY ME and WHEN HARRY MET SALLY and A FEW GOOD MEN and THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT.
He was still acting, you understand; he just didn’t act in those movies. He likewise directed, but didn’t act in, GHOSTS OF MISSISSIPPI and THE PRINCESS BRIDE; again, he’d still field roles that played to his strengths – but none of those did.
Anyhow, he was a writer on THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS COMEDY HOUR before that; and then he wrote for THE GLEN CAMPBELL GOODTIME HOUR – and when he was earning paychecks as a professional variety-show writer, said shows never put him on camera; and then he won awards for comedy acting on ALL IN THE FAMILY, without ever directing an episode; and when he’s been up for awards for directing dramas, it’s only ever been for ones he didn’t act in.
He also once had a fairly infamous turn at singing. About a hobbit.
In the 1920s, child actor Jackie Cooper could be seen in the OUR GANG shorts before he became an Oscar nominee at nine in the 1930s. (And that’s still the record for a Best Lead Actor, because, c’mon.)
Anyhow, in the 1940s he served in WWII – and then in the 1950s, he was a leading man on television, and he started directing episodes of his show; and then he got another leading-man role on another television series in the 1960s, earning Emmy nominations as an actor while continuing to direct himself; and then, in the 1970s, earning Emmy wins for directing MAS*H and THE WHITE SHADOW.
In fact, he directed a ton of stuff in the 1970s – even branching out onto the big screen – and he of course kept directing on television in the 1980s, just like he of course kept acting in the big-budget SUPERMAN movies.
Prior to All in the Family he did quite a few guest appearances on episodic tv. Being Carl Reiner’s son probably didn’t hurt but according to him he became the go to guy to play a hippy because most of the other actors with long hair at the time embraced the lifestyle a bit too much and Reiner quickly got the reputation of showing up on time with his lines memorized. And not high.
Which I pointed out in the same post you quoted. I even mentioned his long list of voice-overs on videogames.
And in the upcoming full-length animated film, The Killing Joke.
Bob Keeshan was Clarabell the clown on the Howdy Doody Show, then host and star of Captain Kangaroo.
Merv Griffin, as well as a singer and TV show host, wrote the Jeopardy! theme song (which probably made him more money than anything else he ever did).
How about Mel Brooks? In the '50s, he was nominated for Emmy after Emmy after Emmy as a writer, and in the '60s – okay, yes, granted, he got in front of the camera to do the 2000-Year-Old-Man schtick, but what put him on the map was winning the Oscar for writing THE PRODUCERS, which he also directed.
And, yes, I know he delivered the Don’t-Be-Stupid-Be-A-Smartie line in that one, but that wasn’t exactly the point, y’know? Anyhow, he of course went on to write and direct BLAZING SADDLES and YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN – again, built around other actors, even if he gave himself a spot of business – and then he started writing and directing films where he’d play the lead, which eventually made him so bankable a movie star he was suddenly top-billed in a movie he didn’t write or direct.
And then he got three acting Emmys – not for anything he directed or wrote, you understand – while picking up a spoken-word Grammy, because he could still dust off that 2000-Year-Old-Man character; and then he became a Tony-winning Broadway producer, because, well, he’d already written THE PRODUCERS, so who knows better that you hire some guys and put 'em in Nazi costumes and have 'em sing?
Donnie Wahlberg went from being a founding member of boy band New Kids on the Block to totally stealing Blue Bloods from Tom Selleck.
Donnie Wahlberg was the clear star of “Boomtown”. That show should have run longer.