I’m thinking about those who had success as a musician, but who are best known for their work in other fields.
And William Shatner (or anyone who recorded an album to trade on their fame) doesn’t count.
Martin Mull – Best known as an actor on Roseanne, Sabrina and movies like Mr. Mom, Clue, and Mrs. Doubtfire, Martin released about a half dozen albums in the early 70s, featuring his own songs. They’d be classified as novelty, but some were quite funny: “Dueling Tubas,” “(How Could I Not Miss) A Girl Your Size,” “Ukelele Blues,” “2001 Polka,” and others. Before that, he was a successfulvisual artist.
Tim Curry – Had several albums out before “Rocky Horror” made him a star (the albums actually came out well after the movie, but the film flopped in its original release and was still obscure when he recorded). Big MTV hit with “I Do the Rock.”
Joe Pesci – played with Joey Dee and the Starlighters for a time.
Buster Poindexter aka David Johanson, known for his pop song “Hot,Hot,Hot” and his stint with the New York dolls.
I’ve seen him in numerous movies and guest shots on TV. My favorite is the “Ghost of Christmas Past” character he portrayed in Scrooged. “It’s a bone! You lucky Dog!”
And my teenage daughter refused to believe me when, while driving in the car and listening to the radio, I pointed out that the lady (Bette Midler) singing “Wind beneath my wings” was the witch from the movie “Hocus Pocus”.
Actually he is probably pretty close to a household name in Australia. I know who he is and I have never seen The Bold and the Beautiful. He was out here a couple of years ago and made himself very popular. He didn’t take himself very seriously, appeared on a talk show doing a spoof of his own character (including arch looks to the camera). He was out and about all the time, mostly wearing a poncho so the media dubbed him “The Poncho”. One daily newspaper used to provide a daily update of what he was up to. He got more media attention than lots of far bigger celebrities.
LarryMudd … somehow I knew someone was going to bring that up. I foolishly resisted the urge to add “(no pun intended)”.
…
This one is arguable, but let’s think on actor Will Smith for a moment.
I might be assuming things, but it would seem to me that not many people under 15 or over 50 know much about Smith’s rapping career. I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that, right now, he is a smidge better known by the population-at-large as an actor than as a rapper.
The notoriety of Smith’s acting vs. his rapping should increase as time progresses and his best rap hits are left in the rearview mirror of pop culture. This would go double should he ever rack up some Oscars. Will Smith’s rapping would become somewhat of a trivia item – he’d be the actor that, oh-by-the-way, was once a notable rapper.
