Singers who turned into actors

Cafe Society
1

What mainstream movie (or TV) actors originally got their starts as singers, or for that matter, musicians of any kind. I suppose we could say Roger Daltry, but he’s still not really known as an actor – he hasn’t had that many roles. But I would say that Barbra Streisand qualifies, as I really consider acting to be her real career. I would provisioanlly count Frank Sinatra as well.

Who else?

To prevent this thread from dying a premature death, lets also include stand-up comics turned actors, and movies that were turned into musicals.

2

She’s still doing music, but Beyonce has a number of movie credits to her name at this point.

Bette Midler.

3

(Marky) Mark Wahlberg

4

Will Smith

Gene Autry?

Roy Rogers?

5

And I guess to a lesser extent, Donny.

6

Doris Day
Willie Nelson
Kris Kristofferson
Dwight Yoakum
Cher
Toby Keith
David Bowie

7

Kris Kristofferson
Bing Crosby

8

Billie Piper (Doctor Who)
Britney Spears (How I Met Your Mother)
Cher (Mask, Moonstruck)
David Bowie (The Prestige)
Harry Connick Jr. (ID4, Copycay, Will & Grace)
Hillary Duff (bunch of Disney crap, War Inc.)
Ice Cube (Friday, Three Kings)
Ice T (New Jack City, Law & Order)
Madonna (Dick Tracy)
Mandy Moore (Saved!)
I’ve excluded singers who only playing themselves, parodies of themselves, or in a handful of films or shows that totally sucked. IOW, no Vanilla Ice Cool as Ice. Britney Spears barely squeeks by for HIMYM whereas Jessica Simpson doesn’t for Dukes of Hazzard

9

Queen Latifah

10

Jennifer Lopez? (for certain definitions of “singer” and “actor”).

11

Not sure if this counts, but; Russell Crowe was the singer Russ le Roc when he ‘retired’ as a child actor.

Apparently he was gigging around Wellington while my 15year old self managed to avoid every show. Oh well.

12

Dolly Parton. Yeah, yeah…point and laugh all you want, but as an actress, I love her. As a singer, not so much.

13

Frank Sinatra won an Oscar, actually. He won Best Supporting Actor for From Here to Eternity. He was in a number of movies that had nothing to do with singing, but also remained a singer.

He didn’t turn into an actor so much as have two careers.

14

Frabk Sinatra actually won an Oscar for From Here to Eternity. He should’ve gotten another for the Manchurian Candidate, IMO

On edit: Curse, you, Caricci!

I guess I’ll have to nominate Elvis, then.

15

Shirley Manson of Garbage is certainly getting her feet wet on the Sarah Connor Chronicles as Catherine Weaver, the T-1001 Terminator.

Roy Orbison has a movie credit in The Fastest Guitar in the West.

Kris Kristofferson’s fellow Highwaymen, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash have had several acting roles.

Mick Jagger had the lead role in Ned Kelley. Some of his other notable movies include Performance and Freejack.

As long as we’re counting stand-up comics, Cheech Marin has had a successful movie and TV career as an actor.

16

Rick Springfield

The Village People

17

Harve Presnell (William H. Macy’s father-in-law in “Fargo”) and Edward Platt (Chief in the series “Get Smart”) both started out in opera.

18

Joe Pesci (not as a singer, but as a musician).

Fred Astaire was a first class singer who ended up doing some dramatic roles.

Martin Mull was a singer/songwriter before switching to an acting career.

19

Also Redd Foxx.

20

I would discount both Barbra Streisand and Bette Midler on the grounds that they both started out in musical theater and thus were expected to do a certain amount of acting alongside their singing. They didn’t start out as strictly singers, then move on over to acting.
As far as new contributions, I’ll add Sting (Brimstone & Treacle, Quadrophenia, Dune, the Bride).
Well you didn’t say anything about them being good actors…:cool: