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Most successful transistion from film to music, and vice versa?

Nole Lou

HR Heisman
Apr 5, 2002
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So, was thinking about this the other day. It seems like a huge amount of actors have tried to take their shot at music, and a lot of popular musicians have gotten into acting? Who has has achieved the most in their "second career"?

I think what I'm looking for is a combination of longevity and credibility in their second career. Not one big hit, or one great role.

And the ground rules are that they became famous for one thing first, and then made a move. I mean, Courtney Love had a role in Sid and Nancy before she hit with Hole, but she didn't get famous for acting, I wouldn't consider her a famous actor that transitioned to music. I don't want to hear about some student film that Bob Dylan was in.

Let's take Elvis out of it, undoubtedly the biggest movie star that also came out of music, both because he's so far and away above, and he was never really considered much of an "actor" and his movies were still based around his music. And let's take out the Monkees that were actors (Dolenz and Jones) because that's just too blurry.

The list is kind of thin. I'm not sure anyone achieved real greatness in their second pursuit.

I'm thinking the leaders in music to acting would be...

Frank Sinatra - He has a few bonafide classic non-musical films to his acting resume, which I can't think of for others (The Manchurian Candidate, From Here to Eternity, Oceans Eleven)
Ice Cube - his starring roles don't include many classics, but you can't deny the guy has had maybe the most successful career in movies not based around music
Rick Springfield - His quality of acting output is not good, but he's been a working actor for decades now

The one that got me thinking about this was Madonna. I was thinking about how she was actually quite good in supporting roles (Dick Tracy, Desperately Seeking Susan, League of their Own) but was a miserable failure in lead roles (outside of Evita, which doesn't count for this because it's a music movie). I wonder if she'd been less intent on becoming a huge movie star she wouldn't have had a long credible acting career in supporting roles.

I'm having a harder time thinking of long term music careers for actors. There are some pretty big hits along the way, and many vanity bands, but not thinking of many that had a legitimate career in music. Isn't Zoey Deschanel in some kind of credible outfit?
 
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Will Smith.
Mark Wahlburg,

Good ones. Will Smith is a way better career than Ice Cube.

Mark Wahlburg is a great one too, easy to forget because his music career was so brief and inconsequential, but he definitely fits as he got famous for music first.
 
I'll throw in a couple of others:
Bette Midler and Barbara Streisand, although both of their careers always spanned both film and music.
Kris Kristofferson - I just thought of him after writing down Babs' name. He wrote a ton of good folk/country songs even if he didn't sing them very well, and was a good actor.
Queen Latifiah is another one, though I'm not a fan of her music, she's had some good movie roles, some of which, again, involve music (e.g., "Hairspray," "Chicago").
David Bowie
Cher
Ice-T (my favorite character on Law & Order: SVU)
 
I'll throw in a couple of others:
Bette Midler and Barbara Streisand, although both of their careers always spanned both film and music.
Kris Kristofferson - I just thought of him after writing down Babs' name. He wrote a ton of good folk/country songs even if he didn't sing them very well, and was a good actor.
Queen Latifiah is another one, though I'm not a fan of her music, she's had some good movie roles, some of which, again, involve music (e.g., "Hairspray," "Chicago").
David Bowie
Cher
Ice-T (my favorite character on Law & Order: SVU)

Those are great. Streisand especially is a good one.

I thought of Kris Kristofferson as well...he might be as fine an actor of any of them. He just didn't really have the prominent and breakthrough roles, but he's excellent.
 
Actor Jared Leto as lead singer of 30 Seconds to Mars. Not sure how famous he was as an actor before singing.
 
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I'll throw in a couple of others:
Bette Midler and Barbara Streisand, although both of their careers always spanned both film and music.
Kris Kristofferson - I just thought of him after writing down Babs' name. He wrote a ton of good folk/country songs even if he didn't sing them very well, and was a good actor.
Queen Latifiah is another one, though I'm not a fan of her music, she's had some good movie roles, some of which, again, involve music (e.g., "Hairspray," "Chicago").
David Bowie
Cher
Ice-T (my favorite character on Law & Order: SVU)

Clearly Cher - she won the Academy Award for best actress.
 
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Petula Clark was a very successful child actress on TV and in movies. She then retired to France to raise a family. But some smart people pulled back her to England to record some records and she became one of the all time greats.
 
Petula Clark was a very successful child actress on TV and in movies. She then retired to France to raise a family. But some smart people pulled back her to England to record some records and she became one of the all time greats.

I did not know this. Good one.
 
Steve Martin. Now before you dismiss him, he is a very accomplished bluegrass musician. I doubt he tops any of the folks listed above, but he is good.

Considering how thin the acting to music category is, this is a low-key really good one. Sure, it's in a niche genre, but that's still real success.
 
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Good ones. Will Smith is a way better career than Ice Cube.

Mark Wahlburg is a great one too, easy to forget because his music career was so brief and inconsequential, but he definitely fits as he got famous for music first.


The Funky Bunch will be waiting for you at the fight bar. Expect a old school curb stomp like you are a middle aged Vietnamese dude living in Boston on the 80s.





I watch Instant Family last night. I was shocked how funny it was. I do like him even tho his range is limited as an actor.
 
The Funky Bunch will be waiting for you at the fight bar. Expect a old school curb stomp like you are a middle aged Vietnamese dude living in Boston on the 80s.





I watch Instant Family last night. I was shocked how funny it was. I do like him even tho his range is limited as an actor.

LOL. I like him as well. His range is somewhat limited sure, but there aren't actually that many actors that aren't actually fairly limited. Within his range, he can do drama, action or comedy all credibly.
 
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My first thought was Will Smith. Had a solid music career but is a top earner as a movie star.

Other actors turned musician... Keanu Reeves. He has a band Dogstar. But both parts aren't as big as Smith.

Kris Kristopherson. Military chopper pilot, leatherneck, part of the Highwaymen.He has to be part of the conversation. His music writing talent alone...
 
Doris Day i don’t think has been mentioned yet.
Went to Hollywood because she and her partner won a dance contest!

Dean Martin - good actor known for comedic roles but could even do dramatic stuff like Rio Bravo and The Young Lions.
 
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Rick Nelson. A lot of these TV teen actors cut records - like Paul Peterson & Shelly Fabares (Donna Reed Show), Johnny Crawford (Rifleman),Annette Funicello (Mickey Mouse and Disney), etc. But Rick Nelson was a legit music star with real singing talent (and a great band).
 
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My first thought was Will Smith. Had a solid music career but is a top earner as a movie star.

Other actors turned musician... Keanu Reeves. He has a band Dogstar. But both parts aren't as big as Smith.

Kris Kristopherson. Military chopper pilot, leatherneck, part of the Highwaymen.He has to be part of the conversation. His music writing talent alone...

Yeah, Will Smith has got to be the absolute winner. He was a significant music star who has become a movie star and had a long career completely independent of his music.
 
Dean Martin dropped out of high school in 10th grade.
He went on to be a singer and actor who also had his
own TV show for 10 years. He made 2 films with John
Wayne, Rio Bravo and Sons of Katy Elder which were
well received Westerns.
 
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