Mr Sausage wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2024 11:44 am
Was [Kris Kristofferson] the best actor to ever cross over from music to film? I don't think I've ever seen him be anything but convincing, even in mediocre films.
Mark Wahlberg
Cher
Sinatra
Will Smith?
Scatman Crothers
Doris Day
Ice Cube
Dolly Parton
Bing
Mr Sausage wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2024 3:07 pm
Aside from maybe Smith, I can't say any of them are as good.
I would say Kristofferson hands down - he just has something so natural and intuitive. I might give Heaven’s Gate another chance but even with my reservations, that might be the greatest testament of his acting abilities. He more or less carries an epic-length film and there’s not a second where he doesn’t seem to naturally inhabit this period setting - it’s not just the clothes, he just fits into it perfectly and he holds your attention whenever he’s on-screen.
Mr Sausage wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2024 11:44 am
Was he the best actor to ever cross over from music to film? I don't think I've ever seen him be anything but convincing, even in mediocre films.
Mark Wahlberg
Cher
Sinatra
Will Smith?
Scatman Crothers
Doris Day
Ice Cube
Dolly Parton
Bing
As much as I love Waits and Bowie - and they’re definitely more versatile and unique actors - Kristofferson comes off as more naturally intuitive. I want to compare him to someone like Gary Cooper or Spencer Tracy, but it’s tough to compare and say who is “better.” Bowie was clearly a different kind of performer and Kristofferson was never going to play “The Elephant Man.”
What about Diana Ross, Maria Callas, Babbuh Wabbuh (Streisand)? and Sinatra? actually, I personally think Sinatra is v. overrated as an actor, but lots of people, at least during his reign as a movie star, seem to disagree. there must be countless others too. & Liza Minnelli is a genuinely great actress, although she's so spiritually, and, let's face it, physically weird that The Sterile Cuckoo is the only movie that ever truly unlocked her thespian potential
Forgot Dean Martin - Rio Bravo, Some Came Running, the comedies with Jerry Lewis and holding his own in The Young Lions (co-starring Montgomery Clift and Brando). Pretty damn impressive, he was great in so many different contexts.
When Sinatra does well he really does well. His performance in The Man with the Golden Arm is truly a masterclass of acting. And while Bowie, Cher, or Parton have the presence and acting chops where he easily serves as the most memorable part of any film, Sinatra probably has the most varied acting roles out of any of their careers. Though Will Smith is a close second.
Sting has a good few cult film roles under his belt (Radio On, Quadrophenia, Brimstone & Treacle, Dune, Lock, Stock + Two Smoking Barrels). I actually think he's pretty damn good in Figgis's Stormy Monday.
Kristofferson adjacent, Levon Helm seemed equally at ease in front of the camera.
Mr Sausage wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2024 11:44 am
Was he the best actor to ever cross over from music to film? I don't think I've ever seen him be anything but convincing, even in mediocre films.
Mark Wahlberg
Cher
Sinatra
Will Smith?
Scatman Crothers
Doris Day
Ice Cube
Dolly Parton
Bing
John Doe is a great actor
Dexter Gordon (one of the great “one and done” performers, too, along with Mary Badham in To Kill a Mockingbird)
Levon Helm of The Band was a very solid supporting player
P. Diddy (I know, I know, goddamnit) actually got a lot of acclaim for his performances in Made and the third filmed version of A Raisin in the Sun
There's probably a long list of rappers who have done some good acting work, from LL Cool J to Eminem (though the latter might be a one and done deal, and even then it was like Prince or Elvis where he did a fictionalized version of himself).
Björk was great in Dancer in the Dark. And I always enjoy the numerous musicians who pop up in Jim Jarmusch's films, from the White Stripes to Joe Strummer to Tom Waits to Iggy Pop to members of Wu-Tang to John Lurie, Eszter Balint and one former drummer of Sonic Youth.
hearthesilence wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2024 7:41 pm
There's probably a long list of rappers who have done some good acting work, from LL Cool J to Eminem (though the latter might be a one and done deal, and even then it was like Prince or Elvis where he did a fictionalized version of himself).
Björk was great in Dancer in the Dark. And I always enjoy the numerous musicians who pop up in Jim Jarmusch's films, from the White Stripes to Joe Strummer to Tom Waits to Iggy Pop to members of Wu-Tang to John Lurie, Eszter Balint and one former drummer of Sonic Youth.
Richard Edson is a great one. He’s worked with so many filmmakers of note.
I see all your singing thesps and raise you Feodor Chaliapin (i haven't actually seen Pabst's Don Quixote, but maybe others have). Ronee Blakley! Karen Black! (wait...does the person have to have been a singer BEFORE they started acting..?)
I'm tempted to add Václav Neckář, but I'm not at all familiar with his musical prowess - although I do know that he was a Czech pop star of some renown before playing lead roles for Jiří Menzel.
My favourite 'bait and switch' version of this was when Damon Albarn was introduced with much fanfare as making his acting debut in 1997's crime thriller Face only to in the actual film itself in a post-Reservoir Dogs move get summarily killed off early in the film!
How about Mick Jagger with Performance and Ned Kelly? Wasn't he in some sort of competition over acting with David Bowie during that period? Or to keep with the Roeg theme, Art Garfunkle in Bad Timing.
Ooh, Adam Ant in Jubilee! Performing one of his songs and getting glassed by a policeman for it!
Last edited by colinr0380 on Mon Sep 30, 2024 9:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Sissy Spacek released a single before her screen acting debut, and following her Oscar for Coal Miner's Daughter (and its soundtrack album, for which she did all her own singing), she released a country album, Hangin' Up My Heart.
Sinatra, hands down. And not only for acting in movies. In song his stylized vocal phrasing was a form of acting. PS. Everyone out here coasts for a paycheck from time to time. It's what you do when it counts that, um, counts.
hearthesilence wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2024 7:41 pm
There's probably a long list of rappers who have done some good acting work, from LL Cool J to Eminem (though the latter might be a one and done deal, and even then it was like Prince or Elvis where he did a fictionalized version of himself).
I keep meaning to watch Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys opposite Donald Sutherland in Lost Angels
Run-DMC got their own blaxploitation homage film (directed by Rick Rubin!), Tougher Than Leather
