BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors

Subject: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: catspaw49
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 01:27 PM

Just what the title says.......Any genre is fine.

Be it Folk or C&W or Pop or Jazz or whatever.........Who are the best and worst actors that came from a musical career. Sometimes they may have gone on to entire acting careers like Sinatra or Alan Arkin or maybe just a one off big screen movie like James Taylor in "Two Lane Blacktop."

Let's hear your choices.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: Folk Form # 1
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 01:34 PM

David Bowie has ruined more good films than any other -ahem- actor than I can think. He was good in The Man Who Fell to Earth, but that was because he was playing an alien and because we dont know how aliens are suppose to behave, his inability to act served him well. Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence would have been a classic of world cinema if it wasnt for his Goddamnawful acting. What were they thinking of when they cast him?

Kris Kristofferson. Total shit actor. As above, basically.

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 01:35 PM

Mick Jagger's couple of forays into acting are execrable, but not as bad as any "acting" by Madonna or by the Spice Girls, the Monkees or the Beatles.

On the other hand many actors have made musicians of the "Oh God I WISH I could forget that" calibre.

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: Little Hawk
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 01:38 PM

Cher turned out to be a superb actress when she took that job on...a far better actress, in my opinion, than she ever was a musical performer...although she has certainly been a quite competent musical performer. I really liked some of her early recordings. When she did a few Dylan songs in the 60's, she did them very well, I thought.

Her screen acting has been uniformly excellent in any movie I've seen her in.

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: bobad
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 01:46 PM

I like Tom Waits as an actor in the few roles I have seen him in, the best to my mind is the character he played in "Down By Law" a Jim Jarmusch movie that also had John Lurie of the Lounge Lizards and Roberto Benigni before he became famous (infamous?) for his Academy Award performance. According to IMDb Waits has appeared in 25 films.

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: Little Hawk
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 01:46 PM

Madonna was also very good in Evita. As for any other movie roles she did, I can't comment...having not seen any of them.

Kristofferson? I wouldn't rate his acting too high. He also tended to get cast in some pretty bad movies...hard to say if they would have been any better or worse without him...but that would depend on whom you got in his place, wouldn't it?

Just picture replacing him with Steven Seagal in "Heaven's Gate" or "Red Dawn" or "The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea", for instance. ;-) See what I mean? Those movies could have been even worse!!!

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: Little Hawk
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 01:48 PM

Willie Nelson has been absolutely classic in every film he's ever been in, and that was for two reasons.

1. He's got loads of character and charisma in his own very unique way.

2. He was generally cast in roles and scripts that fit him very well.

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: Little Hawk
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 01:50 PM

Then there's Elvis. The poor man was cast in an endless series of absolutely dreadful B-movies...with the odd so-so one here and there...and he couldn't act either. ;-)

But hell, he gave it a good shot with the old youthful energy, passion, and good looks anyway, didn't he?

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: Folk Form # 1
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 01:52 PM

I thought the Beatles were quite good. Not excellent, maybe, but good enough. Check out A Hard Day's Night.

Sinatra was a good actor and so was Bing Crosby, who was a great straight man to Bob Hope's funny man.

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: Little Hawk
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 02:00 PM

I never much liked Sinatra, but yes, I think he was a pretty good actor. I just didn't like his style, that's all.

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 02:04 PM

Levon Helm did a pretty good job (though a small part) in the Right Stuff.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 02:08 PM

My favourites are Cher and Johnny Cash.

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: katlaughing
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 02:09 PM

I really loved Madonna in Desperately Seeking Susan. Thought she did a great job.

Never did like Sinatra as an actor or singer.

Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly...love anything those guys did.

Agree on Willy Nelson, esp. in the Electric Horseman...Mamas don't let your babies grow up to cowboys...

I don't think it matters whether Kristofferson is good or not as an actor...all he has to do is open his mouth and speak.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 02:10 PM

David Bowie I'm not too impressed with as an actor ... he did an ok job though in one of favourite movies "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence' ... Ryuichi Sakamoto did an excellent acting job in that movie.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 02:22 PM

Kris Kristofferson .... I thought he showed a lot of stamina in "the Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea"

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: Becca72
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 02:36 PM

I personally love David Bowie in anything he does. The man is just cool. Labyrinth is one of my favorite movies.

Being a child of the 80's, I love the music of Rick Springfield. He is sexy beyond comparison. But the man cannot act. It seems appropriate that he started out in soap operas.

Meatloaf is pretty good in the stuff he's done, though admittedly he tends to ham it up a bit..but he does that with everything.

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: PoppaGator
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 02:37 PM

Levon Helm was great as the dad in "Coal Miner's Daughter" ~ definitely a meatier role than what he did in "The Right Stuff."

I always thought Kristofferson was an OK actor; at the very least, he projects a pretty likeable screen persona. But I may be prejudiced: when I first learned his story ~ Rhodes scholar working as a janitor in a Nashville studio while trying to make his mark as a songwriter ~ I decided right away to be a fan. Back in my street-performer days, I regularly played a few of his songs, and folks would sometimes remark on how much I looked like him. (That is undoubtedly less true now than in 1971.)

As Little Hawk pointed out, Cher is a pretty outstanding screen actress, perhaps better than she was as a singer (which was not too shabby, either.)

I had no idea Alan Arkin was a musician (or singer?) before he became an actor. Tell mre more!

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 02:43 PM

Elvis Presley was actually pretty good in that western he did - didn't sing and played the sullen half-breed pretty well.

I agree Cher has been consistently excellent. The one about the brilliant boy with the head-bone-plate-growth problem is a very well done film.

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: katlaughing
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 02:46 PM

But I may be prejudiced: when I first learned his story ~ Rhodes scholar working as a janitor in a Nashville studio while trying to make his mark as a songwriter ~ I decided right away to be a fan.

Me, too, PoppaGator.

Was Andy Griffith a singer before he was an actor? He sure did a pretty job with a guitar and a few songs.

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 02:51 PM

Dwight Yoakam did a fine job as the bad guy in Sling Blade. I haven't seen him in anything else.

I've seen Lyle Lovett in a few small roles, and I thought he did pretty well.

I think Paul Simon is absolutely brilliant when he does comedy. SNL recently reran the bit in which he dressed in a turkey costume—see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rxe8vlhdKYM. One Trick Pony was underrated. It wasn't all comedy, but there were a few very funny moments.

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: catspaw49
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 03:16 PM

IF you don't know about Alan Arkin......READ THIS.....you'll be amazed I'm sure!

He was also a founding member of Second City in Chicago!

One VERY talented man!!!!!

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 03:34 PM

How can we forget Billy Connolly? Folksinger, stand-up comedian, actor. Not as well known in the US as in Britain, obviously, but he did a fine job in Mrs. Brown. He even had his own American TV sitcom for a while, but it flopped.

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: fat B****rd
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 03:52 PM

I recall Charro was Elvis's western. Bobby Darin did "Too Late Blues" in 1961 as ajazz musician. I know he did others but that's the only one I recall.

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 03:55 PM

Barbara Streisand - I can't decide which I dislike more, her music or her acting.

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: Wesley S
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 04:01 PM

Ricky Nelson - Good singer - bad actor

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 04:13 PM

I would agree that Cher and Sinatra are examples of the best. Also agreed that Kristofferson has blundered into too many movies so bad that there was nothing anyone could do with them; anyone else actually spend money to see the "A Star is Born" remake? Urrrrrp!
Streisand also has laid some other true stinkers.
Getting down to absolute rock bottom, it would be hard to choose between Bob Dylan as Alias in "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid", and Glen Campbell's performance in "True Grit".
At the risk of drift, I thought "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" was a hopelessly garbled mess, in the midst of which the Slim Pickens death scene came off as sublime.

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: Little Hawk
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 04:14 PM

Yeah, Streisand can be pretty annoying, can't she? ;-)

Kristofferson was blessed with a great voice (like Kat says) and a great face. His acting is passable.

I recall Paul Simon's "One Trick Pony". It was pretty good all right. Didn't Art Garfunkel act in a couple of movies? Was he in "Carnal Knowledge" with Jack Nicholson? Now there was a creepy movie.

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: Little Hawk
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 04:19 PM

Another vote, by the way, for Johnny Cash. He was quite a good actor.

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: PoppaGator
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 04:19 PM

Not long ago, I saw Andy Griffith's first movie on TCM. Can't remember the title, but he played a folksinger of sorts ~ a hobo guitar player "discovered" while locked up in a small-town Arkansas drunk tank and quickly promoted as a local radio personality and, soon thereafter, as an emerging TV star first in Memphis and then on the national stage in New York.

He did plenty of pickin' and singin' ~ must have developed tht ability somewhere, somehow, in his earlier years.

Dwight Yoakum was, indeed, really outstanding in Sling Blade. I think he's a better actor than Billy Bob is a singer...

Spaw, thanks for the background material on Alan Arkin. I think I had already known about his important role in the early development of Second City, but may never have learned about his musical talents. I do remember The Tarriers, but didn't know the individual members' names back then (not even Erik Darling's, I'm ashamed to admit).

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: GUEST,frogprince
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 04:31 PM

4:13 was me. Didn't notice someone swallowed the cookie.
                         Dean

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: Doc John
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 04:31 PM

Cisco Houston played a few bit parts in some westerns; he certainly looked the part of a Hollywood actor. Does anyone know what the films were and has anyone ever seen them or spotted him.
The Mick Jagger film about Ned Kelly in some lists is reckoned to be the worst film ever made!
Fred Astaire - you don't actually notice his acting, his dancing is so superb. Ditto with Bing and singing.
Cher - wonderful in 'Tea with Mussolini'
Doc John

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: Little Hawk
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 04:41 PM

I saw Ned Kelly when it came out, and I don't remember it being quite that bad! ;-) I mean, worst movie ever??? Think of the competition for that distinction! Just think...

I recall a "head" movie from the same era: "Zacharia" (the promo ads for the movie marketed it as "A Head of His Time.") LOL! You got to see a lot of young longhaired musicians in the Old West engaging in gunslinging and electric guitar duels and encounters with famous whores in lavish bordellos...sort of like Jimi Hendrix at the OK Corral.

Now I bet that one deserves to be at least considered among the top 20 worst movies of all time.

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: van lingle
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 04:41 PM

Best: Jimmy Cliff in The Harder They Come

Worst: Gotta second Ricky Nelson in one of those John Wayne "Rio" movies (Bravo?) and tied with the Pogues in that movie they made in Mexico.

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: Bill D
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 05:21 PM

Burl Ives was actually pretty good...and was in a number of films.

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: Don Firth
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 05:22 PM

In the early 1970s I saw Bobby Darin in straight dramatic roles in a couple of TV movies. Excellent!

Johnny Cash in an episode of "Columbo," playing a touring gospel singer who managed to do in his domineering wife (Ida Lupino). Columbo (as usual) knew he'd done the dastardly deed, but couldn't prove it (yet), and the gospel singer knew that Columbo knew, but couldn't prove it as long as he, the singer, was careful. Watching their polite verbal fencing and jockeying for position was both funny and suspenseful. Columbo got him, of course. Cash was great.

Harry Belafonte isn't a half-bad actor. I saw him in one non-singing role he brought off very neatly.

Cher. Oh, yeah! In "Tea with Mussolini," she managed to hold her own with the likes of Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, and Joan Plowright. They're some pretty heavy-duty, industrial strength actors. And in "Moonstruck" and "Mask." Several others.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: Little Hawk
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 05:38 PM

Burl Ives was truly memorable in the great and seemingly forgotten film "Let No Man Write My Epitaph" (1960). As far as I know, you can't get it at all on DVD. It has vanished. I saw it once on daytime TV in the late 60s-early 70s.

It was based on a book written by the author who wrote "Knock On Any Door".

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: GUEST,Ze Buddha
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 05:40 PM

How about Cate Blanchett as Dylan? Gotta see that one!

Also, wasn't Iggy Pop in Coffee & Cigarettes?

I think Whitney Houston makes a credible actor, in that way Willie Nelson does through choice of material that isn't beyond what they are capable of. But I wouldn't describe either of them as being as good at acting as they are at music.

Diana Ross, not so much. I really dislike that dude who played Ray Charles, and the movie sucked. But his portrayal of Charles was pretty good, and he sings really well.

And Sissy Spacek channeled Loretta when she did Coal Miner's Daughter. But as far as I know she considers herself more a baton twirler than a musician.

Reba, OTOH, can NOT act. Seeing her on the tv makes me want to spit.

How about Snoop, eh? The rappers haven't transitioned well into acting I don't think. Too stiff and wooden.

But to me, one of the best film performance by a musician was Bjork in "Dancer in the Dark". She was astoundingly good. It was a really painful film to watch, but really good, IMO.

And Cher in "Moonstruck".

Can't wait to see Monsieur Depp sing in "Sweeney Todd". It is to be our family Christmas outing this year.

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: Don Firth
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 05:42 PM

Oh, yeah! Definitely Burl Ives. He got a well deserved Oscar for his role in "The Big Country" and followed it with a bravura performance as Big Daddy in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." Fantastic actor!

Barbra Streisand. Pretty good in several things. Loved her in "What's Up, Doc?" The whole movie was a riot, and she was hilarious!

"We're gonna make it! We're gonna make it!" Volkswagen beetle hurtles off the end of the dock. When it becomes obvious, as it arcs through the air, that it's going to fall about thirty feet short of the departing ferry:   "We're not gonna make it. . . ."   Or one of the funniest, best timed lines in the whole movie:   "Hi, daddy. . . ."   And if you had seen "Love Story," the final two lines in the movie, between Streisand and Ryan O'Neal, would crack you up entirely. Sort of an "in-joke."

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: GUEST,Ze Buddha
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 05:45 PM

Sam Shepard rocks it, no matter what he does. That dude is a genius even when he's awful.

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: GUEST,Ze Buddha
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 05:54 PM

And I'm surprised no one has mentioned Arlo in "Alice's Restaurant". And y'all claim to be folkies!

Sinead O'Connor in "The Butcher Boy" was quite believable, I thought.

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: Wesley S
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 05:56 PM

Ice-T is another actor that picks his roles well and doesn't attempt to do stuff that's out of his limited range.

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: David C. Carter
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 06:09 PM

Marianne Faithfull in-Irina Palm,was brilliant.
No frills,nothing.Just pure talent.

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 06:29 PM

The Andy Griffith movie that PoppaGator referred to above was "A Face in the Crowd." Well worth seeing. He played an obnoxious character—quite the opposite of the wholesome image he cultivated later.

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: GUEST,Ze Buddha
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 06:31 PM

And what famous musician trying out his acting chops uttered the line "May I rub your ball, sir?"

I agree Babs is usually dire. But Judy Garland, IMO, was a far better musician/actor than Frank Sinatra on both counts.

And her daughter Liza was stunningly good in "Cabaret", and a few other films.

Harry Connick Jr is also quite good as a comedic actor. Perhaps it's a timing thing. As is Bernadette Peters, though whether she started out as a musical theatre person, I'm not sure. Goodness knows there are plenty of excellent musical theatre actors who sing well, like Kristin Chenoweth, who has been in a lot of good & awful stuff (she is a trained opera singer, I believe). She's even got the distinction of having won a Razzie! I love her.

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: catspaw49
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 06:40 PM

Well I'm enjoying this!

I think there are a number of good candidates for best acting. Most of the names mentioned have done more than credible jobs. Levon Helm has done a number of movies and I think he's always done quite well with limited recognition. Others like Cher have excelled. Johnny Depp, soon to be seen as Sweeney Todd, considered himself, and in fact was, a musician first. Alan Arkin has done the greatest range of subjects and all of them great!

Now while Bowie, Dylan, and the completely pathetic Glen Campbell(my #2 choice) are gawdawful, if you haven't seen "Two Lane Blacktop" with James Taylor and Charley Manson's mentor and roomie, Beach Boy Dennis Wilson, you don't know what bad is. JT indeed is almost catatonic in his acting and Wilson spends the entire movie saying they have to "re-jet the carbs," seemingly the only half-assed technical term the writer or anyone else new. The movie has developed a bit of cult status but even with Warren Oates at his weirdest, it sucks like a million Hoovers......and so do Wilson and Taylor. Neither of them have any music either with Kristofferson singing "Bobbi McGee" and Arlo doing "Stealin'" in the soundtrack.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: GUEST,Ze Buddha
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 06:53 PM

Lest we forget, other side the pond, there is Ewan MacColl. I never know quite what to say about him & those like him. Theatre and music was closely entwined for many folkies from that era.

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: Dave Swan
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 06:54 PM

Kristofferson in Lone Star. Nice work, in my opinion.

Sheb Wooley in Rawhide and Silverado, as straightforward Western types. He gave us the Purple People Eater, but let us not forget I Just Don't Look Good Naked Anymore.

D

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: Dave Swan
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 06:56 PM

I forgot to add that I Just Don't Look Good Naked Anymore is the official company song of Lane, Fielding, Patterson & Swan, Layabouts for Hire, and is sung before each and every company meeting. Something to think about for those of you who imagine that the job is a bed of roses.

D

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: katlaughing
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 07:48 PM

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Steve Martin. Surely he picked banjo before he became an actor?

Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
From: katlaughing
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 07:50 PM

Didn't know this, found it by accident. Remember Radar?

(my emphasis)Gary Burghoff

Born 24th May 1943 in Bristol, CT
Started as a musician. He moved to New York to study acting. His first major role was in the stage musical Charlie Brown. A talented artist, he now spends most of his time painting wildlife pictures.

Who knew?!