15 Best Acting Performances By Musicians In Movies

When you really think about it, it makes perfect sense that musicians would be capable of putting in some pretty solid work on the big screen. After all, a huge part of their success relies on their performance abilities, and the charisma that made them so popular is often easily transferred into a strong stage presence. But that isn't always the case — we've seen more than our fair share of musicians who have no business trying their hand at acting. 

Still, these missteps make the standout performances from musicians all the more impressive. Whether they're inhabiting a role that features their musical talents heavily or swinging for the fences with a character that's totally different from themselves, these singers and rock stars have acquitted themselves admirably on screen. And although not all of them have parlayed their cinematic success into a full-time career as an actor, we still have to give them a hearty round of applause for stretching themselves as performers and going out of their comfort zones in a massively public way.

We've always known that Dolly Parton is a force to be reckoned with, but in case there was any doubt, "9 to 5" puts it to bed. Alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, Parton stars as Doralee Rhodes, a secretary who has to put up with her boss Frank's (Dabney Coleman) increasingly unsubtle sexual advances. That is, until the three of them decide that is enough is enough and do what every woman has secretly wished she could do to her slimy and inappropriate boss: a little light attempted murder. 

A swiftly-paced dark comedy, "9 to 5" manages to highlight the power of female friendship (when so often women are pitted against one another on screen), the constant issue of sexual harassment in the workplace, and the fact that Dolly Parton is an incandescent star who lights up every scene she's in. And with Parton's performance of the title track, she earned her first Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song.

There was once a time when the idea of Cher, one half of Sonny and Cher and the host of a swinging variety show, attempting to take on a serious role in an actual dramatic film was seen as a joke. Cher herself has recounted an experience she had in a movie theater when the trailer for an upcoming movie she was starring in ("Silkwood," which also featured Meryl Streep and Kurt Russell) came on and the audience burst into laughter when they saw her name in the credits. But she proved the naysayers wrong in a big way when she starred in "Moonstruck," which is still one of the best movies of the 1980s.

Cher stars as Loretta, an Italian-American widow who's determined to do things right with her soon-to-be second husband Johnny (Danny Aiello). The only complication? She ends up falling in love with his volatile younger brother Donny, played by Nicolas Cage. With this performance, Cher demonstrates her quick wit, which earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress.

Erykah Badu, often referred to as the Queen of Neo Soul, was not an obvious choice to appear in the folksy period drama "The Cider House Rules." Before then, her only film appearance was as Queen Moussette in "Blues Brothers 2000," which faded into the cinematic ether almost as soon as it was released. But as Rose in "The Cider House Rules," she steals the show. When Homer (Tobey Maguire) leaves the orphanage where he grew up and was trained in medicine by Dr. Larch (Michael Caine in an Oscar-winning performance), he falls in with a group of migrant workers who are spending the season at an apple orchard. 

It's there that he meets Rose, the daughter of the charismatic leader of the group, whose extroverted personality belies a dark secret. When Homer realizes that Rose is pregnant — and what's more, who she's pregnant by – he is forced to question his own beliefs. For her part, Badu puts in a strong performance of a young woman who is resigned but never defeated and shines with inner strength in spite of everything she's had to endure.

As part of a swath of crime dramas in the early 1990s helmed by Black directors, "Juice" tells the story of four teenage boys growing up in Harlem. Although they're surrounded by violence and petty crime, Q (Omar Epps) has dreams of becoming a DJ — a goal that is frequently at odds with his friends, who are resorting to more dangerous illegal actions in pursuit of perceived respect.

By the time "Juice" came out, Tupac Shakur's debut album "2Pacalypse Now" had already been certified Gold, so he was a known quantity in music but entirely untested on the big screen. He plays Roland Bishop, a friend of Q who is far more enthralled by the gangster lifestyle, a choice that has serious consequences for them all. Tupac is a clear standout in the film, and he went on to star in a handful of other movies, including John Singleton's "Poetic Justice" and "Above the Rim," before his death in 1996.

Mariah Carey wasn't exactly a stranger to the big screen when she appeared in "Precious," having starred in "Glitter" just a few years earlier. But until this film, most of the roles she had taken on were basically just a version of Mariah Carey. That's certainly not the case in "Precious." There, as an overworked but deeply empathetic social worker, she goes to great lengths to be as un-Mariah Carey as possible.

While some of this comes by way of her makeup artist, who uses all their power to make her look like a tired cog in a broken system rather than a pop diva, Carey herself brings a naturalistic edge to her role. Her Anna is not an inspirational figure who has all the answers for the young, brutalized Precious (Gabourey Sidibe). But she is an adult in her life with a baseline of empathy who doesn't want to see her suffer, eventually giving Precious the strength to move on from her abusive background.

Meat Loaf was always game to let loose during his cinematic performances, as we saw in his brief, tragic, but instantly iconic turn as Eddie in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." In "Fight Club," however, he's not just playing the clown — there's real resonance to his role. As Edward Norton's narrator compulsively attends support groups for various ailments and addictions he doesn't have, he meets Bob, an emotionally fragile man with testicular cancer and a course of treatment that has altered his body and temperament in dramatic ways.

Particularly vulnerable, Bob becomes an eager acolyte, first to join the fight club and then to become an addition to the proto-incel cult that springs up around it, with devastating consequences. Although Norton's voiceover narration approaches everything and everyone with a wry sense of irony, Meat Loaf's Bob is one of the most earnest characters in David Fincher's widely misinterpreted film, making his ultimate fate all the more upsetting.

Sure, "The Bodyguard" may not have the best reputation when it comes to its overall cinematic quality. But you know what everyone remembers about it? Whitney Houston and her on-screen performance of "I Will Always Love You," a song that became the centerpiece of the best-selling soundtrack album of all time (which apparently Kevin Costner had to fight to have included with its opening a capella verse intact). So, it's kind of impossible not to include her here.

In "The Bodyguard," Houston plays Rachel Marron, a famous singer and actor who is being dogged by increasingly disturbing death threats from an anonymous figure. To ensure her safety, the ex-Secret Service agent Frank Farmer (Kevin Costner) is hired as her personal bodyguard. Although the two initially butt heads, they grow to care for one another — and, one might say, they will always love each other. Houston is given the task of playing a version of Whitney Houston in "The Bodyguard," but that takes nothing away from the sheer star quality she has on display throughout the film.

Although nowadays, Janelle Monae is known for her acting career as much as she is for her music, this was very much not the case when she was cast in the A24 classic "Moonlight," the film that marked her cinematic debut. In it, she plays Teresa, the girlfriend of kind-hearted drug dealer Juan (Mahershala Ali) and part-time caregiver to a young Chiron (Alex Hibbert). A sweet young boy with little parental supervision, Chiron is often looked after by Juan and Teresa, who offer him much-needed support and guidance.

Teresa is a maternal presence in Chiron's life, acting in direct contrast to his own mother (played by Naomie Harris), who struggles with addiction and is often neglectful or abusive as a result. This performance put Monae on the map as an actor with an electric screen presence, paving the way for future roles in films like "Hidden Figures" and "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery."

"Mudbound" is not the easiest watch in the world, lingering as extensively as it does on the experience of Black suffering in the Jim Crow-era South, but it is a deeply moving film nonetheless. It revolves around two young men — one Black and one white — who have returned to their dusty Southern hometown profoundly changed by their experiences in combat during World War II. Having served alongside Black soldiers, Jamie (Garrett Hedlund) has begun to reject his bigoted upbringing, while Ronsel (Jason Mitchell) has emerged from the war with a new sense of pride that makes him a little less willing to let racist behavior roll off his back. But as much as they may have been altered by the war, their community has stayed exactly the same.

Mary J. Blige plays Florence, Ronsel's devoted mother who wants nothing more than for her children to be safe and happy — a prospect that may be harder to achieve than it seems. For her quiet strength as Florence, Blige was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. This was the sole acting nomination "Mudbound" received, which speaks to the quality of her performance in an understated role.

From the very beginning of his career, David Bowie has always had an otherworldly presence, so it makes a certain kind of sense that his definitive acting role would be as an extraterrestrial stranded on our planet in "The Man Who Fell to Earth." On a mission to save his planet from a devastating drought that is killing off his entire civilization, Thomas Jerome Newton (Bowie) crash lands on Earth. And quite frankly, he never had a chance. Humanity corrupts him in about five seconds flat, and as he loses hope of ever returning to his family again, he gives into cynicism and hedonism. 

On the one hand, Bowie was born to play this role, and he successfully embodies the strangeness of an alien stranded on Earth like few others could. On the other hand, as much as this character is tailor-made for Bowie's unique physical qualities, it wouldn't work without real acting talent and the kind of screen presence he possesses both here and in "The Hunger" a few years later.

Like many singers of his time, Frank Sinatra appeared in many a classic Hollywood film, from stagey musicals like "On the Town" to the political drama "The Manchurian Candidate." It's a testament to his talent as a performer that, despite his prolific music career, he still made time to act his heart out in film after film from the 1940s on through to the 1960s.

One of his best film roles is without a doubt in "From Here to Eternity," where he plays Angelo Maggio, a soldier stationed in Hawaii during the days leading up to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He's a loyal friend to Prewitt (Montgomery Clift), a recent transfer who has ruffled a few feathers by refusing to fight for his new unit's team despite being a talented boxer — a friendship that ultimately leads to his downfall. For his work in "From Here to Eternity," Sinatra took home the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, one of an impressive eight wins for the film and the first of his two competitive nominations. (He also received an Honorary Award in 1946 for "The House I Live In" and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1970.)

Let's get real about this: Bjork's performance in "Dancer in the Dark" isn't just one of the best film performances by a musician, it's also an all-time great acting job, period. Although "Dancer in the Dark" is an unrelentingly bleak production from Lars von Trier, Bjork's unique screen presence and quirky energy bring light into the darkness.

A Czech immigrant barely scraping by with factory work, Selma (Bjork) suffers from a degenerative eye disease that will eventually lead to her losing her sight — a disease that she has passed down to her young son, who is beginning to show symptoms and who she's determined to save from a similar fate. But tragedy seems to haunt her steps, despite her efforts to live in the musical daydreams she's built for herself. The off-kilter musical sequences throughout the film are a reflection of Bjork's sensibilities of an artist, but she's equally impressive in the more dramatic and heart-rending scenes in "Dancer in the Dark" — of which there are, trust us, many.

Once upon a time, Jennifer Hudson was just an also-ran on "American Idol" who ultimately finished in seventh place and spent most of her time on the show dodging extremely 2000s comments about her weight. In the years since then, however, she's joined the elite group of performers who possess an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony). So, who's laughing now? In "Dreamgirls," based on the popular musical of the same name, she plays Effie White, a talented if erratic singer whose career is destroyed when her manager replaces her as the lead singer of the Dreams.

With wounded rage and a belt to match, Hudson gets the showstopping number with a rendition of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" that brings down the house. It also, by the way, earned her an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in her feature debut, proving her mettle as both a singer and an actor in her own right.

When Madonna got to the set of "A League of Their Own" to play the charming wisecracker All the Way Mae, the rest of the cast didn't quite know what to expect. Would the ultra-famous pop star expect special treatment in what was, at its heart, a ragtag ensemble piece? Luckily for us, she fit right into the group, giving us one of the most fun and endearing performances in the beloved World War II-era sports drama about a team of female baseball players who participate in the inaugural season of a women's league.

What's especially impressive about Madonna's performance in the film is that, although she was basically born to command attention, she seems to be a generous scene partner. She has her moments to shine, of course, but she also works effectively within the movie's ensemble cast, embracing the group dynamics that made "A League of Their Own" so enjoyable and empowering, especially for young women.

The classic movie musical "A Star Is Born" has been a show piece for young female actors since the first time the story was told on screen back in the 1930s, but Lady Gaga outshines even her illustrious predecessors. She stars as Ally Campana, an aspiring singer who catches the eye of Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper), an established star who helps launch her career.

But as Ally's star rises and we see the extent of Jackson's struggles with alcoholism, it becomes clear that she's quickly going to outshine her mentor and now-lover. And the question remains, as it always has in "A Star Is Born," how both of these personalities are going to cope with this seismic shift in their relative status. Just like Ally, it's obvious from the very first scene that Lady Gaga is a star, and she excels in not just the musical sequences but also the film's deeper emotional beats. "A Star Is Born" is a calling card for Bradley Cooper as a promising new director, but Lady Gaga owns every inch of celluloid.