20 Musicians Turned Actors For Better Or Worse

Love her or hate her, they don’t come much bigger than Babs, a multi-talented singer, actress, filmmaker and producer whose cinematic reign starts with an Best Actress Academy Award for 1968’s “Funny Girl” and extends to this day with the “Fockers” series. In between, she remains one of the few entertainers who has picked up Oscar nominations or wins for Best Picture (1991’s “The Prince of Tides,” which she directed), Best Song (1976’s “A Star is Born”) and Best Actress (along with “Funny Girl,” Streisand earned a nomination for 1973’s “The Way We Were.”) So basically Hall of Fame in every category you can envision.

You hardly hear about this, but Mark Wahlberg was considered a rapper back in the 90s where he started as Marky Mark, the lead of Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. Using his real name, Wahlberg made his big screen debut in ‘Renaissance Man’ (1994). Followed by a performance in ‘The Basketball Diaries’ the year after, this led him to lead in several movies even forgetting his past as a rapper. He appeared in movies including ‘Boogie Nights’, ‘Three Kings’, ‘The Perfect Storm’, ‘Planet Of The Apes’, ‘Huckabees’ and ‘Ted’.

Meatloaf is one of the best-selling artists of all time, with worldwide sales of more than 100 million copies. The singer was asked to be in the play ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ which led to him landing the role of Eddie in the film version. From there his acting career blossomed as he appeared in many movies including ‘Fight Club’, ‘Roadie’ and more.

The man you may know as Puff Daddy, Puffy, P.Diddy or just plain Diddy was the man behind Notorious B.I.G., Lil Kim and more. His first work as a rapper came out in July 1997 in the form of an album titled ‘No Way Out’ only months after his friend B.I.G. was gunned down. He dedicated the song “I’ll Be Missing You” to Notorious B.I.G. After his role in the play ‘A Raisin In The Sun’ Diddy decided to take his acting seriously. He starred in ‘Get Him To The Greek’ and made several appearances on CSI Miami.

Frank Sinatra had a successful solo career from the early to mid 1940s. Even though his music career was going well he went went into acting and made his debut in 1943 in ‘Higher and Higher.’ HE was loved and his career took off, he also released his first album in 1946. Frank Sinatra appeared in a number of movies including ‘The Man with the Golden Arm’ and ‘The Manchurian Candidate’. His professional career had stalled by the early 1950s, but it was reborn in 1953 after he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in ‘From Here to Eternity’.

Cher got her fame from her time in Sonny & Cher, her rock & roll duo with her then husband, Sonny Bono. Her song “Believe” released as a solo artist is a classic. As an actrice she appeared in several movies including, ‘The Witches of Eastwick’, ‘Silkwood’, ‘Mask’, ‘Tea with Mussolini’ and ‘Moonstruck’. For ‘Moonstruck’ she received an Oscar for best actrice. In 2010 she made an acting and singing comeback in the movie Burlesque. She made a single “You Haven’t Seen The Last Of Me: for the movie.

Beyonce had success with her group Destiny’s Child. After the MTV produced ‘Carmen: A Hip Hopera’ in 2001 she transitioned to the big screen. She made her feature-film acting debut in 2002 with the parody role of Foxxy Cleopatra in Austin Powers in ‘Goldmember’. After that Beyonce appeared in ‘Fighting Temptations’, ‘Pink Panther’ which wasn’t received so well and ‘Dreamgirls’.

At a young age Dolly Parton started performing on local radio and television programs in the Eastern Tennessee area. By age nine, she was appearing on The Cas Walker Show on both WIVK Radio and WBIR-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee. At thirteen, she was recording (the single “Puppy Love”) on a small Louisiana label, Goldband Records, and appeared at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. After many many hits The Queen of Country decided to take a step into acting in 1980’s with a role in ‘Nine to Five’ and ‘The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas’ in 1982. Both these appearances won a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress’.
She has appeared in several film since then including ‘Steel Magnolias’, ‘Joyful Noise’ and more.

Justin Timberlake started his career with the boy band NSYNC in Europe in 1996. Growing in the United States in 1998 the group sold 11 million copies of their debut album *NSYNC. After great success the group went into hiatus in 2002. JT made his acting debut as a journalist in ‘Edison’ in 2004. After that he appeared in several movies including ‘Alpha Dog’, ‘The Love Guru’, ‘Bad Teacher’, ‘Friends with Benefit’ and more. This year he came back making music releasing a very successful ’20/20 Experience’ with a ’20/20 Experience 2 of 2′ on the way this year.

People tend to forget that Will Smith started his career as a rapper known as The Fresh Prince alongside his friend DJ Jazzy Jeff. He was in fact the first rapper to win a Grammy for his hit single, “Parents Just Don’t Understand” and later with “Summertime.” In 1990 his acting career started on ‘The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air’, where he played a fictionalized version of himself. Will Smith turned out being one of the biggest actors in the world, landing roles in movies as ‘Men In Black’, ‘Wild Wild West’, ‘I Am Legend’, ‘The Pursuit Of Happiness’ and a lot more.