Billboard's The 100 Best Acting Performances by Musicians in Movies

Billboard's The 100 Best Acting Performances by Musicians in Movies's icon

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"We wanted to take a look back at 100 of our all-time favorite musician appearances in feature films. They range from Oscar-winning starring turns in prestige classics to split-second cameos in cult favorites, from artists who have come to be as synonymous with film as with music to artists whose IMDB pages might just be a couple entries long. We only had three hard rules for eligibility:

1. The artist had to be well-known for music before they were well-known for film acting. (Apologies to Jamie Foxx, Lindsey Lohan and — most painfully — Jennifer Lopez.)

2. The artist couldn’t be starring as themselves in the performance, even in a somewhat fictionalized rendering. (Further regrets to Alice Cooper, The Spice Girls, and The Beatles.)

3. Only one performance per musician-actor.

Besides those, our list encompasses nearly a century of hitmakers-gone-Hollywood history, from the very beginning of the sound era all the way up to this year — and yes, Gaga made our list, though you’ll have to read on to see just where she ranked. Come dive in to the deep end with us."

Note: Dreamgirls appears on the list twice at #8 for Jennifer Hudson and #35 for Beyoncé.

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  1. 29 new

    Fight Club

    1999, in 19 top lists Check
  2. 42 new

    The Big Lebowski

    1998, in 26 top lists Check
  3. 5 new

    The Wizard of Oz

    1939, in 37 top lists Check
  4. 10 new

    The Social Network

    2010, in 13 top lists Check
  5. 91 new

    Annie Hall

    1977, in 34 top lists Check
  6. 12 new

    Boogie Nights

    1997, in 12 top lists Check
  7. 56 new

    The Blues Brothers

    1980, in 11 top lists Check
  8. 19 new

    Grease

    1978, in 12 top lists Check
  9. 13 new

    Chicago

    2002, in 7 top lists Check
  10. 34 new

    Rio Bravo

    1959, in 19 top lists Check
  11. 59 new

    Videodrome

    1983, in 18 top lists Check
  12. 70 new

    The Hunger Games

    2012, in 2 top lists Check
  13. 51 new

    Dogma

    1999, in 1 top list Check
  14. 93 new

    Hook

    1991, in 4 top lists Check
  15. 14 new

    Dancer in the Dark

    2000, in 9 top lists Check
  16. 74 new

    Dead Man

    1995, in 12 top lists Check
  17. 86 new

    Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

    2011, in 2 top lists Check
  18. 16 new

    8 Mile

    2002, in 3 top lists Check
  19. 67 new

    Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome

    1985, in 1 top list Check
  20. 15 new

    From Here to Eternity

    1953, in 13 top lists Check
  21. 62 new

    Down by Law

    1986, in 9 top lists Check
  22. 66 new

    2 Fast 2 Furious

    2003, in 3 top lists Check
  23. 18 new

    The Man Who Fell to Earth

    1976, in 8 top lists Check
  24. 49 new

    Panic Room

    2002, in 2 top lists Check
  25. 80 new

    Crazy, Stupid, Love.

    2011, in 0 top lists Check
  26. 88 new

    The Italian Job

    2003, in 1 top list Check
  27. 3 new

    Boyz n the Hood

    1991, in 9 top lists Check
  28. 89 new

    Two-Lane Blacktop

    1971, in 13 top lists Check
  29. 95 new

    Dunkirk

    2017, in 8 top lists Check
  30. 58 new

    Scrooged

    1988, in 0 top lists Check
  31. 76 new

    The Player

    1992, in 10 top lists Check
  32. 30 new

    Precious

    2009, in 4 top lists Check
  33. 24 new

    Moonlight

    2016, in 13 top lists Check
  34. 48 new

    Monster's Ball

    2001, in 0 top lists Check
  35. 79 new

    My Big Fat Greek Wedding

    2002, in 3 top lists Check
  36. 82 new

    Any Given Sunday

    1999, in 0 top lists Check
  37. 40 new

    Going My Way

    1944, in 6 top lists Check
  38. 6 new

    A League of Their Own

    1992, in 5 top lists Check
  39. 39 new

    Spring Breakers

    2012, in 5 top lists Check
  40. 21 new

    Pillow Talk

    1959, in 6 top lists Check
  41. 94 new

    Smokin' Aces

    2006, in 0 top lists Check
  42. 50 new

    The Love Parade

    1929, in 5 top lists Check
  43. 1 new

    Moonstruck

    1987, in 10 top lists Check
  44. 17 new

    Ali

    2001, in 0 top lists Check
  45. 68 new

    Starsky & Hutch

    2004, in 0 top lists Check
  46. 85 new

    Quadrophenia

    1979, in 4 top lists Check
  47. 28 new

    The People vs. Larry Flynt

    1996, in 2 top lists Check
  48. 98 new

    Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

    2006 — a.k.a. Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny, in 0 top lists Check
  49. 87 new

    Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

    2007, in 0 top lists Check
  50. 60 new

    The Cider House Rules

    1999, in 1 top list Check
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Last updated on Jan 8, 2024; source