Ten actors who’ve tackled lead vocals in music biopics

The music biopic is experiencing a boom. Last year’s NWA biopic Straight Outta Compton topped box office charts, and films about Miles Davis, Chet Baker and Nina Simone are all set to hit screens over the next few months. Actor Tom Hardy has even signed on to play Elton John in forthcoming movie Rocketman.

However, as Mark points out, music biopics are not always a success: “As a film critic I often have problems with biopics of musicians, not least because it seems to me that there is a lack of continuity of voice.” Here are ten great performances where continuity isn’t a problem - because the lead actors perform the vocals themselves...

Diana Ross was Oscar-nominated for her role as jazz legend Billie Holiday in director Sidney J. Furie’s 1972 drama - setting a trend of Academy Award nods for actors playing musicians. Apparently, Ross claimed that co-star Richard Pryor personally instructed her on how to behave during the scenes of Holiday’s drug use. The film’s soundtrack was released by Motown as a double album and went on to top the pop charts.

An uncannily convincing impression of Buddy Holly

Mark

35 years before Celebrity Big Brother, Gary Busey took on the role of late rock legend Buddy Holly, in a film spanning the years from Holly’s humble beginnings in smalltown America to his meteoric rise to worldwide fame and untimely death. Busey's performance was widely acclaimed and received an Oscar nomination, despite his being the ripe age of 33 at the time of playing Holly, who had died aged 22.

Sissy Spacek was personally chosen by country music singer Loretta Lynn to play her in the story of her life. Apparently Spacek was initially reluctant to take part and insisted on singing Lynn’s songs herself in the hope it would scare the film’s producers off. It didn’t - the film went on to earn rave reviews and an Academy Award for Spacek.

Val Kilmer played Jim Morrison of The Doors in director Oliver Stone's film, in a role originally offered to Ian Astbury, lead singer of rock band The Cult. To convince Stone that he was right for the part, Kilmer made his own eight minute pop video in which he performed as Morrison. He got the part, and in the resulting movie, his own singing voice was interwoven with original Doors recordings.

Halfway through the film you’re thinking, is he singing this or is that Johnny Cash?

Mark

Director James Mangold's Johnny Cash and June Carter story Walk The Line is the second higgest grossing music biopic of all time, just behind Straight Outta Compton. Not only did both Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix sing in the film, they also learnt to play autoharp and guitar respectively, from scratch. Witherspoon would go on to win an Oscar for her performance.

Serkis is in exactly the right position between imitation and reinvention

Mark

For director Mat Whitecross' biopic of punk poet Ian Dury, the chameleonic Andy Serkis took on a double challenge. Serkis spent months working out on just one side of his body in order to mimic the twisted gait that was a result of Dury's childhood polio. He also sang live vocals for all the classic Blockheads songs featured in the film.

Boseman is completely charismatic and really enchanting on stage

Mark

Fresh from his role as baseball pioneer Jackie Robinson in 42, Chadwick Boseman went straight into playing another 20th century icon - Godfather of Soul James Brown. Boseman did all of the late performer's dancing, and some of his singing, in the Mick Jagger-produced drama, to a great critical reception.

One of my favourite films of recent years

Mark

Paul Dano plays 1960s Brian Wilson in this story of The Beach Boys' tortured creative mastermind at two different stages of his life; John Cusack is the 1980s incarnation. The film's score was produced by Atticus Ross, who wove together original stems of Beach Boys songs with brand new recordings to create an original soundtrack. As a result, both Dano and Wilson's vocals are heard in the film, and it's pretty tough to tell who's singing when.

Finally, a film that's yet to be released, starring leading man of the moment Tom Hiddleston. Hiddleston plays country and blues singer-songwriter Hank Williams in the forthcoming I Saw The Light, and he's made several promotional appearances at film festivals over the last year to perform Williams' music in character. It's the second time Hiddleston has played a performer on screen, following his turn as vampire musician Adam in Jim Jarmusch's 2013 romance Only Lovers Left Alive.