The Movie Stars' Musical Band

Many movie stars play musical instruments, some good enough to be professional muscians. And a few would be better off playing music than acting--Willie Nelson comes to mind.

Here are a few:
Willie, of course, who plays guitar about as well as he acts: not a very good picker or singer IMHO but one hell of a song writer. On the other hand, Andy Griffith can really play.

Charlie Chaplin and Jimmy Stewart played accordians.

Steve Martin and George Segal are damn good banjo players. Martin at one point was even recording a CD of banjo tunes.

Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, and Bruce Willis play harmonica. Never heard Willis, but Cooper and Brennan played a duet of the William Tell Overture in Meet John Doe. Brennan also played the ocorina (his insturment in John Doe), or what is commonly called the "sweet potato" due to its shape.

Woody Allen has performed publicly on clarinet with a few Dixieland bands.

Dudley Moore was a talented jazz musician on piano. Other piano players include Clint Eastwood, Dustin Hoffman, and Jamie Foxx.

Streep plays violin.

Although a great singer, Sinatra played no musical instruments, although he gave a great performance of a strung-out drummer playing badly in The Man With the Golden Arm.

De Niro learned to play saxophone for his role in New York, New York.

Can you name some more?

I know Keanu Reeves has/had a band called Dogstar (he plays bass).

Russell Crowe plays the guitar and has been with a few bands, most recently some group called "The Ordinary Fear of God."

Jeff Goldblum

__________________

Kevin Bacon plays guitar in a band called The Bacon Brothers with his brother.

Andy Griffith has a degree in music from Uni of North Carolina.

Alyssa Milano plays the piano and flute while Julia Roberts plays the oboe and clarinet.

Surprised Jared Leto hasn't been mentioned, probably one of the most successful crossover stars. He plays guitar, writes and sings for the band 30 Seconds to Mars whose album A Beautiful Lie went platinum.

Also, as a side note, apparently Steve Martin won a Grammy for Best Country Instrumental Performance with Earl Scruggs for his banjo performance of Foggy Mountain Breakdown.

The late Jack Lemmon was known as a very good piano player.

Actress Lori Singer, forever best known as the rebellious daughter of John Lithgow's Rock-banning Reverend in Footloose, is a Juilliard-trained cellist (her real-life father was a famous conductor and her mother a concert pianist). She shows off her cello playing ability on screen in one of her earliest films, Fame, and more explicitly later in Robert Altman's Short Cuts.

Marx Brothers Chico and Harpo were excellent musicians in Vaudeville and showed off in most of their movies, Chico usually with a complex and inventive piano piece and Harpo of course beautifully on his namesake, the harp.

Robert Downey Jr. has released an album in the last couple years as a singer/songwriter/pianist.

__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

Gerald Butler in phantom of the opera- I don't know if he plays any instrument but think that voice of his makes him pass muster as an opera singer

__________________
ALL WE DO OUR CHILDREN WOULD LIVE AFTER TOMORROW. IT IS OUR RESPONSIBLITY AND MANDATE AS ASPIRING AND PROFESSIONAL FILMMAKERS TO SET A HIGH PACE SO IT GETS HIGHER LATER.

Zooey Deschanel is apparently a very good singer, and she's in a group called She & Him. I happen to be listening right now to Jenny Lewis' most recent solo album (she's in Rilo Kiley), on which Zooey contributes backing vocals on three tracks. Actually, Lewis started out as an actress and I think dated Jake Gyllenhaal at one point.

Clint Eastwood has played piano for a very long time; his love of jazz led to his making Bird, and he has played onscreen in at least one film I can think of (In the Line of Fire), though there may be others.

Billy Bob Thornton, Minnie Driver and Terrence Howard are a few others that come to mind.

__________________
the angel stayed until something died, one more murder suicide

Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer wrote and played their own music in This Is Spinal Tap.

__________________
Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

D minor is the saddest of all keys.

Hmmmm, I think...Nigel said that? In Spinal Tap? Or was it Eddie Van Halen... I know it's one of those two cats....

My vote goes to B-flat minor, personally....

__________________

Yeah, wasn't Lemmon a professional quality jazz musician? I think I read somewhere he easily could have been a musician instead of an actor. Plus he played bongos in Bell, Book, and Candle with Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak. For that matter David Nelson, Ricky's big brother, played bongos in -30-. And of course Ricky played guitar in Rio Bravo.

And you're right--Chico and Harpo were great. I always liked that comical, easy-going way Chico could play the piano without ever distorting the tune he was playing.

You wouldn't say that if you ever heard me try to play the others! My playing would bring tears to a muscian's glass eye.