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Beyonce
“I’m Foxxy Cleopatra, and I’m a whole lotta woman!” Yes, Beyonce was all that and much more in the 2002 spy comedy movie Austin Powers in Goldmember. Another out-of-the-box performance from the Flawless singer was in The Pink Panther (2006) as pop star Xania. Then there is, of course, the Academy- and Golden Globe-winning Dreamgirls (2006).
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Madonna
The Material Girl has had her share of Golden Raspberry Awards (Shanghai Surprise, Swept Away and so on) and Golden Globe Awards (Evita). But her most memorable performance was in the Penny Marshall-directed A League of Their Own (1992).
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Barbra Streisand
Never mind the four Razzie nominations for acting (The Guilt Trap, Little Fockers, All Night Long and Yentl), the Academy Award-winning star’s (Funny Girl, 1968) filmography packs a punch with A Star Is Born (1976), The Way We Were (1973) and The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996). Truly an illustrious member of the hall of fame and shame.
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Cher
Don’t judge her acting skills by the 2010 flop Burlesque because Cher also featured in Golden Globe-winning Silkwood (1983), Academy Award-winning Moonstuck (1987) and Cannes Film Festival Award winner Mask (1985).
Tom Waits
The bourbon-soaked voice that has given us classics like Hang on St. Christopher, Gun Street Girl and (Looking For) The Heart of Saturday Night was at one point a favourite of director Jim Jarmusch. Remember Down By Law (1986) and Coffee and Cigarettes (2003)? Then there is his fine performance as Mr Nick (or the Devil) in the Terry Gilliam-directed fantasy film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009).
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Jennifer Lopez
The striptease scene in the hotel. The sticky and sweaty moments stuck in the trunk of a car with George Clooney saying, “You’re sure easy to talk to.” JLo is hot, hot, hot in Steven Soderbergh’s Out Of Sight (1998). And the rest of her filmography? The Wedding Planner (2001), Maid in Manhattan (2002), Shall We Dance? (2004), Monster-in-Law (2005)… they make for good television viewing.
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Snoop Dogg
The rapper loves all kinds of films –– commercial, animation and porn. From playing Dra-Man in The Wrecking Crew (2000) to lending his voice to the snail Smoove Move in Turbo (2013) to producing the sex-toy romp in Snoop Dogg’s Buckwild Bus Tour (2006) and playing The Doggfather in Hustlaz: Diary of a Pimp (2002)… what a dawg!
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Justin Timberlake
More than playing Napster co-founder Sean Parker in The Social Network (2010), his acting CV is popular for the romantic comedies like Friends With Benefits (2011) and Bad Teacher (2011).
David Bowie
His intellectual depth showed in Nicolas Roeg’s The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), the story of an alien who arrives to take water back to his planet but falls in love with the foreign land. The singer’s subsequent roles in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), The Hunger (1983), Labyrinth (1986) may not have been biggies at the box office but there was no dearth of experimentation.
Eminem
One film was enough to feature him on the list –– 8 Mile (2002). Playing Jimmy “B-Rabbit” Smith Jr., a struggling rapper with a messed-up life, he easily won critics over. The man knows his acting limitations and so he’s stayed away from a lead role since.
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Mick Jagger
Give credit to the bad boy of the rock world for his fine performances in, well, Performance (1970), which became popular years after its release, and as the evil mercenary Victor Vacendak in Freejack (1992). A recent addition to his filmography is as producer of Get On Up (a biographical drama on the life and times of James Brown), which had a US release in August 2014.
AND LET’S NOT FORGET...
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Doris Day
On the one hand she gave us evergreen numbers like Que Sera Sera, Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps and Everybody Loves A Lover, on the other there are three fantastic romantic comedies with Rock Hudson — Pillow Talk (1959), Lover Come Back (1961) and Send Me No Flowers (1964). Then there was Alfred Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956).
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Elvis Presley
Classics like Jailhouse Rock (1957) and Love Me Tender (1956) live side by side with titles that even embarrassed The King –– Stay Away, Joe (1968), The Trouble With Girls (1969) and many more.
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Frank Sinatra
What do you call a man who gave us the original Ocean’s Eleven (1960), the first version of Die Hard in The Detective (1968), the Academy-winning movie From Here To Eternity (1953) and the classic The Manchurian Candidate (1962)? Mr Versatility.
