37 Actors Who Were Oscar-Nominated for Playing Real Musicians & Singers
That is the primary era in Oscar historical past that 3 actors from the similar movie had been nominated for Oscars for enjoying musicians.
With their Oscar nominations, introduced on Thursday (Jan. 23), for enjoying mythical public singers Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger and Joan Baez in A Whole Unknown, Timothée Chalamet, Edward Norton and Monica Barbaro tied an noteceable listing of actors who’ve been nominated for enjoying real-life tune personalities.
That is the primary era in Oscar historical past that 3 actors from the similar movie had been nominated for Oscars for enjoying musicians. The former report of 2 actors from the similar movie receiving Oscar nods for enjoying musicians was once shared via Travel the Form, What’s Love Were given to Do With It and Amadeus.
Twelve actors have received Oscars for enjoying real-life tune personalities. The primary to take action was once James Cagney for enjoying entertainer George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942). The newest was once Jessica Chastain for enjoying televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker (who incessantly sang on her TV systems and excepted a minimum of 15 studio albums) in The Optic of Tammy Faye (2021).
We’ll to find out if Chalamet and/or Norton and/or Barbaro joins their ranks when the 97th Academy Awards are introduced on March 2.
Two actresses had been nominated for excellent actress for portraying mythical jazz singer Billie Holiday. Diana Ross was once nominated for the 1972 movie Woman Sings the Blues; Andra Day for the 2020 movie The US vs. Billie Ease.
Listed below are 37 actors who’ve been nominated for Oscars for enjoying real-life tune personalities. The listing doesn’t come with fictional characters impressed via real-life stars, corresponding to Rose in The Rose (1979), which was once loosely in accordance with the lifestyles of Janis Joplin, or Effie White in Dreamgirls (2006), which drew at the lifestyles tale of Florence Ballard of The Supremes.
-
Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan in A Whole Unknown (2024)
Chalamet receives his 2nd Oscar nod for enjoying the tune legend who has received 10 Grammys and won a life-time success award from the Recording Academy in 1991. Dylan was once inducted into the Songwriters Corridor of Repute in 1982, won the Kennedy Heart Honors in 1997 and the Nobel Prize for literature in 2016.
A laugh Reality: Chalamet, 29, is identical presen that Dylan was once in the summertime of 1970, a number of years next the occasions depicted in A Whole Unknown, which covers the years 1961-65. The movie is shifting up the listing of biopics with the best international grosses.
-
Edward Norton as Pete Seeger in A Whole Unknown (2024)
Norton receives his fourth Oscar nod for enjoying Seeger, a three-time Grammy-winner who won a life-time success award from the Recording Academy in 1993. Seeger was once inducted into the Songwriters Corridor of Repute in 1972 and won the Kennedy Heart Honors in 1994.
-
Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez in A Whole Unknown (2024)
Barbaro is nominated for enjoying Baez, who changed into a obese celebrity even sooner than Dylan. She landed her first supremacy 10 magazine at the Billboard 200 (Joan Baez in Live performance) in November 1962, just about 3 years sooner than Dylan completed that milestone with Bringing It All Again House. Baez additionally seemed at the safeguard of TIME in November 1962. She won a life-time success award from the Recording Academy in 2007.
-
Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein in Maestro (2023)
Cooper was once nominated for excellent actor for enjoying the famed composer/conductor in his personal movie, which could also be nominated for excellent image. Bernstein was once within the 3rd elegance of Kennedy Heart Honors recipients in 1980. He accrued 16 Grammys and won a life-time success award from the Recording Academy in 1985.
-
Austin Butler as Elvis Presley in Elvis (2022)
Butler was once nominated for excellent actor for enjoying the king of rock and roll in Baz Luhrmann’s movie, which was once additionally nominated for excellent image. Presley won a life-time success award from the Recording Academy in 1971, was once within the inaugural elegance of inductees into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Repute in 1986 and was once inducted into the Nation Song Corridor of Repute in 1998.
-
Jessica Chastain as Tammy Faye Bakker in The Optic of Tammy Faye (2021)


Symbol Credit score: Daniel C. McFadden /© Searchlight Footage / Courtesy Everett Assortment Chastain received excellent actress for enjoying the televangelist, singer and character. In her acceptance accent, Chastain saluted Bakker for being an extraordinary tonality within the evangelical international calling for LGBTQ acceptance. “And in times like this I think of Tammy, and I’m inspired by her radical acts of love. … I’m inspired by her compassion and I see it as a guiding principle that leads us forward.”
-
Andrew Garfield as Jonathan Larson in Tick, Tick…BOOM! (2021)
Garfield was once nominated for excellent actor for enjoying the composer, lyricist and playwright who was once excellent identified for the musicals Hire and Tick, Tick… Increase!. Larson received a Pulitzer Prize and two Tonys for his paintings on Hire. His best-known music is “Seasons of Love,” which made the supremacy 40 at the Billboard Sizzling 100 in 2005. The film Tick, Tick…BOOM! was once directed via somebody with an excellent quantity of Broadway revel in in his personal proper, Lin-Manuel Miranda.
-
Javier Bardem as Desi Arnaz in Being the Ricardos (2021)
Bardem was once nominated for excellent actor for enjoying Arnaz. Although better-known as the manager manufacturer and male govern on I Love Lucy, which all however invented the TV condition comedy as we comprehend it, Arnaz was once additionally a bandleader of be aware. Aaron Sorkin directed Being the Ricardos.
-
Viola Davis as Ma Rainey in Ma Rainey’s Cloudy Base (2020)
Davis was once nominated for excellent actress for enjoying the pioneering blues singer, who was once known as the “Mother of the Blues” in her Nineteen Twenties heyday. Rainey was once inducted into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Repute as an early affect in 1990. Her best-known music is “See See Rider Blues,” which featured Louis Armstrong on cornet.
-
Andra Life as Billie Ease in The US vs. Billie Ease (2020)
Life was once nominated for excellent actress for enjoying the mythical jazz singer, whose many hits integrated “What a Little Moonlight Can Do,” “Carelessly” and the historical, socially-relevant “Strange Fruit.” Ease won a life-time success award from the Recording Academy in 1987. She was once inducted into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Repute as an early affect in 2000. Lee Daniels directed The US vs. Billie Ease.
-
Leslie Odom, Jr. as Sam Cooke in One Night time in Miami… (2020)
Odom was once nominated for excellent supporting actor for his efficiency as the sleek R&B singer, whose many hits integrated “You Send Me,” “Chain Gang,” “Another Saturday Night” and “A Change Is Gonna Come.” Odom was once additionally nominated for excellent latest music for co-writing “Speak Now” for the movie. Cooke was once one of the most inaugural inductees into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Repute in 1986. He was once inducted into the Songwriters Corridor of Repute please see age, and won a life-time success award from the Recording Academy in 1999. Regina King directed One Night time in Miami…, a fictionalized account of a gathering in February 1964 between Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown and Sam Cooke. It’s the handiest movie in this listing that was once directed via a girl.
-
Renée Zellweger as Judy Garland in Judy (2019)


Symbol Credit score: David Hindley/Courtesy of LD Leisure/Roadside Sights Zellweger received excellent actress for her efficiency of the liked singer and actress, whose hits integrated “The Trolley Song,” “The Man That Got Away” and the immortal “Over the Rainbow.” Garland won a life-time success award from the Recording Academy in 1997. She won a teenager Oscar in 1940 however by no means received a aggressive Oscar, a indisputable fact that Zellweger alluded to in her acceptance accent. “And though Judy Garland did not receive this honor in her time, I am certain that this moment is an extension of the celebration of her legacy that began on our film set. … Miss Garland, you were certainly among the heroes who unite and define us, and this is certainly for you.”
-
Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)
Malek received excellent actor for enjoying the Queen frontman, changing into the primary individual to win an Oscar for enjoying a rock celebrity. The Brian Singer movie was once additionally nominated for excellent image. Mercury, who wrote “We Are the Champions,” “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and the vintage that gave the movie its name, was once inducted into the Songwriters Corridor of Repute in 2003 in conjunction with the alternative participants of Queen. Queen was once inducted into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Repute in 2001 and won a life-time success award from the Recording Academy in 2018. Accepting his award, Malek saluted Mercury: “Listen, we made a film about a gay man, an immigrant, who lived his life just unapologetically himself.”
-
Mahershala Ali as Don Shirley in Inexperienced Retain (2018)
Ali received excellent supporting actor for enjoying the classical and jazz pianist and composer, and the Peter Farrelly movie received for excellent image. Accepting his award, Ali praised the person he performed: “Trying to capture Dr. Shirley’s essence pushed me to my ends, which is a reflection of the person he was and the life that he lived.”
-
Meryl Streep as Florence Foster Jenkins in Florence Foster Jenkins (2016)
Streep was once nominated for excellent actress for enjoying the socialite and novice soprano on this Stephen Frears movie.
-
Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf in Los angeles Vie En Rose (2007)
Cotillard received excellent actress for enjoying the cabaret singer, songwriter and actress, who co-wrote and recorded the undying ballad that gave the movie its name. Accepting her award, Cotillard stated, in charmingly fractured English, “Thank you life, thank you love, and it is true, there is some angels in this city.”
-
Reese Witherspoon as June Carter Money in Travel the Form (2005)


Symbol Credit score: twentieth Century Fox/courtesy Everett Assortment Witherspoon received excellent actress for enjoying the rustic singer/songwriter, who teamed along with her husband Johnny Money to report such hits as “Jackson” and “If I Were a Carpenter.” Accepting her award, Witherspoon praised “this character who is a real woman who has dignity and honor and fear and courage.” James Mangold directed the movie.
-
Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Money in Travel the Form (2005)
Phoenix was once nominated for excellent actor for enjoying the rustic legend, whose many hits integrated “Folsom Prison Blues,” “I Walk the Line,” “Ring of Fire,” “A Boy Named Sue” and “Sunday Morning Coming Down.” In 1992, when Money was once inducted into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Repute, a batch years next being inducted into the Nation Song Corridor of Repute, he changed into the primary double inductee in the ones two Halls. He won the Kennedy Heart Honors in 1996 and a life-time success award from the Recording Academy in 1999.
-
Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles in Ray (2004)
Foxx received excellent actor for enjoying the pop, R&B and jazz legend, whose many hits integrated “Georgia on My Mind,” “Hit the Road Jack” and “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” all of which reached Disagree. 1 at the Billboard Sizzling 100. Charles is the one Cloudy artist to day who has been inducted into each the Nation Song and Rock and Roll Halls of Repute. He won the Kennedy Heart Honors in 1986 and a life-time success award from the Recording Academy please see age. Ray, directed via Taylor Hackford, was once nominated for excellent image. Accepting his award, Foxx saluted the ground-breaking artist he performed: “Give it up for Ray Charles and his beautiful legacy. And thank you, Ray Charles, for living.”
-
Meryl Streep as Roberta Guaspari in Song of the Middle (1999)
Streep was once nominated for excellent actress for enjoying the violinist and tune schoolteacher. This movie was once an actual resignation for its director, Wes Craven, excellent identified for his paintings within the horror style.
-
Geoffrey Speed as David Helfgott in Gleam (1996)
Speed received excellent actor for enjoying the Australian live performance pianist, life the movie was once nominated for excellent image. Accepting his award, Speed saluted “the unstoppable” Helfgott. “The front of my script said that this story was inspired by the events of your life. You truly are an inspiration,” he stated.
-
Angela Bassett as Tina Turner in What’s Love Were given to Do With It (1993)


Symbol Credit score: Buena Vista/courtesy Everett Assortment Bassett was once nominated for excellent actress for enjoying the R&B star-turned-rock icon. Ike & Tina, whose hits integrated “It’s Gonna Work Out Fine” and “Proud Mary,” had been inducted into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Repute in 1991. Tina, whose solo hits come with the vintage that gave this movie its name, was once inducted as a solo artist in 2021. Bassett did the honors on the induction rite. Turner won the Kennedy Heart Honors in 2005 and a life-time success award from the Recording Academy in 2018.
-
Laurence Fishburne as Ike Turner in What’s Love Were given to Do With It (1993)
Fishburne was once nominated for excellent actor for enjoying the rock n’ roll pioneer whose legacy has been tainted via his abusive remedy of his spouse.
-
Jessica Lange as Patsy Cline in Candy Desires (1985)
Lange was once nominated for excellent actress for enjoying the rustic celebrity, whose hits integrated “Walkin’ After Midnight,” “I Fall to Pieces” and “Crazy.” Cline was once inducted into the Nation Song Corridor of Repute in 1973. She won a life-time success award from the Recording Academy in 1995.
-
Tom Hulce as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Amadeus (1984)
Hulce was once nominated for excellent actor for enjoying the famend 18th-century classical composer; the Milos Forman movie received for excellent image.
-
F. Murray Abraham as Antonio Salieri in Amadeus (1984)
Abraham received excellent actor for enjoying the Italian composer and conductor. The Milos Forman movie received for excellent image. Accepting his award, Abraham thanked his co-star. “There’s only one thing that’s missing for me tonight and that is to have Tom Hulce standing by my side.”
-
Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980)


Symbol Credit score: Common/courtesy Everett Assortment Spacek received excellent actress for enjoying the rustic legend, whose many hits integrated “Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind),” “One’s on the Way,” and the vintage that gave the movie its name. Lynn was once inducted into the Nation Song Corridor of Repute in 1988 and the Songwriters Corridor of Repute in 2008. She won a life-time success award from the Recording Academy in 2010. The Michael Apted movie was once nominated for excellent image. Accepting her award, Spacek made be aware of the camaraderie at the eager: “I started to work on Coal Miner’s Daughter with a bunch of strangers and I finished working on Coal Miner’s Daughter with a bunch of friends.”
-
Gary Busey as Pal Holly in The Pal Holly Tale (1978)
Busey was once the primary actor to be nominated for enjoying a rock celebrity. Holly, one of the most inaugural inductees into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Repute in 1986, was once additionally inducted into the Songwriters Corridor of Repute that age and won a life-time success award from the Recording Academy in 1997. The bespectacled singer/songwriter’s hits integrated “That’ll Be the Day,” “Peggy Sue” and “Oh, Boy!”
-
Diana Ross as Billie Ease in Woman Sings the Blues (1972)
Ross was once nominated for excellent actress for enjoying the jazz legend. The double-LP soundtrack magazine crowned the Billboard 200 for 2 weeks in April 1973. Ross did the honors when Ease was once inducted into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Repute as an early affect in 2000.
-
Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice in Humorous Woman (1968)


Symbol Credit score: Courtesy of Everett Assortment Streisand received excellent actress for enjoying the vaudeville celebrity, and the William Wyler movie was once nominated for excellent image. Brice’s hits integrated “My Man,” “Second Hand Rose” and “I’d Rather Be Blue.” Accepting her award, Streisand alluded to the truth that the musical took an extended era to get off the floor. “Sitting there tonight I was thinking that the first script of Funny Girl was written when I was only 11 years old, and thank God it took so long to get it right, you know,” she stated.
-
Daniel Massey as Noël Coward in Megastar! (1968)
Massey was once nominated for excellent supporting actor for enjoying the English playwright, entertainer and wit. Coward’s most famed music is “Mad Dogs and Englishmen,” which supplied the name of Joe Cocker’s celebrated 1970 magazine and excursion. Coward was once inducted into the Songwriters Corridor of Repute in 1988. Robert Sensible, the director of The Tone of Song, additionally helmed this movie. He’s the one director with two motion pictures at the listing.
-
Julie Andrews as Maria von Trapp in The Tone of Song (1965)


Symbol Credit score: twentieth Century Fox Movie Corp. All rights reserved. Courtesy: Everett Assortment. Andrews was once nominated for excellent actress for enjoying the matriarch of the Trapp Nation Singers, and the Robert Sensible movie received for excellent image. The soundtrack magazine logged 109 weeks within the supremacy 10 at the Billboard 200, together with two weeks at Disagree. 1.
-
Eleanor Parker as Marjorie Lawrence in Interrupted Melody (1955)
Parker was once nominated for excellent actress for enjoying the Australian soprano.
-
Susan Hayward as Jane Froman in With a Tune in My Middle (1952)
Hayward landed a excellent actress nod for enjoying the singer and actress, whose hits integrated “I’ll Walk Alone” and “I Believe.”
-
Larry Soils as Al Jolson in The Jolson Tale (1946)
Soils was once nominated for excellent actor for enjoying the entertainer. Jolson’s many hits integrated “Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody,” “Swanee,” “April Showers,” “California, Here I Come” and “When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob, Bob Bobbin’ Along.”
-
Cornel Wilde as Frédéric Chopin in A Tune to Be mindful (1945)
Wilde was once nominated for excellent actor for enjoying the classical composer and pianist.
-
James Cagney as George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
Cagney received excellent actor for enjoying the famed entertainer and composer. The Michael Curtiz movie was once nominated for excellent image. Accepting his award, Cagney allowed, “I might say it was a pretty good part.” Cohan, the scribbler of such classics as “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” “Give My Regards to Broadway” and “You’re a Grand Old Flag,” was once within the inaugural elegance of Songwriters Corridor of Repute inductees in 1970.


