20 actors who've played real-life rock stars (2024)

Austin Butler as Elvis

A lot of actors have taken on the King of Rock & Roll over the years — and Elvis Presley himself was enshrined on screen in the 30-plus films he starred in — but perhaps one of the most decorated portrayals is Austin Butler's turn in Baz Luhrmann's Oscar-winning biopic, Elvis (2022). Winning the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Drama, Butler and had to hire a dialect coach to shake off his Elvis accent post-filming. It's safe to say that Elvis is always on his mind! —James Mercadante

Jennifer Hudson as Aretha Franklin

When it came to embodying Aretha Franklin in Liesl Tommy's Respect (2021), the Queen of Soul had only one diva in mind: Academy Award winner Jennifer Hudson (with Skye Dakota Turner playing young Aretha). Hudson undoubtedly had the right pipes to match Franklin's once-in-a-lifetime voice — she sang live on set instead of lip-syncing to pre-recorded tracks — but that was just the start.

She threw herself into six months of intense piano lessons, dialed back her bubbly personality to mirror Franklin's reserved grace, and invested countless hours in nailing the Queen's dialect. Essentially, Hudson left no stone unturned to ensure the Queen got her R-E-S-P-E-C-T on the silver screen. —J.M.

Taron Egerton as Elton John

In his Golden Globe-winning performance in Rocketman (2019), Taron Egerton donned the campy ensembles of the flashy, sunglass-wearing, piano-playing maverick, Sir Elton John. Rather than sticking to the standard biopic procedure, the film embraced a more artistic, fantastical approach with back-to-back dream musical sequences.

Despite the creative liberties taken with John's story, Egerton — whose portrayal was described by EW's critic as "the starry-eyed cosmonaut the part demands, but merely, endearingly human too" — still had to recreate pivotal events from the musician's life, including his iconic Troubadour performance and his struggles with a drug and alcohol problem. —Maureen Lee Lenker

Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury

Rami Malek took home the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody (2018). A biopic about the legendary rock band and Mercury had been circulating for years with various actors, including Sacha Baron Cohen and Ben Whishaw, attached. In the end, it was Malek who nabbed the role, recreating some of Mercury's most famous performances throughout the film, tracing Queen from its earliest days to their iconic 1985 Live Aid performance. Malek will rock you as Mercury. —M.L.L.

Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan

The 2007 Todd Haynes film I'm Not There featured six different actors tackling separate aspects of Bob Dylan's persona, but Cate Blanchett's turn as Jude Quinn, a popular folk singer accused of "selling out" after performing with a full band and electric guitars bore the closest resemblance to the Dylan of the popular imagination. Blanchett's take on the musician circa 1965–66 earned raves, including an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. It'll make you feel like a rolling stone. —M.L.L.

Paul Dano as Brian Wilson

The Beach Boys inhabit a space between soft rock and pop, and (2014) follows their founder and leader Brian Wilson as he struggles with mental illness during the 1960s and '80s. Paul Dano portrays Wilson in his younger years, grappling with psychosis in the midst of producing his avant-garde, groundbreaking album Pet Sounds. He shares the role with John Cusack as an older version of Wilson, but Dano gets more of the musical showcase here. God only knows what we'd do without this take on Wilson's life. —M.L.L.

Chadwick Boseman as James Brown

Before he was the ruler of Wakanda in Black Panther (2018), Chadwick Boseman played the Godfather of Soul. The actor — who died at age 43 in 2020 — broke out in a major way with Get On Up (2014), which found him singing and strutting through a non-linear account of James Brown's life from the 1950s to 1993. The film didn't garner any awards attention, but it helped make its leading man a star on the heels of another well-regarded biopic, 42 (2013), in which Boseman portrayed baseball player Jackie Robinson. —M.L.L.

Angela Bassett as Tina Turner

Angela Bassett was simply the best choice to do the Queen of Rock & Roll justice. Based on Tina Turner's 1986 memoir, What's Love Got to Do With It (1993) stars Bassett as the icon as she rose to fame and broke free from her abusive husband, Ike Turner (Laurence Fishburne). Bassett's portrayal earned her a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy and an Academy Award nomination, which many consider to be one of the biggest Oscar snubs.

To faithfully embody Turner, Bassett underwent rigorous preparation that included 10-plus hours of dance rehearsals a day, a strict diet, and spending hours on individual lines. And Turner's final words to Bassett are a testament to her performance: "You never mimicked me. Instead, you reached deep into your soul, found your inner Tina, and showed her to the world." —J.M.

Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett

Kristen Stewart rose to fame on the wave of Twilight obsession, but The Runaways (2010) was a part of her first wave of indies to prove herself outside the fantasy juggernaut. She took on the iconic Joan Jett in a film exploring the titular 1970s teenage all-girl rock band alongside Dakota Fanning as Cherie Currie. The film was intended to be more coming-of-age drama than a straightforward biopic, but it still saw Stewart drumming and singing as the legendary punk rocker. And neither she nor Jett ever gave a damn about their bad reputation. —M.L.L.

Gary Busey as Buddy Holly

Before becoming better known to audiences for his loose-cannon reality TV persona, Gary Busey was a well-respected character actor, earning an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of rock & roll icon Buddy Holly in The Buddy Holly Story (1978). The film tracks Holly's rise from teenage phenom to his untimely death in a 1959 plane crash, oft known as "the Day the Music Died." Busey actually began his career as a drummer, not an actor, so it wasn't a huge leap for him to take on the role of an iconic rock star. But to think of him doing such a performance now? Well, that'll be the day. —M.L.L.

Lou Diamond Phillips as Ritchie Valens

The plane crash that took Buddy Holly's life also claimed the life of another rock & roll star: Ritchie Valens. Valens gets the biopic treatment in La Bamba (1987), named for Valens' signature song. The well-regarded film tracks Valens' meteoric rise to superstardom through his sudden, untimely death, earning Lou Diamond Phillips raves for his performance, but no awards love. Overall, his performance and La Bamba are still touted as a piece of Chicano activism, amidst a boom of Chicano films made in this era. And we say arriba, arriba to that. —M.L.L.

Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison

Val Kilmer took on the role of rocker and counterculture icon Jim Morrison in The Doors (1991). Directed by Oliver Stone, the film was not well-received by those closest to Morrison for its depiction of him as more pretentious, defiant, and out of control than they knew the Doors frontman to be. Still, Kilmer gives an uncanny take on this particular version of Morrison. In short, he can still light our fire. —M.L.L.

Kurt Russell as Elvis

Another impressive rendition of the King of Rock & Roll is the made-for-TV 1979 film directed by John Carpenter (1978's Halloween) and starring Kurt Russell as Elvis. Russell had actually met Presley as a young actor in 1963 on the set of It Happened at the World's Fair. He didn't do his own singing for the film but still earned an Emmy nomination for his work, showing that — when it came to Russell as Elvis — audiences loved him tender. —M.L.L.

Dennis Quaid as Jerry Lee Lewis

Dennis Quaid portrayed the pioneering rockabilly artist and piano player in the aptly named Great Balls of Fire! (1989). In the 1950s, Jerry Lee Lewis seemed poised to be the next Elvis until his marriage to his 13-year-old cousin derailed his career. The film tracks all of this and more, as it gives viewers a glimpse into Lewis' unique status as a piano player, rather than a rocking guitarist. Though Lewis was not a fan of the film, he did praise Quaid for his performance, which included the actor learning to replicate Lewis' unique piano-playing style. Great balls of fire! —M.L.L.

Gary Oldman as Sid Vicious

As punk rocker and former bassist of the Sex Pistols Sid Vicious, Gary Oldman proved himself an actor to be reckoned with in only his second feature film, Sid and Nancy (1986). The movie largely focuses on Vicious' toxic relationship with Nancy Spungen (Chloe Webb), for whose murder he was arrested. Vicious' own mother backed the production, giving Oldman some of Sid's actual belongings and instruments to lend authenticity to the project. Oldman sang on the soundtrack, but no Sex Pistols or Sid Vicious songs are featured in the film. In the film and in life, Sid Vicious did it his way. —M.L.L.

Sam Riley as Ian Curtis

British actor Sam Riley is still perhaps best known for his portrayal of Joy Division founder and frontman Ian Curtis in Control (2007). The film was directed by one of the punk band's former photographers, Anton Corbijn. It follows Curtis from his formation of Joy Division through to his 1980 suicide. Control debuted at Cannes and went on to win five British Independent Film Awards, including Most Promising Newcomer for Riley. —M.L.L.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Brian Slade

This is the only fictional character on this list, but it's only because Jonathan Rhys Meyers' performance as Todd Haynes' invention Brian Slade in Velvet Goldmine bears such a strong resemblance to the Ziggy Stardust era of David Bowie that it would be remiss not to include him (indeed, the earliest versions of the script had Bowie threatening to sue).

The 1998 film follows a 1980s journalist (Christian Bale) investigating the career of glam superstar Brian Slade, who once created and then murdered his alter ego, Maxwell Demon. The film takes its title from a Bowie song, and at one point was even poised to feature some of the legend's music. While we got an underwhelming Bowie biopic in 2020 (with Johnny Flynn in the role), Haynes' glorious tribute to glam rock and fluid sexuality and Meyers' chameleonic performance are all we need. —M.L.L.

Bill Hader as Lindsey Buckingham

Plenty of rock stars have been parodied on Saturday Night Live, but none more enduringly or lovingly than Bill Hader as former Fleetwood Mac guitarist and lead singer Lindsey Buckingham. Hader recurred as the rocker on the "What Up With That" sketch, which featured Kenan Thompson as a spotlight-stealing game show host.

In a running gag, Hader appeared as a silent Buckingham as over and over they ran out of time for him. The bit became so popular that in May 2011 the real Buckingham cameoed in the sketch for a bit of meta fun. While everyone else here is from a film, we had to go our own way with this favorite. —M.L.L.

Roger Daltrey as Franz Liszt

Okay, so 19th-century composer Franz Liszt is in no way a rock star, but the 1975 film Lisztomania (1975) treats him as such, even bringing on real-life rock star Roger Daltrey of the Who to play the classical composer.

Liszt was notorious for inspiring the titular "Lisztomania" with his long hair and impassioned performances, drawing natural comparisons between him and modern-day rock stars. The film doubled down on this metaphor with Daltrey's casting and a score featuring synthesized, rock-influenced arrangements of numerous Liszt compositions. —M.L.L.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson as John Lennon

While each member of the Beatles is getting their own full biopic treatment from Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes, frontman John Lennon's early days have been already explored in Nowhere Boy (2009). Aaron Taylor-Johnson stars as Lennon, tracing the superstar's childhood and adolescence from 1944 to 1960, with particular emphasis on his relationship with his aunt and mother.

It concludes with the birth of the Beatles on the cusp of their explosive success. Though the film didn't make a huge splash, it had the support of Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono, who both advised on it, and it has received consistently positive reviews. Imagine that. —M.L.L.