However, within an execrable pile of vanity projects, there are instances of actors delivering records of a genuine quality and artist merit that suggest these renaissance men and women are capable of something beyond mere pop star cosplay.

Below, MOJO looks at some of the best – and worst – examples of actors who have launched music careers…

Riding high following the success of the TV series Moonlighting, Willis, er, moonlighted into the music world with blues musician alter ego ‘Bruno Randolini’ in the late ’80s. An hour-long mockumentary in 1987 was accompanied by an album, The Return of Bruno, that Willis managed to convince Booker T. Jones, the Pointer Sisters and the Temptations to take part in.

Key release: The Return Of Bruno (1987)


Any good? Released on Motown, Return Of Bruno was a transatlantic chart success, as was a cover of the Staples Singers’ Respect Yourself, but the slick session-musician muscle involved couldn’t lift Bruno beyond a smug in-joke, and two progressively worse follow-ups failed to replicate its commercial success.

Capitalising on his Miami Vice fame, Don Johnson made a jump into the pop charts and released music that mirrored the suave, suit-jacket-sleeves-rolled-up persona he portrayed on screen. 1986 debut Heartbeat boasted a roll call of guests almost as impressive as that of the show, with Stevie Ray Vaughan, Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Ronnie Wood and Dweezil Zappa all putting a turn in.


Key release: Heartbeat (1986)


Any good? A musical wind tunnel of power ballads, gated snare booms, sultry saxophone and heavy rock guitar, Heartbeat sounds exactly like what you’d imagine a record the star of Miami Vice would have put out in 1986. Follow-up Let It Roll failed to chart in the US, but it did go to Number 2 in Germany. Not always a guarantee of quality when it comes to actor/pop star crossovers, however…

Unlike Johnson, Hasselhoff’s on-screen popularity at home initially failed to translate when he released his debut album Night Rocker in 1985. However, The Hoff became a bona fide pop superstar in Europe (in particular, Austria) and famously performed as the Berlin Wall was pulled down. He’s released 14 albums to date.

Key release: Open Your Eyes (2019)

Any good? Featuring erstwhile Stooge James Williamson, Todd Rundgren and Flock Of Seagulls, 2019’s covers album Open Your Eyes *almost* works, but ultimately no amount of irony can make listening to a David Hasselhoff album an enjoyable experience. Credit where credit is due, though: being invited to perform as the Berlin Wall fell, is an achievement no one can take away from him.

When filming in Trinidad in the 1950s, heavy-lidded Hollywood icon Robert Mitchum fell in love with the local calypso music and put out his own LP, Calypso – Is Like So, in 1957. He co-wrote the hit The Ballad Of Thunder Road the following year, and ten years later put out a country album That Man Robert Mitchum… Sings.

Key release: That Man Robert Mitchum… Sings (1967)

Any good? If you can look past Mitchum’s accent and some of the more ‘rum’ lyrics, then Calypso – Is Like So is a highly enjoyable curio. That Man Robert Mitchum… Sings, moreover, is genuinely great and packed with wizened country crooning of a standard that Johnny Cash would be proud of.

You probably wouldn’t want to describe Jared Leto’s musical activities as a side project to his face, as he takes his role as frontman of 30 Seconds To Mars just as seriously as he does his acting work (i.e. a little too seriously). To be fair to Leto, his band have sold over 15 million albums worldwide since forming in 1998, so he clearly knows what he’s doing.

Key release: 30 Seconds To Mars (2002)

Any good? 30 Seconds To Mars’ arena-sized emo rock might not be to everyone’s tastes, but having achieved a level of success that most bands can only dream of, you can’t really sneer at Leto’s abilities.

Unlike his co-star Leonard Nimoy, whose novelty pop career didn’t last much longer than Star Trek’s original run, Shatner’s eccentric, spoken-word takes on pop hits continue to this day.


Key release: Has Been (2004)


Any good? 
Though it was initially received with bemusement, 1968’s The Transformed Man became a cult favourite and a successful star map for Shatner’s ongoing musical journey. Produced by Ben Folds and featuring Joe Jackson, 2004 long-time-coming follow-up Has Been features a wonderfully kitsch version of Pulp’s Common People, but the originals, co-written with Folds, are both reflective and genuinely moving at times.

Having performed onstage with The Jesus And Mary Chain in Coachella in 2006, Hollywood A-Lister Scarlett Johansson released an album of Tom Waits covers two years later, followed by a collaboration with singer-songwriter Pete Yorn in 2009.

Key release: Anywhere I Lay My Head (2008)

Any good? Produced by TV On The Radio’s Dave Sitek and featuring no less than David Bowie on one track, Johansen’s Waits homage, Anywhere I Lay My Head, was a beguiling, This Mortal Coil-esque triumph. Her collaboration with Yorn was less memorable, however, and The Singles, the short-lived group she formed with the members of Haim, had to pack it in after receiving a cease-and-desist order from an LA group of the same name.

The late Harry Potter actor gave the world one of the most gloriously overwrought singles of the ’60s in MacArthur Park – a seven-minute, Jimmy Webb-penned epic about a melting cake that had a resurgence recently thanks to its appearance in 2024 film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. There was plenty more where that came from, as Harris released two full LPs in collaboration with Webb in 1968, A Tramp Shining and The Yard Went On Forever.


Key release: A Tramp Shining (1968)


Any good? MacArthur Park is a good indicator of the orchestral melodrama of the notorious hellraiser’s collaborations with Webb. Preposterous but magnificent, Harris declaims like he’s in a production of King Lear, but it’s Webb’s songwriting that does most of the artistic heavy lifting. As such,1971’s Slides – made without the songwriter – had less heart underneath the bombast.

The cast of supernatural ‘80s-fetishising Netflix sensation Stranger Things have collectively put out enough music to justify a ST-themed package tour in recent years. Following releases from Joe Keery, Maya Hawke (see below), Caleb McLaughlin and Charlie Heaton, Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler in the show) is releasing his debut album Happy Birthday this June.

Key release: Choose The Latter (2025)

Any good? If the singles from Happy Birthday the 22-year-old had put out so far are anything to go by then yes, very much so. The likes of Choose The Latter and Objection! mine a seam of dreamy slacker pop that should appeal to anyone who’s ever swooned over a Lemonheads record.

Before he swapped Hollywood for the warm embrace of the Kremlin, ponytailed Under Siege star Steven Segal released two albums of polished blues rock in the early 2000s.

Key release: Songs From The Crystal Cave (2004)

Any good? Segal is a massive blues nut, and collects guitars previously owned by B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Howlin’ Wolf and more. Unfortunately, this didn’t lead to an osmosis-like transference of powers when it comes to his own music, which, if one were being kind, you could best describe as pedestrian, and the less said about his kamikaze attempt at Dancehall on Strut from 2004’s Songs From The Crystal Cave the better. 

There’s clearly something about the blues that speaks to hugely successful male actors. In 2010, House-star Hugh Laurie followed in the footsteps of Segal, Willis and Russell Crowe (see below) and announced he would be releasing his own album of blues standards.

Key release: Let Them Talk (2011)

Any good? Having taken lessons since the age of six, Laurie is an accomplished pianist who occasionally displayed his skills on shows such as A Bit Of Fry And Laurie. Featuring arrangements by Alain Toussaint and guests including Dr. John, debut Let Them Talk ain’t half bad. Laurie’s voice might not carry much emotional grit, but its swampy New Orleans jazz gumbo is pretty close to the real thing.

Gruff Gladiator star Russell Crowe’s musical career predates his acting one by several years. Before he’d even landed a small role in Aussie soap Neighbours, Crowe released a rockabilly revival obscurity I Just Wanna Be Like Marlon Brando under the name Rus Le Roq in 1982. He formed the band 30 Odd Foot Of Grunts in 1992 who released three albums before morphing into another outfit, The Ordinary Fear Of God, and has put out several records in collaboration with Canadian musician Alan Doyle.

Key release: I Just Wanna Be Like Marlon Brando (1982)

Any good? I Just Wanna Be Like Marlon Brando is actually a lot of fun (imagine a cross between John Shuttleworth and Shakin’ Stevens). However, from there on in, all sense of humour evaporated from Crowe’s musical output. Lumpen bar band rockers 30 Odd Feet Of Grunts sound just as their name suggests.

Oscar-nominated British actress Samantha Morton established her rock and roll adjacent credentials with her acclaimed portrayal of Ian Curtis’ wide Deborah in Anton Corbijn’s 2007 Joy Division biopic Control.  In 2024, Morton further bolstered them with the released Daffodils & Dirt, a collaboration with XL Recordings boss Richard Russell.

Key release: Daffodils & Dirt (2024)

Any good? “It only takes a moment of Daffodils & Dirt’s uncanny thrum to realise that Sam Morton is no oxygen-stealing vanity project…” wrote MOJO’s Victoria Segal in our 4/5 star review last year. The pair’s beautifully haunting collaboration is crying out for a follow-up.

The daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, Maya Hawke rose to wider fame portraying Robin Buckley in Stranger Things, and since 2020 she’s released three albums of airy indie folk that strike a balance between Joanna Newsome and Norah Jones.

Key release: Chaos Angel (2024)

Any good? Again, yes. Maybe it’s something they’re sticking in the communal coffee on set at Stranger Things but should acting work ever dry up for Hawke she could very easily fall back on music to pay the bills. Last year’s Chaos Angel was a particular highlight.

Prior to finding fame as an actor, ex-Time Lord Peter Capaldi was briefly a member of Scottish post-punks The Dreamboys. However, Capaldi was 63 years old before he released his debut solo album, St. Christopher in 2021.

Key release: Sweet Illusions (2025)

Any good? Capaldi used to listen to David Bowie’s Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) to get himself into character to play deranged spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in The Thick Of It, and his latest album Sweet Illusions finds his musical Tardis still circling the UK music scene of the early 1980s. With The Blow Monkeys’ Dr. Robert producing, Bowie, early Simple Minds and Big Country are the obvious touchstones on a surprisingly decent effort. Capaldi’s singing voice, meanwhile, bears an uncanny resemblance to modern-day Bob Dylan.

Best known for his role as the suave Jason King in the TV series Department S, plummy accented thesp Peter Wyngarde’s popularity in the UK was deemed enough for RCA to offer him a record deal in 1970. It’s a fair bet they weren’t expecting what was delivered.


Key release: Peter Wyngarde (1970)


Any good?
 Anyone who thinks Shatner’s The Transformed Man is a bit out there probably hasn’t heard Wyngarde’s self-titled debut, later reissued as When Sex Leers Its Inquisitive Head. A bizarre conceptual spoken word suite about love, lust and romance, think of it a bit like Serge Gainsbourg’s Histoire de Melody if it was fronted by randy sex romp cad Leslie Phillips. Even for the times, however, the track Rape is unspeakably beyond the pale and was one of several reasons RCA withdrew the LP from sale only a few days after release.

Like Crowe, booming voiced What We Do In The Shadows’ actor Berry was a musician before he found his way into comedy and acting, and has released no less than eleven albums via UK label Acid Jazz over the past two decades.

Key release: Heard Noises (2025)

Any good? A vintage gear nut who records and produces his albums himself, whether it’s the baroque folk-pop of 2011’s Witchazel, his inspired covers album of 70s TV themes, or Simplicity’s exploration of library music, Berry’s back catalogue doesn’t have a dud in it.

Another one whose musical career predates their rise to fame as an actor. Before he’d landed his first lead role in 1971’s The Last Picture Show, Big Lebowski star Jeff Bridges had sold two of his compositions to none other than Quincey Jones, which is pretty good going by anyone’s standard. Bridges released his first solo LP in 2000, a T Bone Burnett-produced follow-up in 2011, and this year stuck out a Record Store Day release, Slow Magic ’77-’78, which collected some of his recordings from the period.

Key release: Slow Magic ’77-’78 (2025)

Any good? “I was thinking about doing another quaalude…” sings Bridges on the opening track to Slow Magic…, kicking off a brilliantly fried set of tunes that land somewhere between Dennis Wilson, Captain Beefheart, The Band and Pussy Cats-era Harry Nilsson. As Bridges himself said when speaking to MOJO earlier this year, if The Dude had made a record, it would have sounded like this.

Comedian and actor Tracey Ullman had displayed a knack for musical pastiche on UK television sketch show Three Of A Kind. So much so, that Stiff Records boss Dave Edmunds offered her a record deal in 1983. Within 18 months she’d landed five top 30 hit singles.


Key release: You Broke My Heart In 17 Places (1983)


Any good? “Somewhere between Minnie Mouse and The Supremes” was the Melody Maker’s verdict on Ullman’s debut You Broke My Heart In 17 Places. Chirpy, yes, but it’s also knowing, smart and undeniably infectious. Plus, Ullman is responsible for introducing Kirsty MacColl’s They Don’t Know to the wider world. 

East London-born The Wire/Luther star Idris Elba was an occasional club DJ in the early 90s, trading under the name DJ Big Driis, and still keeps his hand in, including getting a pretty decent gig on the wheels of steel at Prince Harry and Megan Markel’s wedding. Elba has had an impressive C.V. of guest appearances on other people’s records, too, featuring on releases by Jay Z, Macy Gray and Macklemore. As a solo artist, he’s put out several EPs, and two albums linked to his acting work –  the Luther-themed Murdah Loves John (The John Luther Character Album) and Idris Elba Presents Mi Mandela, which was inspired by his research for his portrayal of Nelson Mandella in 2013’s Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.

Key release: Idris Elba Presents Mi Mandela
Any good? While it’s highly unlikely Elba would have gotten quite as prestigious bookings without his Hollywood connections/connotations, he knows his onions as a DJ and his passion and knowledge are evident on …Mi Mandela, and eclectic and inventive cross-pollination of genres.