Actors who play

[squiggly_girl]

So anyways...I was listening to the commentary on the Igby Goes Down DVD, and so the director says something like "Jeff Goldblum is actually a very accomplished pianist and to make him sound bad we had to get someone else to play for him".

!!

Surely the usual scenario is that an actor can't play and their playing is substituted by a pianist's. It got me to wondering though - are there other actors out there who can play well?

[rlefebvr]

I have seen Dustin Hoffman play some mean Jazz.

[sharon_f]

The late Dudley Moore wasn an excellent pianist. He had gone to Oxford on scholarship to study organ.

Phyllis Diller trained to be a concert pianist and after becoming a highly successful comedian actually went on tour in the 70s performing with orchestras around the country.

Dermot Mulroney is an excellent cellist.

Meryl Streep actually trained first to be an opera singer.

[Antnee]

Jeff Goldblum plays a little bit in THE FLY. He was pretty good, but the movie was cooler...  

-Tony-

[faulty_damper]

Harry Connick, Junior, plays Jazz and can improvise on tap!  He's pretty good, too.  He can comp while a band is playing.

Well, he's from N'Or Lans (New Orleans).

[willcowskitz]

Steve Martin is a banjo virtuoso

[rlefebvr]

Harry Connick, Junior, plays Jazz and can improvise on tap!  He's pretty good, too.  He can comp while a band is playing.

Well, he's from N'Or Lans (New Orleans).

Your Kidding right.....Harry is not an actor. He is a musician who can also act. There is a huge difference.

Also, he is not "pretty good", he is very good and very accomplished.

[Saturn]

Ignace Jan Paderewski was a pretty good pianist too.

- Saturn

[bernhard]

Paderewsky – Although he is a pianist that acted in movies (“Moonlight sonata”) rather than the other way around.

Richter – as Paderewsky above, he played Lizst in a biopic of Glinka.

Gustav  Leonhard – The famous harpsichordist played Bach in the movie “The diary of Anna Magdalena Bach”.

Chico Marx.

Holly Hunter. It was actually her playing on “The piano”

Kevin Kline. It was actually him playing Schumann “Scenes from childhood” in “Sophie’s Choice”.

Clint Eastwood. Sometimes he also composes the soundtrack of his movies.

Regarding Jeff Goldblum, there is a wonderful movie with him and Forrest Whitaker called “Lush Life” about two jazz musicians struggling to survive. In the movie they are wind players though (Jeff’s character plays pretty much any wind instrument – including the recorder! – while Forrest’s character plays the trumpet).

Arnold Schwazzenegger (just kidding).

I am sure there are more.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[Shagdac]

Speaking of Harry Connick Jr.....I heard a wonderful Christmas Song for several years now, over the radio. Everyone tells me it Harry Connick Jr' rendition of "White Christmas"....I have tried and tried to get the score, but to no avail. Can anyone help?


S

[faulty_damper]

He's a pretty good improviser, so i doubt he actually wrote down anything.

[steve]

Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pearce (from Frasier) aren't bad on the piano either!  Can't remember specific things I've seen them play on the show besides Niles once playing the chord sequence at the start of the appassionata.

[squiggly_girl]

Well. Quite a few.

I watched The Talented Mr Ripley again on the weekend, and music is really central to the movie. Ripley plays classical pieces on any grand piano he can get his hands on, as well as being compelled to take an interest in jazz piano. Anyway, I'm sure it's Matt Damon playing (parts of) many of the pieces in the movie, two or three times I spotted his name as the performer in the credits. An imdb.com trivia spot says that Damon learnt to play for the film.

[mark1]

Mr. Rogers played piano , went to school for composition I think, and his wife was a concert pianist...but I'm not sure if you would call him an actor.

He was a childrens television host in the US and Canada. Maybe other places too.                                                

[shasta]

Although not actors, David Robinson (former NBA) and Joey Harrington (NFL) are both very good pianists.

Paula Zahn (journalist) is an accomplished cellist and has performed at Carnegie Hall.

[bernhard]

Fanny Ardant (François Truffaut’s favourite actress) in a recent interview revealed the following:

I play piano. But without any kind of talent. If I hear a piece of piano that I love , I try to do it. Alone by the night, always alone. […] My favourite is Bach because even  if you destroy it the structure is so strong that something remains. Whenever I go abroad for filming I always ask to bring my piano too. When they see the piano coming into the hotel room, the other guests say “Mamma mia” But I play with headphones to solve the problem.

[Goldberg]

Can't forget one of my favourite actors, Sir Anthony Hopkins, who I understand is quite a good pianist as well.

[squiggly_girl]

I can easily imagine Hannibal Lecter playing Moonlight Sonata...perhaps he did play the piano in one of those three movies? I can't remember.

[ted]

I remember years ago I was surprised to hear Mickey Rooney improvise very attractively on somebody's television show.

[Antnee]

I can easily imagine Hannibal Lecter playing Moonlight Sonata...perhaps he did play the piano in one of those three movies? I can't remember.

In the the first one (Silence of the lambs) he was in the holding chamber in the center of the room listening to the Goldberg variations.

In the second one he is playing the theme on a piano...
Very creepy...

-Tony-

[janice]

I heard that Condaleeza Rice is an accomplished pianist--like, concert pianist level.

[xvimbi]

I heard that Condaleeza Rice is an accomplished pianist--like, concert pianist level.

Yes. When asked who her favorite composer is, she replied "Brahms!".
"Why?", the reporter asked. "Because he never resolves anything."
Neither does she...

[Rob47]

Jamie Foxx apparently was a piano performance major in university, but became a comedian/actor.

He is cast as Ray Charles (R.i.p.) in a movie called "Ray" coming out soon, and actually plays the piano a lot throughout the movie.

[Balakirev]

"Jeff Goldblum is actually a very accomplished pianist and to make him sound bad we had to get someone else to play for him".

Hmmm...accomplished pianist and not able to sound bad I  saw the opposite a several tims but this is wierd!

[ChopinLoverInPA]

Alicia Witt -- she was in a movie called "Playing Mona Lisa" where she played a young piano prodegy dealing with the all these life decisions.  I assumed she was just acting and not playing the brief piano parts in the movie -- but at one point in the movie she does a pretty impressive chromatic scale down the piano -- I couldn't imagine she could fake that.

So, I did a little research on her and it turns out she's classically trained and has been playing since she was 7..whoda thunk it.