Nine actors who won Oscars playing real musicians

Oct. 24 (UPI) — Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere arrives in theaters Friday, making it the latest musical biopic to get Oscar buzz.

The Academy Awards have been handing out trophies to actors portraying real-life musicians for decades, going all the way back to James Cagney’s turn as George M. Cohan in 1942’s Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Jeremy Allen White plays New Jersey’s favorite son, rocker Bruce Springsteen, in Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, and is drawing awards attention. The biopic screened at the Telluride Film Festival in August, drawing praise for White, if not necessarily universally for the film.

The movie is directed by Scott Cooper, who also helmed 2009’s Crazy Heart. That film follows a fictional country music legend played by Jeff Bridges, who won the Best Actor Oscar in 2009 for the role.

Dozens of actors have received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for their musical biopic roles in recent years, including Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan in 2024, Austin Butler as Elvis Presley in 2022 and Jennifer Hudson as Aretha Franklin in 2021.

Here, we take a look at the nine actors who took home the big trophy:

‘Judy’ (2019)

The 2020 awards season was a big one for biopics of musicians. Taron Egerton won the Best Actor Golden Globe for portraying Elton John in Rocketman but was surprisingly snubbed by the Academy Awards.

The big winner of the year was Renée Zellweger, who enjoyed a return to the award-show circuit with her role as singer-actor Judy Garland in Judy.

Zellweger won her second Best Actress Oscar as well as best actress awards at the Golden Globes, British Academy Film Awards, British Independent Film Awards, Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, Independent Spirit Awards, the Screen Actors Guild Awards and a whole slew of other award ceremonies and film festivals.

The film also starred Darci Shaw as a young Judy Garland, along with Jessie Buckley, Finn Wittrock, Rufus Sewell and Michael Gambon. Rupert Goold directed.

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (2018)

Rami Malek had been slowly making a name for himself throughout the 2000s, appearing in the Twilight and Night at the Museum franchises, and starring in the series Mr. Robot when he shot to even greater fame with a turn as Queen frontman Freddie Mercury.

He won the Best Actor Oscar for his role in Bohemian Rhapsody, which also took home Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing. The film was also nominated for the Best Picture category.

The success of the film no doubt contributed to pushing Queen’s music video for the song “Bohemian Rhapsody” over the 1 billion views mark on YouTube. In July 2019, it became the first music video from before the 1990s to reach the milestone.

‘La Vie en Rose’ (2007)

La Vie en Rose about the life of French chanteuse Édith Piaf, similarly catapulted the career of actor Marion Cotillard. Cotillard was not tremendously well known to American audiences prior to the award-winning role.

Her first English-language movie was Tim Burton’s Big Fish and she starred opposite Russell Crowe in 2006’s A Good Year.

Her turn as Piaf, though, was critically acclaimed and won her numerous awards. She was the first actress to win both the César and Oscar for Best Actress for the same role and was the first woman since 1972 to win a Golden Globe for a non-English language role.

In addition to the Best Actress Oscar, La Vie en Rose won the Best Makeup Oscar. Cotillard was nominated for her second Oscar in 2015 for her role in Two Days, One Night.

‘Walk the Line’ (2005)

While Walk the Line was told primarily from the perspective of legendary country singer Johnny Cash, played by Joaquin Phoenix, it was Reese Witherspoon who ended up on the stage at the Academy Awards that year. She played fellow country star June Carter, who was married to Cash. They both also won the Golden Globes for best actor and actress in a musical or comedy.

The film documents the troubled childhood and adulthood of Cash as he worked to become a star on the country music scene. Along the way, he encounters Carter, a member of the Carter Family folk and country music group.

Though their relationship was turbulent through years of Cash’s drug addiction and multiple rounds of treatment, they remained married until Carter’s death in 2003.

Nearly a decade after winning her Oscar, Witherspoon was nominated again for her role in Wild, going against Cotillard in 2015.

‘Ray’ (2004)

Jamie Foxx had largely been ignored by most of the major award shows until 2005, when he caught critics’ eyes by starring in a biopic about Ray Charles and the action thriller Collateral. He was nominated for both Best Actor (Ray) and Best Supporting Actor (Collateral) that year, winning the former.

The drama follows three decades in the life of the soul singer as he works to advance his career in music and deals with a drug addiction largely in the segregated South. While outside of acting, Foxx is known for being a good vocalist, he didn’t sing in the movie Ray because his vocals didn’t match that of Charles.

The film also stars Kerry Washington, Terrence Howard and Regina King.

‘The Pianist’ (2002)

Another relative newcomer at the time, Adrien Brody took the award shows by storm in 2002 with his turn as Polish pianist Władysław Szpilman, who lived through World War II. After his home city of Warsaw comes under Nazi occupation, the Jewish pianist is relocated to the Warsaw Ghetto before going into hiding.

To prepare for the role, Brody told UPI in 2003 that he began taking piano lessons again, learning to play “really complex works of Chopin” that are highlighted in the film. Filmmakers overdubbed the music with actual Szpilman recordings, but any shots of Brody’s hands on the keyboard are authentic.

“There were no options, and within those six weeks, I had to lose a tremendous amount of weight, I had to grow that beard, I had to work on a dialect and I had to learn to play the piano, and I had six-month movie in front of me and I was starving myself and having four hours of piano a day,” Brody said. “I was immersed in it. So, it was a lot. It was a lot, it was more than I’ve ever had to do and I had to stay in this space for a really long time.”

The dedication paid off with somewhat of a surprise win at the Oscars. It was so surprising for Brody, in fact, he infamously kissed presenter Halle Berry upon accepting the award. Berry returned the favor on the 2025 Oscars red carpet just before he won his second Academy award.

‘Shine’ (1996)

Another pianist biopic is the 1996 film Shine about David Helfgott. Geoffrey Rush and Noah Taylor played the musician at different ages, with the former winning an Academy Award for his efforts.

The film follows the life of Helfgott from childhood to growing up to learn the piano in suburban Australia. He studies music in college and begins winning major music competitions, but struggles with a mental breakdown and is institutionalized.

After years of treatment, his talent is rediscovered and he returns to the world of playing professionally.

The role earned Rush his own Academy Award, though he was later nominated for Shakespeare in Love, Quills and The King’s Speech. Shine was also nominated for, though didn’t win, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor for Armin Mueller-Stahl, Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing and Best Original Dramatic Score.

The film also starred Sonia Todd, Alex Rafalowicz as a young Helfgott, and Lynn Redgrave.

‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’ (1980)

Sissy Spacek won her first — and so far, only — Academy Award for playing country legend Loretta Lynn in 1980’s Coal Miner’s Daughter. Directed by Michael Apted, the film was based on the biography of the same written by George Vecsey.

The film follows the singer from her teen years in Kentucky to her rise as a country superstar known for the songs “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl” and “Blue Kentucky Girl.”

Lynn handpicked Spacek to depict her in the biopic and even taught her to sing and play guitar for the role. In her own memoir, Spacek said she recorded Lynn telling her stories about her life and used that audio to learn and mimic the country singer’s way of speaking for the role.

The film was nominated for several Academy Awards that year, and Spacek also won the Golden Globe for her Role. The film also stared Tommy Lee Jones, Beverly D’Angelo, and Minnie Pearl, Ernest Tubb and Roy Acuff as themselves.

‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’ (1942)

You have to go all the way back to the Golden Age of Hollywood to find the very first Oscar-winning depiction of a musician — James Cagney portraying George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy. The 1942 musical was nominated for eight awards at the 15th Academy Awards, winning Best Actor for Cagney; Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture; and Best Sound Recording.

Typically known for playing tough-guy roles, playing Cohan was somewhat of a departure for Cagney and won him his only Oscar.

The film was directed by Michael Curtiz and starred Joan Leslie, Jeanne Cagney (James’ sister), Rosemary DeCamp and Walter Huston. Cohan also served as an adviser on the film.