Actors Who Have Won Oscars Playing Real-Life Musicians

Ever since the Academy Awards' infancy, actors have been recognized for playing real-life figures. But there seems to be a particular overlap when it comes to actors portraying musicians. As of 2025, 37 have been nominated for portraying musicians and 12 have won, which represents a little over 16% of the roughly 74 total Oscar-winning performances based on real people. In recent years, the trope of the transformative music biopic performance has become so lauded at the ceremony that it has become its own category of Oscar bait.

What does it take to embody a musician to such a degree that you win an Oscar for it? For some, it's all in the makeup and prosthetics. For others, it's about mastering the craft of the performing itself, whether that's singing, playing an instrument, or even conducting. And for a select few, it's just about embodying a particularly compelling personality. No matter which methods they employed, these 11 performers walked away with the gold because of them, so let's take a stroll down memory lane and look into the history and technique behind these musical Oscar winners.

Though primarily known as a televangelist, Tammy Fake Messner (formerly Bakker) was also a talented gospel singer and even recorded a number of albums. In the 2021 biopic "The Eyes of Tammy Faye," Jessica Chastain won an Oscar for playing the musician, and she did so by tapping into the emotional complexity behind one of the Christian faith's most complicated figures. The film, which was also produced by Chastain, follows Messner's marriage to Jim Bakker as the couple become prominent television hosts before revelations of accounting fraud and hush money bring their entire empire crumbling down.

Chastain, a normally reserved person, pushed herself to channel Messner's passionate vocals by singing live on-set and recording seven songs for the soundtrack. She worked with Nashville music producer David Cobb and studied Messner's albums so she could recreate her signature sound, all while drinking bourbon to calm her nerves. However, the makeup may have been even harder for Chastain to endure. Messner typically wore heavy makeup, which Chastain had applied (with the aid of prosthetics) for an average of four hours every day on set. The weight of the application made it difficult for her to fully emote and, at one point, gave her hot flashes. "I think for sure I've done some permanent damage to my skin on this," she told the Los Angeles Times.

Renée Zellweger is one of the few actresses in Oscars history to earn three consecutive nominations. From 2010 to 2016, she spent six years outside of the industry and, more notably, the awards conversation. That changed when audiences were struck by her career-best performance as triple-threat Judy Garland in 2019's "Judy." The drama chronicles the tumultuous final year of Garland's life while flashing back to the disturbing things she went through filming "The Wizard of Oz." She earned a fourth nomination and a second win in 2020, a full-circle moment after previously being nominated for portraying fictional triple threat Roxy Hart in "Chicago" back in 2003.

Zellweger was thoroughly committed to portraying Garland authentically. Prior to production, she spent a full year training with a vocal coach so she could recreate the raspy vocal stylings Garland was known for during the latter part of her career. She also watched hours of videos featuring Garland speaking and performing so she could perfect her mannerisms. Then, on set, she spent up to two hours in the makeup chair daily to achieve the singer's weathered look. She donned wigs, colored contacts, and prosthetics as she performed her songs live, often in front of a real audience.

Despite a mixed critical reception and on-set controversy, Queen biopic "Bohemian Rhapsody" was a big hit at the Academy Awards in 2019, earning five nominations and four wins, including one for Rami Malek's performance as legendary frontman Freddie Mercury. The film follows the formation of the beloved British rock band with a particular focus on Mercury's tragic rise and fall, all set to a wealth of their most well-known songs in show-stopping concert sequences. Malek was a first-time nominee, continuing a near-yearly trend of rookies securing the award.

Though the film's portrayal of Queen's history — particularly Mercury and his queerness — drew heavy scrutiny, many critics singled out Malek's performance as an impressive transformation. Malek trained with movement coach Polly Bennett to learn Mercury's offbeat yet iconic dance moves and even wore prosthetic teeth to recreate Mercury's overbite and unique accent. He also took vocal and piano lessons so he could sing live on set, however the final film frequently hides Malek's voice by blending it with stems from Queen master recordings as well as vocals from Marc Martel, a Canadian Christian rock singer who went viral after posting Queen covers whose vocals sounded identical to Mercury's.

Though not as well-known as other musicians on this list, genre-bending pianist Don Shirley still provided the source for an Oscar win. Mahershala Ali became the second Black actor to win twice in the Best Supporting Actor category with 2018's "Green Book," in which he plays Shirley opposite Viggo Mortensen as driver and bodyguard Frank Vallelonga. Shirley hires Vallelonga to escort him on a concert tour through the Deep South and, along the way, Vallelonga and Shirley's stark differences make way for a powerful friendship that is tested against the backdrop of American segregation circa 1962.

Though "Green Book" contains musical sequences, Ali's portrayal of Shirley was not musically demanding. As such, Ali took piano lessons from composer Kris Bowers, however it was primarily to inform his body language. Much of Ali's playing is either hand-doubled or recorded by Bowers. Similarly, Ali was unable to find much footage of Shirley, so he did not strive to fully replicate the musician's higher vocal register compared to Ali's deeper voice. He did, however, attempt to embody the musician's poise and regality, something Ali saw as unique in the history of African American musicians. Sadly, Ali's hard work drew scrutiny from Shirley's family, who claimed the script perpetuates lies about him and went against his own wishes to never have a film made about his supposed friendship with Vallelonga. It wouldn't be the first biopic to lie to your face.

American audiences had little familiarity with French actress Marion Cotillard before she portrayed French singer and lyricist Édith Piaf. However, upon seeing her dedicated performance in "La Vie en Rose," strong word-of-mouth took her all the way to the 2008 Oscars ceremony, during which she became the first and, at the time of writing, only actress to be awarded an acting Oscar for a French-language performance. The film takes a non-linear approach to the cradle-to-grave biopic. It covers Piaf's childhood living in poverty before being discovered on the street by a club owner who sets her on the path to international fame and, eventually, tremendous personal heartache.

Cotillard was not a fan of Piaf before signing on to play her, yet she still fully immersed herself in the musician's life through biographies, archival footage, and, of course, her music. She also went through a radical physical transformation: she shaved down her hairline and eyebrows, contracted her body to match Piaf's shorter stature, and underwent five hours of makeup each day when performing scenes during the singer's later, frailer years. Cotillard also took singing lessons so she could embody the singer's performance style, even though she also meticulously worked on lip-syncing to recordings of Piaf as well as French vocalist Jil Aigrot.

Most people remember "Walk the Line" thanks to Joaquin Phoenix's performance as Johnny Cash, but it was Reese Witherspoon as June Carter Cash that took home the film's sole Oscar win. Directed by James Mangold, who saw later Oscar success directing the story of Bob Dylan in "A Complete Unknown," "Walk The Line" begins with Cash's early life in Arkansas and his first marriage to Vivian Liberto. When he achieves fame as a musician, his romantic relationship with June Carter and a growing addiction to drugs and alcohol threatens his marriage and his career.

Having grown up in Nashville, Witherspoon had long been familiar with the legacy of June Carter and her family's career in country music. However, it wasn't until after accepting the role that she learned Mangold expected her to lend her own vocals to the role. Eager to do right by the singer, she learned how to play autoharp, Carter's signature instrument, took six months of voice lessons and spent another six months recording the soundtrack album. Though Carter died prior to the film entering production, Witherspoon was able to study interviews Mangold had filmed with Carter as well as a wealth of tapes sent to her by her Nashville network. She also met Carter's children and toured her home to get an even better understanding behind the musician's life.

When most people think about actors winning Oscars for playing musicians, they think of Jamie Foxx playing Ray Charles in 2004's "Ray." The actor won accolades across the board for his committed portrayal of the legendary jazz singer-songwriter and pianist, setting a new standard for what had long been a conventional type of awards-worthy performance. Directed by Taylor Hackford, "Ray" follows 30 years in the life of Ray Charles, beginning with the blindness he incurred during childhood all the way through chart-topping songs, multiple affairs, and heroin use.

Hackford originally planned on hiring a double to perform Foxx's piano parts, only to soon discover Foxx had attended United States International University on a classical piano scholarship. It was then that Hackford and Foxx became determined to recreate Charles' performing style down to a tee, with Foxx at times staying up as early as 5:30 a.m. practicing the proper fingering technique. Foxx performed all of the songs in the film live, however his vocals are predominantly dubbed over with Charles' own recordings. In addition, Foxx donned prosthetics over his eyes to simulate Charles' blindness and would stay blind on set to fully embody Charles' perspective.

In 1996, two Australians made it in America. The first was David Helfgott, a concert pianist who, after experiencing a mental breakdown from his emotionally abusive father, was rehabilitated and went on to have a recording career. The second was Geoffrey Rush, a rising theater actor who was offered to play an adult Helfgott in the 1996 biopic "Shine," which tackled his difficult but inspiring journey. The film's surprise overseas popularity propelled both of them into the public eye and earned Rush his first (and, as of this writing, still only) Oscar, even against American Hollywood heavyweights like Tom Cruise and Billy Bob Thornton. "Shine" was also nominated for six additional Oscars, including for best picture.

Though the film utilizes Helfgott's recorded music, Rush is playing the piano in the film and performed it live on set so that it could authentically sync up. Serendipitously, Rush had taken piano lessons up until the age of 15. However, he had since completely forgotten his teachings and resumed lessons before production began. In addition, Rush had to nail Helfgott's erratic, stuttering speech, which he did by transcribing interviews word-for-word so that he could see the details and patterns behind what Helfgott was saying. He even based the role on the Fool from "King Lear," drawing on his by then extensive experience performing Shakespeare to give the character a silly but sympathetic foundation.

Beyond being one of the greatest films of all-time, Miloš Forman's "Amadeus" holds the rare distinction in Oscars history of having both of its leading men simultaneously nominated for best actor: F. Murray Abraham and Tom Hulce as 18th-century composers Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozert, respectively. Despite something like this typically splitting the vote, Abraham eked out the win, cementing his wickedly funny and deeply compelling performance as one for the history books. Based on Peter Shaffer's immensely successful play of the same name, "Amadeus" is the story of Mozart's rise and fall but from the point-of-view of Salieri. The comparatively middling composer becomes irrationally jealous of Mozart's genius and conspires to destroy his career.

Abraham had never played a musical instrument before being offered the role of Salieri, but he had long been an admirer of music and trained to portray the conductor, composer, and pianist. Abraham took conducting lessons with a local orchestra and worked to be more restrained so that his style of conducting greatly contrasted Hulce's livelier movements as Mozart. Abraham also took piano lessons and learned how to play a number of pieces proficiently, even though all of the music was pre-recorded and performed on fake pianos. Though much of Abraham's playing didn't make the final cut, his experience gave him a deeper appreciation for Mozart and Salieri's music.

"Coal Miner's Daughter" is often forgotten about in the grand scheme of Oscars history, but by 1981, the film had been one of the highest-grossing films of 1980 and had been nominated for seven Academy Awards, including one for Sissy Spacek's leading turn as country music icon Loretta Lynn. Named after her best-selling memoir, which itself was named after her hit song, "Coal Miner's Daughter" recounts Lynn's impoverished upbringing in rural Kentucky and how she, after being gifted a guitar by her husband Doolittle Lynn (Tommy Lee Jones), grows to become one of the most influential country artists of all time.

Lynn had hand-selected Spacek to play her after just looking at a photograph, unaware the actress had only just recently broken through as Carrie White in Brian De Palma's eponymous horror film. Regardless, Spacek's Texas upbringing and background as a musician made her a shoe-in for the part. Spacek became very close with Lynn as she worked side-by-side with her to both recreate her unique country twang and learn how to perform all of her songs in her style. Lynn fought for Spacek to sing all of the film's music herself, which she did live on-set. The film's soundtrack was eventually certified Gold.

The theater world had already seen Barbra Streisand bring down the house as bawdy comedienne Fanny Brice eight times a week when she played the character on Broadway beginning in 1964. However, when the musical "Funny Girl" finally made it to the silver screen, Streisand officially cemented herself as a once-in-a-generation star. The film recounts Brice's breakout into showbiz as well as her passionate-turned-stormy marriage to high-stakes gambler Nicky Arnstein (Omar Sharif). It was a box-office smash that made Streisand a household name. After losing the Tony for her breakthrough role, she was awarded the Oscar in 1969 in a tie with Katharine Hepburn for her turn in "The Lion in Winter."

Whereas most actors would dive deep down the research rabbit hole before portraying a real person, Streisand wasn't interested. "I never studied her whole life," she told The Sunday Times Magazine (via Barbra Archives). "I felt that we were so instinctively alike that I didn't have to work to get her." Indeed, Streisand had been performing since she was a child and was already a triple threat. With no trace of makeup or prosthetics to replicate Brice's look, the film's portrayal was all about milking Streisand's own star power, and this persona has since eclipsed any historical recollection of Brice. As the film's producer Ray Stark also told the Times, "I do not know where Fanny ends and Barbra begins."

You might not even know the man who inspired the Oscars' first acting win for a music biopic, but at the dawn of the century, multi-hyphenate performer George M. Cohan was the talk of the town. The composer and lyricist behind vintage hit songs like "Give My Regards to Broadway" and "You're a Grand OI' Flag" was the theater's biggest star and had written well over 50 theatrical works, from comedies to plays to musical revues. When it came time to make a movie about him, James Cagney stripped away his crime movie roots to become the patriotic song and dance man in "Yankee Doodle Dandy," winning the Oscar in 1943 just months after Cohan died of bladder cancer.

Cohan originally signed on to "Yankee Doodle Dandy" in an attempt to make a patriotic picture after being publicly identified by a Community Party official as a co-conspirator. Though the claims proved to be false, the film still became a not-so-subtle allegory for America's involvement in World War II, which is likely what helped it garner so much support with the Academy. However, Cagney's performance was also very popular. He had already bore a resemblance to Cohan, as both of them were Irish-American, but he also worked with one of Cohan's choreographers to help hone the performer's rigid style of dancing and famous "talk-singing."