There are plenty of actors who try their luck as musicians and lots of musicians who do the reverse. Some of them start out as wannabe actors and end up as musicians and vice verse. And, then there are those who just fancied a cameo appearance in a pop video for the lulz.
10 Christopher Walken dancing to Fat Boy Slim’s Weapon of Choice
9 Chevy Chase lip-syncing Paul Simon’s You can call me Al
8 Hugh Laurie reprising his Blackadder Prince Regent role for the Annie Lennox song Walking on Broken Glass although the premise looks a lot like the film – Dangerous Liaisons.
7 Actor Rupert Grint playing an Ed Sheeran doppelganger in the video for Sheeran’s song Lego House
6 Sacha Baron Cohen, in the guise of Ali G, as the driver/DJ in Madonna’s Music
5 Godfather Part II Actor Danny Aiello playing the father in Madonna’s Papa Don’t Preach
4 Actor Courteney Cox being invited to dance on stage with Bruce Springsteen in the video for Dancing in the Dark as if she were just some random member of the public at one of his concerts.
3 DJ (not an actor) John Peel pretending to play mandolin for Rod Stewart’s Top of the Pops appearance miming to Maggie May it was actually Geordie boy Ray Jackson from the band Lindisfarne who played the instrument on the record.
2 Composer Hans Zimmer in the video for The Buggles’ Video Killed the Radio Star. Of course, it was Geoff Downes who played keys on the recording, which interestingly was the second attempt by the team to have a hit, it having been released as a single earlier by co-writer Bruce Woolley with his band The Camera Club (Thomas Dolby on keyboards for that version, which brings us to our number one).
1 Scientist and 1970s TV presenter Magnus Pyke backing vocals for Thomas Dolby’s She Blinded Me With Science
