Musical Biopics, and the Rabbits Who Love Them
Sep 15, 2007
By crankyrabbit
Filed in Music, Lists, Movies & Film
A list of biographical films based on the stories of music artists or bands.
Amadeus (1984) (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
Clocking in at over 2 1/2 hours (almost 3 hours for the director’s cut) and kicking ass at the Oscars for a total of 8 Academy awards, Amadeus is a monster of musical biopics.
Mr. Mozart
The Buddy Holly Story (1976) (Buddy Holly)
Actor Gary Busey picked up his first and only Oscar nomination for this film, and deservedly so.
Buddy Holly
The Doors (1991) (The Doors)
Director Oliver Stone took a break from making romantic comedies like Platoon and Wall Street to shoot a surprisingly dark biopic of Jim Morrison, portrayed excellently by Val Kilmer. 
Jim Morrison
Dreamgirls (2006) (The Supremes)
Shhh, don’t tell anyone — this Bill Condon flick just might be, ahem, influenced by the tale of former motown group The Supremes.
The Supremes
Great Balls of Fire! (1989) (Jerry Lee Lewis)
This is by far the worst title on this list. Needless to say, watch it just to see Dennis Quaid channel his inner incestual pedophile.
Dennis Quaid
Jerry Lee Lewis
Ray (2004) (Ray Charles)
Jamie Foxx may be a giant douche, but he’s a damned fine actor who deserved the accolades that he received for his portrayal of the late, great Ray Charles. 
Ray Charles
Rock Star (2001) (Judas Priest)
“What’s your goddamned problem?” people ask.
“Nothing,” I reply, “I just like Rock Star, even though its a thinly-veiled critique of hair music and the whole ‘Judas Priest replacing their lead singer with a tribute band’s singer’ debacle. It’s a fun film.”
A few minutes later, I realize that I’ve been talking to myself.
Ripper Owens
Walk the Line (2005) (Johnny Cash)
Johnny Cash was portrayed to absolute perfection by Joaquin Phoenix, with a strong supporting cast and great singing by Mr. Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon.
Johnny Cash
1 Comment(s)
By Lucy Dee on Sep 18, 2007 | Reply
That guy from Silence of the Lambs (Buffalo Bill), he scares me. He ruined that song from The Fall, for me. I can’t ever listen to that song and not think of that scene with him putting on lip stick dancing in the mirror.
Anyway, I’m a standup comedienne blogging her way to stardom. I caught wind of your blog via Blogrush! I wanted to stop by and comment–and also see if I can entice you to stop by my corner of the blogosphere.
You can reach me at:
Quest For Comedic Stardom
http://standup101.blogspot.com
Nice blog you got goin’ here!