Crossover stars are the future. They have been here for a while now, taking flight in the 50s as the star system was making inroads in Hollywood. The Billboard charts and Box Office saw many of the same names taking their slots, and half a century later it is par for the course.
So fluid and brand-driven is the entertainment industry that if someone makes it big in one discipline it’s a fairly sound bet that they’ll leapfrog into as many fields as possible.
In the spirit of Bruce Willis join us under the boardwalk so to speak for ten
10. David Hasselhoff
As if a crossover from the driver’s seat of KITT in Knight Rider to the beaches of Los Angeles County in Baywatch wasn’t enough for one man, Hasselhoff famously launched a modestly-successful singing career with an inexplicable popularity in the German-speaking world, culminating with number-one hit “Looking for Freedom” in 1989.
More recently he’s made the switch to reality TV, with stints both sides of the Atlantic as a Got Talent judge. And why not? The Hoff clearly knows talent because…well, just watch this.
You can taste the 90s right?
9. Justin Timberlake
Not content with crossing over from teen boyband NSYNC to a Grammy Award-winning solo career, JT set out to launch an acting career in the latter part of the last decade, and it’s fair to say it’s been a mixed affair. For every The Social Network, there’s a Yogi Bear, for each Inside Llewyn Davis, there’s The Love Guru.
But Timberlake has certainly proved he’s got acting chops, and with a starring role in Spike Lee’s Spinning Gold, an upcoming biopic of 70s record executive Neil Bogart, his acting career has clearly still got legs.
8. Mark Wahlberg
If, in 1991, someone told you the frontman of rap group Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch was 15 years away from an Academy Award-nomination, you may’ve been sceptical.
But Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights pitched Wahlberg as the impossibly-endowed (and impressively-named) Dirk Diggler, and ever-since he’s enjoyed a successful career as both a film actor and producer, culminating in Oscar nods for The Departed and The Fighter.
It’ll take a lot to eclipse this moment from Boogie Nights, when the two worlds of Marky-Mark collided.
7. Stephen Fry
Undoubtedly a national treasure, Stephen Fry’s career has spanned practically every medium from television and theatre to film and radio.
Perhaps Fry’s most impressive crossover though is entering the realm of literature where he’s written several books, including four novels and three volumes of autobiography, which have experienced commercial and critical success. The Liar is a particular delight, as is the much underrated Making History.
Here he is on a little-seen appearance on Top of the Pops,
6. Kylie Minogue
Kylie Minogue achieved prominence in both her native Australia and the UK when she was cast as Charlene Mitchell in Aussie soap opera Neighbours in 1986. Her crossover into music came just a year later with the release of “I Should Be So Lucky”, and it can’t be described as anything other than an impressive success, spanning over thirty years, 70 million record sales and seven UK number ones, including at least one in three different decades.
She appears here in Street Fighter:
and the one which started it all…
5. Stan Lee
Stanley Martin Lieber, or Stan Lee (his pen name, which he later legally adopted), made his comic book writing debut in 1941, providing text filler for the third issue of Captain America.
Almost 20 years later, he was given the chance to create his own superhero characters, and he created the Fantastic Four, followed by the Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, the X-Men, and, along with Steve Ditko, Spider-Man.
As his works for Marvel grew in popularity and entered other media, Lee had the opportunity to crossover into acting, with his now-famous cameo appearances in Marvel films.
In total, he’s appeared in 21 Marvel films, and most recently voiced a digitally animated version of himself for Big Hero 6, a collaboration between Marvel and Walt Disney Animation Studios.
Here are just some of those on-screen appearances…
4. Cher
Cherilyn Sarkisian, or Cher, first achieved success as part of husband-and-wife duo Sonny & Cher, propelled to fame by their first hit “I Got You Babe” in 1965. She made the crossover to acting in 1971, also with husband Sonny Bono, in the extremely popular Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, before beginning her film career in earnest in the 80s.
It’s difficult to believe now, after the atrocious Burlesque, but Cher was a very talented and versatile actress with two Academy Award nominations, and one win for Best Actress in 1987’s Moonstruck, a rare accolade for a comedy.
And this scene is just one of the reasons for that win.
3. Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra is one of the best-selling recording artists of all-time with over 150 million worldwide record sales, and throughout the 50s and 60s he was amongst the most recognisable entertainers on the planet.
It’s unsurprising then that, in many of his film performances, he played little more than an exaggerated version of himself. But when the right characters came along, he produced some truly great performances, resulting in two Academy Award nominations, and one win for Best Supporting Actor in 1953’s From Here to Eternity.
Perhaps his greatest on-screen role was in the often overlooked stone cold classic The Man with the Golden Arm.
2. Jennifer Lopez
With 55 million record sales, it’s easy to forget that J.Lo began her career on the screen before crossing over to her music career.
She garnered critical acclaim for her performances in Blood and Wine alongside Jack Nicholson, and as the title character in the biopic Selena, before becoming the first Latina actress to earn over $1 million for a film, thanks to her role in Out of Sight, opposite George Clooney.
Some might call it a day there, but Lopez launched her debut album the following year and began a hugely successful music career, helping her reach an estimated net worth of $250 million.
Unsurprisingly Lopez has been lending her voice to some high profile animated films she was last seen in the Jason Statham movie Parker, proving that she stills brings something special to the big screen.
1. Will Smith
Will Smith was a millionaire before the age of 20 thanks to his late 80s rap duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince and their hits like “Parents Just Don’t Understand” and “Summertime”. The sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was launched in 1990 and was a runaway success. Smith is still being paid royalties from its syndication today.
More importantly though, it allowed Smith to crossover into film where critically-acclaimed performances in Six Degrees of Separation and The Pursuit of Happiness, along with massive blockbuster successes like Independence Day and Men In Black, solidified Smith as one of the most reliable and powerful stars in Hollywood.
His eight consecutive films with a US box office gross of over $100 million is unmatched, and his net worth is an estimated $240 million.
For our money though one of his finest performances came early on while he was still a Fresh Prince…
Article in collaboration with Mitsubishi ASX Crossover.
