MSN Music

It's a familiar showbiz trope that most actors really want to direct, but entertainment history continues to witness actors who also want to sing. The ranks of stage, film and TV thespians who've dared to step behind the microphone and bare their souls on (or near) key are legion, from the dawn of talkies to the golden age of TV and up to our digital present. Here are some of the more notable recent examples.

Jeff Bridges © Danny Clinch; Gwyneth Paltrow courtesy of MSN; Hugh Laurie © Ralph Orlowski/AP