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Film fans vote for the top ten music biopics of all time - did your favourite make the list?

Johnny Cash sprints to the line, beating Eminem and Mozart along the way as film fans vote for the all-time favourite music biopic.

Pictured (right): Jamie Foxx performs as soul man Ray Charles in the 2004 biopic Ray - in at number four in the LOVEFiLM.com survey.

Music biopics are all the rage in Hollywood with actors flexing their tonsils in honour of musical legends. As new Bob Dylan epic I’m Not There got it’s gala screening in London online DVD rental delivery service LOVEFiLM.com revealed their members' top music biopics of all time.

The top ten covers music genres from - from hip hop to classical but country tops the lot with Joaquin Phoenix’s tribute to Johnny Cash in Walk the Line strumming its way to the top with a huge 28% of the vote. Coming second and third are strange bedfellows if we ever saw them. Bad boy rapper, Eminem, gives a cracking performance swearing and sulking his way through the semi-autobiographical 8 Mile at number two (13%), but is closely followed by the tale of classical composer Mozart, Amadeus (12%)

The Top Ten Music Biopics are as follows:

1. Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash in Walk the Line (2005) – (28%)

Never mind walking the line, Joaquin Phoenix’s star-turn as country legend Johnny Cash sprints to the top of the poll with his affecting portrayal of the 'Man In Black' alongside a heartfelt performance from Reese Witherspoon (Sweet Home Alabama, Legally Blonde, SFW, Just Like Heaven, Election, Vanity Fair) as his romantic interest, the level-headed June Carter. A worthy Oscar winner, with the songs performed by Phoenix himself. Stunning stuff.

2. Marshall Mathers as Eminem in 8 Mile - (13%)

Multi-platinum selling Marshall ‘Eminem’ Mathers may be struggling (in character) to make it as a rapper from the wrong side of the tracks in the semi-autobiographical 8 Mile but it's got to be Kim Basinger who steals the show as the ultimate 'trailer trash mom'.

3. Tom Hulce as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Amadeus (1984) - (12%)

Who says that classical music is dull? Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s short life certainly wasn’t, as shown by this brilliant biopic narrated in flashback by court composer Antonio Salieri – and by a sterling opera soundtrack - Amadeus won an amazing 8 Oscars by documenting Mozart’s wild ways in a classic Eighties fashion. Based on the 1979 play by Peter Shaffer.

4. Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles in Ray (2004) – (9%)

Jamie Foxx certainly deserves to be near the top of this poll for his portrayal of music maestro and ‘Genius of Soul’ Ray Charles. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Taylor Hackford Ray saw Foxx playing the piano in every scene and wearing eye prosthetics that actually left him blind for fourteen hours a day during filming. Now that’s dedication!

5. Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison in The Doors (1991) - (9%)

Director Oliver Stones’ (Natural Born Killers, Nixon, J.F.K) highly stylised rock biopic of Jim Morrison had the surviving members of The Doors reportedly claimed that Val Kilmer did such a good job playing their former singer Jim Morrison, they couldn’t distinguish between the two. Mind you, what do they say about ‘if you can remember the Sixties properly you weren’t there? Twin Peaks' agent Cooper Kyle MacLachlan co-stars as Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek and Meg Ryan (When Harry Met Sally, You’ve Got Mail) does her best doe-eyed Goldie Hawn impression as Morrison’s space cadet hippy girlfriend Pamela Courson.

6. Angela Bassett as Tina Turner in What’s Love Got to Do with It (1993) - (8%)

Tina Turner has had a pretty tough life - but it doesn’t half make a good film. Simply one of the best.

Pictured (right): Here are the young men: actors play the members of Joy Division - the Factory Records band that went on to become celebrated electro-pioneers New Order - in Control, number seven in the LOVEFiLM.com survey.

7. Sam Riley as Ian Curtis in Control (2007) - (7%)

Control may have only just been released, but is already one of the most popular music biographies. Us Brits love a tortured soul it seems - and they don't come much more tortured than Joy Division front man Ian Curtis - who inspired a generation before his untimely death at 23 and looks set to inspire a whole generation again thanks to the moving portrayal of his life in Anton Corbijn's moody black and white feature.

8. Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb as Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen in Sid and Nancy (1986) - (6%).

Cult director Alex Cox (Walker, Repo Man) directs Gary Oldham (Leon, The Fifth Element) in his pre-superstardom days – as one half of the original troublesome twosome of punk: Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen, from the Sex Pistols to The Chelsea Hotel, the rock and roll biopic was never so tragically predictable.

9. Lou Diamond Philips as Ritchie Valens in La Bamba (1987) - (5%)

It’s another quintessential rock ‘n’ roll film with Lou Diamond Philips rendering of singer Ritchie Valens. Sing along now...

10. Ian Hart as John Lennon, Gary Bakewell as Paul McCartney, Paul Duckworth as Ringo Starr, Chris O’Neill as George Harrison in Backbeat (1994)- (3%)

Fab Four

Where would any music poll be without the Beatles? Twisting and shouting their way into the top ten, it’s the early incarnation of the ‘Fab Four’ from Liverpool (actually five at this stage - Stuart Sutcliffe on bass rather than McCartney) who changed the face of popular music forever. Ian Hart - who also played Lennon again in Christopher Münch's 1992 feature The Hours And Times - and band tear it up in tight leathers to a soundtrack recorded by A-list grunge rockers. Less a savage young Beatles movie than a love story about Stuart Sutcliffe ‘the fifth Beatle’ and his German muse Astrid Kirchner, whose romance threatens to split the group of friends – and the band apart.

Fliss White, Brand Marketing Manager at LOVEFiLM.com comments: “Film and music make a great partnership, and have resulted in some of the best acting performances in film. This poll showcases the very best the genre has to offer, whether it be a portrayal of foul-mouthed rapper, a Motown legend or a classical composer.”

See also on Lifestyle: Smooch In The Surf - From Here to Eternity boasts UK’s favourite on-screen kiss.

LOVEfilm, which started in 2005 polled over 2,000 of its members for the music biopic survey and has won the prestigious British Video Association's award for the UK's 'Best Rental Service in 2005, 2006 and 2007'.

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