John Mellencamp

Best known as a rock artist who writes catchy, danceable, and sometimes driving songs to match Midwestern baby-boomer sensibilities, John Cougar Mellencamp has directed and starred in one feature film, Falling From Grace (1995), an account of a rock star who finds himself unwelcome when he returns to his small Indiana hometown. Although film never became as important as music in his career, he did appear in Afterimage and the romantic comedy Lone Star State of Mind, and helped pen a stage musical with horror author Stephen King, Ghost Brothers of Darkland County. In 2015, he wrote the score for Ithaca, a film directed by his former girlfriend, Meg Ryan. Mellencamp also wrote an original song for the film.