Pop and rock singer and musician Phil Collins' actually started
out in the
acting end of the business. A busy child performer, Collins played
the Artful
Dodger in the London production of Oliver and was also
fleetingly seen in
the Beatles film A Hard Days' Night (64). Upon joining
the rock band
Genesis in 1970, Collins abandoned acting in favor of
a fruitful music-only
career. In the mid-1980s, Collins began easing back before the
cameras with
recurring villainous appearances on the hit American TV series
Miami Vice.
With 1988's Buster, Collins made his film-starring debut,
playing a
notorious bank robber. Since that time, Collins has sporadically
returned to
films; in the opening scenes of Steven Spielberg's Hook (91),Collins
plays
the atypically businesslike role of a Scotland Yard detective.