Andrew Strong

Hefty Irish teenage musician/singer with no prior acting experience, originally hired as a backup singer with the band performing for Alan Parker's auditions, whose powerful, gravelly voice (which has been likened to that of Joe Cocker and Meat Loaf) and strong, beefy presence won him the plum role of the boorish lead singer Deco Cuffe in "The Commitments" (1991), Parker's youthful film about the fortunes of a working-class Dublin soul band.