53 actors who completely transformed themselves into real-life music legends

• Actors often transform into real-life musicians for biopics.

• Some actors go through physical transformations to play musicians.

• Jaafar Jackson trained for years to portray his uncle, Michael Jackson, in "Michael."

Musical legends have been portrayed on the big screen for decades, in biopics that range from transformative to highly mediocre.

Actors hoping to accurately depict those artists often need to undergo musical training and major physical transformations.

While some roles merely require learning a little choreography and slight makeup, others are more intensive, like Jamie Foxx having his eyes glued shut to portray blind musician Ray Charles.

The most recent addition to the list is Jaafar Jackson, the son of Jermaine Jackson and the nephew of Michael Jackson, who trained extensively and donned prosthetics to portray his uncle, the King of Pop, in the biopic "Michael."

Here are 53 of the most notable musician biopic transformations.

Olivia Singh and Anjelica Oswald contributed to an earlier version of this story.