Paul Stanley
Stanley co-founded Kiss in 1973 and sang lead and played rhythm guitar in it until the band stopped in 2023, which is fifty years in the same job. He wrote or co-wrote a large share of the songs, and he built the Starchild, the persona he wore for the whole run.
The screen credits gathered here are a by-product of that rather than a second career. He appears as himself in Why Him?, as one of Kiss in Detroit Rock City, as the voice of Starchild in Scooby-Doo! and KISS: Rock and Roll Mystery, as himself in a Family Guy Christmas special, and as a talking GPS unit in Squidbillies. There is a decent joke buried in that list: the same persona can carry a full animated Scooby-Doo mystery and a satnav gag, and neither use feels wrong.
The most substantial item on the page is not a film at all. Face the Music, published in 2014, is his memoir, and it is the only thing here where he sets the terms rather than turning up as an icon somebody else has booked.
Movies (4)
TV (1)
Books (1)
Music (1)
Where to start with Paul Stanley
Start with the book. Face the music is the only item here that he authored rather than guested in, and a memoir from the man who wore the star for five decades is worth more than any of the cameos.
For the screen, Detroit Rock City is the pick, because it understands exactly what it is trading on: the film belongs to the fans, and Kiss appear as the object of the devotion rather than as characters. Scooby-Doo! and KISS: Rock and Roll Mystery is the strangest and the most enjoyable of the animated appearances, with Stanley voicing Starchild through a full mystery plot.
After that it is cameo territory. He plays himself in Why Him?, a voice in A Very Special Family Guy Freakin' Christmas, and a satnav in Squidbillies, which is a fair measure of how far a rock persona can travel once it stops belonging to the person wearing it.