Most spectacular comebacks in entertainment

Melanie Griffith after "Working Girl."

Dennis Hopper.

RDJ after arrest # 274. Viewed as complete washed up by the early aughts.

Tina Turner

Judy at Carnegie Hall

Armie Hammer’s tweet about Stan Lee

Armie's tweets about just about anything r6.

Travolta after Pulp Fiction.

Jackie Earle Haley - teen actor to nothing, to award winning character actor at 50

What about Cbyill Sheppard?

Timothee, chalamet. He went from Fetus to Superstar in no time!

It wasn't exactly spectacular but songwriter Paul Williams used to be on every TV show back in the mid 1970s and early 1980s and got Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe nominations/awards, but he took a nosedive because of drug and alcohol problems. So he was pretty much done by 1984.

He got his life back on track and ended up winning a Grammy award for Daft Punk and now he's the president of ASCAP. Pretty good recovery.

John Travolta after Pulp Fiction. Gave him a second big career.

Elvis in his big 1968 comeback.

It is amazing kind of that Cher went from silly TV star/pop star to Oscar winning actress........and then through all the A-List opportunities away.

"Through"...???

threw^

Jessica Tandy always had a strong theatre career, but nothing much in movies until very late in life, when suddenly she had an Oscar and good parts.

Vanessa Williams !!

The first African-American Miss America. Then the first to have to give up her crown because nude (and lesbian!) pics were discovered and published in a magazine - (how shocking!, right Melania????) Ends up having an amazing career in music, on television, Broadway, and even a couple movies along the way. She's now a role model and very beloved!

Angela Lansbury had a decent run as a supporting actress in film (she was adored by critics, but rarely got roles worthy of her), and then she had a spectacular Broadway career after MAME. And then suddenly in old age she became popular with wide audiences with the success of MURDER, SHE WROTE. So she basically had TWO spectacular comebacks.

Andy Griffith sort of disappeared after putting Mayberry on the map. Years later, Matlock became a big hit.

(I’ve never even seen Matlock, but I had a crush on him as Sheriff Andy.)

DL fave - or DL’s most loathed - Sarah Jessica Parker was stuck in obscurity after Annie and Square Pegs (?) but had a massive comeback as you-know-who.

Someone on the Ava Gardner thread mentioned how Frank Sinatra was, surprisingly, almost washed up in the early 50s until From Here to Eternity and a Capitol records string of smashes made him bigger ever before.

Crawford in Mildred Pierce

Hepburn in Philadelphia Story

Robert Downey, Jr. owns this thread. He was a drug addict serving a 2 year prison sentence. His career was OVER.

Then Iron Man turned him into a multi-million dollar leading man. The rest is history.

btw, OP. Joan Collins doesn't really count. She was always considered a 'B' actress. You could even say B-minus. She wasn't considered a real star until Dynasty.

Piper Laurie in twin peaks. Jason Bateman with arrested development & his movies Mickey rourke in the wrestler Pam Grier in Jackie brown

Leslie Uggams. She was a 1960s singer and1970s actress (known for Kizzy in "Roots"), but seemed to disappear until she came back as Blind Al in the Deadpool movies, and her current role as Lucious' mother in the hit TV show "Empire."

Mariah Carey The emancipation of mimi 2005, although she flopped again after 2010

Neil Sedaka

r20 = Helen Crump

More of a one-off comeback, but I love Gloria Stuart's: Long-forgotten Golden Age actress gives up Hollywood to become an artist, then decades later lands a pivotal role in the second highest-grossing movie of all time and gets her first Oscar nomination in her late 80s.

Neil Patrick Harris - Harold & Kumar

Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler.

George Burns. Well-known but faded. At age 80, "Oh, God" put him on the top of the heap with an Oscar win and for the next 20 years he was bigger than he'd ever been before.

R26 Carrie was Piper's real comeback in 76, after 11 years with no movies at all.

Betty White. Always well-liked but nothing remarkable. Her 2009 Snickers commercial launched the 87-year old into the stratosphere and she came to be regarded as a national treasure.

Joan Rivers' entire career was one comeback after another. She could never stay down. Loved her!

Leslie Nielsen in Airplane

Betsy Palmer in Friday the 13th Many actors in Tarantino and David Lynch projects Anna chlumsky in veep Drew Barrymore, although she only really had a hiatus during the few years she was dealing with rehab is a success story. A huge child star who spiraled young and was able to quickly get back on her feet with B movie roles like poison ivy but then immediately went back to starring in high grossing PG rated movies as a young adult, working steadily since.

Mickey Rourke could be considered a one-off as well, along with Art Carney, Jack Palance, Don Ameche, Gloria Stuart, Henry Fonda, Burt Reynolds, Ann Miller, Mickey Rooney, Lauren Bacall, and any other old timer who was practically yanked out of retirement - voluntary or otherwise - by one critically acclaimed performance. It’s just that O’Rourke’s”retirement” was expedited by his addictions, particularly to plastic surgery.

My contributions:

After significant lulls, Helen Hunt and Candice Bergen improved on their movie careers (TV and film respectively) with sitcoms, which catapulted them into films again. Peter Falk has a similar transition to Candice, from award-nominated supporting roles in film to a successful TV show and subsequent TV work.

Could we count Jessica Lange’s King Kong-provoked four-year exile?

Betty White

Tony Bennett

Younger one-offs from pop music:

Dusty Springfield

Donny Osmond

Michael Damian

Paul Anka

Frankie Valli

And the kids who transitioned fairly successfully after puberty or a higher education hiatus, such as:

Jodie Foster

Mayim Bialik

Sara Gilbert

Ron Howard

Robert Blake

NPH

Elizabeth Taylor

Natalie Wood

Janet Jackson

Finally:

[quote] btw, OP. Joan Collins doesn't really count. She was always considered a 'B' actress. You could even say B-minus. She wasn't considered a real star until Dynasty.

B-actress or whatever, she was a well-known actress and sex kitten (like Jayne Mansfield, Ann Margret, and Joey Heatherton) who didn’t let the mediocre quality of their vehicle projects get in the way of their fame. Ann Margret and Joan trascender, the other two were not as fortunate.

Rourke*

Peter Falk had*

Ann M and Joan trascended

Transcended DAMMIT!

Jon Cryer

SJP did a ton of movies and was pretty popular in them from after Annie/Square Pegs. Her film breakthrough was L.A. Story. This chump up thread doesn’t know his SJP lore. Shit- even the cult hit ‘girls just wanna have fun’ was after ANNIE on broadway and a half season of square pegs.

SJP was petering out in movies by the time she took SATC. She started the show then came back for a 2nd act in movies.

Joan Rivers: "She could never stay down. Loved her!"

Well, actually, this one time, on the operating table....

But her corpse was just adorable!

Frankie Valli. The 4 Seasons were done, then came "Grease." And then came hisf real money-maker: "Jersey Boys."

Peter Firth, erstwhile Golden Youth of "Equus" and "Tess." Disappeared into science-fi, grew up, changed dramatically in appearance, and became a gigantic success in the UK's 10-season "Spooks," aka "MI-5."

R40, The OP refers to those who were considered finished, washed-up.

Elizabeth Taylor was continually employed, as were Mickey Rooney, Roddy McDowell, Natalie Wood, and a host of other child stars.

"Grey's Anatomy" has been given a whole new life, courtesy of gay character Levi Schmitt (Jake Borelli).

JUDY!

I'm going to add Diana Ross to the list. After the 1980s, she couldn't get a hit record to save her life. Her only moments of recognition were primarily from touching Lil Kim's tit, failing at a fake Supremes reunion tour, and getting her drunk-driving ass thrown in jail for a few weeks.

Then all of a sudden, she became this beloved Motown legend with well-raised children (two who are celebrities in their own right), well-attended oldies performances throughout the country, and special awards in her honor. She looks fabulous, and seems happy and vindicated. She's not Cher, but she doesn't need to be. She's Diana, and people still pay to see her.

It was the Mary Tyler Moore Show and Golden Girls that transformed Betty White from a TV personality to a beloved comedy star, not a damn Snickers commercial, R36.

Seriously, r52. Stratospheric Snickers commercial?

Hey R46 Can we talk? Pick a finger.

R52 yeah but kids had no idea who she was. Now they do along with everyone else. I know what that poster meant.

Although I’m not sure whether it was the Snickers commercial or the Shatner roast that got that ball rolling .

Matthew McConaughey - he began his career with some good films, then became a total joke thanks to all those idiotic romantic comedies and then he got a hair transplant and came back as a "serious" actor, winning an Academy award.

Don Ameche's comeback wasn't a one-off, though. After [italic]Trading Places[/italic] and [italic]Cocoon[/italic], he went from the occasional TV guest appearance to regular movie and TV movie appearances. It wasn't spectacular, but it was nice to see appreciation for talent.

Robert Downey, Jr.'s comeback really was spectacular.

All those strumpet of Desperate Housewives

Glenn Close with Damages. She was just doing Indie movies from the late 90s on which made no money.

R11 does not understand what “comeback” means.

Connie

Tina Turner, baby.

Along the lines of Tina Turner: Roy Orbison.

I think the epitome of this thread are the Bee Gees. They had a very successful mid-60s to early 70s career with plaintive ballads like "I've Gotta Get A Message To You", "I Started A Joke", "Massachusetts" and the huge "How Can You Mend A Broken Heart". Then they didn't exactly disappear, but became pretty much irrelevant. Then a few years later, they changed their whole sound with their comeback hit, "Jive Talkin'". They then had a second career that dwarfed their first.

Sally Field winning for Sybil. It gave her career enough of a boost for her to transfer into feature films, where she became A-list and won a well-deserved Oscar. A tv star had never done that before.

R63, they actually originally released Jive Talking without "Bee Gees" appearing anywhere on the 45, to avoid the "has-been" bias against them.

R12- That’s nice to hear about Paul Williams. I got sucked into watching a documentary about him and I was really pulling for him to be 8n a better place. After all, this is the guy that wrote Rainbow Connection and Evergreen.

Jennifer Connelly was a pretty child actress but was considered untalented until for years a little notice ‘Inventing the Abbotts’, then just a little.. ‘Waking the Dead’.. then bam- acclaimed actress with Requiem for a Dream. It’s kind of the same narrative with Penélope Cruz...

Wouldn’t put either of those ladies into this category. Both had slow and steady rises and some acclaim, and then pffft...

Slow rises, sure, but a lot of people said they were shit actresses then it went the opposite for a while

[R5] Judy at Carnegie Hall

—Anonymous

Judy Tenuta playing Carnegie Hall is the most impressive come back listed.

Jack Palance in Bagdad Cafe. Remember his one handed push ups on stage at the Oscars.

Good call -- five years into his revival and forty years after his film debut he won the Oscar for City Slickers...

The B-52's went through some tough years after losing Ricky Wilson. Then Cosmic Thing brought them to a whole new level of success.

"John Travolta after Pulp Fiction. Gave him a second big career."

That was his comeback AND apex. Because he was never able to build upon it, he worked his way back down the food chain to straight-to-videos movies. Packing on the lbs. didn't help.

Lee Marvin in Cat Ballou -- he was going nowhere in the 60s. Then he took a strange part in a weird movie and won an Oscar.

Bette Midler's career was in the toilet after "Jinxed" but her career revived with those Disney comedies.

Someone up-thread already said it but Crawford landing MILDRED PIERCE and winning the Oscar for it is probably the most spectacular movie comeback of all time for an actress. It propelled her to legendary status. It also completely changed to type of role she specialized in - from MGM heroine to hard-boiled film noir toughie. It's hard to overstate what a story Crawford's comeback was in its day.

Bette Davis in ALL ABOUT EVE and Bette Davis in WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? were also stunning comebacks. Collectively they gave Bette the aura of being invincible and reminded people never to count her out!

LUCY IN MAME.

Jerry Orbach.. fantastic Broadways star and then Lennie Briscoe in Law and Order

John Travolta, John Travolta, John Travolta

Kate Jackson in "Rebecca".

Tina Turner.

Lady Gaga.

Most powerful and famous Celebrity in 2010-11. Faded in 2013-2015. Now after A Star is Born, she became the biggest celebrity on the planet

R77 The best part was when she couldn't attend the Oscars because she was so"ill". But when she got the win the press was at the ready, came into her bedroom, and she accepted the statue in her bed (bahahahahha) with her perfect hair and makeup and a scarf around her neck to accompany her bathrobe. Now that's a movie star!

Michael Keaton in Birdman was a pretty amazing comeback. Deserved, too.

Another vote for Frank Sinatra, who couldn't get arrested post-WW2 until From Here to Eternity launched him to the top, where he remained for the next 45 years.

Gregory Peck's career was in the doldrums for about ten years until the unexpected hit The Omen lifted him back up into the public eye.

Eva Plumbs in "Dawn: Portrait of A Teenage Runaway.

Jane Fonda had a comeback after being blacklisted in Hollywood for her political actions returning with the comedy Fun with Dick and Jane.

Ingrid Bergman was another comeback girl with Anastasia and an Oscar.

Isaac Hayes - South Park

Fat Actress - Kristie Alley

Alec Baldwin - 30 Rock

Some '50s entries: Ingrid Bergman and Charlie Chaplin, both blacklisted due to personal "scandals."

Gaga definitely wins for celeb comeback of the year.

No mention of Brando? I mean, who could have seen The Godfather and Last Tango In Paris coming after he spent the entirety of the 60s being box office poison?

La la la la la la la laaaa

The Dark Knight

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