Actors Who Got Big Breaks But Blew Them

You're obsessed with Michael Beck. We get it.

Blowing is how they got their big breaks.

Yes Michael Beck is the first person who comes to mind when I think of someone perched on the very cusp of fame itself ....

Anne Heche was an absolute delight in her early films; she got the lead opposite Harrison Ford. Then days later she reveals herself to be batshit crazy and a lesbian.

Katherine Heigl became too self-important too fast .

Michael Biehn got the lead in [italic]the Terminator[/italic], which was a huge hit Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and even Lance Henriksen made out all right. Gossip here on Datalounge said he had a drinking problem. Pity.

Edward Furlong was THE NEXT BIG THING...Then came "personal" problems....

Michael Sarazzin. He was always being pushed as the next big thing, featured in high powered films, those soulful eyes. A big nothing.

Connie Francis - she showed she was a really talented comedienne in Where the Boys Are, which was a monster hit. Unfortunately she went on to make only a handful of other (really crappy) films and then retired from acting.

Julia Ormond was promoted as the second coming with Sabrina, but was DOA.

R4: She was already a lesbian when she played that movie with Harrison Ford.

The problems came later when she showed some craziness (and she came back to heterosexuality)

Ben Barnes owns this thread.

Actors have so little control over their careers. Why are some people so quick to blame them for "blowing it" by not becoming A-list movie stars? Does it make you feel superior, OP?

Barnes is gay, and not good a hiding it. HW producers are not going to bet on you unless you are ready to do the bearding game. Of course that Narnia movie was not the expected success. But he is working without any problem, maybe he is not a star but he has a career

Peter Weller

Billy Grieco was supposed to be the breakout male star of 21 Jump Street, but it became Depp instead.

Philip Michael Thomas went nowhere after the tremendous success of Miami Vice.

David Caruso pissed away his top TV star status to chase a movie career, which fizzled almost instantly.

Chris O'Donnell, after the Batman movie with Clooney. But ended up going nowhere for yrs til he landed the role on, (is it?) CSI? Got to keep working, but never got the A list status.

R14 You have a point. But I also think a big problem with BB is that Hollywood simply stopped making the types of films that could have been star vehicles for him. I always think he should have been around in the 1930s for screwball comedies/musicals. Instead H'wood kept trying to shoehorn twinky Brit BB into actiony hero roles.

Oooops, Richard, not Billy Grieco

Brandon Routh. Major movie, then reduced to starring on a shit show on the lame CW.

R16 Phillip Michael Thomas was no surprise. He was never a strong or particularly good actor and Miami Vice's popularity faded just as quickly as it had begun. Plus he was a nightmare to deal with.

Well, in Brandon Routh case is very easy to understand why, Superman tanked, and his tv show tanked too

Never said it was hard to fathom why R21 Just surprised he never got another chance in any decent budget film like most do after they tank something big.

Molly Ringwald.

So maybe the distinction should be made between:

Chance after chance - but never caught on: Ted McGinley, Kyle Bornheimer...

Fine enough, but associated with flops: Routh...

Given their shot, but shit all over it: Heigl...

Pushed on the public too soon/too hard: Grieco, Moll...

But Molly was big during a good part of the 80's. Let's be clear, most actors/actress don't stay at the top for that much

R22: When the movie that it's your big break blows in the box office and in the reviews you are in a tough position, specially if you have a previous career to sustain you

Sorry, meant Gretchen Mol

R8, Michael Sarazzin. was at the very tail end of the studio system which is why he seems to have been pushed into everything. Basically, he wasn't ambitious. He had a decent career and was living with Jacqueline Bisset. What more could a guy want? Julian Sands is in the same category. He is much happier being an expert on Pinter poetry than being a movie star.

Molly Ringwald also doesn't belong in the "Blew Them" category. She married well and moved to France.

You're nuts about Ted McGinley. Happy Days, Love Boat, Dynasty, Married With Children and Hope and Faith. He never quit working and is rich AF.

R25 What about Jason Momoa? Conan the Barbarian was a massive flop, yet here he is getting his own movie Superhero franchise.

Billy Campbell, The RocketQueer.

Amy Locane - who only got whatever roles she did because of her looks but then wasn’t even a passable enough actress to stay on Melrose Place.

And then of course she ended up going to jail...

There's very little good luck and a whole lot of bad luck in the entertainment industry. I'd hardly use the term "blown it" to describe a career with a big break that doesn't pan out well later.

I always think of Robin Johnson's debut in Alan Moyle's TIMES SQUARE during discussions like this.

Alan Moyle.

That name brings back memories.

Moyle as a last name, unfortunate.

Lindsay Lohan owns this fucking thread, but please don't let her have it.

Bitch will turn it into a reality show and snort away the profits.

No, Molly was in a few hit movies by the same guy. She could have moved on to other type movies but didn't capitalize. She only resorted to TV, then marriage when she proved she was a fluke to begin with.

OP, your Michael Beck was in "Alcatraz: The Whole Shocking Story" (NBC TV miniseries), not the Alcatraz movie with Eastwood. I had to look that up for you, bub. And then there's R17 with his BB this and BB that, I have no fucking idea what he's talking about. Fucking exhausting.

Judge Reinhold, perhaps? Riding high in the mid-80s, then relegated to TV movies and guest appearances on TV series.

Josh Hartnett

Children under the age of 2 will be required to be in a rear facing car seat. However, there are weight and height exemptions.

There will be a 72 hour waiting period for all gun purchases. This closes the gun show loophole for purchases made by a non-resident.

School safety drills must be conducted within 90 days of the start of the school year.

Nursing mothers will be exempt from jury duty.

Background checks will be required for every ride operator at carnivals and amusement attractions.

Family members or police can ask a judge to temporarily remove guns from anyone who they think is a threat to themselves or others

If you are required to use your personal phone or computer for work, your boss must have a reimbursement policy.

Police can take temporary custody of dogs or cats exposed to weather conditions likely to result in injury or death.

Stalking laws expanded to include messages on social media.

Hunters may wear blaze pink as well as blaze orange during hunting firearm deer season

Elliott Gould got his big movie break in 1969. He was nominated for an Oscar (Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice), was the lead in one of the best movies of 1970 (MASH), co-starred with Candice Bergen as a quirky sex symbol (Getting Straight) and trendy enough for his publicist to get him on a Time magazine cover - a year, a YEAR, later he was uninsurable and unemployed. Gould blew it all with drugs and mental instability.

Mo’nique’s career peaked when she won the best supporting actress award for her role in Precious. Her career then went into a downward spiral. She’s still claiming Oprah, Lee Daniels and Tyler Perry had her blackballed. There’s probably some truth to that, but she did come off as a self-serving ingrate.

Elliot Gould had a hot phase, at least for those of us who appreciate the hirsute and mustachioed, as exemplified in r41.

Miss Mischa Barton.

Columbus Short.

The guy with the pig nose from Twilight and the guy who starred in three big budget flops (John Carter/Mars, Battleship and I can't remember the third).

The Taylors R46. Lautner and Kitsch.

Yup, that's the two, r47. Thanks.

Brandon Cody

Michael Pitt from Boardwalk Empire (substance abuse issues I think) and Alex Pettyfer (have no idea what his issue is but he can't seem to work with anyone peaceably).

Who claimed Peter Weller was the next big thing?

Molly R had a very unflattering story about snubbing Lillian Gish in People that probably didn’t help her career

Nobody. Robocop was his biggest hit and he wasn’t really needed in the sequels.

Ed Norton

Speaking of boardwalk empire, Jack Huston was very highly regarded on that show but completely crashed and burned when given the lead in Ben Hur.

Here’s Huston when the reviews came in:

Actually Weller was in the first RoboCop sequel.

Lindsay Lohan and her white trash ways. She can act and sing but she preferred acting like a damn fool.

Sean Young. She was in Stripes, Dune, Blade Runner, Ace Ventura, and other popular movies. But she got egotistical, and began to be a difficult actress to deal with.

She thought she deserved be cast as Catwoman, and made a lot of publicity by dressing up in costume in an effort to gain favor. It backfired - she ended up looking like self-centered crybaby, and her career began to falter shortly thereafter.

Norton has been discussed in previous threads. His didn't blow up his career. He we just nominated for an Oscar 3 years ago. He works when he wants to, thanks to the films he's done and the massive trust he inherited from his architecht grandfather.

Why the fuck would anyone ever do Ben Hur?

Because the early 21st century audience has an insatiable lust for bible epics!

James Woods destroyed Sean Young's career. Take some of her antics independently, and she was just eccentric. Throw in the lies he told about her leaving bloody dolls on his door step and Stalking/ threatening to kill him and she was deemed dangerous and certifiable. Turns out he was insane one.

Would Jean Seberg count?

Judge Reinhold is one of those actors with a wife from hell. She ruined his career. He isn't the greatest guy in the world, but she really was a pain in the ass to everyone.

Brandon Routh got blamed for Superman Returns. He was actually the best thing about the film, but someone had to take the blame and it was easy to pin it on the film newbie

Turning down good roles seems to be the mistake most make.

Yes, but Norton is not A list and he could have been. Whether he wanted to or not. He is not getting any plum roles and that is because of his huge ego and low impulse control.

John Huston was not really that talented. People just liked the character on Boardwalk Empire so they confused that with his ability to endear in any role. Once he stepped outside of the Richard Harrow role, his limits became more obvious.

Let's face it, Molly Ringwald got by on epitomizing the cute girl next door. She is not that talented so once she got too old and not that cute, her career went away.

Freddie Prinze.

Got his big break around age 20 with a hit TV show.

Cheated on his wife, got involved with drugs which brought out mental illness and killed himself by gunshot at age 22 after his wife filed for divorce.

Michael Sarrazin was pretty but a dull actor. He practically disappears onscreen in his scenes with Jane Fonda in THEY SHOOT HORSES.

But he was beautiful and achingly sexy, to me, anyway.

Taylor Kitsch and Taylor Lautner

Michael Sarrazin was in FOR PETE'S SAKE, with La Babs, circa 1972.

It was funny, but nowhere near as good as WHAT'S UP, DOC.

La Babs kept telling me to “MOVE! You’re blocking my good side” on Oscar night

Speaking of La Babs, her hubby, James Brolin.

Front & center in Marcus Welby, MD. Handsome, charming, sexy, great speaking voice. Then a few TV movies & guest spots in the 70s. Then, pretty much disappeared for years.

R67: True but Norton doesn't seem the kind of actor who wants to be an A list, he is a very good actor and he wants to play roles that interest him.

Taylor Lautner is one of those actors who can even benefit from coming out (that and taking some acting lessons). A franchise, specially if you get the role being very young is never a good meassure of your star potential. It's like the members of boybands wanting a solo career, for every Justin Timberlake there's a thousand J C Chasez. Once the power of the franchise ends, most actors fade into obscurity (the inteligent ones play roles during the franchise to establish themselves). Of course in Lautner's case, his team made the big mistake of thinking he can be an action star. So instead of getting secondary roles in interesting films he pursued main roles in films that sucked. Not the best move

It's funny, R67, because I think most would agree with you about Molly Ringwald playing the cute girl next door. But if you watch her teen movies back, she is actually whiny and bitchy in them. Even in Sixteen Candles, arguably her most appealing role, she was a whiny bitch who mercilessly insulted Anthony Michael Hall's character, even calling him a "total fag." In Breakfast Club, she's the uptight, snobby, popular princess. But of all her roles, Pretty in Pink takes the cake. She's a total snatch in that film and is bitchy to everyone. I grew up in the 1980s and when my friends and I watch that movie today, we always ask why anyone was interested in the character of Andie since she was such a bitch.

R76 I agree with you, but that was the perception that propelled her career, imo. Teenagers are whiny and bitchy though, even those girls next door types, so at least she captured that.. But when you break it down, she was never incredibly talented. Proof is that she is worse than mediocre in the very few roles she does today. She was terrible on that show Secret Life of the American Teenager (I think that was the name) which was probably her first "comeback" role as an older adult.

So long as we're shredding Molly Ringwald, how about her turn in the mini series THE STAND?

WOOF

R71 Taylor Kitsch did not blow his (several) big breaks. I believe he did his best he could in all the lead roles he was given, made good professional choices in terms of the roles he chose (including True Detective 2 which had a great cast), and stayed away from controversy in his personal life. But he just can't draw an audience to save his life. Who really knows why since on paper he seems a classic leading man/action hero. Except he isn't. I am surprised he got as many leads as he did after John Carter tanked.

Taylor Lautner only had the success he did because of his lupine resemblance. His acting is painful to watch.

R74, you are wrong. James Brolin did plenty well after Marcus Welby. He appeared in features, Westworld, Capricorn One and The Amityville Horror, among several others (forgetables) in the 1970s. Then there was the hit series Hotel in the 1980s.

Even though James Brolin was a terrible actor, it didn't stop him from working for 20+ years. I call that wildly successful for showbiz.

Vote for Lindsay Lohan as well.

Olivia de Haviland. Bitch hasn't made a film since 1979.

I feel like there are many different reasons for this.

Sometimes, Hollywood simply doesn't know what to do with certain actors. I've seen very talented actors not get the breaks because they don't fit into the action hero or ingenue mold. Look how long it took someone like Ann Dowd to hit her stride. Actors like that, these days, usually blossom after 40 or 50 when there are roles for eccentric older people who actually need to look like real humans and not a 75 year old Beverly Hills former starlet who's had her face nipped and tucked to kingdom come.

I always feel bad for actors who seem to have been born too soon or too late. I call it the Mama Rose syndrome. They'd have killed in vaudeville, but they'd seem old fashioned and out of touch with the times in burlesque. I think about Debbie Reynolds and Liza Minnelli who are/were incredibly gifted at musical comedy, but Hollywood stopped making those kinds of movies. In some ways, even Streisand has suffered from this.

Then, there are the ones who have a hit movie and are on top of the world, being offered the best scripts in the business, but for whatever reason, they (or their agents) pick projects that are awful or that they aren't right for or both. These are the ones who honestly seem to stupid to survive in the business and I usually couldn't care less when they fall off the map. It's usually a young star who's more interested in staying out all night, getting laid, and snorting shit up their nose than trying to cultivate an interesting career. Sometimes, they can have a middle aged comeback if they sober up and get smart.

Then there are just the strange ones like John Travolta. From Carrie to Blow Out, he was making truly great movies (well, maybe not Moment to Moment, but they were mostly great). They might not have all been monster hits (I think Blow Out, as good a film as it was, underperformed), but he was making really smart choices for the most part. After that, he attached himself to flop after flop and these were all movies that any idiot would have turned down after reading the script. Maybe he was finally starting to get offered these roles and was getting paid a lot and just figured "fuck it, if they're paying me this much, I might as well do this piece of shit." NEVER do a shitty movie just because they're paying you more than you've ever been paid before in your life. In the long run, it will hurt you.

Travolta's career suffered until Look Who's Talking and then he was back on track again and bankable and then had a serious of other awful flops before Pulp Fiction, which bought him a little goodwill, because doing more and more flops. His career simply fascinates me. How can he have such good taste sometimes and such bad taste other times?

Alicia Silverstone. Hotter-than-hot after Clueless, and even had Aaron Spelling begging her to do 90210. Turned that down and got a three-picture deal, then loused it all up by picking lousy scripts AND gaining 20 pounds at just the wrong time. She was never much of an actress, but she had the right look at the right time and she might have had a longer run at the top with more discipline and smarter management.

Rob James Collier from Downton Abbey. I don't know that he blew it exactly but I really expected him to be big after DA. Maybe he isn't interested or maybe he is big the England we just don't know about it the U.S.. Dan Stevens, Allen Leech and Michelle Dockery have done well post DA.

Sean Young ruined it all herself. She superglued James Woods dick! How's that for crazy?

Wasn't Sean Young recently arrested for stealing the editing equipment and footage from a movie she worked on for a few days? She's also a big Trump fan, so I think she and Woods really must have had one of the craziest relationships of all time. That's a LOT of crazy.

John Travolta also put on some weight, got older, and suffered the consequences.

R86 And yet Woods, a lecherous lunatic even back then, didn't get driven out of Hollywood and blackballed.

R44 agree big time with Mischa Barton - she really fucked things up with drugs.

Even if she never ended up much of an actress, she was SO hyped, and considered so beautiful and such a fashion plate, that if she hasn’t royally fucked everything up she could easily have branded herself into some kind of multimillion dollar business and so many other famous but not so talented people have done.

Max Caufield from the other thread.

Beck was awful in Xanadu as well, he played a guy whose greatest dream was being made real by a beautiful goddess but he acts like it's all he can do not to punch someone out the entire movie.

I think Sean Young's cat woman antics would have damaged her career even without the James Woods stuff. It was pathetic and disparate and really cringe worthy. She continued to work and get cast after all the Woods stuff. I wouldn't say she blew her big break though. She got casts as Vickie Vale but got injured in rehearsals and was replaced by Kim Bassinger. She also got replaced on Dick Tracy. It wasn't one bad mistake it was a series of things.

Sean Young was already off but dating James Woods pushed her truly over the edge and judging by the stories out there about Woods there's no telling what he put her through.

Karen Valentine became America's television sweetheart thanks to "Room 222". She won an Emmy, became a Merv Griffin regular guest and was cast by ABC as the new Gidget.

R8, He also had the hottest girlfriend in Hollywood, Jacqueline Bissett.

R41, His massively hairy back killed his career.

Does Bruce Jenner in Can't Stop the Music count? How about Kurt Thomas in Gymkata or Mitch Gaylord in American Anthem?

Macaulay Culkin and a lot of child stars would fit this category.

I do wonder how much say actors have when it comes to picking their projects. Obviously, if you're Meryl Streep, you get first dibs on every role for a woman over 50, but do most actors get much of a say or are their agents like "you HAVE to do this because of such and such?" I wonder if some actors just don't have the guts to say "no, I'm not doing Slaughter Weekend 3D. The script sucks, my character makes no sense, and people are going to hate it."

I assume even Meryl was in that boat at some point where she just needed to work.

Brad Davis. He made a splash in "Midnight Express" . won a Golden Globe for New Star of the Year. He then proceeded to go seriously crazy, drinking, drugging, having sex with anything that moved, behaving like a lunatic in restaurants and at parties. This is from the book written by his wife Susan Bluestein:

"The scenario was perhaps best captured at a party Brad attended that winter, a party attended by several influential directors as well as studio heads. Brad was already drunk when he showed up, and after a few minutes of surveying the scene, he plunged into the crowd, tearing off his shirt, yelling "Okay, who's got the drugs?" He already too out of it to notice over in the corner two studio executives riveted by his performance. "Oh, my God," said one. "He's an addict." A director was overhead muttering to himself, "There goes that career."

Rami Malik NEXT YEAR....His only hope is an Oscar and Academy Voters who have been "me too'ed" are not going to reward Rami for happily signing on with Bryan Singer...Papillon was a DUD and he has nothing but a Voice over in Dr. Doolittle coming up...Mr Robot is cancelled...Ramis career is basically over...

Irene Cara, from the movie "Fame," and many other popular vehicles in the late 70s and early 80s. She was a well-known actress/singer who seemed destined for legendary status when, POOF, she was practically erased from the Hollywood mainstream. I think she challenged the stipulations of one of her contracts (don't know if it was her acting or singing one), and the industry heads retaliated by blacklisting her from any further opportunities.

I agree with most of the names listed, but no way does Brandon Routh count. Legends of Tomorrow is one of the greatest shows currently on TV and Routh is no small part of the show’s brilliance.

Brenton Thwaites, despite being put in several high profile projects, doesn't seem to be making an impact. To be honest, he's handsome enough, but doesn't leave much of an impression as an actor. But I see guys less talented than he who have made A-list - Channing Tatum, Justin Hartley to name a couple.

R103 here. Irene Cara sued for non-payment by her recording studio. As a result, no other studio wanted to take her on.

[Quote]Cara’s recording career was negatively affected by the legal problems she had in the ‘80s with her label, RSO Records. Cara sued the label and eight years later, she won a jury verdict and finally began earning royalties that she had been unable to collect during this contentious period. To make matters worse, other labels did not want to sign Cara because she had sued RSO.

John Agar.

WWII vet got his big break in Hollywood by marrying Shirley Temple and making ','Fort Apache "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon" and "Sands of Iwo Jima".

However, he was a nasty drunk and by the end of the 40's and he was divorced and making movies like "The Mole People" throughout the 50s.

R105 = I agree....He is playing Robin on Titans-----but ultimately working steady for 8 weeks a YEAR on a tv show doesn't make you much more successful than an actor doing commercials...

r103 Irene Cara failed because she showed her scary ass titties in FAME & they were the ugliest fried egg looking things anyone had ever seen.

Rami Malek just played Freddy Fucking Mercury is the highest grossing movie of the Xmas season. Seriously doubting his career is over.

People connected to "Birdman" say that Ed Norton was playing Ed Norton. Bitch is crazy.

R108, what is TITANS about?

"Irene Cara, from the movie "Fame," and many other popular vehicles in the late 70s and early 80s. "

What "many other popular vehicles?" I don't remember her for anything except "Fame" and that awful "What a Feeling" song from that awful movie "Flashdance." It which incredibly won an Oscar, which just goes to show that anything can win a Best Song Academy Award.

R111 it's a superhero WB live action tv show.....Brandon plays Robin, batmans sidekick-----yes---THAT Robin. Only Sexy. Bonus Points----the actor who plays Garfield on the show is gay and has naked selfies floating around the net.

R110 ..... He has NO JOBS lined up. Nothing. A voice over (to be released in 2020)....He has the Singer Stench on him.

Rami Malek has such a strange look that he will be pigeonholed as the freak, the outcast loser. He’s a hit as Freddie Mercury because Freddie himself wasn’t good looking at all. He had a face for radio.

Some people become famous simply for being beautiful. That won't last forever and, eventually, audiences and studios will realize they have nothing to offer them once their looks fade and they'll discard them. It's sad, but don't become an actor if you can't really act. At best, you'll have a solid 10-15 years. As someone else mentioned, the ones who might be a little more quirky looking like Ann Dowd end up taking over and playing those roles because they still look like real flyover 50+ humans. THere's a reason, say, Melanie Griffith isn't being cast as grandmothers even though she's old enough to be one. There IS a reason Jamie Lee Curtis just had the biggest hit of her career with the new Halloween - she looks like a real woman at 60 and can act.

Neely O'Hara. Too fond of the pills and the dope. Sad.

Marty Feldman eyes, r114.

I wouldn't count Rami Malek out just yet. Word is the Geicko lizard is due to retire and the role is HIS for the asking!

R99, I do not think child actors should count.

"Some people become famous simply for being beautiful"

I know what you mean, R116.

Billy Zane. He rode high as the asshole, bad guy in Titanic then tanked with the starring role in The Phantom. He gets some occasional work now on direct to DVD shit films.

Peter Weller returned to school, and, ultimately, earned a Ph.D. in Italian renaissance art history at UCLA. He spent a significant portion of that time living in Italy.

R123, That's what fucking Ali McGraw will do for you.

R122, Losing his hair had a lot to do with his demise.

R76, I don't see it that way at all. Ringwald's character in 16 Candles is a girl trying to get through her teen years. That brief period around her sister's wedding she puts up with her family forgetting her birthday, her annoying grandparents on both sides, and all the family and school crap, while she tries to negotiate her crush on Jake, which she's sure is going to be a dead end. Anthony Michael Hall's character was a twit. And she was nice enough to give him her underwear, so he could pretend to be cool rather than the complete loser that he was. Both she and Hall acted well in this comedy, but her character is the typical teen and Hall's is the obnoxious immature dweeb.

Ronee Blakely - won acclaim in her first prominent film "Nashville." Was supposed to be a major star but just fizzled out, a lot of which had to do with her own behavior on sets, possibly substance problems.

Good one r127.

And Edward Norton was difficult. I can't be bothered being specific. You can all look it up.

R65 I agree, Routh was the best thing about that Superman film. I think the film just had, I don't know, pacing problems. It was more issues with the writing and directing than with his acting. Plus Legends of Tomorrow on the CW is in it's 4th Season, probably the best show on that channel right now(which may not be saying much but...), it definitely doesn't take itself too seriously.

R108 I don't watch Titans, it's an ensemble but Robin would be considered the lead character so I'm pretty sure Brenton Thwaites works more than 8 weeks a year and gets paid more than your average actor doing regular commercials. :)

R85 I remember when Dan Stevens left Downton Abbey everyone was sure that was the end of him, boy did he turn that around.

R16 I thought Richard Grieco was brought in to send a message to Depp, because he was already making waves about not wanting to be "a teen idol" and wanting to be a serious actor. They may have thought Grieco could give him a run for his money but I don't think there was any serious thing about which one would make it "big"(I don't think either was thought of as going very far, it just so happens Depp did). They did give Grieco a very short lived spin off but that was probably a reward for playing ball and Depp wouldn't have been nterested in doing some spin off as the same character anyway.

And don’t forget that Routh played Ray Palmer for 20 episodes of Arrow before being spun off onto LoT. His success in the Arrowverse really can’t be denied.

Wasn't Routh fired from a soap opera for not wanting to play gay?

Totally agree r76, she’s exceptionally annoying in Pretty in Pink. One of my favorite movie moments is when the bitchy girls refuse to apologize in class and take the pages instead. Never understood the mystique of Molly Ringwals other than John Hughes obvious obsession with her.

Ed Norton is a horrible person. TOtal asshole who thinks he’s god’s gift to the human race.

Ringwald*

Ronee Blakely made me think of Joan Crawford...probably the plastic surgery. Loved her in the bomb "The Driver" in 1978, I think R127 is right about the DRUGS.

Dan Stevens also ended up losing a lot of weight, which helped. He looks gorgeous now. He was a bit chunky on Downton.

Alden Ehrenreich. Blew it.

I always thought Jan Michael Vincent blew a huge chance because of his drug an alcohol problems. I remember watching him on Airwolf, which I think was towards the end of his short-lived career. Wasn't he the "IT BOY?"

Also, now he's 74 and an amputee.

Billy Crudup. When I saw Almost Famous I thought for sure he'd be a superstar. Now he's lost his looks and is in small supporting roles.

R129 Consldering the cast of Riverdale only makes 40 Grand an episode (peanuts by Hollywood Standards) I doubt Brendon Thwaites clears 20 grand an episode for an ONLINE TV SHOW-----11 episodes for season 1 = before taxes, agents and room and board...Try being a "Hollywood Star" on less than 440,000 a year...Maybe he picks up "extra side jobs" but he doesn't look especially good at anything that might entail...

Brandon Routh disgusts me...I've seen his choice of "friends"

R138

Cheating on an 8/9 month pregnant Mary Louise Parker with Claire Danes is what killed his career. He never recovered from it.

F65 Brandon Routh was actually great in Superman Returns, but the movie's story line just didn't flow well, and the film got mixed reviews. The film did well, just not great, worldwide box office $391M, which is nowhere near the major box office bonanza they hoped for.

Cherie Currie from the girl group the Runaways got good reviews playing Jodie Foster's friend in FOXES, but didn't make it up the next rung.

[quote]r31 Amy Locane - who only got whatever roles she did because of her looks but then wasn’t even a passable enough actress to stay on Melrose Place. And then of course she ended up going to jail...

So, how does Locane support herself now, post-prison? I mean, does she work in a drug store, or what?

Billy Crudup killed his career by being an ass. Note that he has not has much stage work either. He was much hated during Arcadia. (note: Godot and No Man's Land in 2013 were really one production though listed separately on IBDB.)

No movie has been improved by the noxious Edward Norton rewriting the script and taking it over in post.

Jennifer Grey and her nose job fiasco in the early 1990s

[quote]r63 Would Jean Seberg count?

No. She proved more resilient than anyone could at first imagine. She sustained a respectable career after a disasterous debut, and even made some hit movies.

But she eventually (inevitably) aged out of the "Lovely Leading Lady" catagory, while also becoming erratically unhinged.

Ali MacGraw was Hollywood's new It Girl after "Goodbye Columbus" and "Love Story".

A lack of talent and bad marriage choices led to her demise.

Klinton Spillsbury owns this thread

Gosh this thread makes me wanna hang my head down and cry for all the actors who get such drippy fates.

Treat Williams - Hair tanked, Prince of the City tanked. Was their substance abuse?

Mind you since then he has worked steadily as a reliable character actor but Hair & Prince of the City were meant to make him a big star.

Sometimes the problem is the big break. We have young actors right now (Chalamet, Hedges, Elgort) who are building their careers step by step. Getting critical acclaim makes way easier to return to your career after a box office faliure).

When you are young and you hit big with your first or second role, the chances are totally against you. First because the actor generally is not responsible at all of the success of the project, second because he is too new in the business to really know how he wants to deal with his career, the probabilities of bad choices are really high.

Of course there's a big percentage of luck in an acting career, a fantastic screen play could end being an awful film, and that tv project nobody confides could end being a hit.

Of course kids from wealthy families, and specially wealthy families with connections in the industry have it way easier. It's easy to reject bad projects when you are not working hours and hours as bartender to pay the bills. Talent has a lot to do with having a long career and a good reputation, but very little with being an A list actor (and of course most A list actors are only in the A list for a few years).

Sometimes having success too young is the worst thing you can have, most child actors don't tranlate in adult successful actors (in that case having parents with the feet in the ground would help a lot).

And of course some social skills are needed, if you have big ego and treat journalists like shit, it's very possible that they are eager to write your demise. Being an ass never helps (ask Milles Teller), if you are a good actor you can pretend being nice for the time of an interview

R137, Jan Michael Vincent had a long TV career before he destroyed himself. He was a mediocre actor, at 74 he wouldn't be working amputee or not. He made the most of his chances.

Many of you do not understand the question.

[quote]Brandon Routh disgusts me...I've seen his choice of "friends"

R140, I don't know if I would call that a choice. One was his director and the other a costar at that particular time.

Put in another way: I can't stand my some of my colleagues, but there are pictures of me with them out there as well.

"Ali MacGraw was...A lack of talent and bad marriage choices led to her demise."

Ali's demise was totally due to her being one of the shittiest "actresses" to ever have the lead in a movie. The fact that she ever HAD an acting career is the headline.

Ali magross was great in "Just Tell Me What You Want" and got good reviews. I expected her to stick around and have a decent "later in life" career despite her inauspicious cinematic roots. I feel she was too old. She might have able to sustain some momentum today, with so many better roles for older women on Netflix and the like.

I tried but couldn't make it through Just Tell Me What You Want. Ali was still as lousy as ever, and Alan King was gross.

R35---If you want to work at LL's beach club....you have to be THE VERY BEST! Mkay?

What's the name of the UK actor who's really rude to people and got a shot in a YA sci-fi film? He's still around... blond...

How about this one - Don Johnson. BIG star of a big 1980s TV series (Miami Vice), pop music star (briefly), slated for movie stardom. It didn't work. One could argue that Johnson was just not cut out for the big screen (like Tom Selleck), but you could also argue that drugs and a cavalier attitude fucked up his post-Miami Vice career. Yes, I know Johnson continued to work, but the glow of stardom was long gone after 1990.

JUDGE REINHOLD first received recognition for basically playing the lead in FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH. With subsequent roles in RUTHLESS PEOPLE and the BEVERLY HILLS COP franchise he appeared to be on the way up. I'm not certain as to what happened but he fell off the radar pretty damn fast.

R161, I think one has to make a distinction between actors who blew a chance and those who walked away. Don Johnson made a ton of money on Miami Vice. He did not need to work again. He basically chose films that would take him to a location that interested him, or allowed him to work with people who interested him.

[quote]Sean Young ruined it all herself. She superglued James Woods dick! How's that for crazy?

Considering what a right-wing asshole Woods was later revealed to be, this is pretty funny now.

leighton meester of gossip girl, she made some bad movies and is now doing tv

R162, I answered that up thread. He has a wife who is a horror. It is basically the Randy Quaid/Evi Quaid story-

[quote]Billy Zane. He rode high as the asshole, bad guy in Titanic then tanked with the starring role in The Phantom. He gets some occasional work now on direct to DVD shit films.

"The Phantom" was released in 1996, "Titanic" in December of 1997.

MEG RYAN was America's Sweetheart for a few years. Cheating on her well liked (and) hunky husband plus bad plastic surgery didn't enhance her career.

LARA FLYNN BOYLE

CHRISTOPHER JONES was hot. He had the male lead in RYAN'S DAUGHTER and appeared to some to be the new James Dean. Over as fast as he began.

Christopher Jones couldn't act for shit.

Almost everyone in "West Side Story" except for Natalie Wood, who already was a star. George Chakiris, not a bad actor, absolutely gorgeous - but chose one bad film after another after he won that Best Supporting Actor except for the Young Girls of Rochefort in Europe, Rita Moreno, never mind the disastrous Richard Beymer - all went nowhere except into minor roles and thence to oblivion, particularly Beymer. The dancers fared better, particularly Eliot Feld (Baby John) who went on to head his own highly respected contemporary ballet company.

Gretchen Moll

Adrien Brody is a heartbreaker. His first big role was in the forgettable Summer of Sam (although I've never forgotten him walking around in his blue skivvies), won for the Pianist (IMHO the greatest performance in film since Vivien Leigh in GWTW), and then his career sank like a stone. What happened to him?

He's a great actor, a brilliant actor, but something went wrong. I wish he'd so a Broadway play or something. He has no theater on his resume.

[Quote] Legends of Tomorrow is one of the greatest shows currently on TV and Routh is no small part of the show’s brilliance.

Greatest??? Lol

[Quote] What's the name of the UK actor who's really rude to people and got a shot in a YA sci-fi film? He's still around... blond...

Alex Pettyfer

R152 - I think Ray Liotta falls into the Treat Williams category, as well. Of course, with the bad skin Liotta would probably always be fighting a stereotype of the macho working-class slightly malign guy, but still . . . Williams was better looking.

Most everyone else in the Ring films had lackustre futures except the ones who were already famous as fine character and/or stage actors, like Blanchett, McKellan, Weaving, Rhys-Davies . . . Mortensen never aimed for stardom and due to what he earned in it, pleased himself afterward by working in indie films and built a reputation as a good actor - hes been nominated for a couple of Oscars, Globes, BAFTAS, and SAG awards over time; Bloom only survived by going into another franchise (Pirates of the Caribbean). But the rest for whom a role in the RIngs was supposed to be a real first break, pretty much became minor nonentities, including the lovely Liv Tyler.

I'm curious to see if Aidan Turner's breaks in the Hobbit films and his two major television hits, Being Human (the UK original version) and Poldark, and his surprisingly successful recent stage venture in the West End in London, leads him up the ladder or if he's gone as far as he can. It's notable that his two co-stars in Being Human have not particularly gotten a leg up from their roles in what was a huge hit in Britain. (Although it is alleged that Turner got his leg over on at least two of his lovely co-stars in Being Human.)

There's also a difference between actors who blew a chance for stardom, and for whom stardom eroded their chances for a more distinguished acting career. A good many of the Bond and Marvel and DC actors are testament to that.

Thora Birch made a successful transition from child star to the next big thing with her performances in American Beauty and Ghost World- but her parents ruined her career.

Amanda Bynes- obviously belongs on this list. Hugely successful child and teen star with a string o hit movies in her 20’s- she would still be working today if it wasn’t for her mental illnesses. She was fired from Hall Pass and that was the end of her career.

Dominique Swain was also a next big thing then she dissapeared.

Brittany Murphy’s marriage to that Simon Monjack creature ended her career and eventually her life.

Natasha Lyonnne rule this list had she not lucked out with OITNB.

Armie Hammer in a couple different things. It's him vs the foot he loves to stick in his mouth.

R171 nailed it. Plus Christopher Jones LOOKED like James Dean, his acting/screen presence/potential HAD NOTHING TO DO with James Dean. Additionally, his James Dean looks were not much of the conversation at the time. I wonder how many of you were around then or just read about things reinterpreted. Come on, R170, tell us about Michael Parks and how HE was thought of as another James Dean. Not.

"George Chakiris, not a bad actor, absolutely gorgeous "

George Chakiris, not a bad actor, absolutely too gay to be a lead in the 1960s.

George Chakiris was great in The Big Cube with Lana Turner and LSD.

[quote] A-list - Channing Tatum, Justin Hartley

I must be old. I remember when people knew the meaning of A-list.

R180 - I didn't think Chakiris was particularly fey, he did a wonderful job as the Latino macho Bernardo, and he played Riff in the London stage production. If anything, it was Beymer who was utterly unable to drum up the slightest iota of hetero heat. You have to know how he got the lead in the film . . .

If being gay were the issue, half of Hollywood would have disappeared into oblivion. He wasn't out. He was under contract and got put into really mediocre vehicles afterward, like "Flight from Ashiya". "Diamond Head" was probably the best of the American films he got put into afterward, and that was a potboiler.

It was bad choices not his hardly flagrant sexual orientation.

Treat Williams was a cocaine addict. Jonathan Rhys Meyers flushed his career away with drugs,booze, and bad behavior.

Brittany Murphy's hoarding and paranoia likely ended her life, r177. She died of sepsis caused by a lung infection. It turns out her house had a toxic mold problem and nailing her windows shut didnt help. Neither did filling the house with clothes. It's what killed her husband too.

R172, interesting that you completely ignored Russ Tamblyn.

[R172]

Russ Tamblyn definitely blew it.

From West Side Story/The Haunting to Al Adamson movies by the end of the sixties....Was it drugs?

^^^^^^ That should be R186.

R179

The post asked for actors who got big breaks but blew them. I did that.

I thought Amy Locane was dead until I looked her up. I think I was mixing her up with Lisa Robyn Kelly or Amanda Peterson.

[Quote]Rita Moreno, never mind the disastrous Richard Beymer - all went nowhere except into minor roles and thence to oblivion

I disagree with you about Rita Moreno, r172. Her problem was her Puerto Rican ethnicity, which typecast her, therefore limiting the types of roles she was eligible to play. But she made the best of her breaks, and ended up becoming a well-known singer/actress who became one of the few people to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and a Tony.

Just to remind you, she afterwards starred in Popi, The Night of the Following Day, and Carnal Knowledge. Most eldergays remember her from The Electric Company, and most Millennials remember her from Oz. She's currently working on the Netflix version of One Day at a Time. All in all, she's done good.

R185 her husband was a major source of her paranoia. I know they both passed away from the toxic mold but I believe she would still be alive today if she has never gotten with him.

R183, all you have to do is look into his eyes to see he's gay x 10.

It was the mom, r192. Murphy had issues long before she met Monjack.

R192, it wasn’t the mold according to this.

There have been so many "It Girls" over the years who seemed on the brink of stardom then faded. Justine Bateman was everywhere one year in the 1980s, then after Family Ties ended, nothing. I do think talent wins out in the end, which probably explains Bateman. Someone like Laura Linney took her breakout role as Mary Ann Singleton in Tales of the City and built a successful career on it. She had some lean years, but now she's on Ozark on Netflix and getting critical recognition for that. I think the streaming services are giving actresses like Linney a second chance.

Rita Moreno "starred" in those movies, R191? Have you even seen Carnal Knowledge?

I'm not arguing that she didn't have a successful career after WWS, I'm only saying you should learn what starring means. Moreno was a supporting actress - if that much - and she had one scene at the end of Carnal Knowledge.

Katharine Ross starred in such iconic films as The Graduate, Butch Cassidy and The Stepford Wives and then went off to live with Sam Elliott.

Actually, that sounds pretty good to me.

R197, but she didn't blow her career either, unless you consider being an out Hispanic, rather than a closeted one like Ramón Gerard Antonio Estévez AKA, Martin Sheen, blowing a big break. She had a great career for an obviously ethnic actress.

[Quote]I'm only saying you should learn what starring means.

R197 Fine, she played a role, you vocabulary quibbler. But she certainly didn't sink into oblivion, as you originally stated.

Rhys Meyers manages to live in a $2M+ house in Malibu. Either he or his managers handled his money well or he's living on credit. It can't be because of all his high powered earnings--the guy has basically been blackballed by the studios for about a decade. Do straight to streaming movies pay well?

I don't think he has the acting chops nor the mainstream appeal to make it to mainstream popularity but he could have had a very decent quirky indie career and he definitely blew that.

^^^Why has he been blackballed? Googling revealed some substance abuse and rehab and an altercation with his wife on an airplane, but that's hardly unusual in Hollywood.

Is he hard to work with? He's superb in The Tudors. You really get a feeling about what a tyrant is like. Not least in bed.

Rhys Meyers just finished up a season of Vikings...maybe that paid well. He still looks HAF.

R191 you're so right about Rita Moreno. If she isn't a great success story then I don't know what is. Absolutely loved her in The Ritz.

Crudup is a broadway actor and very successful....the movies are for dough....

He was in 15 episodes of Vikings but as part of the ensemble and not the lead like he was in The Tudors. I can't imagine it paid that well. He was reported to have been paid 100K per episode for Dracula. Too bad that only lasted 10 episodes. The show barely started and there was a big story about how his contract was structured to be mostly paid only after shooting completed. To motivate him to stay on the wagon during filming and he still tumbled hard. He was hospitalized during filming. I remember the story and thinking it was leaked by NBC to justify their axing of the show. Not their fault, it was JRM's

R205, except he has worked very little on Broadway. He has done really only two plays in ten years (Godot and No Man's Land were done in rep. and should count as one) He has a lousy reputation. He was cast in Arcadia because he had done the original Broadway production and was an ass to everyone.

R174: He never was a conventional lead man but i think Brody private life is not the best to stay on the top. He was arrested some years ago in Spain because he and a bunch of rich idiots were making ilegal races in public roads. He is basically someone who thinks his money allow him to put in risk the lives of other people

Emily Lloyd. Has she been mentioned yet?

Sherry Springfield. She wasn't the next Julia Roberts or anything, but I think leaving ER when she did damaged her future opportunities. She might have stated in The Good Wife or another prestigious female TV role. I see her in small parts here and there but never in very prominent roles.

Didn't she do the same thing with another show, r210? I think it was a cop show.

This is for you, r204!

[quote]r171 Christopher Jones couldn't act for shit.

He was dubbed by another actor in RYAN'S DAUGHTER.

That usually doesn't bode well.

[quote]r209 Emily Lloyd. Has she been mentioned yet?

Very sad story. She had SEVERE manic depression, has been in and out of institutions, and doesn't remember whole periods of her life.

Speaking of MORENO and how racism hurt her career: She did fine early on. People forget she's been around over 65 yrs. Shes probably the last living cast member from SINGING IN THE RAIN (1952). Once she made a name for herself she started pushing her 'latina' heritage and claiming that Hollywood tried to pigeon hole her into 'hot tempered spitfire roles'. Uh huh.

Like STREISAND once she became successful who became more jewish than thou.

Poor pitiful creatures ......................

"Don Johnson. BIG star of a big 1980s TV series (Miami Vice), pop music star (briefly), slated for movie stardom. It didn't work. "

Oh, come on. He was never "slated for movie stardom." He'd been in movies before Miami Vice. He was pretty, but that was all. He's always been a mediocre actor. He was damned lucky to get Miami Vice. It was perfect for him; all he had to do was look good. If not for that tv show, nobody would ever have heard of him.

R211 yes and no. She was on NYPD Blue. She played the ex wife of the David Caruso. Her character didn't have a lot to do so she asked to be written out. A little after that Caruso got himself written out, so she would have gotten further marginalized. She wouldn't have been able to do ER if she'd stayed. It was a good move. On ER her character had good story lines with Emmy reel scenes. Her character was in the middle of a popular romantic arc when she asked to leave. She also wasn't allowed to do any movies or TV until her contract expired. She just wanted to spend more time with her boyfriend or something.

Cuba Gooding, Jr. His gifted Oscar was the start of his slide. After the sled dog movie and Boat Trip, he hit his nadir. He could have parlayed his role into something much more. Same with Halle Berry... I was shocked that no one, no one thought that it would be a good idea to pair her with Denzel Washington in a film. A mystery if there ever was...

Sad stuff about JRM. He’s a talented actor who seems hellbent on killing himself bit by bit with booze n drugs.

I’m certain that JRM and Pettyfer have justifiable reasons for their erratic behavior.

Didn't Ronee Blakley sue her record company? And she lost. And then she pissed off Robert Altman by re-recording her Nashville songs for her own album?

Dylan O'Brien......He had the Successfil Maze Runner Franchise and promptly FLOPPED in American Assasin and Deepware Horizon......

R16 Caruso did not make it in movies but the fact that he became a massive tv star again in CSI Miami was at least financial consolation.

R216, you're right that Johnson was pretty and a mediocre actor. However, he had charisma and an audience. EVERYONE thought he would have a movie career after Miami Vice - jokes were made about how co-star Philip Michael Thomas would be forgotten 5 minutes after the series was over, implying Johnson was the star with a future. I believe he could have had one for a few years.

Many mediocre TV actors have gone on to movie careers like Steve McQueen, Bruce Willis and Clint Eastwood. I have no personal investment in Don Johnson and could care less, I just remember what was going on at the time.

Dawson. After that Fifty load weekend, it was all downhill from there.

r222, Dylan O'Brien was in a coma for years and required major reconstructive facial surgery. You can hardly blame him for flops when his face was CGI'd onto the body of Andy Serkis. And it's not like he could do promo from the sanatorium in Switzerland.

R7 Edward Furlong was groomed and abused by his tutor and nobody cared because nobody cares about female-on-male abuse.

Have to back a bit but Martin Hewitt owns this thread. And almost the entire cast of "A Chorus Line: The Movie".

Chakiris is pretty masculine here, but what's up with the eye makeup?

R220, I vaguely remember JRM's wife mentioning abuse in one of her social media defenses of him after another public drunk episode. She didn't elaborate but threw the word out there--not sure if she was grabbing at straws trying to triage his PR bleeding out or if confirming what many of us suspected. The thing is there are so many possibilities--his mother was an alcoholic and he spent his childhood out of school and running the streets. Plus, when he did go to school--it was a Catholic boys school. Then there was the wealthy gay farmer who "mentored" him as a teenager. And then there's the movie business.

R146 Norton polished up the script to Frida because he was dating Salma Hayek at the time. It went on to be nominated for Best Screenplay and Norton didn't even ask to be credited.

[Quote]Speaking of MORENO and how racism hurt her career: She did fine early on.

R215 Nearly all of her early roles were of either Hispanic or American Indian characters. She played white Zelda in SITR only because Gene Kelly personally selected her for the part, seemingly unconcerned by her Spanish name and Puerto Rican origins. But other movie producers and casting directors felt differently, and would only put her in ethnic roles. I'm sure she would've gladly played more white roles if they had only been offered to her.

Eric Roberts,

He even admits he pissed away a viable career due to bad behavior and bad decisions.

His daughter, Emma, is "JULIA ROBERTS NIECE", rather than "ERIC ROBERTS DAUGHTER" and he is the one who used his muscle to get Julia her first acting jobs!

R186 - I never thought of Tamblyn as a real dancer - he was more of an acrobat. And I think he was a child actor, too, wasn't he? He'd been in the business much longer than Chakiris had been when he got the part of Riff. But you're right, I overlooked him.

However, he did make it into one of cinema's greatest horror films, "The Haunting." His one-time wife, Venetia Stevenson, also made it into one of the genre's greats, "Horror Hotel",. So between the two of them, they notched up something for the record-books.

But I never thought of him as a dancer in the sense the others were.

R233 - gender bias aside, I always thought Eric Roberts by far the more interesting and charismatic actor than his sister. But things just didn't go right for him, and once Julia got so far ahead of him I think he stopped trying.

That's an old time studio shot of Chakiris and you could look into a good many eyes of the day in similar shots and say the same thing. His eyes didn't look gay banging his fist on the wall in the opening scenes of West Side Story. That's one of the great intro shots of all time to a dance number.

There was that Big Cold - Chill, that's it - thing she got. Well, it wasn't really a big break. But it was a movie, and then, well, you know.

R95, funny you should mention Karen Valentine, I was just thinking of her yesterday. She really was all over the place on TV and in the teen and movie magazines of the late 60s and early 70s. Kind of bubbly and cute. Has she been in anything lately? I haven’t seen her, but then again it seems like nobody ever really disappears from show business anymore, there are 1 million TV shows and a gig for everyone.

Bret Butler. Her TV show was huge back in the day. I hope she made a lot of money for herself.

^^Excellent example. She really fucked it up for herself.

R222 Wouldn't Deepwater be Marky Mark's movie??? And were either of those other franchises huge hits at the box office? I think he's still got time to turn things around.

Eric Roberts was really messed up before he started getting recognition as an actor. Emotional disturbance runs in his family. He became involved with the much older, very crazy Sandy Dennis. And of course drinking, drugs...it was the usual story. I think what really put the kibosh on his career as a leading man was the car crash that ruined his looks. The accident put him in a coma, bruised his brain and caused serious facial trauma. He had to learn to walk and talk again. But for an actor looks are everything. He has unusual good looks before the accident, having the big eyes and big lips that were characteristic in his family. But the car accident made his face off-kilter and especially damaged his nose. Luckily, he's worked steadily as a character actor. But he continued to fuck up, getting in fights with his wife, still doing drugs, etc. But it seems he's relatively settled down now. He continues to work; with his smashed face he's almost always cast as a villain.

Speaking or Julia and Eric Roberts, I'd love to see the two of them together in a slightly twisted remake: Whatever Happened to Baby John?

R212, thank you honey ~ a visit from Googie is always a pleasure!

"Eric Roberts ...became involved with the much older, very crazy Sandy Dennis"

Eric Roberts ...became involved with the much older, very crazy, very GAY Sandy Dennis"

Daniel J Travanti did nothing with his amazing success from Hill Street Blues. Poor Pizza Man.

Mickey Rourke comes to mind. He was nasty and threatening to directors and producers; also brought his buddies the Hell's Angels on set to intimidate them (Carrie Otis wrote about it in her autobiography)

Another one is Cher. I absolutely love her and I think she's a great actress: Moonstruck, The Witches Of Eastwick, etc... and for some reason her career stalled. I don't know what happened. Anyone care to explain it to me?

R233 I had no idea Emma Roberts is Eric's daughter. Explains so much about her because she's another one with so many issues, she's kind of insane. She doesn't have anywhere near the talent of Julia or Eric either.

Rita Moreno is a legend and still talented and gorgeous.

Completely agree about JRM but he still does look amazing considering the abuse he has put himself through and is a great actor. Defies logic. Very sad.

Amy Irving. I think her divorce from Steven Spielberg got her blackballed.

Ron Eldard. Thought he was great in Sleepers, Ghost Ship, and ER but got deluded into thinking he could carry a movie, which he can't. Did straight to DVD crap (Just A Kiss, Diggers, Delivered) which hurt his career. He's much better off being a supportive player.

Richard Gere. His proselytizing is tiresome, along with his white hair, IMO.

I always liked Amy Irving. I think she can kinda just pick what she wants every now and then since she has that Spielberg divorce money.

Exactly, R249 - Honestly, that’s always been my dream, to get a huge divorce settlement and never have to work again. It’s the greatest winfall imaginable. So you have to put up with some cheating or bad behavior for a few years, big deal.

^^^windfall, obviously

R248 RIchard Gere? I’m pretty sure he has had career longevity than anyone would have ever dreamed. He’s worth a shitton of money too - and he collected some pretty big paychecks well into his 50s and even 60s.

R247 Roberts' team is working hard to rehabilitate her image so people will forget she beat up Evan Peters. other than Ryan Murphy, I can't think of one Movie she's been in since 2015 or so. She recently got a Netflix series starring as some spoiled Ice skater and dropped out last minute. Not smart.

Alex Pettyfer and Maxwell Caulfield

Both were positioned by their studios to be big stars with their first big American starring roles, and each behaved so badly onset before the films even opened that their reputations were ruined before the films flopped

If you're going to be a diva, wait until you become an actual star and are not just told you will be one.

Gere did well for quite awhile as a dependable leading man and supporting actor in several great films. He's slowed down a lot in the past decade or so, but he deserves to take a little break. Maybe he did what he wanted and isn't as ambitious as he once was.

Diva behavior will kill just about any career within a few years. If you're going to act like one, you better deliver a brilliant performance every time and, even then, you'll still have a short shelf life (see: Faye Dunaway).

Maxwell Caulfield behaved badly? I never heard a thing about him, only ever saw smiling photos With Juliet Mills -To whom he is still married after, what, 40 years?

Actually, Linda Fiorentino owns this thread several times over. She was *the* next big thing after The Last Seduction back in 1994. Just take a look at what high she was riding after that movie:

Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead

London Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the Year

New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress

Society of Texas Film Critics Award for Best Actress

Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role

Nominated—Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress (2nd place)

Nominated—Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress

Nominated—National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress (3rd place)

Instead of seizing on that momentum, she did some so-so projects, including downright stinkers ("Jade") through the remainder of the 90's, with some further exposure through Man In Black and Dogma. I think she did 2 (!) movies after 2000, one in 2002, another one in 2009 and nothing since. It's not like she was not talented but she was a nightmare to deal with which seems to have killed her career.

That hunky smart newsman turned porn god, Steve Leer. Did that big budge Falcon costume drama porn then crickets. Got moobs, hemorrhoids, and married a meth dealer - "influencer". 'Member him?

Joe Pesci. Where did he go?

"How can [Travolta] have such good taste sometimes and such bad taste other times?"

Depends on when he last showered.

Amy Irving had a little bit of a critical comeback with that movie about her falling in love with the pickle guy. But that was about it. It was a nice moment for her though.

josh hartnett

As far as the premise of this thread, I would say there’s a difference between fucking up your momentum and simply aging out or easing into character roles.

I'm going to add Sally Struthers, although I'm not sure how she blew it after All In The Family. But from the original cast, she was the only one whose career faltered after leaving the show.

Sally Struthers was great in her role as Gloria, but honestly what else was she going to do?

I don't think Alan Rickman fits this category but it's so bizarre how high and low his career went.

Die Hard, then the truly awful January Man. Quigley Down Under, the great Truly Madly Deeply. Then the awful Closet Land. Followed by Robin Hood, Close My Eyes.

Then his first real lead in Mesmer- which was worse than January Man. Then the boring An Awfully Big Adventure. Followed by a great part in Sense and Sensibility. Then back to the pointless Judas Kiss. Then a great part in Galaxy Quest before he settled into Harry Potter.

For an actor with such talent, he made some very puzzling choices. Just as many bad roles as good ones.

Sharon Stone. Made a big splash in Basic Instinct, got an an Oscar nom for Casino, never chose another decent film, plus was a crazy diva pain in the ass.

Kate Hudson

Penn Badgley

Josh Hartnett

John Belushi. Drugs and bad behavior. Before he died he was coming off of 2 flops and was writing a script for a movie that had studio executives worried because it was so bad.

Katie Holmes

Jennifer Lopez

Dakota Fanning

I would say Sharon Stone took her career as far as she could. She won a Golden Globe for a Scorsese film, was Oscar nominated, and then never went any higher.

Debra Winger and Kathleen Turner, for very different reasons.

Demi Moore. This woman went from the number one actress to a has been.

Cher can't make enough money making movies. Ceasar's Palace gave her $180 million for 3 years for her last residency. No way she can make that as an actress.

Jennifer Grey

Cast of 90210 and Melrose Place

Charlie Hunaan

Ugly girl 11 from Stranger Things

Sam Worthington

Eric Bana

Christopher Atkins

Jaden and Willow Smith

Jasmine Guy

[Quote]Sally Struthers was great in her role as Gloria, but honestly what else was she going to do?

I thought that she was good enough to become a comedic actress, or character actress with steady work. She was in the popular films "Five Easy Pieces" and "The Getaway." So, she did have some measure of talent. How she failed to continue her success after AITF is bizarre, unless her Gloria portrayal was somehow too strong of a typecast for her to break.

Bridget Fonda, Val Kilmer, Melanie Griffin, Meg Ryan

[quote]Sally Struthers was great in her role as Gloria, but honestly what else was she going to do?

Not gain 75 pounds, for starters.

Eric Roberts didn't even support his kid Emma when she was growing up. Julia had to step in and by Emma and her mother a house.

[quote]I would say Sharon Stone took her career as far as she could.

Perhaps, but SHE surely expected to take it much further. Unfortunately, like many of the names mentioned here, she followed Casino by taking starring roles in a string of mediocre-to-beyond-lousy movies.

If Michael Beck wasn't a failure compared to Thomas G. Waites. Waites was the original lead of the film but during the shooting the director became so fed up with him he killed off his character and made Beck the lead.

Winona Ryder

R191 Rita Moreno's roles, while getting good billing, in "Popi" and "Carnal Knowledge" were one scene in each film. She did do "The Ritz" on Broadway, winning a Tony and recreating her role of Googie Gomez in the film version.

Billy Crudup plays leads onstage yet is one of the most charisma-free actors you can imagine. No sparks, no electricity, no nothing.

Amy Irving is a very underrated actress in film and onstage. I've seen her in almost everything she's done and have never seen her give a false performance. She was sublime in Arthur Miller's "Broken Glass" years ago on Broadway. She's aged beautifully too.

Lohan owns this thread

One Hispanic star that people tend to forget was Hispanic was Rita Hayworth (born Rita Cansino), who changed her looks including electrolysis to raise her hairline, change her hair color, etc. She was gorgeous, could act and was an excellent dancer. But don't recall her playing too many roles which pointed out that she was Hispanic.

Richard Dreyfuss

Mark Hamill

Has Courtney Love been mentioned? For a moment there, it looked like she might amount to something (after starring in the movie "The People vs. Larry Flynt," for which she received a Golden Globe nomination).

[quote] If you're going to act like one, you better deliver a brilliant performance every time and, even then, you'll still have a short shelf life (see: Faye Dunaway).

Miss Dunaway did ok. She had an amazing career up until the age of 40, then she struggled but most beauties do. But she still does good work every now and then.

Macaulay Culkin

Ok...R278 got it...Jaden Smith!

Sally Struthers did a lot of theater work and still does. She did the Broadway female version of the "Odd Couple" opposite Rita Moreno. Plus Struthers has a reputation of being one of the nicest people in the business. I've heard that her Dolly Levi is terrific. Besides the money she made from "All in the Family" I had read years ago that she came from a wealthy family, so she works when she wants to doing theater.

Amy Irving is a really good actress. I saw her on Broadway years ago in a production of Shaw's "Heartbreak House" and she was probably the best in a company that included Rex Harrison, Philip Bosco and Rosemary Harris. I expected those guys to be great on stage, but Irving really was terrific.

Val Kilmer

Jennifer Beals

Robert Hays - so wonderful in "Airplane" and very cute - why didn't he get cast in some more romantic comedies?

Karen Lynn Gorney - I thought she was quite good in "Saturday Night Fever" but all the attention went to Travolta -- I saw her do some off-Broadway play a few years ago where she played Wallis Simpson, and she was very good

Julie Hagerty -- should have had a bigger career; extremely likable, ditsy and enjoyable comedic actress.

Skeet Ulrich- oddly enough, mentioned (by Meadow) in an episode of the Sopranos.

R297 she’s a decent enough actress but she has absolutely no magnetism or “star quality,” even remotely. Totally uninteresting to watch which is why bigger things never happened for her.

Can't Sally Struthere and Chrissy Metz do a remake of The Whales of August, September and November?

R300 Gorney was fucking terrible in SNF.

R299 Jennifer Beals is lucky she got that second (smaller) break on the L Word in 2004. She seems to have a regular role in a series or pilot pretty much every year since the L sword ended, with some films and recurring roles on the side.

OP, do you mean actors who got their big breaks because they blew "them" (i.e. Hollywood executives)?

R281 I fail to see how Bridget Fonda blew any big breaks. She was more like a star waiting for that one big hit to take her to the next level — but it never materialized. For an actor who appeared in only a couple modest hits, she had good name recognition and a relatively long career in studio films.

I wouldn't necessarily include Meg Ryan in here. She had a nice, long run as an "america's sweetheart" type before things went south for her. Maybe it could have been even longer if she hadn't cheated on Dennis Quaid with Russell Crowe and gotten some disastrous plastic surgery, but by the time all that happened, she was close to aging out of the rom-com niche, anyway.

Have you forgotten me already, bitches?

Tom Hulce has given up his career for Krispy Kremes.

Thread says 310 replies, I see 16. Just how much crazy has gone on in this thread that Muriel had to slash and burn?

Dare I mention River Phoenix. And Heath Leger.

Lisa Eichhorn?

Great performances in Yanks (1979) & Cutter's Way (1981). They both flopped but got respectable reviews and she got raves for both of them. Than replaced by Babs in All Night Long (probably a lucky break given how shit the film turned out). Whilst she has been working continuously over the years never in any roles of substance. She deserved much better.

[Quote] Jennifer Beals is lucky she got that second (smaller) break on the L Word in 2004. She seems to have a regular role in a series or pilot pretty much every year since the L sword ended, with some films and recurring roles on the side.

I can't remember the last thing I saw her in. Maybe The Grudge 2?? I read that she's going to be in a tv series about The Swamp Thing.

This fugly chick --- I think her name is Timothee. She had a movie that barely made 9 million with a 25 million dollar budget. Not counting the millions flushed in marketing. Word is people were offended they went to a movie called "Beautiful Boy" and there weren't any in the movie. On the upside a Razzie is probably in her future.

Kate Bosworth. What has she really done since Superman Returns?

Lisa Nicole Carson. She was the Ionly black actress on Ally McBeal.

She could have been huge like Halle Berry or at least Kerry Washington. Too bad mental illness took over.

R293. Love's acting career was sabotaged by Weinstein after Love warned women in a TV interview never to go to Harvey Weinstein's hotel room. She never worked in film again after that.

Ali MacGraw deserves to be forgotten, she was a shit actress, she wasn't that pretty and the dumb bitch gushed in interviews about her love of elephant ivory and how she basically had a house full of it. Also, aren't her kids supposed to be huge assholes as well or is it just the one she had with Steve McQueen?

Another vote for Mark Hamill & Eric Roberts.

Id like a fourgy with Steven Dorff, Josh Hartnett & Skeet Ulrich. I know theyre not busy.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Chris O’Donnell, Judd Nelson, Nick Stahl, Jason London, Sherylin Fenn, Andrew Keegan, Tara Reid, Kirk Cameron

R4 My mom still talks about how great Heche was on Another World.

Karen Black. 1975 was a huge year for her with Trilogy of Terror, Nashville, and Day of the Locust. Then after that, mostly low budget B-movie junk for the remainder of her career. I guess no one could take her seriously anymore after watching her fight off that nasty little doll.

Linda Blair is another. First were her controversial roles in Born Innocent and Sarah T.: Portrait of A Teenage Alcoholic. Then she had a wild girl image by posing naked in Oui magazine, a cocaine scandal, and dating Rick James (complete with topless pictures with him). Then came Exorcist II: The Heretic....and that was the end. Off to B-movies forever if she was lucky enough to get any roles at all.

R284 Stone famously dumped her agent after she got famous. Rumor had it that she was too cheap to pay the agent their percentage and now that she was a big star she knew she would just be offered roles based on her fame.

You can see how well that worked out.

[quote]Karen Lynn Gorney - I thought she was quite good in "Saturday Night Fever" but all the attention went to Travolta

He father wrote "How much is that Doggie in the Window"; so, she is pretty well off. She isn't quite batshit crazy, but she is a bit "off".

LeeLee Sobieski, Eric Bana, Ione Sky, Kellan Lutz, Erica Christensen, Hayden Christensen, Piper Perabo, Helen Slater

Elizabeth Berkeley

John Wilkes Booth.

YES! r322 Sherylin Fenn! How the fuck did that happen? I could look at her for days. Did Boxing Helena really do her in that badly?

Juliette Lewis

Chrissy Metz, it's just a matter of time. No way will she get anything like she has now. If she doesn't lose the weight as stipulated in her contract (yet she keeps getting bigger) they are going to have her character keel over from a heart attack or choke on a pork rib if that doesn't end up happening in real life first.

Another vote for LeeLee Sobieski though frankly, I think we were all spared.

R319, Ali MacGraw had one son with Bob Evans, none with McQueen. Josh Evans - he looks exactly like both of them.

Richard Dreyfuss blew his career on drugs, but for a fat little Jewish guy he had a terrific run. It's normal for an actor to be there for approx 5 years, when the roles stop coming it's not usually because they blew it.

CHER, no answers for R246? From my recollection, Cher VOLUNTARILY stopped making movies to do infomercials with a cosmetics person named Lori Davis. She later admitted it was an incredibly stupid move. I wonder what she was smoking. It was a source for comedy for years:

Sally Struthers blew it with the Infomercials. She was quite good as a dramatic actress in Television movies, and could have had a steady career if she kept on doing those. As a matter of fact, infomercials and commercials for retirement plans are the death rattle for any career.

Thank Ronald Reagan for Infomercials.

Cher was too ill to work during that time, hence the infomercials. On hindsight, it turned out great for her because it led to Believe and massive tour money.

R330 The last movie I saw Sherilynn Fenn in was Wish Upon, that teenage horror movie about a bullied girl who finds a Chinese wish box. She plays the neighbor and she's still beautiful. I loved her in Just One Of The Guys.

Speaking of which, I wonder what happened

to Joyce Hyser? And William Zabka from The Karate Kid?

[quote]Karen Lynn Gorney - I thought she was quite good in "Saturday Night Fever" but all the attention went to Travolta / He father wrote "How much is that Doggie in the Window"; so, she is pretty well off. She isn't quite batshit crazy, but she is a bit "off".

Jay Gorney co-wrote the Depression-era anthem "Brother Can You Spare a Dime?" Bob Merrill wrote "Doggy in the Window."

R339, weird because I got that from Karen (I have done two plays with her.) I wonder if that is an example of how loopy she is, or if she thinks "Doggy" just sounds better and has created her own reality.

Can anyone tell me what happened to Jonathan Rhys Meyers? I know he's an alcoholic, but so are a lot of actors and studios still hire them.

If Karen thinks her father wrote "Doggie in the Window," R40, I'd say she's gone beyond loopy. Besides, "Doggie" was just a silly novelty song, although a big hit for Patti Page. "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" is a powerful anthem. Jay Gorney wrote the music; the lyrics are by E.Y. "Yip" Harburg, who wrote the score for "The Wizard of Oz" with composer Harold Arlen.

^^Sorry, I meant R341, not R40. I guess I'm a bit loopy myself. But not about who wrote "Doggie in the Window."

R342, JRM's problem is that he's had multiple public displays of drunkenness and the stories along with photos get splashed across the world. He has had problems while working so he's unreliable and studios and production companies don't want to lose money on delays caused by his drinking, drugging and rehab visits. Also it's not like he's a big money maker either. If he was Tom Cruise in terms of box office, all sins would be tolerated and covered up. Unfortunately for JRM--he's not Tom Cruise.

JRM was supposed to be in London Fields but was fired after showing up drunk for work. He was replaced by Jim Sturgess. It turns out LF was a clusterfuck anyway but yeah, showing up drunk for work isn't exactly going to help an already tenuous career.

Tom Berenger

I'm always amazed Sam Worthington didn't do better. He's handsome, and the star of the biggest film of all time: AVATAR. But when the remake of CLASH OF THE TITANS didn't do that well he went back to his native Australia to make films there.

I'd say most of the alcoholic actors who get work, aren't as far gone JRM. There are alcoholics who have a little nip to keep the shakes away but aren't drunk during the day. A friend of mine used to have the equivalent of half a glass of white wine every hour throughout the day. Most of the time people didn't know she was a drunk. After work or on the weekends she'd really get going. It sounds like JRM doesn't have that kind of control, he just keeps drinking until he's stinking drunk. I feel bad for him. It's an illness and he's got a really bad version of it.

347 comments and no one mentioned....VIVIAN VANCE !!!

R345, Tome Berenger did not blow his career. He made enough money and invested well; so, he makes the movies that he wants to make. He is apparently an expert on Civil War battles and the old west. Notice that a lot of his movies involve US history.

The running Vivian Vance joke isn't funny, is annoying and the only person who likes it is the person who posts it.

R350 has had sufficient.

R351, you will never have sufficient W&Ws.

I think someone should start a poll to elect a DL spokesperson. I didn't vote for r350 to speak for me. I think r313 should have the honor.

350 is Vivian Vance and she's had enough!

Jonathan Jackson - although it was supposedly really due to his agent. He was in the running for the Star Wars franchise, but his agent/manager spilled it to the press so Lucas cut him loose and hired HC instead. JJ ended up going back to TV.

R355 Jonathan Jackson has FOUR Daytime Emmys and one of the best actors who ever appeared on Daytime Soaps. Bot he is super religious ---married at 20. No Way was he going to Unzip for a movie role. It's a shame he didn't have a bigger career.

Jonathan Jackson was dreadful on Nashville, but the show was dreadful, too, so maybe not his fault. Still, I can't see him ever making the big time in movies.

Gere doesn't belong anywhere near this thread.. He took a breakout role -- in "Goodbar" -- and built on it, became a major star. And then stuck around for decades and got more interesting with age ("Chicago", of course).

I've always wondered why Karen Black didn't get better roles. She really did get typecast in horror after Trilogy of Terror which is a shame, because she could really play anything. I've always thought she was one of our finest actors. Then again, she never seemed to struggle for work. There's a great documentary about her that looks like it was shot in the early/mid-90s and chronicles her flying from one state to another and back again to do one day on this movie, 2 days on this one, a week on that one, etc. It's fascinating and shows that she was always in demand, but usually for smaller indie movies or B horror flicks.

I guess the same is true for Sally Struthers who does theatre all over the place. She doesn't seem to have any shame about not playing on Broadway or anything. I have a friend who knows her very well and he adores her and says she's one of the kindest, funniest human beings he's ever met.

357 Agreed. But he could act circles on GH. Nashville was hideous.

JRM's alcoholism is far past any kind of manageable. There are pictures of him drinking vodka straight from the bottle the second he got out of the off licence he bought it at at 8am or whenever was the earliest he could get them to serve him. He couldn't even wait to get it home.

Those pictures weren't even taken when he was on an all-night drinking session out with friends. He'd gone out first thing in the morning. That kind of alcohol addiction needs medical intervention.

Sally Struthers said nice things about Joan Crawford! She said Joan was gracious, kind, and gave the cast free Pepsi-Cola.

Cher's movie career burned out fast because of her looks. There aren't many roles out there for someone who looked like her. She always look like, well, like Cher.

r290. Rita Hayworth was not really Hispanic, as most people from Spain do not consider themselves to be Hispanic. I think this became a myth about her because she worked as a dancer in Mexico with her father. "Hayworth was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1918 as Margarita Carmen Cansino, the oldest child of two dancers. Her father, Eduardo Cansino, was from Castilleja de la Cuesta, a little town near Seville, Spain.[2] Her mother, Volga Hayworth, was an American of Irish-English descent who had performed with the Ziegfeld Follies.["

R364 I thought Rita Hayworth was Puerto Rican.

Chris Klein

Jesse Metcalf

Ryan Kwanten

Everyone from Twilight.

I watched One Of the Guys for the first time and I thought Sherilyn was gorgeous in it. Also wasn't as offensive as I expected it to be.

Cher is perfect to play the roles of gypsies, tramps and thieves.

I thought Cher was great in MOONSTRUCK because she looked like so many Italian Americans I'd grown up with.

R367 are you including Anna Kendrick in that?

R371 I forgot she was in that movie! I particularly meant Robert Pattinson, the guy was ok n the cover of People magazine and after Twilight...nothing.

Also, Jennifer Lawrence is circling the drain. Without Harvey, she's nothing. Truth.

^^on the cover ^^^

R372 I don't think Rob or KStew were particularly interested in doing big blockbusters, especially after Twilight. They've both been working consistently. Kristen had a small bump in her career when she fucked that director. And I wouldn't count JLaw out just yet.

R372: Pattinson (and Stewart) are doing just fine. They didn't seem to be interested in blockbusters and they have no problem to find new roles. Both were praised by his job. The only one with problems is Lautner, he wanted a big commercial career and failed big time

How about Billy Dee Williams? He followed up Brian's Song and Lady Sings the Blues with cop and action films, then into oblivion. Star Wars comeback. He could have been a leading man, and don't give me that Hollywood racism spin, it was the 1970s and I was there.

Let's not even discuss how Miss Ross squandered her movie career.

Hopefully Kevin Hart.

Love should get an Honorary Oscar for her brilliant pithy warning.

Ellen GeGenerate. He film and TV career went down the shit hole. Really she didn't blow it herself - it was homophobia in Hollywood and middle America that did it for her - she has clearly forgotten that whilst sticking her tongue into Hart's arse. For years now she has been hosting a shitty talk show. Only downside is she is making a mint. She is a traitor for Gay & Lesbian rights.

Can you people stop with the Hart shit? It was years ago. Move on. Jesus. This has gotten old FAST.

Billy Dee Williams was also in Batman and I think him being cast as Harvey Dent pissed some people off. He also did Dynasty for a while.

R380, Let us not forget "Mahogany".

Billy Dee was once being promoted as "The black Clark Gable".

Craig Wasson was the lead in several movies including Brian DePalma's Body Double with Melanie Griffith as well as Ghost Story which seemed to also star every respected old actor still alive at the time but he still ended up playing second banana to a stop-motion skeleton in Nightmare on Elm St. Part 3 The Dream Warriors.

Was Steven Bauer (Scarface) ever supposed to be a big deal? What about John Savage (Deer Hunter)?

Steven Bauer supposedly badly injured his back in a fall and ended up hooked on painkillers for years.

No R384. They were never expected to be big deals.

Being cast in a big film doesn’t mean they expect you to break out. Teresa Palmer has been in many films now and never breaks out no matter what role.

R376, I will give you the Hollywood racism spin as unrequested.

What other black male actors were getting lead roles in major studio releases in the eighties?

Billy Dee Williams wasn’t getting roles because he was black. Studios were giving Burt Reynolds one shot after another, bomb after bomb. BDW ended the decade and his period of leading man potential playing a minor role in Batman, and even that three people into a rage.

Carroll Baker. She was supposed to be a huge deal and was briefly before a string of bad movie choices destroyed her career in the States.

[Quote] Billy Dee Williams was also in Batman and I think him being cast as Harvey Dent pissed some people off.

He was in Batman?

R383 love Craig Wasson!

I wonder what happened to Brie Larson. It seems she came out of nowhere and won an Oscar for room, then disappeared again.

R390 she’s Captain Marvel which comes out in a couple of months.

R390

How well did Brie Larson know Harvey?

[Quote] Teresa Palmer has been in many films now and never breaks out no matter what role.

I like her but she's not what I'd call a stand out. Plus she has like 4 kids now.

R346 Worthington is fantastic as a sexually confused young man in an Australian film called Somersault. He's so dull in his American roles.

Brie Larson became one of the actress with more BI about her in recent times. Of course by the same time i remember BI about A star was born saying the movie was a mess, Bradley a terrible director, Gaga and Bradley hated each other and the movie was destined to be a bomb on box office, and well, that wasn't very accurated.

When you came out of nowhere like Brie, it's quite difficult to adjust, if your next projects don't do well it's easy to fade away

I don't think Julia Ormand blew her big breaks. The studios or Michael whathisname just gambled wrong. Whoever was pushing her was convinced she was the next big thing. I remember her boss talking about A River Runs Through It - "When she smiles, you just want to see her smile again." The audience disagreed. That's what happened to her.

I agree people don't stay at the top that long. Julia Roberts has had an unusually long run. Her America's Sweetheart days are behind her but her star run was unusually long.

I know this will be unpopular, but I think Saoirse Ronan is not going to be as big as an adult as the industry wants her to be. She was wonderful in Brooklyn, but IMO is not a character actress. Her emotional range is big and fluid, but her versatility, not so much. I could see the acting in Lady Bird, and could think of a couple of actresses who could more organically embody that rebellious edge. In Brooklyn, not only did it have a wonderful range and pathos, but she was speaking in her natural accent and had great romantic chemistry with her main leading man, Emory Cohen. I saw her as Abigail in the Crucible on B'way and IMO she didn't make an especial mark (the role is a dud, anyway. It's hyped as the sexy role but the character is abandoned as an individual in her own right halfway through the play. Mary Warren is a better part.)

She's being given young Cate Blanchett type stuff I think she's too modest a personality to really command the screen in big showcase type roles.

I absolutely love Saoirse Ronan. She’s very talented.

Ronan was terrible in The Crucible, but it was also a shit production. Ivo is one of the most overrated directors currently working. Talk about the emperor’s new clothes.

She was fantastic in Lady Bird though. Excellent performance. I hope she comes back to Broadway in something better.

Whatever happened to Mare Winningham?

Craig Wasson always put me to sleep in everything I ever saw him in. He was like the male Rooney Mara with a bit more range. There was something so horribly bland about him. It was like watching your 8th grade math teacher starring in a movie - no presence at all. I'll give him this - at least I don't remember him giving any cringe worthy line readings, so he knew what he was doing, but he just always bored me.

R399 I believe she did a couple of seasons of American Horror Story.

R346 Maybe Lara has a tight leash on Sam since having kids with him.

R401 she is in AHS and she was great, especially in Hotel.

Clash of the Titans didn’t flop. It did well. It’s sequel flopped, and he had a string of flops that ended his American career.

Worthington was only cast in Avatar cause he’s very masculine. Cameron met him and knew he wanted him in his movie cause he was a MAN, and said America doesn’t produce MEN any longer.

R387 Eddie Murphy who became one of the biggest stars on the planet, Richard Pryor though he career fizzled out by the end of the 1980s due to drugs & declining health, Danny Glover, Morgan Freemans career took off during the 1980s, as did Denzel Washingtons. Yes, Hollywood sure hated blacks in the 1980s....

Mare Winningham works on stage all the time. Got a Tony nomination fairly recently for Casa Valentina. She is not only a very talented stage actress, but is very kind and generous with her time.

I think Ronan is harder to cast than you'd think She's really, IMO, a romantic lead in an era when there aren't that many romantic movies. And, IIMO, might have done really well in Deborah Kerr-type parts in the 1950s. Could totally see her in Separate Tables.

I thought everything about LadyBird was overrated, Metcalfe and the script included. Chalamet was ok playing kind of an asshole. IMO Ronan conveys an old soul presence that didn't serve an impulsive and edgy, hot-tempered 17 year old female character very well. She could act it but not be it.

PS I thought Tracy Letts as the dad gave the best performance in the movie.

I thought Metcalfe was amazing and wanted her to win over overrated Allison Janney

R404 Wow. 3 examples in 10 years. That's quite the list. That's, like, one whole black guy every three years.

R400 Not only was Craig Wasson cute, he showed his willie in "Ghost Story"; unfortunately it was during a death fall through a window.

"Actors Who Got Big Breaks But Blew Them", or, "The Mark Frechette Memorial Award For Career Self-Ownage".

Remember kids, don't try to fund your movie by robbing a bank at gunpoint.

Gretchen Mol was the next big thing, then she made an unkind statement about keanu reeves in Vanity Fair, I believe...

After that she had something in common with Charlie Sheen.

Keanu Reeves isn't the most talented actor, but apparently he has been a marvelous benefactor and humanitarian. Some stuff has leaked out in the press about him giving lots of money to charities around the world. Respect.

Miles Teller seems to have vanished. He is a total douche, so no sympathy here.

R414 I know someone named Jeff that went to HS with Miles. Said he was ALWAYS an asshole to everyone.

What happened to Emile Hirsch? He did some big movies, showed off a lot of himself in them, but not as much on the radar anymore.

Tohper Grace was being touted as the Next Big Thing after "That 70's Show." The world went "Tohper who?"

Wasn't Orlando Bloom supposed to be the big star of the first POTC? Then he had the misfortune to be stuck with a boring character while Depp hit it big with Jack Sparrow.

[quote]... it was homophobia in Hollywood and middle America that did it for her - she has clearly forgotten that ...

Clearly not, R379, if you've watched DeGeneres' latest Netflix special. She's quite open and almost bitter about how homophobia cost her almost everything at the time she came out.

Emile Hirsch apparently assaulted a female studio executive or something? I think that was the story. Guess he has anger issues?

I remember seeing Miles Teller in that AWFUL remake of Footloose and I remember thinking he was going to be a star. He was acting rings around everyone else in that movie and he had an insane amount of charisma. He seemed to be on the right track until it came out that he was an asshole. Such a shame, too, because he seemed to have the talent to make it far. Maybe he can do an image makeover and get back on track.

Wasn't Gretchen Mol "Harvey Weinsteined"?

R413, back in the day, every woman I know, including me, had this experience with Keanu Reeves. "Sigh.... Keanu Reeves!" Boyfriend, husband, Man in General: "Keanu REEVES? He can't act! He has no personality! WTF?!" Women: "Keanu Reeves!"

There was also Bailey Hanks, who played Elle Woods in the Legally Blonde tour (I think) and was to have joined the NY cast when she suddenly decided to tout Chick-Fil-A on social media, just when the chain had become involved in a controversy over its owner's distaste for gay marriage.

This was very bad timing, and it probably led to theater folk not wanting to cast her in anything.

That social media thing can be disaster for some people. Whatever side you're on--and we hope it's ours--people should use filtering instead of just sounding off on any topic whatsoever.

R412, what did Gretchen Mol say about Keanu Reeves? I can't find an article on it. I know they did a movie together.

megan fox

[quote]Mare Winningham works on stage all the time. Got a Tony nomination fairly recently for Casa Valentina. She is not only a very talented stage actress, but is very kind and generous with her time.

Mare Winningham was recently in the critically acclaimed "Girl From the North Country" at the Public Theater.

The infamous Frances Farmer. She was given a movie contract, but her eccentricity and surly nature ruined her chances for major stardom. Of course her story is well known; she got into legal trouble, ended up in an asylum and may or may not have been lobotomized. Hers was a spectacular crack up.

[quote] Not only was Craig Wasson cute, he showed his willie in "Ghost Story"; unfortunately it was during a death fall through a window.

I'm a sardine!

[quote]I watched One Of the Guys for the first time and I thought Sherilyn was gorgeous in it. Also wasn't as offensive as I expected it to be.

I remember seeing it in the theater back in the 80's. I remember thinking Sherilyn Fenn was one of the most beautiful actresses I had ever seen.

Mare Winninham never was supposed to be the next big thing. She was supposed to be a great secondary actress and that's exactly what she is.

Milles Teller is a jerk, and when you are not good enough actor to hide that on interviews you have a problem. He has charisma and can act, but he is not good looking enough, popular enough, or gold in terms of box office to afford that bad attitude. A couple of flops and he was done, and i doubt nobody will miss him because the word of mouth is that he was equally annoying for colleages that he is for journalists

I remember the Chik fil A disaster, that girl was totally clueless. Making that on a film set could be bad, but doing it on theatre was a career killer. Specially because she was unable to understand why she was receiving such backlash. If you want to come out as conservative you sure can do a better work that link that to being a raging homophobe

R419, that might be her version, but the fact is that Ellen was never a leading lady. She was fine as a second banana, but not as a lead. Her show was great when it was These Friends of Mine and was an ensemble show. When it became Ellen and she fired half the cast, it went down hill. Also, she is a raging alcoholic and a major bitch. She killed her career with he backstage antics. It was not homophobia.

[Quote] I remember seeing Miles Teller in that AWFUL remake of Footloose and I remember thinking he was going to be a star. He was acting rings around everyone else in that movie and he had an insane amount of charisma.

Lol not exactly hard to do when the leads are dancers.

[Quote] I remember seeing it in the theater back in the 80's. I remember thinking Sherilyn Fenn was one of the most beautiful actresses I had ever seen.

I'm jealous you got to see it (or any other 80s movie) at the cinemas.

This might seem like an odd suggestion, but hear me out.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

No, seriously. After Inception, that dude had a glowing career set out for him: he had his pick of projects, seemed to be a favourite of Nolan's (who likes to cast the same people). He had a directorial debut that was well-received and led to him being given the chance to helm a potential franchise - The Sandman adaptation.

And then...he blew it. His supposedly shitty behaviour on the Dark Knight Rises seems to have ended his relationship with Nolan, he either quit or was removed from the Sandman project to disagreements with the studio. His Oscar bait projects were flops, as was his work with Seth Rogen and co.

I'm surprised this doesn't get talked about more, but it is actually incredible how badly he blew it.

Mark Hamill

Tippi Hedren.

Dolores Hart

So Josh Hartnett got himself blackballed by turning down a couple of big franchise roles? Foolish man. Can’t believe that he’s 40.

Dare I say Anton Yelchin?

James Dean -- 3 big movies and then reckless driving.

R439 that isn’t blowing his career. That is taking his life.

R430 is right. Mare Winningham has a very strange face and too much screen time is exhausting.

Johnny Messner...he was touted as the "next Steve McQueen." His ego/arrogance stopped his career momentum.

It was his mom who thought he would be the next McQueen, unfortunately for him.

Mare is a great actress and she's worked steadily. More so than some of the other Brat Packers. I'd say she and Rob Lowe are the ones with the most staying power. Who'd have thought the plain Jane and the impossibly pretty boy would be the ones still trucking after all the years. Mare was almost blessed with a plain face that can be made up to look dowdy or more attractive depending on the role. She's become a great character actress. Lowe was lucky that he displayed a flair for comedy and started getting those kinds of roles. He's also aged incredibly well, but still looks like a human being.

Dolores Hart didn't "blow it." She gave up a Hollywood career because she wanted something else: to devote her life to God. So she became a nun. It was her choice. I guess a lot of people are astounded by that. Give up being a movie star for the deprived life of a nun? And she also gave up her fiance, who never stopped loving her. I guess she really had what what they say is "a calling."

George Lazenby OWNS this thread.

Olivia Wilde was always touted as the next big thing- was in some big movies too. Now an inspo IG mom (same a Tez Palmer).

Amy Smart (whom I like), a ton of movies, now just guest starring roles on tv.

And I do hope that Saoirse inherits Blanchette's roles. She's a fine actress.

WEHT Blanche Baker? I think she won an Emmy for the TV drama "Holocaust" with Meryl Streep and DL fave/frenemy Tovah Feldshuh, but the daughter of Carroll Baker seems to have disappeared.

I've always wanted to see Johnny' Messner's anaconda.

R447, I like Saoirse as an actress and think she was terrific in Brooklyn and Ladybird, and thought that she was fine in Mary, Queen of Scots, though you have to continually remind herself that Mary was a girl and as such 'girly', because Saoirse lacks any sense of gravitas that is normally associated with queens, again, it worked but only when I consciously reminded myself that Mary was a girl. Blanchett in 'Elizabeth' shows both the girlishness but also the imperiousness/gravitas of a queen and Ronan was unable to convey the latter. I fear she might struggle to move out of ingenue roles and into leading lady roles like another very strong young actor, Kirsten Dunst did, also because she still presents girlish (Dunst still works, but she's not at the level of visibility she was as a teen/ingenue).

Johnny Depp. What a mess he is.

"Johnny Depp. What a mess he is."

How did Johnny Depp "blow his big chance?" He's been a major star for decades.

Exactly, r452. Johnny Depp is a mess for sure, but he's enjoyed a good, long, lucrative career.

Lindsay Lohan

R435 According to Tippi, Hitchcock cock blocked her from taking any other acting work since he had her under contract.

Louise Brooks. A dancer in the Ziegfield Follies, she was offered movie contracts at MGM and Paramount (she chose Paramount). She was considered an upcoming starlet in silents and some seemed to think she would have been a big star in talking pictures. But she kept on "blowing it." She was offered the role of James Cagney's girlfriend in "The Public Enemy" but instead she flitted off on a trip to New York with her rich boyfriend. Jean Harlow got the role and the movie was a smash and it greatly benefited her career. She did a movie called "The Canary Murder Case" and was called back to redub her voice in the movie; she refused to do it. She was offered more money, and then even more money, but she always had this attitude: I'll do what I want and to hell with everybody else. Finally, the studio had to get somebody else to do her vocal overdubbing, wasting the studio's time and and causing extra expense. That pretty much ended her upcoming career in talkies; she got a bad reputation for being uncooperative and it was not undeserved. A German director named G. W. Pabst took an interest in her and had her star in a couple of his movies, the most famous being "Pandora's Box." She played the hedonistic seductress Lulu, and although when the movie was released it didn't get good reviews and her acting was panned, today it's considered a classic and her performance amazing. It's no wonder why; she was essentially playing herself. At any rate, Pabst wanted to be her mentor, and have her learn German and be a serious actress in Europe, but she couldn't have cared less. She liked to spend her time drinking, dancing and fucking, not necessarily in that order.

Some critics fawn over Louise Brooks, saying if she had only not made so many bad decisions she would have been a star "to rival Garbo." But I don't think so. Critics tend to be bowled over by her screen image (she was very photogenic) and overlook the fact that she had only limited acting ability. In fact, the roles she was best in were ones that were very like herself; a drinking, dancing, seductive party girl. But she probably could have had a more substantial career if she'd been cooperative and responsible, two things she rarely was. Her fan Kenneth Tynan, who did a profile of her, said "she walked out on Hollywood." But no, that wasn't the case. Hollywood walked out on HER.

Josh Hartnett blew it big time. He was offered the Superman role and another super-hero role (Batman?) but he pissed off a lot of people. He tried to get his career back on roll with Penny Dreadful but so far, nothing big, just roles in minor movies.

Too bad, cause Josh was so fine at one point, pumpkin head and all.

Miles Teller? He made one halfway decent flick, WHIPLASH, and most of his other stuff has bombed critically and/or commercially.

Paula Deen

R457 major drug problem too. I know someone who dated him.

R461 what kind of drugs... spill

I vote for Karen Lynn Gorney who played Tony Manero's dance partner in Saturday Night Fever and was never heard from again.

R176 It really depends on Turner's choices. He's a genuinely good actor, he got great reviews for The Lieutenant of Inishmore on the West End.

It's his to screw up through his next choices(I don't have a ton of faith in his ability to make good choices) though I think he may also have some issues with type-casting(due to the shirtless, good body thing, part of his roles has almost always been his sex appeal--sexy vampire(Being Human), sexy poet(Desperate Romantics), sexy dwarf lol(Hobbit, more cute than sexy in that one his character was young and innocent finding first love with a similarly young and innocent elf lady), sexy do-gooder gentry(Poldark), sexy mercenary(And Then There were None), etc).

Michael Pitt

Twice he was offered big breaks. After The Dreamers and that movie he made with Gosling, he was considered a future star and offered big roles but turned them down to focus on music. Got his second break years later with Boardwalk Empire. Again he blew it. Most likely both times were from drug-related issues. Too bad, his fellow co-star, Gosling took advantage of every opportunity is at the top of his career.

Lada Gaga

R466: What?

Are we talking about actors who had great opportunities but failed to win the affections of the public or those who sabotaged their careers (egos, poor film choices, drugs and booze) themselves?

Number 2 is what it's supposed to be, R468. That's why I choose George Lazenby, an Australian model picked to play James Bond after Sean Connery left the series. Lazenby quit Bond after one film (On Her Majesty's Secret Service 1969), thinking he was above it. Career over.

R431 the Episode of the Ellen Show where Ellen came out was one of the greatest shows ever - just so funny, particularly when she left the room and her friends were settling bets because they'd guessed what she'd confess. And she had great friendship chemistry with Joely Fisher. So initially, things were fine, IMO. Then I tune in and all of a sudden the regular cast including Fisher is on the backburner and she is shoving some fucktwat named AUDREY down our throats. Couldn't act, horrible voice. What the hell. I was done.

In retrospect, years later, I started wondering if Ellen was fucking her and that's why she threw so much of the show out to feature Audrey.

Lindsey Lohan owns this thread

R471 at least Lindsay has her very own Beach house reality show coming up.

Personally, I think Megan Fox owns this thread. She was a beautiful girl who came out of nowhere to star in blockbusters, only to open her big mouth about a director.

Megan Fox also altered her face with plastic surgery. You're beautiful already, why do that? She ended up looking like someone who had plastic surgery.

Megan Fox has made up with Michael Bay since then and she looks great.

Yes, you can tell she had work done, but still hot.

David Caruso's huge ego destroyed his career - he had a comeback in CSI:MIAMI but hasn't worked for years. Married and divorced three times. He may be comfortably retired.

Daniel J. Travanti's huge ego and made him very difficult to deal with both on HILL STREET BLUES and later projects. Privately referred to as "Princess Foo Foo" by the cast and crew of HSB. Very pompous and humorless in real life. Doesn't look bad today but the toupee has to go.

On the plus side, he supposedly has an enormous uncut Italian cock.

Tori Spelling owns this thread.

Travanti in 2016.

He is a vegan.

All the damn cooking chefs

Travanti in 2018

Chris Pratt

Edward Furlong

Tori Spelling was never an actor and she never needed a break.

Not an actor but Paula Deen did have her own tv show.

[quote]r268 Sharon Stone. Made a big splash in Basic Instinct, got an an Oscar nom for Casino, never chose another decent film, plus was a crazy diva pain in the ass.

Yes, her follow-ups were weak - SLIVER, THE QUICK AND THE DEAD, INTERSECTION.

I think that made studios look at her diferently; she was far from a sure thing.

[quote]r404 Eddie Murphy who became one of the biggest stars on the planet, Richard Pryor though he career fizzled out by the end of the 1980s due to drugs & declining health, Danny Glover, Morgan Freemans career took off during the 1980s, as did Denzel Washingtons. Yes, Hollywood sure hated blacks in the 1980s....

Washington, Glover, and Murphy were all one, two, and almost three decades younger tha Williams, so you can't compare their careers to his. They were the next generation that he wasn't a part of, age-wise.

Freeman is Williams' age, but about 5 times more talented, and even with that he didn't make his mark in big roles that got wide release in 1990, which isn't [italic]exactly[/italic] the 80s.

Richard Pryor isn't in the same catagory, as he was already famous as a comic before doing some acting roles. And, he was only in featured and costarring roles at that, for instance as Gene Wilder's sidekick.

Two of my favorite examples:

Monique: Hit it HUGE with Precious, then blew it all by demanding everything be her way or the highway. Then when people started getting pissed off, she started badmouthing the very people people who gave her that break. And she hasn't stopped whining in 10 years. I find it hilarious that she tried to give Tiffany Haddish advice. Mo, Tiffany is too busy cashing every check she can while she's hot shit.

Nikki Blonsky: had a great debut in Hairspray, then sat at home at her parents house and waited for more jobs to come. She neither moved to LA, or even into New York, or played the game. As far as I can tell, she still lives with her parents. And she claims her lack of career momentum is because she's fat. Honey, fat girls can have a career, but they have to WORK HARD. Nobody is gonna break down your dad's door to cast you.

Susan Dey seemed to disappear after "L. A. Law".

R461, Male or female?

SADDD

R489 seriously.

Barry Pepper

Got lots of buzz as a 'star of the future' with Saving Private Ryan. Bad choices seems to have done him in (Battlefield Earth) but one doesn't actually know what roles actors were offered. If someone is only offered crap there is little they can do about it aside from trying to produce there own stuff.

Did Taliah Shire deserve a bigger career after ROCKY?

Did Didi Conn steal her roles?

R492 No & No.

No, R492, just her husband.

Talia Shire was never gonna be a big star.

[quote]Susan Dey seemed to disappear after "L. A. Law".

She even refused to comment on the death of a co-star she worked with 50 years ago!

Nikki Blonsky was very appealing and a delight in Hairspray. I'm so sorry she never really followed that up with anything. Then again, she's a tough type to cast. Not many movies call for charming, overweight belters.

Yes but R497 it's her own fault. If you're a tough type to cast, you have to work that much harder. She sat at home and waited for stardom.

R498 is right. She expected roles to just fall on her lap after Hairspray. Wasn’t gonna happen. She’s not Zac Efron or Brittany Snow or Amanda Bynes.

Nicki Blonsky took "blowing it" to a new level when she got into a physical altercation with some loser off of "America's Next Top Model" -- at an airport, no less.

Mare is a really great singer and has been nominated for every major award under the sun, including the Oscar. Not bad. And a decades long career. I knew an actor who worked with her and said she was your basic hippie mom who worked when she wanted and spent most of her time with her many kids (one of whom committed suicide, sadly).

There's no logic, rhyme or reason to a career in this business so not all of these were the actor's fault. One can win an Oscar and never work again, through no fault of their own (see the late great Hjang S. Njor, for one).

"Tori Spelling owns this thread."

What the hell are you talking about? She never "blew her big break." She was the daughter of Aaron Spelling and got work because of that and only that. She never had any talent or looks. She was never a real actress. She was just a spoiled rich girl who got acting gigs because of her last name. She never "blew" anything.

Nikki Blonsky is a good example. Gabourey Sidibe managed to carve out a pretty good career in high profile TV shows (American Horror Story, Empire) after her debut in Precious.

R501 She certainly blew through her money. I'd say her big break was being born to her family. She's now has a pretty white trash life style with lots of money stress. She could have had a very easy comfortable life, which she blew. You are correct that she did as much with her acting as she could.

Dolly Parton, critical and commercial success with 9 to 5, followed by a string of mostly critical and commercial failures until she was no longer box office. Which reminds me, I think I heard they're finally making a sequel to 9 to 5.

Dolly was always more of a singer/entertainer, though. She has a limited range she can play in film and she knew that. Besides Rhinestone and the appalling Joyful Noise, I think she made some pretty good choices in projects. Best Little Whorehouse, Steel Magnolias, and Straight Talk were good roles for her and they did pretty well.

Yes. Dolly is a singer (and when we talk about allies she is a real one, Carrie Underwood received backlash for supporting gay marriage and Dolly is being supportive for decades being a country star)

[Quote] She’s not Zac Efron or Brittany Snow or Amanda Bynes.

Lol one of these is not like the other. While Zac and Brittany work pretty consistently, I wouldn't exactly be envious of them either.

[Quote] Which reminds me, I think I heard they're finally making a sequel to 9 to 5.

*sigh* of course they are.

They waited 40 yrs r507, because Lily and Dolly didn't want to do an inferior sequel. If they're agreeing to do it now, it's because they think it's good.

I'm pretty sure any struggling actor would be envious of them R507. Zac is a household name and as you yourself said, Brittany works consistently. She's not going to win an Oscar anytime soon, but she's solid. Amanda was as well until her mental health went to shit. Nikki shot her career in the foot.

[Quote] Zac is a household name and as you yourself said, Brittany works consistently.

Aside from the Pitch Perfect franchise, Brittany mostly does indies and bit parts on tv. While Zac has been doing shitty popcorn flicks and he still seems to be a mess offscreen.

I hated Brittany Snow on that "Project Greenlight" show so much, I prayed she would never be hired again. A major bitch to those co-directors. Nightmare to work with with her passive aggressive glares. Hope others saw it too and boycotted her.

R511 I didn't see it. How was she being a bitch?

Hard to explain on paper but, as someone who has directed a film, I can tell you it's unforgivable. They are having a bad day, trying to figure out a scene that isn't working, pressure is on but they try to be nice and assure the actors (sitting in a car) it will be okay. Shia LeBouf (of all people) is fine, he was a kid then. But she just glares, seeing weakness, and makes it clear she doesn't respect the directors and won't do what they want anyway because they obviously don't know what they are doing. See if you can find it (was Season Two). Hated her. And she's a dull actor on top of it all, no hook whatsoever.

Alex Pettyfer owns this thread.

[Quote] Hated her. And she's a dull actor on top of it all, no hook whatsoever.

Thanks for elaborating R513. I think she's mostly known for American Dreams. I don't know if John Tucker or Prom Night did great at the box office. I haven't heard much about her since she broke up with Tyler Hoechlin.

Nikki Blonsky, Nikki Blonsky - what a beautiful, beautiful name!

[quote]r496 She even refused to comment on the death of a co-star she worked with 50 years ago!

Her very own [italic]brother!

Nikki Blonsky, Nikki Blonsky --- That's Keith Partridge!!!

Desoiate her Oscar for her legendary performance as the young Helen Keller in "The Miracle Worker" and one hit TV show, Patty Duke never quite made it to major screen stardom. She could have turned into another Natalie Wood, but she wasn't pretty enough for Leading Lady. It never quite jelled.

*Despite, not desolate (damn this autocorrect!)

It didn't help that Patty was crazy and a drug user.

I love Brittany Snow

She could have cornered market in off-beat comedienne, doing Diane Keaton roles before there were Diane Keaton roles.

R523 Patty Duke, that is.

Eric Thal.....Damn, that man was fine. I know he dated Charlize Theron a few years back, but hes 54 now and still single....he just dropped off the face of the earth about 10 years ago.

Tatum O'Neal

CRINGE

[Quote] I love Brittany Snow

R335 Sally Struthers had a recurring role on the sitcom Still Standing as Bill Miller's (Mark Addy) neurotic Mom. Jami Gertz co-starred.

I loved Still Standing. Used to show it on Lifetime

I'm sure Shia was already mentioned, but he threw away a potentially great career.

Whoever starred in that Spielberg film Always. Brad something. Damn, he was pretty but a total blank.

John Beck also had a few good breaks with The Other Side of Midnight and Audrey Rose back in the 70s but didn’t do anything high profile after that. I guess Nick Nolte ended up having his career.

Brad Johnson r532

Orson Welles was known as a creative genius early in his career, but his monumental ego torpedoed what should have been a long and spectacular run as a director and actor. He was given several chances by the studios to get his act together, but he had a habit of alienating himself from the people in power who could make or break his career. He eventually ran out of goodwill and found doors closed in his face for many years.. When he was eventually given another chance to direct a movie, he blew that too. He was given many more chances over the years but kept sabotaging himself.

At the end of his life, he was 'starring' in wine commercials on tv.

I loved Sally in the sitcom version of 9 to 5. It was a syndication favorite in the mid-80s.

Sally Struthers was HYSTERICAL as Mark Addies mother on Still Standing...

Wasn't she also on that show with the single mother and daughter who live in a quaint small town filled with quirky people ? The actress who played the daughter was recently on Handmaid's Tale.

Gilmore Girls

Thank you, r538. It's one of those shows I've only seen in bits and pieces (my late mother loved it) and have meant to try in its entirety.

I adore Gilmore Girls

Andrew Shue

R541 he works behind the cameras now for years.

r541 oops that’s Andrew McCarthey. My bad.

Gretchen Mol? Samantha Mathis? Jonathon Schaech?

Madeleine Stowe - After "Last of the Mohicans", in which she did quite creditibaly up against actors like Daniel Day Lewis, she should have done better. and she was certainly pretty enough. Her real flaw was her strange voice.

R545 Stowe has a major comeback with Revenge and her award nominations and critical praise. It’s a shame she didn’t try to capitalize on that.

R545 - By then she was no longer"ingenue" material and most people just don't know who she is. "Last of the Mohicans" was her big break and it never paid off. She also had some face work, particularly lip filler, if photos are to be believed, that ruined her disintive mouth and distorted her look, much as Melanie Griffith's lip filler did.

Mia Farrow could have had a much bigger film career.

Every acting career ebbs and flows, just working as an actor is a "big break" Most of what people think they know about the business comes from pop culture interview which are created by publicsts.

For her meager talents, Mia Farrow had a fantastic film career, R548.

Babara Bach, a/k/a Mrs Ringo Starr - former Bond Girl but didn't go on much from there.

Add the much more interesting Sophie Marceau, also a former Bond Girl who didn't get very far.

*Correction - Marceau was a Bond Villain Girl, technically . . . but still.

I don't think being a Bond girl is really a role that make you go too far.

R583 - Theoretically, it should, but it's curious that it doesn't. That said, the last two, Eva Green and Lea Seydoux, seem to have decent careers in Europe. They would never have fit the American mold of an A-List movie star but I don't think they would have expected to.

I'm curious as to how Vanessa Kriby and Rebecca Ferguson, from the latest Mission Impossible film, will do. Both struck me as having both charisma and class and talent and coming across well on the big screen. I'd seen them both in earlier British productions, like "White Queen" and 'The Hour". Both struck me as having "star quality".

Eva Green has a very good career going. She seems like she will have longevity.

This thread would've been much more interesting had it been given the title "Actors Who Blew Them and Got Big Breaks."

R545 She is married to the very cute Brian Benben, who used to show his buttbutt a lot on that show "Dream On" years ago. I haven't seen him in a while though.

R557 - Didn't know that, thanks. Rather

By the way, her co-star in Last of the Mohicans, Jodhi May, who played the younger sister, was a very fine British actress who had a major role in the British TV production "Tipping the Velvet" about the lesbian subculture in Victorian England. She was probably the better actress of the two women and has had a respectable career mostly in theatre and television.

This may seem as if it doesn't fit the theme here, but I'd add Benedict Cumberbatch. He had 15 minutes of gigantic fame, propelled by Sherlock, but hasn't been able to leverage that into A-List Leading Man territory. Were it not for the Dr. Strange and its overlap with other Marvel franchise he'd have a poor track record of opening successful first-run films. After "The Imitation Game" and his Oscar nomination (which everyone knew he wouldn't win, just like he keeps missing out on BAFTAs and Globes), his real sellout was his "Hamlet" at the Barbican.

I think he'll pick up lots of nominations for indie work in TV over his career, but he missed out A-List Leading Man status, which is probably what he, like his pal Hiddleston, was after.

And we can add Hiddleston to this list, too.

R559, sorry but they don't fit the bill as someone who blew it. Cumberbatch has a very good career going, he has talent. Hiddleston is still in the picture although he paused his momentum with the Taylor fiasco.

R560 - I didn't say he didn't have a good career going, but he didn't turn into an A-List Leading Man, either. I agree he has talent, I think Hiddleston does, too. But neither one turned into or is going to turn into Brad Pitt, and both were after that for awhile. Certainly I'll agree they haven't disappointed as some others on this list have, but I'd be surprised if Hiddleston, especially, as he heads toward 40, isn't harbouring some bitterness at how things have gone since Loki put him on the map. Personally, I don't think his career is going to recover much - he's losing his hair and is looking rather geeky these days. His moment for Big Time Film Star passed.

First person that came to mind was Barbara Parkins. Had a nice juicy role on early TV sensation "Peyton Place" , then followed it up as the lead character in "Valley Of The Dolls", then....nothing.

Also, I was watching "The Caine Mutiny" on TCM the other night. A young actor named Robert Francis shared the lead with acting heavyweights Van Johnson, Jose Ferrer, Humphrey Bogart and Fred MacMurray. However after that....nothing.

Jaimee Foxworth Of Family Matters literally blew her chances.

R561, maybe some of these stars don't want to be A-List like Brad Pitt but Cumberbatch is still in demand and can probably dictate his price. Besides, he doesn't have the face to be the next Brad Pitt.

This thread is meant for someone who had potential but lost it or blew it and now is begging for work, like Michael Pitt, for example.

Hartnett was gorge 10 years ago. Or more.

Hartnett is still gorgeous but he burned a lot of bridges back then. He was great in Penny Dreadful so I wonder if that helped his "comeback" as he now had 5 films in post-production.. Before PD, he was making films that were going straight to video so I wonder if these new films are just Indies.

There are a lot of people listed who didn't blow it, they just failed to become huge stars. Someone up thread mentioned Olivia Wilde. She didn't blow it, she just didn't become the next Angelina like she was supposed to. She didn't walk away from a popular franchise, she never had one. Her only mistake was promoting herself ( or letting Harvey promote her) as the next big thing before she had a big hit. I would recommend not promoting yourself as the next big thing. You look like a failure if you turn out to be just a steadily working actor. Also people get annoyed when they feel like someone is putting the hard sell on them.

The recently deceased Sondra Locke, was was wonderful and got an Oscar nomination for "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter", then did a number of roles in her lover Clint Eastwood films, but nothing apparently which would showcase her for stardom like her first role.

Eddie Fisher messed up his budding movie career and his whole singing career in the Debbie Reynolds-Elizabeth Taylor scandal.

[quote] Add the much more interesting Sophie Marceau, also a former Bond Girl who didn't get very far.

Sophie Marceau has enjoyed a pretty respectable acting career in France since she first appeared back in the early 80s. She did make appearances in a number of Hollywood projects in the 90s but I don't think it was ever her primary market, more along the lines "if it takes off great, if not, I have my career in French cinema."

R568 and R569 are good examples. Taylor could make being scandalous work for her. Eddie just looked like an asshole who abandoned his wife and young children.

I think Locke mostly appeared in Eastwoods films after the got together. They weren't great parts and people saw her as a bimbo benefiting from nepotism. He screwed her over in a movie deal at the end of their relationship. It fucked up her chances as a director.

"If you're a tough type to cast, you have to work that much harder."

99% of actors don't "make it" no matter how hard they work. Most people in SAG are unemployed. The odds of being a successful actor are tiny.

Christina Hendricks

I wonder how many of these people saw their careers suffer when they turned down some mogul, director, or popular star.....

Mira Sorvino could have been a big star after the Oscar but didn't she turn down Weinstein?

If ONLY there was a way to learn more about the most obscure and underreported relationship between Weinstein and Sorvino's career death. If ONLY.... I sure would like to know!

r571....its well documented about the ways Eastwood screwed Locke over....of course she ended up winning in court, but at what price....the damage was done by the good ol boys.

The sequel to this thread should be:

Actors Who Got Big Breaks Because They Blew Someone

R562 Well, in his defense, we should note Robert Francis (who was gay, by the way) died in a plane crash the year after The Caine Mutiny--that does tend to put a crimp in one's career trajectory (unless you are James Dean, I guess).

R573 Hendricks has had 17 credits since Mad Men ended. She's the lead in a NBC show the Good Girls. Nothing as critically acclaimed as Mad Men, but that's the life of a TV actor. Moss is the only one from that show who's done anything that's on par with Mad Men critically.

R575 I think there are a lot of actresses who blew their big break by not blowing Weinstien or Moonves.

R580, I take it you did not see me in "Tag"?

R519 Patty Duke not having a major film career had nothing to do with her looks. It had to do with her instability, because of her yet undiagnosed manic depression 😢 But she did find major success as the queen of TV movies 😀

R583 well she didn’t have the looks or presence for movies either - it’s just a fact. It’s true for a lot of child actors - whatever made them “cute” then are usually the exact same things that made them unmarketable as an adult.

She was barely five feet, didn’t exactly turn out to be a pretty or glamorous looking adult, and she had that voice.

R584 well we'll have to agree to disagree. I think that she turned out to be a very pretty woman, and what's wrong with somebody being 5 ft tall, a lot of beautiful women are 5 feet tall 👍

I think there's a big difference between someone who has a big break and then basically never works again and someone who has a big break and then steady, but less flashy career.

Column A: Nikki Blonsky. Hairspray followed by sad tweeting.

Column B: Lacey Chabert. Party of 5, Mean Girls, and then a shit ton of voice work and Hallmark movies. She's not getting a star on the Walk of Fame, but she's still working steady

Chris Tucker. Was super-popular after those Rush Hour movies with Jackie Chan, was commanding $20 million a picture (or was it $10 mil, can't remember) but then he just withdrew. He could have had Eddie Murphy's career but didn't take it.

Dave Chapelle - walked out on his tv show, was making multi-millions but pissed off a lot of people. He's making a comeback but not commanding the price he did then.

Acting like a spoiled brat once you make it is the best way to derail your career. They will condone your assholery as long your movies are making money, the second you flop you are toast

R587 Tucker was commanding $20 mil per film and paid that for Rush Hour 2 and 3. He didn’t want the fame though.

R584, Salma Hayek, widely considered one of the sexiest stars in cinema over the last twenty years, would disagree with your assessment that being barely 5' tall is a detriment to success, at least as defined by big checks, Oscar nominations and being the sexual fantasy of millions of men (and some women too).

Nikki Blonsky makes me sad. Very talented, but does she have to address herself as Nikki Blonsky (from Hairspray)? There's something so depressing about that.

She is still young, she just needs to move her ass, find a good agent and try harder. It's not too late

Nikki sat at her parents' house and waited for Hollywood to come to her. As far as I know, she still lives at home. Fat chicks get work (Gabourey Sidibe, Rebel Wilson, etc) and she does have a pretty face. But you have to play the game, bitch!

I wonder if Nikki knew how to play the game. It's possible no one explained it to her. She may not have had the best management. She did host that Dance your Ass Off show. I think when someone gets a lead in a movie that young they just have no idea how to get their hustle on. The people who have to work for it know what they need to do.

Nikki also was the star of her own Lifetime movie and wasn’t on a show on Freeform

R590 it’s the rare exception not the rule and Patty Duke wasn’t a sexy Latina - it sexy anything.

Above or below a certain high you’re just going to have a very hard time being considered for leading lady status. And child stars (both men and women) - they like them SHORT, practically midgets, so it’s not as surprise that as adults many of them aren’t marketable in that way.

R596 - good point about child actors often being selected for small stature, especially in series work. Child star Natalie Wood was very petite, but grew into a beautiful woman with beautiful curvaceous figure. Ditto Elizabeth Taylor, even more so. Patty Duke grew into a not terribly pretty woman who looked like she was straight out of Canarsie - sort of Jennifer Grey but with real acting talent.

R596, I disagree. The women who are 5 ft 2" and below:

Judy Garland (4'11"),

Natalie Wood (5'2")

Lady Gaga (5'2"),

Jada Pinkett Smith (5'),

Kristen Bell (5'1")

Reese Witherspoon (5'1")

Elizabeth Taylor (5'1")

Zoe Kravitz (5'2")

Sally Field (5'2")

Patricia Arquette (5'2")

Shakira (5'1")

And so on.

R594, in her own words, more of less, she fucked herself over.

Gillian Anderson is petite as well and so is Jodie Foster. Supposedly both 5 ft 3 but they look shorter to me.