Why did Billy Zane's career go straight down the shitter?

He went bald.

And fat.

He looks like a completely different person.

He was early nineties studliness

He's starting to look like a happy, golden Buddha.

Because he was so hammy and incapable of nuance.

He might have had a better time in the 1930s and 1940s.

He doing fine, and he's happy.

William George Zane (Zanetakos) Jr.. 55, born in Chicago; married 1989-95, two kids. He's been partnered since 2010 to the same woman and is currently engaged to her.

His parents are both of Greek descent (from Chios through his mother and Mani through his father), and his family's original surname, "Zanetakos", was anglicized to "Zane" by his parents, who also raised him in the Greek Orthodox faith. He has an older sister, Lisa Zane, who is an actress and singer.

According to Wiki, Zane has worked steadily from 1985 through 2021.

He's still handsome. Those bedrooms probably still get him into a lot of different beds.

R1 He wore a wig for his most famous role though!

He flushed his toupee?

He's great in Demon Knight.

I had a crush on him in Titanic. Them I forgot about him

He's an arrogant asshole.

It was the 1-2 punch of his star turn as "The Phantom" being a huge flop, and then his role in "Titanic" forever cementing him in the frau filmgoers' minds as a smarmy, cowardly weenie.

As "The Bachelor" has subsequently proven, most stupid fraus can't tell reality from fiction, and will never, ever let go of their deep hatred of an on-screen villain.

..and, he's an arrogant asshole on set.

I remember renting Dead Calm on VHS & Jerry rigging two VCRs together to copy any shirtless scenes of him. Those were the days…

Meanwhile, his fellow "Titanic" featured player, Danny Nucci, has aged like a fine wine.

Danny Nucci was hotter than Billy and Leo DiCaprio

He was excellent in "Orlando."

size verificatia

Cut or uncut though?

Asking for Leo and Kate.

Uncut, for a fact!

Is he worse on set than Jason Patric?

Robert Sean Leonard turned down the Billy Zane role in TITANIC.

Billy Zane was fucking hot in Dead Calm. Still a great thriller.

It's very odd. He was in such a huge film but it didn't seem to do much for his career. I guess he got bad reviews (?)

I did hear James Cameron discussing (sort of apologizing to him in a way) that the final edit made him seem like a "mustache twirler" which I guess is a way to say that he was a hammy villian.

It is really odd. I checked his filmography and he really got nothing that great in the years right after Titanic.

Plent of people are in big movies.

[quote]Why did Billy Zane's career go straight down the shitter?

I can't be certain, but I suspect it had something to do with the loss of his youthful good looks...

but it happened so fast Jessica Fletcher.

Titanic was a huge hit in 1997. Then in 98,99,2000 he never really got a followup up film.

His looks didn't fade that fast.

(BTW it's so odd that Kate Winslet was called fat in Titanic. She's not fat. Hard to imagine that she got flack for her weight in this film as she has said.)

*sigh*

He was wearing a wig as far back as Twin Peaks?

The eyebrows ruined his career.

At least he has the memory of having been outrageously beautiful for a few decades.

Zero talent.

It was a combo platter of things:

Not a great actor.

And, seen as a "pretty actor" relying solely on his looks.

A reputation of being an asshole within the industry apparently...that can be a career killer, real fast. Producers/executives will just hire someone else easier to work with. They'll put up with some assholery from already established superstars but even then...only for awhile. Zane was never that big.

He had a terrible role in a huge hit movie. Maybe if he had been a stronger actor he could have overcame it but the role was written and filmed to be a "moustache twirling villain" and completely unlikable.

Might have played the diva game after Titanic: "I was in the biggest hit ever so I'm waiting for great roles to come to ME!" or "I'm turning down everything until something better comes along!"

Apparently he's not, but he really reads as "closeted gay".

Does he still act?

Did he ever?

Getting Marlon Brando vibes.

Did he have an accident when he was young that caused him to have the eyebrows of an 18th century dandy?

I always assumed he made a bundle off of "Titanic" and didn't have to work much thereafter....maybe I was wrong.

Off the top of my head I can only name 3 of his films - the two boat ones and a film set on an island with his then girlfriend Kelly Brook and the guy from the Call On Me video who fucked Colin Firth in Mamma Mia.

I have no recollection of The Phantom, starring an up and coming Catherine Douglas Spartacus Zeta Jones.

Stunning man though.

What does Rose McGowan have to say?

I keep thinking Billy Zane was in the Shadow, but that was Tim Curry.

The Phantom, as I recall, was terrible.

I would so spread for him.

Hot daddy.

H'wood don't take kindly to the expanding waistline. Leo got a pass though.

He might get nice residual checks for Titanic here and there but he certainly wouldn't have a piece of gross/net.

The only person who got very rich with Titanic was James Cameron.

Well, and Leo indirectly just because the film made him a huge star but I don't think Leo or Kate have a piece of the film.

Because he let himself go to shit.

Thread closed.

By the first picture it appears he is living a non-binary lifestyle.

He hit the wall Greek style

[quote]a smarmy, cowardly weenie

Oddly enough, I find I like that in a weenie.

He had a few too many slices of pastitsio.

Bill Campbell was better.

Hardly. Zane was distinctive.

He could never shake off the b-list thing.

He's back, baby!

He's in forced retirement on that desert island, alongside Rene Russo and Tate Donovan.

Robert Sean Leonard would have been a horrible villain in Titanic.

He has a titanic figure.

I met him in person (along with Darryl Hannah) at the TIFF premiere of "Silver City", in 2004, I think. I've never felt so attracted to and creeped out by the same person at once.

He appeared in two Sheena Easton music videos - Do It For Love and Magic of Love. 💗

I'd like to go right UP his shitter

Billy was told he was going to be a star. He unfortunately started acting like one before he became one.

I liked him as a Daisy in Tombstone.

It tried to catch his hair.

My (male) friend blew him in Runyon Canyon. .

Saw him play Billy Flynn in Chicago maybe 20 years ago and he was great. No. Really. He was. Should have done more theatre.

What tales do you have of his alleged obnoxious behavior?

William George Zane Jr. (born February 24, 1966), 58

His parents are of Greek descent (from Chios through his mother and Mani through his father); and his family's original surname, "Zanetakos", was anglicized to "Zane" by his parents. He grew up in the Greek Orthodox faith. He has an older sister, Lisa Zane, who is an actress and singer.

He is an abstract expressionist painter and he has had many solo and group exhibitions.

According to Zane's Wikipedia page, he has worked quite a lot including through the present day in film and television. He may not be a major star, but he continues to work and is supposedly worth $20 million.

Billy not getting work after Titanic is PROOF that Hollywood discriminates against Greek-Americans!

Billy Zane's ripe to play Uncle Fester in that eponymous "Addams Family" spinoff.

Like Kyle McLachlan, I've always thought Billy Zane looks unnatural. A cross between Max Headroom, and Kryten from "Red Dwarf". Not at all attractive. And the overly-plucked eyebrows make it even worse. It's thoroughly disturbing, and not at all sexy.

Leonardo DiCaprio stole Zane's stardom.

Joining Seann William Scott in the "formerly hot guys whose careers went straight down the shitter" club

R77. But Zane's career did not go straight down the shitter. He has been consistently working for years. Check out his Wki page. He's been working quite a lot.

Zane's stardom may have faded, but he has been a working actor.

R77. Seann William Scott's stardom may have also faded, but he has worked as an actor for many years. His projects may not have landed him on the A- or even B-list, but he has been working in television and film for years.

[quote] He was having a moment there for awhile!

Um, like a hundred years ago?

He was so unpopular on the set of Phantom that the crew nicknamed him “the poof in the purple condom”.

Seann is a terrific comedic actor, with a perfected "Put-Upon Baffled Normal" persona.

R82 = Either Seann, his agent or his mother.

Years ago, my friends and I went to Chiller Theatre convention in New Jersey. (Now we go all the time. It's a hoot)

Saturday afternoon and the place was PACKED. (This was the Fall right before Covid)

Billy was there with his sister Lisa.

One of my friends and I were standing near an exit door because it was the only place we could find to stand without a kajillion people around. We struck up a conversation with the woman sitting at the table. It was apparently her job to remind people to keep their wristbands on if the left. All of the sudden, Billy Zane bounds up to the table in a Kangol cap. I remember very well what he said since my friend and I have been imitating it still to this day.... (and remember, this was yelling at an older woman monitoring the door)

"HEY! My sister and I are stuck in the COBALT ROOM. No one can find the fucking COBALT ROOM! We were supposed to be in the IRON ROOM. That's closer to EVERYTHING. The COBALT ROOM is in the middle of FUCKING NOWHERE. We better be in the FUCKING IRON ROOM tomorrow. It cost us a lot of fucking money to be here, and we're stuck in the FUCKING COBALT ROOM."

Just rude. The poor woman was in tears, What was she going to do about him being in THE COBALT ROOM????

One of the only rude celebrities we have ever encountered there,

And now, every time my friends and I get a bad table in a restaurant or fee otherwise stranded, we are officially stuck in the FUCKING COBALT ROOM.

People are always claiming someone's career went straight down the shitter when they're constantly working and making a lot of money.

That is a funny story about The Cobalt Room.