Actors that had it all but didn't suceed

Graham had looks and a few lucky breaks, but talent? She never impressed me in anything. She's run that gamut from godawful to merely passable in a few movies. That's not really talent. That means she either had a really smart director who knew how to get a performance out of her or the role was a better fit for her.

Agree R1. Did anyone even notice she hasn't been around?

Actors are cancelled before they’re cancelled. Don’t cancel the cancelled cancelled cancelled-s.

Eric Bana and Jason Patrick. I think with Bana, it was the films he chose. He never had that star making role. His big shot was Hulk, but it fizzled. Jason Patrick seemed to have everything he needed. After seeing his brooding portrayal of the older brother in The Lost Boys, and seeing all the women in the theater mesmerized by him, I was surprised he never parlayed that into a bigger film career. I don't think the hair loss helped him, but it never hurt Woody Harrelson or Bruce Willis.

I love/hate on DL when people hold up performers of the (at most) last 10-15 years as examples of the arc of a career, as if this isn't the millionth iteration of how these things work. This is film and has been happening for 120 years and it probably happened in the theater as far back as the Globe. Mabel Normand showed Chaplin how things were done, but who remembers her? Why did Lois Wilson not become as big a star as Gloria Swanson? Dorothy as big as Lillian? What made Katharine Hepburn rise while Ann Harding sank? Why was Paul Muni an actor's actor while Bogart became a star for the ages? Why was James Dean the hero and Sal Mineo the friend? Why did Crosby win the Oscar while Hope had to make a 50 year joke of not winning one? Why did they throw money at William Friedkin while Arthur Penn struggled for financing? Why M and not G? Why him and not me? (I'll never stop wondering *that*!)

Sorry to be pedantic but if you're going to post on DL you should know that such things are part of the great show business continuum along which many shine briefly but cannot control the forces that turn you into a star. This is not a recent phenomenon. If you're going to wonder about Heather Graham, you must just as well be asking about Alice Guy Blachê.

Heather was a terrible actress. She reminded me of Vanna White in her turn as the "Goddess of Love".

Heather was the Blonde of the Moment from 1997 to around 2001. Hollywood always has one, they get 3-5 years of A-list fame, and then their careers dim to a wattage more in line with their talents. Cameron Diaz was another one, and so was Jennifer Lawrence. Margot Robbie is it right now.

I never understood why Clive Owen didn't have a bigger career. Good actor and sex on a stick--he should have been James Bond.

I worked with someone who said if Heather Graham was 10 pounds heavier she'd be a waitress.

James Wolk seemed like he had so much potential at one point and I thought he would blow up, but no one mentions him anymore.

Amanda Seyfried. She appeared to be the next big thing, had some hit movies, then dwindled away to almost nothing. Not much going on with her career now. Hope she saved some money!

You don't really have much of a window to become and stay an A list star in Hollywood. Even those who do, often flame out sooner than later. There is always someone new ready to take that spot. It helps if the person has a drive to be a big star. If the star doesn't deliver performance wise or at the box office, or has an aggressive and competent agent/PR person, or producers that are willing to push them, the decent begins even faster.

Obviously Lindsay Lohan. She started out on a roll and then did every stupid thing in the book. They gave her a big second chance with more roles and then screwed up again. She's infamous rather than famous. Someone should write a book about acting and include a chapter about her called "Don't Let This Happen To You". She's a dizzy bitch.

There are a lot of actors that I wish we could get rid of. And many of them are A+.

I got with the wrong crowd.

- Virginia Rappe

Mark Hamill. Had huge hits with Star Wars but unlike Harrison Ford he wasn't able to break out and become a top star. Was only successful in a franchise. So close yet so far away.

Hamill may not have had Ford's career, but I think he's proud of his work and is happy with his life. Ford always seems miserable and sour.

Erm, R7, a lot of us remember Heather Graham from Drugstore Cowboy in 1989. The period you’re referring to was actually her comeback or second wave, which happened precisely because of fondness for her earlier indie cred performances. She didn’t just suddenly appear as Roller Girl and prior to that she had a well placed cameo in Jon Favreau’s Swingers from about 1996.

I don’t quite agree with everything that R5 wrote, but anyone who can cite references like Lois Wilson deserves wholehearted applause.

Didn't I read on here not long ago that Heather Graham turned out Teri Polo's role in 'Meet the Parents' because it wasn't a "starring role?" Heather was shoehorned into the "It Girl" persona that Vanity Fair or another big magazine was infamous for proclaiming each year. Gretchen Mol was the "It Girl" either right before or after Heather, and then completely disappeared. But someone on here said it was because of Harvey Weinstein, in Mol's case. Ashley Judd is another one, but she was definitely fucked over by Harvey.

I still like Heather Graham's cameo

I told her that roller girl role would be the kiss of death.

Speaking of actors who had it all and are now completely irrelevant, hi Gwynnie! r22

Charlie Sheen. Had the Hollywood family, the looks. Actually was a pretty good comedy actor. Now is a total piece of garbage.

Amanda Seyfried and Mia Wasikowska own this thread, they were everywhere for a few years, and both were in my opinion, a very talented actresses. Mia blew my mind in Stoker and Madame Bovary. She also made good box offices like Alice in Wonderland. What’s the explanation of this kind of actresses?

And Heather was hot but an average actress, like Angelina or Miss Roberts are. Who is behind the success or failure of each one?

Actors are often victims of changing tastes, badly written/produced/directed movies, bad co-actors, bad marriages, bad agents, bad drugs, bad publicity or bad PR. There are so many ways their career can go wrong I'm surprised that any of them bother.

R11, see r7.

[quote]This is not a recent phenomenon.

No one said it was. You've lost the distinction between pointless bitchery and pointless straw man arguments.

And while I'm schooling the children...any working actor is a success story.

OP was asking for a list of actors who didn't succeed, so I don't know why it's relevant that this isn't a new phenomenon. Of course it's not; if it was, OP wouldn't be asking in the first place.

And for what it's worth, I do wonder every once in a while what happened to Heather Graham. I liked her. I think Amanda Seyfried kind of took her place, but she's disappeared now, too.

I think "Carrie Bradshaw OOO HISSS" ruined Heather Graham. That was an all time bad line delivery.

Amanda Seyfried is starring as Kevin Bacon's wife (because a 34 year age gap doesn't matter at all, why would it???) in a new horror movie called You Should Have Left. I want to see it despite the ridiculous fucking age gap. I like them both and am a sucker for a good horror movie.

R10 He was great as Bob Benson in Mad Men. I'm also surprised he's not a bigger name.

R31 That looks pretty good, I'm making a note to stream it. I'm surprised that she's not playing the mother of a 14 year old. For some reason Hollywood insists on regularly casting 35 year olds as the parents of teenagers, despite this being unusual outside working class communities.

Totally agree R33. And Kevin Bacon would be a grandpa in real life.

R18, I never said Heather Graham came out of nowhere. But her most high-profile period was the late '90s and early '00s. Given her minimal talents (except for the two big obvious ones pictured below), she did really well for herself.

The car accident currently derailed Hamill's mainstream career. While the doctors were able to make him look normal, the change to his face destroyed all of the golden-boy handsomeness that won him the Luke role in the first place. Good for him for managing to come back as a voice actor.

*completely derailed

Cupcake blondes like Graham and Seyfried always have an early sell-by date. They can look good in their 30s and 40s, but they lose the glow of pure youth and sex that really make them memorable.

Ok, I buy the blonde of Hollywood thing. Does that mean that the same thing is going to happen to Margot Robbie?

In cases like exposed above, Mia Wasikowska, she was not hot, her ageing is not playing against herself, why is she forgotten by now? She was talented.

I think the problem with Mia Wasikowska is that she’s just too bland. She’s a competent actress, but she has neither the charisma to be a star nor the distinctiveness that stands out as a prestige performer.

Try to think of someone doing a Mia Wasikowska impression. It would be practically impossible. There isn’t enough there.

Yes. Hamill was odd-looking after the accident.

I think that nauseatingly bad Alice in Wonderland film hurt Mias' career. Granted the fault was really Tim Burtons but still.

Romola Garai rules this thread.

She was in Vanity Fair with Reese Witherspoon, that Dirty Dancing pseudo sequel with that hot Mexican dude, Atonement then POOF!

Neely O'Hara

I can only relate to the first half of the title.

Jane March.

She wasn't brilliantly talented or anything but Color of Night is a guilty pleasure and she's really not that bad in it. Certainly not be enough for it to ruin her career.

This thread is racist and misogynistic against white women.

[quote]Why did Crosby win the Oscar while Hope had to make a 50 year joke of not winning one?

Because Crosby was a very talented actor in all genres, while Hope was an affable hack.

"This thread is racist and misogynistic against white women."

R47 Because they're filthy cunts.

Romola Garai has the embarrassing distinction of being the one cast member of Atonement that no one remembers, R43, even though she played the lead character for much of it.

Cumberbatch, Juno Temple, Brenda Blethyn and Alfie Allen each have a fraction of Garai’s screen time, and they were much more memorable.

Because they're filthy entitled cunts.

Fixed it for you.

On the commentary track for the Color of Night dvd Richard Rush talks about Jane March getting involved with a bad dude that tried to manage her and he almost blew Color of Night for her with his antics. Didn’t want her to do nudity, etc. She does pretty good in such a bananas movie.

R4 Jason Patric can be a great actor depending on the role and film. He was excellent in Rush and remarkable in After Dark My Sweet. Like most actors, even if they are talented, they have to be lucky enough to have been in several good and/or popular films in an ongoing basis.

I don't know that Heather Graham is a great example of an actor who didn't succeed. She's more successful than 99% of actors: she's appeared in multiple huge hits and popular indies, headlined a tv show (or shows?), and appeared on some iconic television shows - all despite being a mediocre actress.

Looking at her filmography, she also just starred in and produced a pilot for ABC and will be on The Stand series, so it's not like her career is even completely over, even though she's 50. I'd actually say it's somewhat shocking she still books anything at this point.

Heather Graham had very strict religious parents who all but disowned her went she went into acting. They refused to speak to her and it really bothered her. She spoke about it a number of times.

R46 Kate Beckinsale pretty much stole Jane March's career.

January Jones.

R54, that’s fair, but success is relative. Graham has a career most SAG members would kill for, but among people famous enough to be discussed, it might be a disappointment.

Otherwise, we’d be mentioning talented unknowns we saw in community theater who ended up quitting acting, and that would just be depressing in a world where Josh Gad has a career.

Heather Graham was originally cast as Heather McNamara in Heathers, but her parents made her turn them down when they read the script and found it offensive and demonic. Kind of amazing that she has any career whatsoever with psycho parents like that.

"Looking at her filmography, she also just starred in and produced a pilot for ABC and will be on The Stand series, so it's not like her career is even completely over, even though she's 50. I'd actually say it's somewhat shocking she still books anything at this point."

Agreed. She's not very talented - I think she went as far as she could go.

Oh fuck. It's all just sex and money laundering. Stop over-analyzing.

Didn't succeed at what, OP? Being a star? There are character actors who are still building careers. Do you think everyone out of the Actors Studio is destined to be a star?

He still works, but I thought Jeremy Northam would go farther. He had the looks, the charisma, the talent. I wish he was getting the kind of roles Colin Firth is getting

Character actors don't win awards, the successful ones keep on working. These two jump to mind:

Leland Orso in SEVEN -- He should have won an Oscar for his ten minutes.

Eileen Heckert in THE BAD SEED. Another Oscar worthy scene, less than ten minutes but what a lesson for all those Actor Studio students.

R30 I forgot about that! It is awful.

Illeana Douglas had a background role in literally every movie that came out in the early to mid 90s but never had a breakout role.

(R66) she was dating Martin Scorsese. I'm pretty sure that helped her get some parts.

It all boils down to Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent.

And, being in the right place at the right time and making good decisions.

There's no guarantee in any field that you're going to be the top person in that field, rise to the top, stay there and end up successful and praised until the end of your life.

Please don't quote Drag Race. It's forbidden.

R66 I thought she was one of the woman Harvey went after with a vengeance and destroyed her career? Didn't I read that somewhere?

I assumed these actors were going to be the biggest male movie stars of the 80s:

Lenny von Dohlen,

Jeff Fahey,

Željko Ivanek

They were not.

Amanda Seyfried had a kid. She has lots of movies coming up but is only starring in the indies. Never a good sign.

Heather Graham has a net worth of 25M and still looks great, which I assume is all that matters to her.

Les Moonves blackballed Illeana Douglas but I always got the impression that she got parts because of who she was dating.

Harvey Weinstein supposedly ruined the careers of Mira Sorvino and Annabella Sciorra. Sorvino was hugely lucky to have gotten as far as she did. Sciorra was great in the Sopranos and still works. I always confused her with Laura San Giacomo. San Giacomo was less active in the business because of a son with cerebral palsy.

R72 OK, right thanks for the ID info, I remember now it was about TV and not movies.

Virginia Madsen. She was absolutely breathtaking in Candyman. Everything after that was a mess - excluding her minor role in Sideways.

Heather Graham turned down a role in Heathers. I could see her playing one of those characters - and, dammit, her name is HEATHER.

She tried to be more indy films in the 2000's but it didn't pan out the way she wanted.

I thought Heather Graham was excellent in Boogie Nights. That scene in the limo where Roller Girl reacts to the gentleman who recognizes her from high school was really strong. And she was good in Drugstore Cowboy.

Speaking of DC, Kelly Lynch. She was great in that film with Matt Dillon.

[quote]For some reason Hollywood insists on regularly casting 35 year olds as the parents of teenagers, despite this being unusual outside working class communities.

I remember when "Gilmore Girls" started that Lorelei didn't look like she'd been a teen mother at all, and soon realized it was because I was so used to 35yo women playing moms to high schoolers.

They had to go take more acting classes.

[quote]Les Moonves blackballed Illeana Douglas but I always got the impression that she got parts because of who she was dating.

And that her grandfather was Melvin Douglas, who was revered by the Hollywood community and had gotten an Oscar not more than a decade before Illeana started auditioning for film roles.

I think she's a perfectly good character actress and don't think this is a case of someone without talent getting roles they don't deserve.

Illeana Douglas is kinda strange looking. Not ugly but strange.

The only reason I remember her is that Robert de Niro took a bite out of her face while they were having sex in Cape fear, yes the Martin Scorsese remake.

She's more suited either behind the camera as a director or even writer.

Allison Janney probably stole Illeana Douglas' career.

She was good in To Die For.

Obviously, for Graham to be cast as a climbing, serial, girlfriend in "Bowfinger" isn't much of a stretch for her acting skills, such as they were, still, I thought she was one of the best things about that comedy.

And, while I'm at it, and perhaps I'm easily amused, however, I think "Bowfinger" is laugh-out-loud funny.

Julia Ormond is the person that always comes to my mind when this is discussed. She was on the cover of the NY Times Sunday Magazine with an accompanying story of hoe Michael Ovitz was grooming her to be the Next Big Star.

Then "Sabrina" came out.

I know she's had steady employment since then, but still, the media launch of her pre-Sabrina anticipated she was to be a permanent "A" List star of Julia Roberts proportions.

Laugh if you will, but I entertain the notion that talented, would-be stars themselves change their minds about wanting the financial and fame headaches of "stardom"- put shortly, they change their minds about what they want their lives to be and leave the industry.

"hoe"- how, of course.

I think Ovitz himself, though, has described that being a Hollywood agent is being a "Ho".

James Marsden still works but I expected him to be a way bigger star than he is

I haven't read all the posts but this thread reminds me of the actors I loved on the Sopranos that you hardly see. Or, if you do see them, they are in such minor, secondary roles and without the crafty, clever Sopranos dialogue.

Julia Ormond didn't have the "It" factor. Horribly miscast in Sabrina.

Ben Chaplin

Julia Ormond was also frequently confused with Juliette Binoche. Never a good sign when people can't differentiate you from an actor with a similar look.

Isn't Northam glass closeted? Refusing to beard up during his hot period in the late 90s/early 00s might have derailed A-list status for him.

Young Heather Graham would have been perfect as the hot, ditzy, good-hearted but weak-minded Heather McNamara. Much better than that blonde model they ended up with, who never really acted after that. Too bad she didn't emancipate from her parents a year sooner--but perhaps giving up Heathers convinced her to do Drugstore Cowboy. You know her parents weren't happy about that.

Christina Hendricks

John hamm

Josh hartnett

Heathers was the one who cut her parents out of her life and her parents have said they never had an issue with her acting career and never quite understood why she cut them out of her life or why she told the press that her parents had an issue with her career.

R88, Ormond also wasn’t nearly as talented as Binoche. I don’t think she could have pulled off many of the roles that Binoche did in the nineties. Ormond ended up being a better actress than people expected (she deserved her Emmy for Temple Grandin), but the difference between the quality of their work was vast at that time. First Knight versus Three Colors: Blue isn’t even close.

I like Ormond as an actress but she's not the likable, romantic heroine that Hollywood tried to market her as, which is why she was wrong for Sabrina.

She's a character actress and a damn good one. Loved her on Mad Men.

Graham can be good with the right role and director, but she was godawful in that Lifetime version of Flowers in the Attic. All she did was widen her eyes the entire time and I was scared they were about to pop out of her head. On paper, she seems ideal for that role, so I wonder if it was that the whole thing was shot so quickly that they didn't have time to direct her or give her multiple takes. Aren't Lifetime movies usually shot in about a week or two?

It's very telling that she got better in the sequels, so I guess she's one of those actors who needs more takes and more time to dwell with a character.

James Marsden has a had a very respectable career. Despite his looks, there's always been something quirky and character actor-ish about him and I'm sure that's what's kept him from becoming a traditional leading man. I'd still say he has more talent, charm, and charisma than most other so-called leading men put together. I'd find it hard to believe that he's upset with how things turned out since he still works constantly and has been able to do a variety of roles and genres over the years. That's an actor's dream.

It’s kind of telling that Marsden probably reached his career peak once he hit his mid-forties and his boyish appearance became just a bit weathered. He was always too handsome in a way that was difficult to cast. Enchanted and Hairspray (2007 was a good year for Marsden) got it right, but he needed a few lines on that perfect face before he could expand on that.

Marsden's great on Dead To Me. I see him sticking around for awhile and doing really interesting work. He's always someone I'm happy to see turn up in anything, which is the mark of a good, charismatic actor. Makes you feel like you're in good hands. Seems like a good guy, too. Never had a scandal that I can think of.

Define “success”. There are many actors who seem to have disappeared, but you look them up on IMDb and see that they’re pretty active. Maybe they’re not headlining blockbusters, but they’re working steadily.

For example, the delicious Ben Chaplin.

R4, I"ve read that Patrick was very difficult to work with. Sean Young was talented as well, but that reputation killed her career.

R24, you do enough drugs and you can lose your talent. Lindsey Lohan had the same thing happen. She could have been a winning actress in comedies, but by the time she hit the Lifetime movie, she apparently couldn't remember lines and gave a wooden performance. That was not the case before the heavy drug use.

Maybe if you have enough talent or sufficient charisma, you can avoid it. I don't remember seeing that with Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Or maybe he died before it could happen.

If Lindsay had stayed sober and taken her career seriously (like gotten some real coaching to help her shake off the child actor tics), she could have had Emma Stone's career. But that's the thing about Hollywood, especially for starlets: Stumble once too often and there's somebody else with your same look coming up right behind you.

Lindsay is not as talented as Emma Stone

I'd argue that in her best years she had more charisma and raw sexual appeal than Emma Stone, which counts for a lot onscreen. But she burned all that out by the time she was 23.

If by sex appeal you mean "big boobs"

Yeah, but she also had the air of a girl who would do just about anything after a few shots.

Melissa Rivers

[quote] Sorry to be pedantic

You're DELIGHTING in being pedantic. You're fooling no one.

[quote] but if you're going to post on DL you should know that such things are part of the great show business continuum along which many shine briefly but cannot control the forces that turn you into a star. This is not a recent phenomenon. If you're going to wonder about Heather Graham, you must just as well be asking about Alice Guy Blachê.

Mary!

Simmer down now.

Heather Graham should have done more comedic roles. She just didn't have the chops to be a dramatic actress.

Lindsay Lohan was a hack. She’s photogenic and has a kind of charm. I’ve never seen her disappear into a role. Personally, I think she’s a great model. She and the camera have a special relationship.

She’s had so many chances, it pisses me off. But that’s how it goes with grifters like her. Courtney Love is another one.

Word for Word, r86, but man, talk about an ill-advised, bad re-make of "Sabrina".

While Ormond was miscast, the film itself was so bad- the writing, direction, acting, even if the Sabrina character had been well cast, it still wouldn't have saved that turkey.

Rebecca DeMornay. Was amazing in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, and yet afterwards disappeared.

For those of you saying Ormond was miscast in the remake of Sabrina, who would you have cast instead? Just curious.

Julia Roberts R112! She was practically the next Audrey Hepburn what with her lithe figure and charm.

Josh Hartnett. At 6 feet, 3 inches he was the epitome of tall, dark and handsome. He started out big but his acting skills were a tad wooden and his choice of scripts were not the best and he was too picky. What could have been a great career dwindled down gradually to almost nothing and at the relatively young age of 41 he's pretty much out of the game.

Didn't Harnett have some sort of drug issues that kept him off the grid for a bit or am I confusing him with someone else? He still seems to get a fair amount of work these days, so I'd consider that a big win if I were him. God knows there are better actors out there, so he must be doing something right.

Agreed with everything you wrote, r114.

Exhibit "A" of Hartnett's "tad wooden" acting and a bad choice of script was "The Black Dahlia".

Holy Cow, that was a terrible film. My jaw actually dropped during the final 40 minutes or 1/2 hour to go, it was so unbelievably bad. It actually crossed my mind that De Palma was being intentionally bad or going for camp, that's how bad TBD was.

Good question r112, but I have no idea.

Ormond was in I Know Who Killed Me FFS!

Yes the Ho-han movie!

The guy from Pearl Harbor whatshisname ?

Another "why didn't this celebrity have a bigger career?" Ugh.

We all know Heather Graham. She's worked constantly in movies and tv for nearly 25 years. She's been in some hits. She's been in studio movies with her name above the title. She's been in critically respected movies. She's done both drama and comedy. She's gorgeous and still looks great.

What more could anyone want from a career?

Does River Phoenix count ?

That Home Alone kid

Tara Reid

Lindsay Lohan

I don't know how this is possible but Josh Hartnett has a net worth of 25M so I think he made out okay.

Hayden Christensen has no career but he never deserved one in the first place. Awful actor. Net worth of 12M.

How would you know what their net worth is? All those "celebrity net worth" sites are full of it

Stars fade because they can’t bring it st the box office or streaming services.

When you think about it, it must be very hard emotionally for actors, who are so self-conscious anyway, to lose steam.

Elizabeth Perkins

Alicia Witt—a conventionally attractive redhead, intelligent, a bit nerdy (but in a relatable way, not an off-putting one), and fairly talented. While she never had the charisma to be star material, she did have an offbeat quality that could have made her a memorable character actress, but it never really panned out. She was in some really good films early on and gave solid performances, but things started to go sideways when she was in her 20s. I always thought she was naturally gifted at comedy—I enjoyed her role as the rebellious daughter on "Cybil", and she was also one of the funniest parts of the John Waters disaster "Cecil B. Demented." She's had a bit of a revival in the past few years with guest arcs on TV series (Nashville, The Walking Dead, Orange is the New Black), and David Lynch brought her back on for the third season of Twin Peaks, which was nice to see—but her career in film didn't go where I thought it would.

JLo

Alicia Witt's acting gets worse as she gets older. She was horrible on Nashville and The Walking Dead.

Plus, she's done several Christmas movies. So, she isn't doing too badly. She has to compete with Candace and the chick from Party of Five to be the Queen of Christmas movies.

Winona Ryder

Bridget Fonda

Billy Zane owns this thread. How do you do Titanic and then virtually DISAPPEAR? I blame the ratty Korean wig.

He was a villain duh

Madonna was a failed actress

R116, it’s funny you bring up The Black Dahlia. It was five dollars on iTunes this week, so I picked it up. I saw it in theaters but didn’t like it, but I love De Palma and I had a few drinks before going in so I decided to give it another chance.

It’s better than I remembered it. It doesn’t get really bad until the last forty or so minutes. There was an hour removed from the original cut, which makes sense. The mystery is so convoluted and confusing.

Josh Hartnett is always sexy and he’s been a crush of mine for years, but boy is he awful as an actor.

Alicia Witt was awful. She had a better career than she deserved. I just watched the third season of Twin Peaks and I can’t even remember her or her character’s place in it. Can someone remind me? Was she the older woman having an affair with Shelly’s daughter’s husband?

Josh Harnett, Heather Graham, and Alicia Witt are all in the category of unmemorable faces. They are each attractive, but if you try to describe their faces from memory, you cannot.

If you saw a caricature of any of them, you probably would not know who it was supposed to be.

This is a real obstacle to establishing a star persona.

Hepburn, Grant, Davis, and Crawford were not the best actors around in the 1930s. But they stayed distinct in memory, so they could become movie stars.

Josh Harnett has a very memorable face - those eyes are not common on a white man. I presume he's mixed.

Lots of white guys have small eyes.

R95/R96/R97 co-signing. I’ve been saying the same about James Marsden for years.

He’s eminently watchable and quite believable, in anything; in an age of non-actors taking top billings in everything, that is meaningful and denotes success. He can play comedy straight or slant, drama muted or melo. The camera likes him but so do his fellow actors and his scripts. He just works, and while not necessarily anything stupefying has emerged from his body of work you can count on him for a solid performance that plays.

Indeed, I too believe his stunning looks and his aw-shucks good-guy personality impeded his career more than anything else - envy is an ugly thing and a general audience are prone to it as any other group.

He’s ever shown goodwill toward us, too. The movie was panned as a failed experiment but I loved his turn as the head-turning promiscuous gay guy who gets put through a harrowing ordeal in captivity by Scott Speedman in the 24TH DAY.

Oh, yes. "Too good looking." That's what has held James Marsden back.

Does anyone else remember all the rumors around Josh Harnett being Leonard Nimoy’s illegitimate child?

Love Marsden. He reminds me of James Brolin. He'll get handsomer and more interesting, and have a long career.

James Brolin is interesting?

Tell us more about Jeremy Northan. In his wiki page, his last credit is his minor role in The Crown 3 years ago...

"Julia Roberts [R112]! She was practically the next Audrey Hepburn what with her lithe figure and charm.

R112 Roberts was offered the part and turned it down. Smart. Why would she, at the height of her career, want to star in a remake of a classic film that was strongly identified with Hepburn at the height of hers. Real stars don't do that sort of thing.

Sorry I meant R113 ^

r138, I think the actors you mentioned are all distinct looking. Alicia Witt has always had that beautiful (natural) red hair. Their problem is lack of talent and personality.

Some women marry and have children. Their career doesn't become their main focus anymore. Especially a business that's so cutthroat and youth oriented.

^ They marry and have children WHEN their career is going nowhere.

I think James Brolin is interesting. He could have done more interesting work if he hadn’t relaxed into a comfortable fortunate marriage.

Natasha Gregson Wagner.

I need to watch The Black Dahlia again. I remember seeing it and thinking it was terrible. Yet I loved the cinematography and I thought Mia Kirshner was excellent in it. Plus a nice cameo from k.d. lang. But I agree the last quarter is horrible. Fiona Shaw eating the scenery. How she was hired after that, I'll never know. She makes Faye seem tame in comparison camp-wise.

Actually, Kirshner fits this list perfectly. Striking looking and a good actress, she really hasn't been able to find anything of note after The L Word (which literally trashed her character).

I found The Black Dahlia pretty boring until Fiona Shaw's insane final scene. She almost saved the movie for me.

I wasn't too sure who Alicia Witt was, but last week I sent in an taped audition to play her father in a Hallmark Christmas movie. I'm older than she is obviously, but she's only supposed to be about 35 (Hallmark Heroine Age) in the script, so I was hoping it might be a fit, but I guess not. I'm kind of bummed, it looked like great fun. She has also produced for Hallmark, and they've worked with her more than a couple times, so i imagine that's where her career is moving.

Alicia Witt will be 45 in August.

Alicia Witt was a pretty girl, but always lifeless on screen. Never found her very funny on Cybill (then again, no one besides Baranski was very funny on that show) and she made for one of the worst horror heroines of all time in Urban Legend. I'm still not sure if that one was the writing or her acting or some unholy mix of the two, but I remember wanting the killer to get rid of her and get away with it.

Eric Dane's whore ex-wife is also horrible in Urban Legend.

As is Jared Leto pretending to be heterosexual.

And Lex Luthor is awful as well.

I have always enjoyed Urban Legend. It's an atmospheric, over-the-top late-'90s slasher movie. Rebecca Gayheart's crazy hair (and crazy eyes) combined with her overacting in the finale results in pure camp. I love everything about that movie.

Urban Legend is one of my guilty pleasures. The sequel is campy fun, too

Anson Mount

Didn’t Jason Patric get all wrapped up in that “Dads rights/Parental alienation” thing that some guys do when they have a kid but get divorced? I saw him on a talk show and he seemed OBSESSED...sadly. A guy in our town has plastered his car with all these “dads rights” slogans and web addresses. It’s kinda pathetic

Rebecca Gayheart killed someone with her car and that ruined whatever scraps of a career she was working on.

R163 It was not pathetic. Yes Jason Patric was a surrogate father, but he was in his son's life for the first 2 years of the child's life. But then the mother decided not to allow him to see his son. He sued and the courts eventually gave him shared custody. The key was that he was part of the child's life from the beginning, and paid child support, not just a sperm donor.

Sam Rockwell owns his thread. Talented, cute and charismatic with the credits to back it up. Yet he isn’t getting big parts.

Clooney loved him so much he got him starring roles in great scripts, films that met with acclaim. There was a several year ascension and it seemed like his star would never stop rising...then, obscurity. Rockwell pops up in an ensemble or biopic now and then, but beyond that doesn’t seem to do much. Is it lack of opportunity and audience interest, or is Sam set for life and doing other things?

R166: He's arguably the most underrated actor of all time. However, I disagree with you; he has succeeded. He just won the oscar and had parts in Fosse Verdon, JoJo Rabbit, and Richard Jewell. He even won the SAG Award for Fosse/Verdon. That's a sign that actors love him.

Except it's really the audience that needs to love you.

Mia Kirshner. What happened to her?

I won't stand for Rebecca Gayheart in Urban Legend slander! Perfect camp performance.

DING DING DING DINGGGGGG!

Eva Green.

R168: Okay maybe Rockwell isn't headling blockbusters but he's an Academy Award winning actor who is respected by his acting peers. He has succeeded in acting.

^ Agree. He's a character actor, he's not trying to be the next Tom Cruise

Brandon Fraser

It's downhill for Taylor Schilling. She was the pretty blonde gf in her early mid 20s. In her 30s she 40+.

I like Sam Rockwell but he's not an A-list leading man, he's a character actor. And that's perfectly fine. I'm sure he'll win another Oscar.

I listened to a podcast a while back where an actor mentioned that an unnamed actor was fired and on a movie set and replaced by Billy Campbell. I went straight to Google and the fired actor was... Jason Patric. This was in the '10s.

R162, Anson Mount arguably has it all now as Captain Pike on several current Star Trek series. And he's wonderful in the role.

[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.]

(R172) You can't tell me there is an actor that is happy with nobody seeing his movies. It doesn't matter if critics like you, or your fellow actors give you pat on the back awards. If your movies aren't making money. Sooner or later, it's going to get harder for you to get roles.

R180: The star system is becoming obsolete. We no longer have stars that put asses in theaters. Jennifer Lawrence seemed to be the last star to emerge but she fizzled out. An actor’s star power in today’s world has relatively little impact on a film’s economic success.

R132 Second Bridget Fonda.

R65 SATC really didn’t age well. Carrie Bradshaw is so vapid and insufferable, why was she ever popular? Was just because of the wardrobe and shoes?

There are those short ex-child actors like Elijah Wood, Daniel Radcliffe and Josh Hutcherson whose franchise ends by their early 20s and are left in indie movie/horror movie hell.

Wood and Hutcherson can actually act and could be solid in best friend and supporting roles in better films and TV shows they manage to get. Radcliffe can’t act but he’s far richer than either so he can pretend like he’s living his best life by being the big fish in terrible movies.

Also, Josh Hutcherson had drug rumours, which can’t help.

Lisa Eichhorn was wonderful in Yanks & Cutter's Way but both films flopped and so did her career. She has continued to work in minor supporting roles (like Jude Law's mother in The Talented Mr. Ripley).

Treat Williams was also meant from greater things but I believe substance abuse may have gotten in the way. Ironically he and Lisa were a couple for a while.

Brad Davis with Midnight Express was destined for greater things that never happened. Substance abuse issues.

R183, Carrie Bradshaw was an aspirational role for some women’s worst instincts. She was a homely girl who was completely unreasonable yet she had friends who were devoted to her and an endless line of bachelors lined up to date her. She was a “journalist” but the only thing she wrote was nazel-gazing self-indulgent pieces and she was rewarded with literary success.

R169, I remember reading that she was difficult to work with, especially on the L Word set, so that may have something to do with it.

Jason Gedrick was another one. Lots of movies in the 80s. Then nothing as best I can tell.

Saw him recently in Bosch and was like where have you been?

I think Marsden was a victim of his own beauty. He’s too good looking. Look at the leading men like DiCaprio, Cooper, Hanks and the leading ladies Lawrence, Stone, Larson, Roberts, etc. Hollywood wants their stars to be attractive but not too good looking. They don’t want their stars to be a threat to the egos of the public. The audience wants to see themselves on the screen.

Was Brad Pitt a victim of his own beauty?

R189, out of the actors you mentioned, only Hanks would be considered average. The others are beautiful to spectacular. They may not be model-like, but I think female models, because of their height, don’t translate sometimes to film.

We already have like 50 threads on actors. Can we take a break already?

Yes, r192. What we [italic]really[/italic] need are more Trump threads. Or pandemic threads. Or how about Meghan Markle? Or the protesters?

R192, what would you like to talk about? Guess what?? You can start a thread!

Noomi Rapace. She seemed like she was going to take off in America, especially after Prometheus. She didn't do Alien Covenant and hasn't really been in a hit film since.

Kyle Chandler. Damn handsome. Is not doing bad. In Godzilla movies and that show on Netflix. I would just love to see him in more movies.

Ron Eldard was everywhere in the late 90s/early 00s and then disappeared. I presume he had drug issues

Was he? I just recall him on ER.

R196 Kyle Chandler has had a very successful career. Mostly television and some films, the majority of actors would kill to be in his place.

(199) I agree he has a decent career. But I wanted him to see him replace arrogant ass Clooney. And I think he has the looks and the talent to do it.

Clooney is much less of a force than he was. And Chandler, like Clooney, is too old to become a big star.

*a big current star.

r200 r201 I would much rather have watched Kyle Chandler as Dr. Doug Ross than George Clooney. Clooney looks more like a newscaster than an actor.

Someone has a real issue with Heather Graham's continued existence, because this is at least the third thread I've seen recently complaining about how she was floptastic.

It's Elizabeth Hurley, still salty that Austin Powers wasn't a franchise for her.

I think Kyle Chandler has had a dream career for an actor. He works constantly and seems to be well liked in Hollywood to keep getting work.

Plus Friday Night Lights is a beloved series which won him an Emmy.

I remember Heather Graham in Sidewalk of New York I think because she was Edward Burns' girlfriend of the moment. She wore glasses perhaps to help her look like a serious actress.

Natasha Kinsky was everywhere in the mid eighties. She was in “Tess” but her acting was more posing and pouting. She may have died, I don’t know. I used to wonder about Sue Lyon a lot, because I lived her in Lolita, but she died last year.

Really? Who was your Humbert Humbert?

Americans don't know what to do with European actresses like Noomi Repace and Franke Potente, both who are excellent actresses.

I'll throw in Wes Bentley's name. It seems he's cleaned up now, acting in tv series with some regularity now.

Well maybe you don't know what happened to Natasha Kinsky r208 because her name is actually NASTASSJA KINSKI.

She's on Instagram. She doesn't seem to work anymore. She had a good career in the '80s, still worked steadily in the '90s and tried to have a comeback in the late 90s/early 2000s but never really happened.

Didn't Kinsky have a child with Quincy Jones?

[quote]Americans don't know what to do with European actresses like Noomi Repace and Franke Potente

Germans don't know what to do with Franke Potente either, who in Germany is not considered beautiful enough. At least in America 20 years ago she was thought of as hot, in a soft butch kind of way.

Nastassja Kinski had a very Central European look

Wes Bentley had a major heroin problem. That's what messed him up. Always thought he was handsome. He's like RDJ, has a wife and kids. Always wondered if Spacey propositioned him on American Beauty.

[quote]Didn't Kinsky have a child with Quincy Jones?

It's KINSKI, you fat whore!

Heather Graham is a testament to the power of blonde hair, blue eyes, and big boobs.

Wes Bentley had a brief comeback a few years back but it doesn’t seem to have sticked. Maybe he relapsed. I remember seeing him on American Horror Story and thinking he had lost a lot of the acting promise he’d shown in American Beauty.

r166 Sam Rockwell just won an Oscar two or three years ago. He co-starred in the highly Oscar nominated JOJO Rabbit this year. Do you think he walks around thinking "why am I not a bigger star?"

Jennifer Lawrence fux 4 rolze!!!

And you fuck for money. Who still gets invited to the Oscars, bitch?

(R218) he's on that show with Kevin Costner now called Yellowstone. He's not bad in it.

r195 Speaking of Alien Covenent, Katherine Waterston could possibly apply here.

(R219) Sam who? I don't watch the lame Oscars.

Sam Rockwell went from being underrated most of his career to being completely overrated these last few years.

Julia Stiles--a fine actress who was the standout in "Mona Lisa Smiles" (starring the awesomely limited Julia Roberts, but also with such excellent actors as Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kirsten Dunst, and Ginnifer Goodwin in the cast) , but she didn't seem to have the fire in the belly to make it to the big leagues.

Olivia Williams--an even better actress than Stiles, and much more beautiful. She was the clear standout among yet another fine cast in "An Education," with such otherwise fine actors as Carey Mulliagan, peter Sarsgaard, and Alfred Mol.ina. if you asked me which Olivia would make it big from the cast of "Hyde Park on Hudson"--either Olivia Williams or Olivia Colman--I would have said Olivia Williams in a second. But it was Colman who became the star, not Williams. Not sure what happened with her career.

Graham was in Drugstore Cowboy, what could be better than that?

R226, you couldn’t have picked two less charismatic actresses if you tried. Julia Stiles was lucky to have the career she did, but all of her performances were wooden and forgettable.

Olivia Williams is good at playing cold, brittle bitches. But how often do they get starring roles? Supporting roles and villains are her stock, and she seems to be doing fine in the roles. But leading lady she is not.

[quote]Julia Stiles--a fine actress who was the standout in "Mona Lisa Smiles" (starring the awesomely limited Julia Roberts, but also with such excellent actors as Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kirsten Dunst, and Ginnifer Goodwin in the cast)

Ahem!

Oliva Wilde

Teresa Palmer

Alex Pettyfer

Selma Blair

Rachael Leigh Cook

Shannyn Sossamon

Some actors don't need to be in a Marvel movie to feel like they're doing ok. I bet most of them are much happier taking interesting roles in smaller films than being under contract for 10 shitty sequels and not being able to do much of anything else. These kinds of movies aren't going to be very creatively satisfying, but I guess they're a good payday.

I think Olivia Wilde is having better luck behind the camera. She keeps reminding us of what an amazing director she is.

R232 I think Olivia's talents are probably in the bedroom.

Julia Stiles didn't age well. What worked for her as a teenager doesn't in her 30s or 40s.

Olivia Williams is too cold. She's kind of like Julia Ormond in that she's chilly and distant.

Speaking of An Education. I thought Rosamund Pike was a scene-stealer in that movie and then went on to Gone Girl but her post-Gone Girl career has been meh.

Didn’t it come out that Rosamund Pike was all but impossible to work with? After such a breakthrough role, you’d think that Hollywood would push her for a few years...and nothing.

Josh Hartnett. I had high hopes for him because I thought that he was so adorable. But he wanted to go the indie film route for better or worse.

Agreed, R228, Stiles and Williams were so charisma-free, I would have been surprised if they HAD become huge stars.

[quote] Olivia Williams is good at playing cold, brittle bitches. But how often do they get starring roles?

Williams played a very sympathetic and kind character in "An Education," and she was terrific.

Plus Stiles had an oddly shaped face, like a chipmunk.

[quote] good at playing cold, brittle bitches. But how often do they get starring roles?

**ahem**

(R31) a lot of character actors have been in Marvel movies. Sam Rockwell, William Hurt, James Spader, and Jude Law. I could go on and on. It's a good payday. And the ones that aren't wish they were. I don't care what they say. Especially when you got arrogant ass RDJ telling the world how much he's making. Until we stop seeing them, they're not going anywhere.

r186 I think the character Carrie benefited from the audience love for Julia Roberts. Roberts isn't really that good looking without that mane of hair. It was a signature look and really made her seem better looking than she actually was. Take away that full wavy head of hair and what is left is a long pointy nose and beady little eyes like a rodent.

Carrie Bradshaw had the same kind of amazing head of hair, that skinny tiny little body that clothes look good on. And also like with Roberts has a really big bright nice smile, people look past the homely face because they are eclipsed more or less by those other features. People also liked watching the Carrie and Big romance, lots of suckers for that will they/won't they be together forever story line.

What I notice r204 is that no matter how many names we talk about, in this thread, someone always brings up Graham after a while. There is nothing more to say about her because there was nothing much to her career. It's clear somebody wants to keep talking about her.

Heather, is that you? Are you here with us? Knock three times on the table if you can hear me.

That enormous hideous neck mole kept Hartnett from stardom.

Rosamund Pike is evidently a royal cunt.

She has talent, though, and we will probably hear more from her, but she'll never be a Movie Star.

(R245)Most of her movies go straight to Amazon prime now.

Molly Ringwald. She was the 80s darling. Thought I'd see her in a lot more movies. But when I found out she was a stuck up cunt. It made me happy. And John Cusack. After seeing The Grifters. I really thought he would become an A+ actor. But then he started doing all these stupid romantic comedies. Apparently was very abusive to Neve Campbell. Now his career is right along with Nick Cage. I don't know if it was his politics or just his attitude. That did him in. He's now doing comic cons and straight to Netflix movies.

The thing I remember about Alicia Witt is the relentless talk about what a genius she was as a child.

I think this is the most press Alicia Witt and Heather Graham. Have had for a long time. Kudos to them.

Re. Olivia Williams. She actually had pancreatic cancer, which probably slowed down her career. She has recovered, though.

"I think Marsden was a victim of his own beauty. He’s too good looking. Look at the leading men like DiCaprio, Cooper, Hanks and the leading ladies Lawrence, Stone, Larson, Roberts, etc. Hollywood wants their stars to be attractive but not too good looking. They don’t want their stars to be a threat to the egos of the public. The audience wants to see themselves on the screen."

Yeah, that must be why actors starve themselves, get plastic surgery, do steroids, etc. Because it's so hard to succeed as an attractive person!

I want to hear some "Rosamund Pike is a royal cunt" stories.

[quote]I think this is the most press Alicia Witt and Heather Graham. Have had for a long time.

HG's slide to oblivion starts at 1:10.

Olivia Williams has Pancreatic cancer? Damn, that’s nasty. The only person I have ever heard of surviving that cancer long term is Colin Friels, actor husband of Judy Davis.

Oops, sorry R65.

Bridgette Wilson. She had tons of roles in the mid-90s to early 2000's (Mortal Kombat, Billy Madison, I Know What You Did Last Summer, House on Haunted Hill (1999), The Wedding Planner) but dropped off the face of earth after the release of The Wedding Planner. Apparently her and JLO got into a big fight on set over the last burrito.

Nobody mentioned Alicia Silverstone?

Robin Tunney was sort of touted during the mid 1990s. Shame she never took off in a big way because she was interesting.

R240 clearly never saw Moulin Rogue or Legally Blonde. You know, the two films those actresses are most identified with.

Robin Tunney was an interesting actress. I loved her in The Craft and Cherish. She had kind of a crazy vibe in interviews though. I think she was on The Mentalist for years.

R245 says who? I’ve heard she’s perfectly nice.

Dylan Minnette

I’m sorry but I will require 13 reasons why R262?

Treat Williams...they kept pushing him and pushing him...then a string of direct to video films and nothing.

Jason Patric was a douche who was surly in interviews, when he gave them. He is no fan of doing publicity for his films. I know that he had a difficult relationship with his father and his grandfather Jackie Gleason, maybe that has something to do with him and his crap attitude. But my, he was so beautiful.

“Believe” by Franka Potente is on the September 1999 Gap In-Store Playlist!

R256 I think Bridgette Wilson willingly gave up her career to become Pete Sampras's trophy wife

Jason Patric’s career was fucked up by being 2nd billed to & emasculated by Sandra Bullock in Speed 2: Cruise Control. Alpha Male America was never going to see him as a leading man after that.

250+ posts and no mention of me?

Mamie Gummer: Thespian

Her work in Ricki and the Flash was some of the worst acting I’ve ever seen.

R269 I thought we had, but that was Mia. You should really work on developing more of a personality.

R270: If it wasn’t for mommy, no way this plain Jane would ever make it into a film set.

Jennifer Lawrence. I guess that Weinstein fucking and dicksucking didn’t really pay off in the end.

Yeah, other than being a huge star and being one of the youngest Best Actress winners in history, it just didn't pay off

Rosamond Pike's hot actor boyfriend Simon Woods left her for a male sculptor sugar daddy he later married (and then retired from acting). Did he leave her because he was gay and she was a cunt, or did the whole thing turn her into a cunt? The world may never know.

That man you posted is not hot.

Lori Petty- had 4 hit films in a row: Point Break, A League of Their Own, Free Willy, and Poetic Justice. Starred in Tank Girl, then relegated to bit parts in TV for years, until Orange is the New Black.

He is to ME. I love a pale ginger lad.

She was IN those movies. They were not HER hits.

Were Free Willy and Poetic Justice even hits? I don't remember them doing very well

Free Willy was certainly a home video success. I doubt Poetic Justice was.

A friend was working on a European film event about a year or so before Me Too. They wanted to bring Mira Sorvino as a guest of honor. All well and good, but she wanted them to pay for her husband and four kids to come along first class and stop in Paris first. They...declined. She was not happy or quiet about it. I'm sure Harvey didn't help, but with an attitude like that, I'm sure he wasn't her only problem.

Marsden seems happy as a regularly working actor. He's had some Big Roles, but doesn't seem like he wants to be A List. He works, he has money. He even sends his kids to PUBLIC school in Burbank. I've never gotten the Leo Give Me an Oscar desperation.

Elijah Wood is producing a lot of horror films these days. He's making money and is a regular fixture at horror industry events.

A lot of the people mentioned in this thread were VERY successful and barring any Johnny Depp theatrics with their money will never not be rich. Very few actors remain front row of the Oscars forever.

[Quote] He's had some Big Roles, but doesn't seem like he wants to be A List. He works, he has money. He even sends his kids to PUBLIC school in Burbank. I've never gotten the Leo Give Me an Oscar desperation.

If this isn't some fangurl bullshit...

R284 you're welcome to show evidence to the contrary. He's never seemed like a famewhore or gone for Oscar Bait.

[Quote] He's never seemed like a famewhore or gone for Oscar Bait.

The fact that you even compare him to DiCaprio shows that you don't get it.

"He's never seemed like a famewhore or gone for Oscar Bait."

That's because no one's giving him Oscar bait roles.

Since a couple of people have posted the clip, will somebody explain to be what is so horrific about Heather Graham in that "Sex in the City" clip? How is she doing any worse than anyone else in that scene? I seriously do not get what is being argued here. Thanks!

Poor Mamie...she got the worst of both her parents features.

I think Tarantino had as much to do with hurting Mira Sorvino's career as Weinstein. He apparently coaxed her to do crap like The Replacement Killers and Mimic. Not that she wasn't capable of making her own choices. She finally did something worthwhile in Summer of Sam, but nothing followed that. I'm sure Weinstein harassed her and all. but to solely blame him for her career troubles is a little ridiculous.

Ditto her friend Ashley Judd. She kept doing those crappy thrillers that "The bad Ashley Judd thriller" literally became its own genre. Judd is/was a much better actress than Sorvino though. She gave some great performances in Ruby in Paradise, Normal Life, and Bug. She was clearly insufferable though which clearly didn't help matters. Speaking of Jason Patric, they infamously hated each other when they starred together on a bad Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Ditto Ashley Judd, who could legitimately act.

[quote]She was clearly insufferable

And that's a problem for who?

Ellen Muth from Dead Like Me. She hasn't done anything in years.

Christian Coulson

r293, she breeds kittens now:

[Quote] Christian Coulson

What's the story behind that? He refused to beard?

Being it one Harry Potter movie is "having it all"?

Rumors ran rampant that Ben Affleck loathed Pike during the filming of “Gone Girl”.

Well, Affleck has a full back tattoo, does he not?

r292 Touché, cunt!

Ellen Muth is really into pussy!

R293 Ellen Muth was also fantastic in "Dolores Claiborne" as the young Selena—not only a dead ringer for Jennifer Jason Leigh, but a really good actress.

r296, when the movie came out there was a thread here about how the Harry Potter people didn't want him to do publicity for the movie because he was "too openly gay"

[quote]he was "too openly gay"

Is that even possible?

Ashley Judd is a horrible actress. Putridly artificial. She sounds like she went to a 1940's voice elocution school. And speaking of horrible voices, Mira Sorvino is another one. Not a bad actress really but she sounds like she swallowed the wrong potato and it wasn't even boiled. With a voice like that you could never become a star. So now she's pulling off some cozy supporting parts. Good for the bitch.

Ashley Judd was good in Ruby in Paradise

R306 Yes, she was.

Lucy Boynton. Hey Lucy, maybe do something with your career that doesn't involve bearding.

Sophie Turner

Ashley Judd may be a bitch but I loved it when she was in Toronto and our resident "entertainment blogger" (read: entertainment stalker) was stalking her at the airport and she called him out on Twitter.

r309, she's 24, so the jury is still out.

Kip Pardue

"Kip Pardue" sounds like a Falcon star of 1983.

Phoebe Cates.

Her talent level is debatable I guess but considering the strong start she had, her career went nowhere very quickly. And that was before she "retired".

Cates was charming and had charisma, but it seemed like maybe her heart wasn't really in it and she retired. Or maybe Kevin Kline convinced her to. Maybe that's why it didn't work between him and Patti LuPone. Could you imagine someone telling Patti to give up her career? There would be blood.

I doubt Cates was ready to play Lady Macbeth anytime soon, but she was charming to watch and didn't embarrass herself. These days, I'll take that over some of these personality free yahoos they keep trying to shove down our throats.

I can seek all academic actor Kline totally undermining natural talent Cate about her ability to ever be a great actor. I don’t know what his story is, but he strikes me as having a dark side.

r317 Never liked Kline's smug, pompous ass. It was more than just the characters he played. He clearly thought himself God's gift to acting. He succeeded, but his film career post-Oscar wasn't so hot either.

Phoebe doesn't strike me as someone who would let a man influence her decisions. She starred in a few films that became classics - Fast Times, Gremlins, a memorable (and campy) TV mini-series, Lace, some cult hits - Private School, Shag The Movie, Drop Dead Fred and then retired. She probably figured I've had a good run, why not be a housewife and run my own shop?

Notorious asshole John Cusack

Whatever happened to Matt Dillon? Hasn't had a hit movie out in years.

r321 He's in that Tom Hardy Al Capone movie. He's introduced fucking some chick doggystyle. He's still hot. He was also the lead in Lars Von Trier's last movie.

Cates also looks too exotic. She had a much better ran than her talent allowed so she was smart to get out when she did.

I thought Alex Pettyfer was set to be a star. Too bad he was an asshole, but he is only 30, so who knows?

I think Phoebe Cates just aged out of the beautiful ingenue roles she had been known for. Hollywood is no place for a woman over 30. And for the more mature actress, there is a lot of competition for roles and looks are not so much a factor as talent. I can see why she’d prefer to retire to the lifestyle of being a rich actor’s wife, and not having to maintain the anorexia/casting couch/psycho head games that go along with fighting for prominence in showbiz.

I've seen scenes from LACE and I think Cates did embarrass herself.

Yeah, Lace (and its sequel) killed her career. She was awful in it, utterly charmless and unable to give the character any nuance. After that, she did nothing of note. She then got an unflattering hairdo and played small roles as the bitch in duds like "Date with an Angel" and "Bright Lights, Big City". Why do you think she returned for the Gremlins sequel that came years too late? She should've been too good for that by that point.

She doesn't apply to the specific title because she became a huge star of course, but I still consider Michelle Pfeiffer's career a big disappointment. She had such a good run from 87-93, better than Meryl. After that she's done mostly nothing but junk. She could've done and been so much more.

Pfeiffer still elevates anything in which she appears, e.g. "Hairspray."

One Fine Day is a classic R328

What was Robbie Benson’s downfall, he was quite the it boy in the 70s.

The Tallahatchie Bridge.

I completely agree r328. Michelle Pfeiffer's career post Batman Returns has been a major disappointment. I don't know if she's picky, is lazy or just enjoys being a housewife and mother. She obviously doesn't need to work, between her and her husband.

But I think she is a superb actress, just as good as Streep and Lange but she hasn't been in as many good films or played as many iconic roles. She is truly a chameleon and, indeed, she elevates everything she's in. But I can't even remember the last great film she was in. In the '90s following Batman Returns, she did a lot of frauish movies.

Once she became a mother, Pfeiffer would only sign on to projects that shot near where she lived or would take her away from home for no more than two weeks.

When she did "What Lies Beneath" with Harrison Ford, I hoped her career would improve. Yes, she did a lot of TV movie type projects for the big screen.

R333 she tried to become a headline star and at times she could be, but she thrives in ensemble or with a strong male lead or equal female lead. It was the same problem that happened with Sharon Stone, great actresses but they can’t carry an entire movie and both picked bad scripts a lot.

She was great opposite Jessica Lange in A Thousand Acres in 97, she actually had the stronger performance, and Clooney in One Fine Day in 96, but she was not good in The Deep End of the Ocean in 99 or the atrocity that is The Story of Us with Bruce Willis also in 99. Bruce & her had no chemistry. Her best films in the 2000s have been with DeNiro.

"Dangerous Minds" was a hit for Pfeiffer. She could carry a movie. And she didn't need anyone to elevate her in "Batman Returns."

Pfeiffer has picked a few odd projects and her last huge hit was Hairspray. I think she's talented enough to have a few more great roles in her, but she needs to pick better projects.

I think Pfeiffer could be on the verge of a comeback. She was the best thing about the insane mother! and had a nice supporting turn in the last Ant-Man movie (not exactly an acting showcase, but Marvel movies guarantee a mass audience).

I hope she’ll have the same type of career boost Jessica Lange got a decade ago.

I don't want Pfeiffer to have to rely on Ryan Murphy.

She's best friends with Spielberg and Kate Capshaw, yet Spielberg weirdly has never cast her in anything.

She could have killed as Anita in WSS.

I disagree that she can't carry a movie. She's wonderful in Love Field which was her third (and last) Oscar nomination and that was almost 30 years ago. Kind of a forgotten film now.

She used to make such interesting choices. 1988 was a banner year for her - Married to the Mob, Dangerous Liaisons and Tequila Sunrise. Then her iconic performance in The Fabulous Baker Boys and more dramatic fare like The Russia House and Love Field. She was the best thing about Batman Returns.

I still wish we could have seen her as Clarice. Jodie was great but I'm always intrigued by a Pfeiffer version.

r336 Oh great, the "Sharon Stone is a great actress" troll has arrived.

Meg Tilly. Curiously her sister seems to have a more sustained career.

Meg Tilly seemed to walk away from it voluntarily and turned to writing and family instead. She seems happy, but I do miss her on screen.

You don't really see Jennifer anymore. Unless it's a Chucky movie. She was really type cast.

Didn't Jennifer inherit millions or something like that?

Jennifer Tilly got a massive settlement from her divorce from Sam Simon, who created The Simpsons. She’s now a professional poker player.

Taylor Kitsch became very popular on a TV series and they decided to turn him into the next big star. John Carter (Of Mars) was his big breakout movie but the box office and reviews were lukewarm. They gave him a few more movies that also didn't do very well and he quietly disappeared into the background. An actor that showed great promise - and then, boom, it was gone. Maybe he should go back to basics and do another TV series.

Everyone thought Taylor Miller, Nina from All My Children would be a huge crossover star. Didn't happen. She looked like a modern day Grace Kelly and she could act but she went nowhere.

Ansel Elgort

With her latest legal drama Amber Heard seems primed to join this list. She’s stunningly beautiful and, while I wouldn’t request to see her Blanche DuBois anytime soon, the camera likes her enough that you’d think she’d have managed more of a career. She probably lost a lot of roles to the Stone-Lawrence-Robbie set.

Alison Lohman. She landed some major roles early on in her career, and had a look that recalled that of a 1930s Hollywood actress, but was still relatable and had a wholesomeness about her. I always enjoyed watching her onscreen, and have never really understood why her career ground to a halt. I know she had three kids, so perhaps she simply chose to focus on being a mom. The last noteworthy thing she did was Drag Me to Hell, which was over a decade ago now.

I wish Jeremy Northam ("Gosford Park") or James Marsden ("Hairspray") had gotten cast in some of the roles Hugh Jackman has sung in, as they have much better singing voices than he has. Then again, none of them are real Jean Valjean voices for "Les Miz".

Taylor Kitsch was in "The Normal Heart." He failed to distinguish himself.

Kitsch was the weakest of that cast by far, but to be fair, the role was beyond thankless. He essentially had to play the embodiment of every score Larry Kramer wanted to settle, and not an actual person.

r353- overheard two actors talking, one asked, "How was Amber?". The other replied, "She edits well".

Amber Heard kept losing parts to Scarlett Johansson, whom she strongly resembles. But Johansson has more sex appeal and is, arguably, a better actress. Apparently Heard hates Johansson for this.

Donna McKechnie. She was the chosen one, the golden girl of Broadway for ACL but everyone soon realized there was a reason she never became a star.

They realized that before ACL...

Joanna Pettet.

Everything I've seen her in, I've liked her in. She was pretty, resembling her friend Sharon Tate. Memorable voice. But she soon just settled for TV guest appearances. Weird.

Settled? As if she had other options.

She was the best thing about Casino Royale and I liked all her Night Gallery episodes.

Milizia Korjus, Oscar-nominated for her debut and only film "The Great Waltz".

R360 Donna started out on Dark Shadows back in the late 1960's.

I think she was also a dancer on "Shindig" too.

Didn't she have a movie role in something with a title like "The Littlest Prince"?

They really tried to make matthew modine happen.

Joanna Going

Pretty, seemed to be able to act, but she just never got....

R70 Joanna Going starred in the 1991 revival series of Dark Shadows. It gave her exposure and she had a few movie roles afterwards but slowly petered out.

R371 Going, Going, Gone!

Kim Delaney

Alison Elliott

Emma Sams?

Louise Lombard.

Joanna Going got to make out with Billy Wirth at the height of his gorgeousness in the miniseries Children of the Dust.

Billy Wirth. Talk about another one who had it all but didn't succeed.

R325 I think she looks great for 56! I remember reading an article saying she pretty much retired because she wanted to be a full-time mom.

I have no idea she was part Filipino and Chinese. She had a very slight exotic look to her but not strong enough as to set off the adjacent alarm

*had NOT have

Miss Kay Lenz.

Josh Lucas! His manager put him in everything for about 2 years.

And then the dark.

Taylor Kitsch was excellent albeit totally unrecognisable in Waco.

Speaking of Billy Wirth....he was "discovered" by Bruce Weber.

[quote]But Johansson has more sex appeal and is, arguably, a better actress.

Scarlett Johansson is a terrible actress, what are you talking about?

Remember Lenny von Dohlen?

He was going to be the next......Eric Roberts of the 80s, then.....didn't! He's dreamy looking and a wonderful actor, but no breakthrough role ever happened for him. He was an earlier Billy Campbell.

R385 Both things can be true: Scarlett is better than Heard, but still not very good. What’s weird is that ScarJo’s performances seem to have gotten worse as she’s aged. Or maybe now she’s able to freely choose material that’s way out of her league (I thought she was excruciating in “A Marriage Story”)

Joey Lawrence. Messed with his looks to the point of being unrecognizable.

The kids from Kate and Allie.

Meg Tilly always looked and sounded half retarded to me for some reason.