What Unknown Actors And Actress Given A Staring Role In An A List Film Failed To Launch Them Into International Stardom?

Staring? Well, there was Garbo in "Queen Christina", but that was a big hit.

Brandon Routh

Oh, that Lewis.

Jeff Speakman.

Billy Eichner and Russell Brand weren’t unknowns when their star vehicles bombed.

Helen Slater

Jill Ormond owns this thread

Julia Ormond

But then remaking Sabrina is about a dumb an idea as remaking Psycho.

The 4 young Asian actresses of The Joy Luck Club.

Still waiting.

Klinton Spilsbury.

In an $18 million-dollar Universal film.

Anna Sten

Luise Rainer

I think you need to include Blockbuster films. That's more likely to launch someone into stardom than some quality A List film which is likely to be an independent.

Loren Dean

John Carter. (Taylor Kitsch)

The Northman (Skarsgaard)

Marisa Tomei (Only You)

Marisa Tomei had and Oscar prior to Only You and received 2 more nominations afterwards. She doesn't belong here.

I loved Bros.. didn't think I would,.but the script had me laughing, and had heart. Billy Eichner was a funny lead , and his costar Luke McFarlane was fantastic! I Highly recommend it .

Taylor Latner OWNS this thread.

Don Francks from Finian's Rainbow. Who??!! See I told ya

The shockingly charisma and talent free Jake Lloyd, star of one of the most anticipated movies in film history. And then...

Sam Jones (Flash Gordon)?

Cody Horn (Magic Mike)

Vera Hruba Ralston

Sue Lyon (Lolita)

Barbara Parkins (Valley of the Dolls)

Most of the Bond girls.

Keir Dullea, Gone Tomorrow.

Speaking of Marissa Tomei, she was in a film with Jake Lloyd called Unhook the Stars (1996). Also co-starring Gena Rowlands and a song by Cyndi Lauper.

Am I the only one that ever saw this film?

G-

Movie after movie, chance after chance, box office bomb after box bomb…….and yet her trick jaw and flooded vagina keep getting her work.

Millie Perkins in The Diary of Anne Frank.

Richard Beymer in West Side Story.

R29 you're such a liar M. Last time you said G was a man!

^^^^She is a man, with a vagina. Very common.

As bad it was, the "Arthur" remake was preferable to Brand's new found celebrity as a COVID sceptic fanning the flames of the anti-vaxxers for profit by " repeating the dubious vaccine-skeptic claims of others while offering precious little insight of his own."

Gretchen Mol, "Rounders"

Twiggy, "The Boyfriend"

Elizabeth Berkeley (not entirely unknown, but not known to most movie audiences), "Showgirls"

Caspar van Dien, "Starship Troopers"

Christopher Lambert, "Greystoke" (though he has had success in his native France)

Mariah Carey, "Glitter"

Christina Aguilera, "Burlesque"

[quote] Barbara Parkins (Valley of the Dolls)

The weird thing is, Barbara Parkins was the best known of the 3 leads at the time, which is why she got top billing even over Patty Duke. She hadn't done much with movies, but she was at the time the star of the most talked-about show on TV, "Peyton Place."

Did Lambert do Highlander before or after Greystoke?

after r37

Ultimately, she did achieve some level of stardom with "The Craft", and even appeared in the ill-fated "The Island Of Doctor Moreau", alongside Marlon Brando, & Val Kilmer. But Disney's big budget film "Return To Oz" flopped at the box office, and failed to make Fairuza Balk an internationally-known child star. "Return To Oz" wasn't exactly a star vehicle per se, but had it had enormous success, Balk's career would have been very different.

Jessica Lange almost was on this list after King Kong but she somehow managed to turn things around (took 3 years of not working to do it.)

[Quote] after [R37]

Well, then Lambert doesn't count.

Reni Santoni had a long if mostly unmemorable career after he starred in Dirty Harry. He is probably best known for playing Poppie on Seinfeld.

Has there ever been a breakout star in any of Clint Eastwood's movies?

Jessica Walter? r42

Jeff Bridges was Oscar nominated for Thunderbolt & Lightfoot.

He was already an Oscar nominee then for The Last Picture Show.

Fairuza Balk was excellent in Return to Oz, it's a shame it flopped because she and the film are both terrific. The film was too dark for a children's film, and it just couldn't escape the shadow of the '1939 classic.

Hayden Christensen had a few films before Attack of the Clones, but the response to his performance (and the prequels) didn't launch him the way many thought. Still, Revenge of the Sith was pretty good, and Christensen still does work as Anakin occasionally so it didn't work out too badly for him.

Lucille Bremer in technicolor opposite Fred Astaire in the lavish MGM musical “Yolanda and the Thief. ” Splat.

r43 Play Misty for Me didn't make Jessica Walter a star. She was an obscure TV actor before and after that movie. She had a very long career, but she was over 60 when she finally became a star due to Arrested Development and Archer.

[quote] "Fairuza Balk was excellent in Return to Oz, it's a shame it flopped because she and the film are both terrific. The film was too dark for a children's film, and it just couldn't escape the shadow of the '1939 classic."

Agreed, R46.

Not quite. Walter was among "The Group".

Aileen Quinn.

Sofia Coppola

Jaye Davidson

Kate Capshaw

What was especially humiliating for Klinton Spilsbury R11 was that his voice ended up being dubbed by another actor because they didn't like the way he sounded.

same thing with Andie MacDowell r55. Glenn Close dubbed her in Greystoke.

Lucille Bremer wasn't unknown before Yolanda. She had appeared in Meet Me in St. Louis.

Elizabeth Berridge in Amadeus

"Didn't like how the voice sounded" = Actor gave a flat performance.

Wasn't Demi Moore dubbed in some early movie of hers?

One other thing about Klinton Spilsbury: Wikipedia has this crazy description of the guy:

Andy Warhol interviewed Spilsbury during his promotion tour, later describing the interview as "nutty," because Spilsbury was "blowing his whole image" during their conversation. Spilsbury told Warhol that, before making the movie, he had been an art student married to a rich woman and that they had a baby together. He went on to state she had left him because he needed too much time with his own thoughts, a detail that Warhol found amusing. Spilsbury told Warhol that he was a friend of actor Dennis Christopher and had fallen in love with him, and that he also had later fallen in love with actor Bud Cort. Warhol described Spilsbury as "very drunk" during the latter part of the interview, and the latter also mentioned that "he'd been picked up by Halston and woke up in bed with Halston."

Alison Doody - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

r61 never heard this tale. Thanks for sharing. I always wonder what happened to him. He was so handsome.

Who is this model? It's clearly not Spilsbury.

Rene Santoni also had the lead in "Enter Laughing" -- otherwise a great cast in that film

Richard Beymer also was the star of "Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man" and "Diary of Anne Frank" - someone definitely was pushing for him to be a star

Amber Heard. Aquaman. Most had never heard of her before she went public with accusations of DV against Depp.

I'm surprised Hayden Christensen didn't become a bigger star, because gosh, he sure is beautiful.

Most movie stars aren't impossibly beautiful.

I can’t even remember her name without googling it, but the girl who starred in The Patriot. I don’t think she ever did another thing after that.

Anna Paquin?

Colleen Haskell in "The Animal"

At the time, Rob Schneider was still considered something of a big movie star, having played second banana to Adam Sandler in a series of his movies, plus starring in his own mega-hit "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo".

A lot of Hollywood eyebrows were raised when he cast the non-actress Colleen Haskell in his second starring vehicle, based on her appearance on the first season of "Survivor".

It was her first and last movie role. She quit the business entirely a couple of years later, and subsequently disappeared from the public eye.

r10, as if there were tons of roles for young Asian actresses in American films during that time. Although Ming Na-Wen is probably the most successful of the four.

R64 Model is Robert Ianucci

Alice Krige made a big splash in her first small role in "Chariots of Fire" in which her beauty was compared to Grace Kelly's. She was then teamed up with Hollywood legends Fred Astaire, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., et al in "Ghost Story" which bombed. She's been more-or-less relegated to supporting character roles for the past 40+ years and even though she never achieved "mainstream success" she's always excellent.

R74 She is Queen.

[quote]Brandon Routh

That one is extra sad, because none of the problems with that film was his fault.

Stockard Channing in The Fortune. Fortunately, Grease came along not long afterwards and she hasn’t done too badly.

Dane Cook and that blond woman in Employee of the Month.

Lucille Bremer was Arthur Freed's (head of musicals at MGM) mistress. Her career ended when his hard-on did.

People are missing the point of the game They have to be unknowns who were given a shot and failed.

Rachel Roberts in S1mone (calling it an A-list film is a stretch, but it’s in the spirit of the thread)

The Sweetest Thing was supposed to turn Nancy Pimental into an A-list writer, with potential supporting acting roles in the films she wrote. She never wrote another film.

Ironically Winona Ryder played an actress in S1mone.

She hit the jackpot with Stranger Things

R72 yes, Ming Na-Wen play Chun-Li in that horrible Street fighter film, and in that Wesley Snipes film One Night Stand which was just a rehash of Jungle Fever only that his wife is Asian.

I guess you could say it was a different time now we have more visible Asian actresses like Maggie Q, Gemma Chan, and that one from the Netflix show To All The Boys I've Loved Before I don't know her name ATM

R42, Yes.

Hayden Christensen

Maria "Cobra Woman" Montez

Christopher Jones....who?? Probably the hottest actor in the late 60s, early 70s. I think Tarantino offered him a role in "One Upon A Time," somehting didn't work out. Great place to stage a comeback

Peter Kastner owns this thread. Who?...See what I mean?

The comment about Richard Beymer brought to mind George Chakiris, who won an Academy Award for his performance in it. To my knowledge, he did not proceed to have a stellar career.

The comment about Richard Beymer brought to mind George Chakiris, who won an Academy Award for his performance in it. To my knowledge, he did not proceed to have a stellar career.

The comment about Richard Beymer brought to mind George Chakiris, who won an Academy Award for his performance in it. To my knowledge, he did not proceed to have a stellar career.

Cindy Carol -“Gidget Goes to Rome”

Thread Closed.

My understanding is that Hayden Christiansen has gone on to have a decent career in Canadian film and TV.

I don;t think he was that bad of an actor--in fact, he was absolutely superb in :Shattered Glass." It's just that he was saddled with such terrible dialogue in the "Star Wars" prequels.

Kathryn waterston had the lead in that last aliens that killed any more sequels

Susan Strasberg

Susan Kohner in "Imitation Of Life". Should've been a star-making role.

Aussie actor Yahoo Serious, who got a deal to write, direct, and act in his own American movie based on the popularity of Paul Hogan.

R74 She's seriously a cult horror queen. Not the same as a failure to launch.

R94 IMDB covers Canada too, Boomer.

Daria Halprin.Jewish goddess. Could have become the second cumming of Lauren Bacall

I'll see your Jewish goddess Daria Halprin and raise you another Jewish goddess...Janet Margolin

[quote]John Carter (Taylor Kitsch)

Biggest problem for that film was simply the choice of title.

... well, actually the biggest problem was the fact that the main character wasn't stark bollock naked, dick flapping in the breeze, like he was in the books.

Oh, really?

Pia Zadora

Billy Eichner "international stardom?" What are you smoking?

Mark Frechette. Who? See I told ya

Roger Herren from "Myra Breckinridge".