Failed Leading Film Careers

Jim Sturges - The Way Back and 21 come to mind. He can act, but he has little to no charisma. Not leading man material.

I can’t think of one…

Jessica Alba.

Jude Law

Josh Hartnett

Matthew Perry

R4 Jude had some successes

R5 total flop, but so hot

R6 Matthew flopped in romantic comedy but did okay with those Whole However Many Yards movies which were carried by Bruce Willis I guess

R1 nice find. Yeah, so forgettable never even really knew his name and I saw those movies

R2 did anyone see this?

Tom Greene

Lily Collins

Russell Brand

R10 Daddy, would you like some sausage?!

Clive Owen got the big push for a few years, and then was demoted to supporting roles.

The studios tried with Schwimmer but the audiences said “neigh”

Taylor Kitsch

R16 good one

Steve Guttenberg. Had some success as a leading man in the 1980s, but then shifted to supporting or behind-the-scenes roles.

Dane Cook

R18 wasn't he on Married with Children?

Sarah Jessica Parker, who played Carrie Bradshaw in every fucking movie she did after SATC. Why pay to see Carrie Bradshaw in a movie when you can watch her on tv for free?

R21 she’s so obnoxious in films. In fact she works best when her character is meant to be hated: First Wives Club, Family Stone

R19 true but this movie is hilarious

Personally I enjoyed David d Caruso's movies but he had a very narrow range. The cool tough guy speaking in a restrained monotone.

I think Shelley Long is in the Failed Leading Film Careers Hall of Fame.

Madonna. Bless her

Madonna beats Shelley

Re: Josh Hartnett. His failure was his choice because he didn’t want to be a movie star. He turned down several offers including the Superman franchise and several other films that would have vaulted him into the stratosphere career wise. But he didn’t want to and it pissed off Hollywood’s bigwig producers.

Farrah Fawcett three bombs after leaving Charlie’s angels to make movies and her leading lady chance was gone.

Marisa Tomei and Mira Sorvino briefly tried to be leading ladies after their Oscar wins. Tomei was able to bounce back and is a permanent A list character actress.

As far as actors go, Josh Hartnett seems smarter than most. I don't blame him for not wanting to be Superman. And he's done lots of small interesting things instead -- the man starred in Raoul Peck's Exterminate All the Brutes miniseries ffs. And now he's shining in a small role in Oppenheimer. He's going to have a longer career than expected

Jennifer Aniston, Katherine Heigel and Kate Hudson

Jim Parsons

LOL, Hartnett would be playing leads in films if the public cared. They don't

Obvious lesbian DL fave Ellen as a straight woman looking for a husband as the leading lady in a romantic comedy. Who thought this would be remotely believable? But she's done well for herself otherwise.

Topher Grace Thomas Jane Chris O'Donnell Eric Bana

Wow I completely forgot about Jim Sturgess, r1. I was so hot for him after seeing 21. I wonder if he got harassed by Spacey.

I OWN this thread.

Seinfeld. His biggest role was an animated Bee and it flopped.

Roseanne

R38 But he never attempted live action leads. You tried it.

Gretchen Mol

Linda Fiorentino

Can't Stop The Thread

Anyone from Downton Abbey

Oprah

TimOTay big bent veiny chlamydia cock Chalamet

Linda Fiorentino quit acting. I just saw her today in Dogma. She was a weirdo.

Schwimmer as a leading man is just...hilarious in the worst way possible. Sure, he was an ensemble member on the biggest (read: also the worst) TV sitcom of the 90s, but that doesn't always translate to the big screen, and it definitely did not.

Miss Anna Sten, grandmother of all failed Hollywood leading careers

Who wants to watch a movie named The Pallbearer?

Timothée Chalamet

Aaron Eckhart, Gerard Butler. Coincidentally, both did horrendous rom-coms with Jennifer Anniston.

R52 I watched this POS while stuck on a runway while a plane was de-iced. Horrendous movie.

Ansel Elgort

Josh Hartnett may not have become huge but he had/has major charm and looks.

Justin Long OWNS this fucking thread

R56 I can remember when Justin was in all those aughtie horror movies like Jeepers Creepers. He wasn't bad in those.

Brenton, I love you bunches but you haven’t really registered on the big screen…

I really like Aaron Eckhart.

Justin Timberlake

Johnathon Schaech

Monica Potter

Jennifer Connelly

Didn't Monica Potter suffer from resembling Julia Roberts a little too much?

Love Suzanne Pleshette, but it seems as though there was an attempt to make her a film star in the early 1960s and it didn't happen. Similarly, MTM tried movies post-Dick Van Dyke show and it went nowhere. The MTM show, was her 'crawling back to tv after failing in movies and Broadway' moment.

Samantha Eggar

R45 Oprah’s only flop was Beloved. You tried it.

Robert Preston.

I'd like to buy a G.

G is the greatest actress of all time. The Academy almost never gets it right.

1956 Universal

Zoe Zaldana.

r71...

Margaret Elliot

Schwimmer directed the charming British film "Run, Fatboy, Run", and quick google tells me he's directed a lot of TV as well as producing.

I'm perfectly happy to say that he's better employed behind the camera in front of it.

[Quote] Oprah’s only flop was Beloved. You tried it.

Well, it was the only theatrical release she starred in.

Chris Evans

Sebastian Stan

Chris Hemsworth

Scarlett Johansson is great in an ensemble cast but not so good at carrying films all on her own, Lucy, that Japanese movie etc

I don't think Jennifer Aniston is a good example at all, although someone listed her above. She's had quite a number of financially successful movies: Office Space, Bruce Almighty, The Break-Up, Marley & Me, Just Go With It, Horrible Bosses, We're the Millers, and Murder Mystery. And she's also had critical successes: Office Space (again), The Good Girl, Friends with Money, and Cake.

Vera Hruba Ralston

Anna Sten

Chris Pine

Harry Styles

Florence Puke

Good ol' Anna Sten...

Meghan Markle

R79 what a bunch of forgettable garbage and only a few of them were financially successful. Joan Rivers remarked that all her movies seemed the same.

Woody Harrelson

[quote] only a few of them were financially successful.

Actually, every single one I listed as financially successful did indeed turn a profit. (Check on imdb if you don't believe me.)

As for "forgettable garbage": that has nothing to do with the topic at hand. She has been a very successful (because profitable) movie star, like it or not.

Diane Kruger

Claire Forlani

Josh Duhamel

Martin Henderson

Hayden Christensen

Orlando Bloom

Ashton Kutcher

Alicia Silverstone owns this thread

Rosamund Pike

Jessica Biel

Charlie Hunnam

Gretchen Mol

Jeanne Tripplehorn

Let's not overlook . . .

Stephen Dorff; Ann Magnuson; Cyndi Lauper; Anne Heche; Andrew Dice Clay; Tom Selleck; Rob Lowe; Dana Carvey; Chris Kattan; Julie Brown; Eric Stoltz; Cindy Crawford; Britney Spears; Courtney Love

Dane Cook

Robby Benson

Elisha Cuthbert

Yahoo Serious

Skeet Ulrich, Peter Gallagher, Alexander Skarsgård (his brother still has a chance)

Jennifer Aniston's lifetime box office is respectable. Buy you have to admit she didn't attain A list leading lady status.

forgot the link

Billy Eichner

Polly Bergen!

LaWanda Page

Ken Osmond

In regards to Chalamet, I agree pushing him as an action star has been utterly ridiculous. However, he and his team will keep pushing if it's the last thing they do. He still has Dune 2 and Wonka so while I wouldn't exactly called it failed yet, the public just isn't buying him.

[quote] the public just isn't buying him.

Maybe new Hollywood will program it's AI movie stars with the illusion of testosterone

All the plain Jane looking girls of the 2010s:

Emma Stone

Brie Larson

Jennifer Lawrence

Saoirse Ronan

R106, I'm not sure the first three can be classified as "failed".

Cuba Gooding, Jr. Although a lot of it has been by his own hand.

R107: I'm not sure many of the people listed on here can be marked as failed. This thread will inevitably end up being like many other threads just listing celebrities we hate.

Rami Malek. He goes from a Best Actor win to essentially a cameo with like only one line of dialogue in Oppenheimer.

R106 Jennifer Lawrence was literally the biggest movie star in the world, male or female, for a good sustained half a decade. All 3 of these women are Academy Award winners and have starred in more than one huge commercial and critical hit. All 3 of them are considered attractive by wide sections of the public. That their careers may have had some dips and dives is virtually true of every movie star who has ever lived.

What the fuck are you talking about?

Rachel Zegler in a year from now.

R109, exactly. And anyone who brings up facts will be dismissed/mocked as a stan or something.

Adrien Brody

R111 nice rant. Did you notice there are 4 names on that cunt's list? Not 3.

R114: He won too young.

HALLE BERRY. I guess that's karma for that hit and run accident where she considered herself "the victim".

Richard Grieco.

Marion Davies

R117: One word: Catwoman.

Jennifer Anniston is a huge romcom star and successful female lead of comedies in general. Y’all Mary’s be hating.

Her Friends costar could only wish they attained her success in film.

R120, absolutely. It proved that she wasn't an actress (which we already knew).

R122 We did? Halle was brilliant in Jungle Fever and Boomerang. Cat woman was a horrible movie with a horrible script.

A lot of these men have done well in comic book films, but have failed as a leading man in a straight drama or romcom.

R123, admittedly, I have seen her later movies versus the earlier ones. Maybe I should give Jungle Fever and Boomerang a chance.

R124 Excellent point.

[quote]HALLE BERRY.

Halle had a leading film career and even she will admit, and has many times over, that Catwoman was horrible. She has had no problem making fun of it and even accepted the Razzie. She still makes fun of it to this day.

As someone else pointed out Boomerang & Jungle Fever were great. Most people didn't see Gothika (and it wasn't great) but she acted her ass off. The funny thing is, I'd say her best performance was "Introducing Dorothy Dandridge," but that was not a theater release. She went for the sexpot roles like Swordfish and Die Another Day. There's a marked difference between Halle in "Losing Isaiah," and "Monster's Ball." She grew, she just didn't always take roles to show that off.

David Schwimmer and Justin Long are both so fucking ugly and unappealing I will never understand how either one of them achieved any level of success.

The one and only really good Schwimmer performance I've ever seen was in Band of Brothers. It was most unexpected.

R128: Tell me about it.

[quote] I think Shelley Long is in the Failed Leading Film Careers Hall of Fame.

I agree. But, I will always love her as Carol in the theatrical Brady Bunch movies. She and Gary Cole had great chemistry. Gary should have had a bigger career.

Thread Closed again and again and again..

Kate McKinnon only won her two Emmys because of politics. She tried a transition into movies but failed because people saw her for the talentless hack she is.

I was always curious why Halle was never paired with Denzel in a movie. It seems almost like people didn’t want them in a film together.

Justin Long was cute and dorky when he was young. Unfair to link him to Jewish Boo Radley from Friends.

R20, no, it doesn't appear he was in that. There was a nebbishy character named Steve, I think.

I read this once about Steve Guttenberg: that he had a character actor's face but built a leading man's physique, so I guess that screwed him for both types of roles for a while.

The guy who was going to take over Indiana Jones. Alden Ehrenreich.

R24 His best role was getting blown away by Christopher Walken in "The King of New York".

[Quote] Jennifer Aniston's lifetime box office is respectable. Buy you have to admit she didn't attain A list leading lady status.

You're so right.

David Duchovny.

See him in "Playing God." He disappears among Angelina Jolie, Timothy Hutton, and a few no-name gangsters.

"The one and only really good Schwimmer performance I've ever seen was in Band of Brothers. "

He was also excellent in that miniseries about the O.J. Simpson trial, he played Robert Kardashian and was subtle and affecting as a man who slowly realized his friend was actually guilty of a double murder.

And I'm no fan of his, and am happy that he's mostly behind the camera. But he impressed even this non-fan, in that one role.

R140, is that the one where he kept saying "juice! Juice!!!!!".

Saoirse Ronan had four Academcy Award nominations by the time she was 25, three for Best Actress. She's always been pushed for a Kate Winslet type career, not a Julia Roberts one. She's doing fine..

Emma Stone R106?

You mean the Emma Stone whose new movie, [bold]Poor Things[/bold], just debuted in competition at the Venice Film Festival and is already getting rave reviews?

You mean [italic]that[/italic] Emma Stone?

While she has limited range, Scarlett is a lead. She was nominated for Marriage Story and had Black Widow built for her.

But I find all the current top lead actresses (Emma Stone, JLaw, Margot) to be bland.

I wouldn't know Saoirse Ronan if she was sitting next to me on the subway.

[Quote] You mean the Emma Stone whose new movie, Poor Things, just debuted in competition at the Venice Film Festival and is already getting rave reviews? You mean that Emma Stone?

Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe and Ramy Youssef also star in a genre-defying film that starts as absurdist comedy but evolves into an unconventional reflection on female freedom.

With costars like that what could possibly go wrong . . .?

R145, Great, that doesn't change the fact that she's had a successful career. Didn't Little Women make $100 million?

They seem to remake LITTLE WOMEN every few years or so…why?

[quote]Didn't Little Women make $100 million?

Worldwide: $206 million on a $40 million budget.

R149, what a BOMB!

R140 yes you nailed it. I was going to say that. And it’s perfectly edited with how his character’s story arc played out.

William Peterson

Nick Cannon

Jimmy Fallon

Tracy Ullman, sadly. Very talented, but could not get traction

Tracy Ullman was made for sketch comedy and character acting anyway.

Liberace

Mitch Gaylord

Tracey Ullman is a character actress, she was never built up as a lead actress. And I'm sure she never wanted that anyway.

Sam Worthington

Eric Bana

Too bad about Bana, I liked him.

But I heard he insisted on spending a lot of time with his family in Australia, it may be that he just wasn't ambitious enough to claw his way all the way to the top. Well, I genuinely hope he's happy with the choices he made, and choosing family over Hollywood is much more likely to make a person happy than the reverse.

[quote]choosing family over Hollywood is much more likely to make a person happy than the reverse.

That's bullshit.

[quote] They seem to remake LITTLE WOMEN every few years or so…why?

Because it's one of the most beloved novels of all time? Just a guess.

Little Women, the Three Musketeers, Lorna Doone, Pride and Prejudice, etc., will be made over and over. We should be due for a Treasure Island remake soon.

in the US anyway I'd include Javier Bardem and Antonio Banderas

Penelope Ann Miller—she was in several big films in the early 90s, seemed to disappear, and then started showing up in supporting roles.

Lauren Holly

R21 i really liked SJP in Extreme Measures. I never watched Sex And The City, not my thing.

Dermot Mulroney

Loren Dean (whom I really liked).

I had a crush on Loren Dean. WEHT him?

R44, many of Downton Abbey's cast had very respectable careers and still do. The UK isn't like Hollywood.

Jon Hamm. Box office poison. Confess Fletch was a piece of shit. Too many chances given to guy, that usually plays the asshole half way though the movie. Doing crappy commercials for a payday hasn’t helped either. He is not funny.

He’s got a big role in the 2nd season of Good Omens. So far (I’ve only watched two episodes). It’s a goofball roll and I think he’s funny.

^ role

I like Eric Bana, really hot and a good actor. He never really became a household name.

(R175) Hi Jon. Which bar are you at?

R174: He must be getting desperate....he finally showed his ass in the season premiere.

Christopher Atkins. A pretty face and a cute ass did not an actor make.

R179 he better show us the Hammaconda now

I've posted this before but Tracy Ullman's career was hurt by the fact she was loathed by everyone she worked with. A nasty, cruel woman. Remember, she sued the Simpsons creators for millions of dollars because, as she said something along the lines of: I suckled that show on my own tit.

James Brooks once said that he'd rather give up his career than ever talk to Tracy again.

Too bad, because her comedy is excellent. In real life, she's a walking tragedy.

R182 When did Brooks ever say that?

Tracey has plenty of friends in the business. And she did “breast-feed the yellow people,” which is why the network paid her millions in royalties for the early episodes.

You might be mistakenly blaming her for her dead husband’s producer antics. Allan McKeown was famously a prick and a clumsy producer in Hollywood. He was a music video director who conned her into letting him run her career, and he bullied anyone who came near her.

He’s dead now, so things are different.

Like Lilly Tomlin I find myself studying Tracey Ullman rather than laughing at her. Loved her in PLENTY as Meryl Streep’s cross dressing sidekick.

In Plenty she played the "only thing worth watching part". Every Streep movie seems to have one (though its never Meryl herself).

Emile Hirsch

Camilla Belle. Doing movies on Great American Family now.

I think Eric Bana will have work whenever he wants it, at least in Australia - besides being incredibly hot, he's actually talented. Chopper was the first thing I saw him in and he's crazy good in it. He also was a comedian before becoming an actor which always surprised me - comedians shouldn't be that hot

Griffin Dunne

The late Treat Williams.

Did Brenda Vaccaro ever make it in feature films?

Some of these people just didn't have "It". Others, like Treat Williams, got sidetracked by drugs.

It's hard for people to believe, but there are people who just don't want leading film careers.

The very FIRST Oscar winner Emil Jannings, winning for the Blue Angel alongside Marlena Dietrich,.

He is the first winner of an Academy Award, as after being announced as a winner, he was presented his Academy statuette a month before the actual ceremony. This also makes him the first no-show winner at an Academy Award presentation.

Because of his thick German accent, the advent of sound ended his American career. Returning to Germany, he became an enthusiastic supporter of the Nazis; thus, he spent the next decade-plus making films that supported Nazi ideology.

At war's end Jannings was blacklisted by the Allied authorities, and he never made another film. He died five years later, lonely and bitter.

Jannings reportedly carried his Oscar statuette with him as proof of his former association with Hollywood. However, his active role in Nazi propaganda meant that he was subject to denazification, and a comeback attempt would not be legal.

[quote] The one and only really good Schwimmer performance I've ever seen was in Band of Brothers.

Never found him sexy until I saw him in Band of Brothers. He's actually a great actor when he performs in roles outside of comedy.

Maxwell Caufield.

R195, saying Caufield was being groomed to be a leading man is like saying Lorna Luft was being groomed to be a leading lady.

As an aside, Polly Bergen was a cunt.

Why r195?

R171 Loren Dean seems like a poor man's Matthew Modine combined with a poor man's Kurt Russell

Mandy Moore

Elizabeth Shue

Joey Heatherton

So… everyone?

Veronica Lake

Betty Hutton

Brandon Routh

Edmund Purdom

Rik Mayall. Americans just didn't get him.

Betty Hutton had a huge film career

"Emile Hirsch"

Emile Hirsch made enemies. I forget the story, but apparently he assaulted a big cheese, or someone who was close to a big cheese. And he was basically blacklisted after that, the offers stopped dead.

Now it's possible for some actors to come back after assaulting someone, but even someone as talented as Russell Crowe had to spend a few years in purgatory before becoming employable in Hollywood again. But Crowe was both talented and a proven moneymaker before his little scandal, and Hirsch hadn't proven himself at the box office when he made his little slipup. So he'd made a powerful enemies and allegedly pissed other people off, so when he found himself in trouble nobody would help him.

Rachael Leigh Cook

Jennifer Love Hewitt

Freddie Prinz Jr

It always seemed like Freddie just walked away.

Eric Bana was great in Dirty John.

50's actress Maggie McNamara (Three Coins in the Fountain). She was poised to be the American Audrey Hepburn, but she had mental issues and walked away from acting after just 10 years and 5 films. She committed suicide at 50

Ezra Miller

I mean they really are LUCKY when they're cast in a sitcom as themselves based on their ability to land a joke.

I remember in the mid-90s when Julia Ormond was everywhere--Legends of the Fall, First Knight, Sabrina, Smilla's Sense of Snow, etc., but she never really caught on as a leading lady.

Lindsay Lohan

R217 She’s a perfect example, because while she was certainly talented enough and perfectly attractive, she just didn’t have the extra “something” that makes a star. In some inexplicable way that you couldn’t quite put your finger on. And Hollywood really tried to make her happen. And it just didn’t…happen.

Of course the Emile Hirsch example, if true, shows that we never really know what goes on behind the scenes that is make or break time. It not always just about what we see on the screen.

[quote] Jennifer Love Hewitt

I still have no idea to this day why so many people think/thought she was stunning and hot. Sure, she had a rack, but everything else was "meh".

Ryan Philippe

I hated JLH for life when she portrayed Audrey Hepburn. That alone should have gotten her banned from Hollywood.

JLH and her squinty, fake smile:

Blecchh

Emile Hirsch assaulted a young woman at a bar. He appears to have serious violence/mental issues.

Julia Ormond was fucking Harrison Ford and that is how she got Sabrina. No idea about the other roles. Of course, even the talented have to fuck for roles in Hollywood.

R225 That certainly applies to the men as well.

Eve Plumb never made it big after ‘Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway’.

Mama’s mussy twitching with Josh Hartnett‘s Black Mirror episode with him and Aaron Paul face to face in their skivvies up in orbit, HAWT!!

Rae Dawn Chong. She was the It Girl for a brief moment in the 80s, but once the 90s rolled around her career took a nosedive.

Rae Dawn is so obnoxious that it would not surprise me if she alienated people in Hollywood.

Elizabeth Berkeley

I like 'While You Were Sleeping' but I think Sandra Bullock has made a lot of forgettable garbage.

Ronnie and Nancy got married right after he made that movie with the chimp.

Then they both just fell off the face of the earth.

Peter MacNicol was supposed to the great white boy hope prior to Sophie's Choice. Kevin and Meryl stole the movie away from him. Then he played a goofy asshat in Ghostbusters 2 and his entire career went down the shitter.

R234 He did great work on Veep and 24, and seems content with his career

R235 Even though he was horrible on Veep

Sharon Stone, movie star for life. Rarely very good in a leading role, with a few exceptions. Couldn't carry movies to make a career.

Leading role worldwide box office under 1 billion. Charlize Theron career box-office as a lead = 1.6 billion. Kristen Stewart = 4 billion!!!

Lee Tracy

Rangy, red-headed and straightforward to the bone while possessing distinctively adenoidal vocal tones, this actor with a voracious appetite for high living was a fine cinematic representation of the racy and race-paced style of pre-Code Hollywood. Lee Tracy patented with peerless skill the lightning rod timing and machine gun delivery so identified with that period and would have continued on handsomely in films had severe typecasting, a hair-trigger temper and a notoriously reckless off-camera life not gotten the best of him.

During the filming of Viva Villa! (1934) in Mexico City, Tracy displayed shocking, ungentlemanly behavior that resulted in fisticuffs with the law and a high-profile arrest on public morals charges. MGM not only kicked Tracy off the picture but felt compelled to apologize publicly to the Mexican people for his disrespect and terminate the actor's five-year contract.

"ungentlemanly behavior" ie he got drunk and peed off a hotel balcony onto a crowd of Mexicans.

R237 Jesus. Huge box-office stats is not the full story of a successful Hollywood career. If that is the case then Meryl Streep should be shuffled to the margins.

You acknowledge that Sharon Stone was a movie star, so why include her at all? If iconic Sex Goddess Sharon Stone gets dismissed as “failed”, then who else? Sophia Loren? Marilyn Monroe?

Sophia Loren was a SUCCESSFUL leading lady. It's been often said that Sharon Stone is a Movie Star without a movie career.

R236 He was a delightfully foul villain, and stole every scene. They tried to put him up for an Emmy, but he appeared in too many scenes to count as a guest star.

I guess it’s all relative. Sharon Stone remains a very famous person. And Basic Instinct, Total Recall and Casino were all big hits of their time. Either commercially or critically. I personally wouldn’t put Stone in the same category as a Julia Ormond.

Nor would I.

[quote] Timothée Chalamet

I'm afraid his career is doing just dandy, much to your regret.

Sharon gets a pass because her performances in Basic Instinct and Casino are iconic. She was redhot from 1992-1996. Definitely a huge star and one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood. Not an overall failure at all.

There is no Hollywood star that hasn’t had flops. Some of the major ones have had as many flops as successes. It’s the nature of the business. Only on DL would someone as successful, rich and famous as Sharon Stone-or Margot Robbie or Jennifer Lawrence for that matter-be included in a thread on “failed careers”. And many, many of the all-time Hollywood greats went through serious career slumps before rebounding back in later years. Katherine Hepburn, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford are some prime examples.

Now there have been many examples of overhyped newcomers that were given multiple chances, didn’t catch on, and basically faded into obscurity.The Gretchen Mols and Christopher Atkins’s of the world. That’s different. For some it’s fairly obvious why. For others it’s more inexplicable.

The OP did say failed “leading” careers. Many do go on to fairly successful careers as character actors in supporting roles. There’s nothing to be ashamed of in that. The much maligned Julia Ormond popped up in some episodes of Mad Men a few years back. I thought her work was interesting and even sexy. And she looked beautiful. Clearly she had reserves of talent that Hollywood didn’t tap.

Geena Davis would've had a stronger career if she hadn't fucked so many failures.

Her worst films usually involved a boyfriend/husband. Cutthroat Island. The Long Kiss Goodnight. Earth Girls are Easy.

Jeff Goldblum isn’t a failure

R244: Not much longer.

R249 Yeah he seemed promising in the beginning but he’s gone full Hollywood douchebag.

R18 They liked him when he was young and pretty, but that didn't last.

Dan Stevens from Downton Abbey and Jessica Raine from Call The Midwife. They both left their respective hit shows after 3 seasons for their film careers. I can't help think that both would have been better to stay in their roles and ride the success of them.

I doubt Stevens' career would be any different if he had stayed on Downton

He would have got decent money from the remaining series and films and played a big part in the storylines of a globally watched tv series.

I couldn't stand Jessica Raine in CTM, but she will probably have a longer career from doing various roles than the woman who's been playing Trixie for a million years now.

Jessica Raines has the worst case of resting bitch face of any actress alive today. (Or dead)

Geena Davis

LeeLee Sobieski

Didn't she become a dominatrix?

Shannyn Sossamon

Lolita Davidovich

Lena Olin

Anne Heche

Abbie Cornish

Freddie Prinze, Jr. Those insipid romcoms were like poison to his film career. Also he wasn’t very good.

Lisa Eichhorn

Julia Stiles

Jason Biggs

Mena Suvari

Heather Graham.

Gretchen Mol. Especially her. I felt bad for her because she was promoted with so much drama and hype. It got out of control through no fault of hers.

Klinton Spilsbury

Lucille Bremer

Lucille Bremmer was fucking a big-time producer, someone high up in the MGM musicals department. She was known around the MGM lot as "[Big Producer's] Piece".

She got as far as she did because she was passably pretty, was a passable dancer, and knew who to fuck for roles. But she was totally lacking in acting chops and star quality, so her career was actually better than the career she deserved.

I’m not sure what we’re counting as failure.

Shirley Temple certainly failed as an adult lead. As did Deanna Durbin.

I cannot stand David Schwimmer.

No, Deanna Durbin had hits as a young adult.

R272 On the DL any actor whose films haven’t all grossed $500 million worldwide, or won 3 Academy Awards, is embarrassing failure.

R271 Lucile Bremer was fucking Arthur Freed. Some of her other roles weren’t great, but she was perfect in Meet Me in St Louis.

Has Taylor Kitsch been mentioned?

Isn't it funny how Taylor is getting all this press about a "comeback" and he never ever mentions his role in "The Normal Heart"?

Kitsch was the weakest link in TNH. cute but not the best actor IMO.

He wasn't much of a pleasure on the set either.

[quote]Has Taylor Kitsch been mentioned?

Yes.

R280, details…c’mon now.

(R253) I wanna know why he did the horrible Lucy in the Sky with Natalie Portman? He was so miscast.

Was Taylor’s boyfriend on set? R280

Who’s Taylor’s boyfriend?

Micheal E. Knight left All My Children and got the lead in Date with an Angel with Phoebe Cates. It was a bomb, and he was soon back on AMC.

Stars appear to be on top but still have a hard time predicting their career. Some get their second wind because they partner with a certain director. Quentin Tarantino said no one wanted Travolta at the time of Pulp Fiction. Travolta's last film was Look Who's Talking 2, before Tarantino hired him. Linda Hamilton's career flatlined after breaking with James Cameron.

Famous actors like Freddie Prince Jr. hit walls behind the scenes. They're household names and we think they could have any movie they want, but it's harder work staying on top. Ruffling the wrong feathers can shut someone out.

I see why some actors like Josh Hartnett, Bridget Fonda, get a taste, make their movies, find out it's really kind of unfulfilling and don't care about playing someone else's game. Waiting hours in trailers for sets, doing multiple takes, green screens, multiple takes of the boring parts of acting work. It's so much different than a lively theatrical performance on stage.

Doing the promotional interview circuits, competition with costars being asked the same questions over and over, hounded or autographs and privacy invaded. Imagine doing all that work, feeling like acting in movies isn't all that cracked up to be just to find out all after all the hard work you put in, it was mediocre, or a bomb.

Seems to me, more than being an actor, actors have to really love the whole game to keep at it. That's why the ego maniacs survive.

He is so sexy to me on Friends. But only on Friends.

Thank God, Molly Shannon.

"Seems to me, more than being an actor, actors have to really love the whole game to keep at it. That's why the ego maniacs survive."

That's why I think that Narcissistic Personality Disorder is a huge career advantage in Hollywood. It gives a person the overwhelming need for attention that it takes to devote years of your life to put in the gruntwork it takes to maintain fame, and it gives you the casual ruthlessness needed to clear all obstacles out of your way. The Jennifer Lawrences of the world may decide that being tops of the A-list isn't worth it, but a Tom Cruise or Joan Crawford will make that A-List fame the cornerstone of their existence. And that's why they stayed stars for decades.

Will Ferrell I believe he is a one note actor. He cannot hold my attention in a leading role. No sex appeal and zero chemistry with the camera. His falling out with his business partner (Adam McKay) was a reflection of Adam agreeing Will was not suitable for the leading role. Will acted like a pathetic baby and threw a tantrum.

Correct me if I am wrong.

R290: Honey they wouldn’t be in show business if they weren’t narcissistic looney tunes.

I worked with the girl that was Gretchen Mol’s colorist, and you could smell the starlet’s desperation on her when she came in!

R293 what would Gretchen do?

R294, it’s not something you can “do”, but she wasn’t “on”- vivacious, colorful, or endearing. There wasn’t an overall likeability or “stickiness” factor to her like Jennifer Coolidge or Sigorney Waever (I worked with both of them)

She’d just come off Boardwalk Empire, and seemed cautious, wan, and weary- a sort of dishwater personality. At that junction, you become part of a much larger publicity and marketing machine, get pulled along for the ride, and a lot of it is how you respond to luck, timing, and exposure. You cannot take yourself or the process seriously, second guess, or wear your emotions on your sleeve.

She did. I admit I am very much the same way with my career.

Female celebrity momentum also very much like a pregnancy in that if you haven’t landed an even more notable, prestigious or meaty project in nine months than the previous, you’re dead in the water and forgotten.

True

Kate Hudson? Did she ever live up to the promise of ALMOST FAMOUS?

Hell NO!!!!

Penny Milford was a neighbor of mine in NYC very briefly R294.... and never was able to capitilize on her early Oscar nom

Does anyone on DL remember the name Penny Milford??

Holy crap. Penny's still alive? Damn, she was good.

"Kate Hudson? Did she ever live up to the promise of ALMOST FAMOUS?"

She went on to single-handedly kill the RomCom genre, which has to be a major achievement of a sort.

Of course, R299 she was Miss Flem in Heathers

[Quote] "Kate Hudson? Did she ever live up to the promise of ALMOST FAMOUS?"

Never even came close.

Linda Cardellini

Linda Fiorentino. Touted as the successor to Barbara Stanwyck after THE LAST SEDUCTION. But she was outspoken about things and many bigwigs in Tinseltown were not happy with her comments and she was greylisted. She still got work but nothing major.

R297 She got to fuck MCBogo and star in a movie with him. She’s fine.

She’s done far better than was warranted by her lack of talent.

I think a lot of this defines the industry more than the actors mentioned, mostly. It’s a churn.

Hilary Duff. I don't need to say anything except....Hilary Duff. Oh and Lindsay Lohan (obviously).

Has Teresa Wright been mentioned? She was an A-list ingenue (Shadow of a Doubt is my favorite Hitchcock, and his), but never really moved on to leading lady roles with any success.

Teresa Wright took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for "Mrs. Miniver" the same year she was nominated for Best Actress for "Pride of the Yankees." In both films, she was a sweet-natured, devoted young wife, and in "The Best Years of Ours Lives," she was a sweet-natured devoted young daughter. She was in a lot of big, prestige pictures, but her public falling out with Samuel Goldwyn seemed to doom her chances of bigger success.

Betty Hutton was another one who allowed her mouth to sabotage her career.

Has Nastassia Kinski been mentioned yet, because it sure seemed like they were trying hard to make her happen in the early '80s (Exposed, Cat People, Unfaithfully Yours, The Hotel New Hampshire...)

The discount Leo DiCaprios -- Michael Pitt and Dane DeHaan

Shiloh Fernandez. They tried to make him happen.

Richard Madden.

Peter Firth. Great comeback as an older actor in "MI:5," ("Spooks"), but he didn't resemble his former self! (Launching pad series for careers of Nicola Walker and Matthew MacFadyen.)

Kit Harrington.

R314: Don't forget Mouseboy.

R318 Kit doesn’t really have star power and was just lucky to ride the GOT wave to the bitter end. He’s always going to be ‘Jon Snow’. Compare that to Richard Madden’s character being killed off early allowed him to use GOT as a stepping stone to move on to other things.

R119, that’s not true. Marion Davies had a very successful career. She chose to retire in 1937. As a result, her films were no longer shown.

In 1942, “Citizen Kane” harmed her reputation; people perceived Marion as “Susan Alexander”. It was a horrible injustice. Even Orson Welles regretted the damage to Marion’s reputation.

No one's mentioned Anne Heche.

She was meant to be the next "It Girl" of the late 90s, but she got with Ellen right as her first leading role dropped, and she claims the studios killed her career because of it.

But was it her talent/persona that did her in?

Virginia Mayo

Brie Larson she's not a marvel

R299 Penelope was good in Heathers Her performance in the vastly overrated Coming Home for which she received an Oscar nomination was nothing to write home about

Linda Fiorentino’s last credit is in 2009. She torched her own career with her bad behavior.

[quote]As an aside, Polly Bergen was a cunt.

What, r197? I guess maybe when she was younger, but I did several projects in her later years and she was an absolute sweetheart.

Really charming and very nice.

Rebecca Ferguson

[Quote]As an aside, Polly Bergen was a cunt.

R327 You know how bitchy fags cane be

[quote]R49 Miss Anna Sten, grandmother of all failed Hollywood leading careers

aka Miss Anna STENCH, to investors.

Sam Goldwyn financed his films with his own money so he did’t have investors, afaik.

[quote]R148 They seem to remake LITTLE WOMEN every few years or so…why?

Because it always makes money.

What do you think Hollywood is there for?

I saw all three of Anna Sten’s big leading roles for Goldwyn and the only one I didn’t enjoy was Nana. She was great in The Wedding Night but she got a bum rap and her looks were out of synch with the times. Plus that thick accent. Good actress, though - she had a big part in Soldier Of Fortune with Clark Gable and Susan Hayward (1955) and nailed it.

John Lund. Paramount thought he would be their postwar Clark Gable, went so far as to pose him in exact copies of Gable publicity stills from the ‘30s.

Rosemary Clooney. She was in a handful of early 1950s films, then played the female lead in White Christmas, the highest grossing of 1954. Young, pretty, soulful - good singer and actress. Very promising film career - but she decided to have five kids for the next five years, instead.

William B. Peterson was supposed to be the next big thing in movies, with To Live And Die In LA.

Edward Albert really went nowhere after Butterflies Are Free.

*William L. Petersen

R323 Virginia Mayo was a popular leading star for a reasonable amount of time. Most stars of those days had 5 or10 years at the top (like Ruth Roman). She had more than 10, under contract to Sam Goldwyn, then Warner Bros.

Viveca Lindfors comes to mind. More success as a character actress or on the stage. Warner Bros. Launched her as a beautiful leading lady opposite Errol Flynn.

Nancy Olson, Barbara Bel Geddes, Signe Hasso, Tana Elg.

Nancy Davis (Reagan).

John Hodiak.

Alida Valli. Really good actress from Italy. David Selznick failed to turn her into an American star, though she went back to greater success in Italian films. And was great in The Third Man.

Faith Domergue.

Jane Russell, kind of.

Lucille Bremer

Tippi Hedren

C. Thomas Howell, Mitch Gaylord, Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Andrew McCarthy, Kelly McGillis, Charlie Schlatter, Craig Scheffer, Brooke Shields, Matthew Modine, Christian Slater, Deborah Foreman, Skeet Ulrich, NEVE CAMPBELL.

Anne Heche wasn't pretty enough, interesting enough or sexy enough to be leading lady material. Plus, she was a weirdo. And I agree her relationship with Ellen didn't help, but that was not the only reason.

[quote]r334 Very promising film career - but she decided to have five kids for the next five years, instead.

Clooney needed to keep her legs closed to married men - including her husband.

Rebecca De Mornay

R342 She did okay after she took over running that homeless shelter and charity bookstore in NYC. Even if they didn’t want the muffin tops.

Diane Venora

Lara Flynn Boyle

After winning America’s heart as Tiffany Welles, it seemed there was nothing Shelley Hack couldn’t do. Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese fought to have her in their movies, increasing her luster, but then the highly anticipated TROLL (1986) failed to score at the box office.

The once meteoric ride was over. And it was back to television.

Betsy Drake

Maggie McNamara

Ansel Elgort.

The great Jon Bernthal, always a bridesmaid.

Benjamin Bratt.

Jonny Lee Miller.

Garrett Clayton.

Leonard Whiting.

Kate Jackson

Harry Hamlin

Mary Tyler Moore. She was in Elvis' last theatrical feature and didn't make another film until 1980s Ordinary People after which she did Six Weeks and Just Between Friends.

The she was in a dreary flop, after.

Back to TV, Beth!

and even worse Sick Weeks

WTF ??

Michael Ontkean. Peter Fonda. Blythe Danner didn't really make it as a movie star despite the critics' praises and comparisons to Jean Arthur, and other '30s darlings. Jill Clayburgh didn't become big, either. James Brolin tried the big-screen route, also.

Marsha Mason!

Timothy Hutton. No young actor ever got more critical praise that I can think of, other than Sean Penn (who didn't deserve as much).

In the 1950s Barbara Bel Geddes and Kim Stanley were the hottest actresses on Broadway. They got the best roles, and the best critiques. They both deserved their status -- probably the best actresses of their time.

Hollywood lured both of them to make movies, promising them celebrity status. Didn't work. Bel Geddes settled for secondary roles and then TV. Stanley made a few good movies and then went back to New Mexico for the rest of her life. Turned out that being a great actress didn't amount for much if you weren't 1950s style pretty,

Barbara did go back to Broadway and had a huge hit in the 60s with Mary, Mary, and was also in the play Finishing Touches, later (and other things). Kim Stanley also went back to Broadway for a while, post-Hollywood. She also did movies and TV, sporadically, playing the mother of Frances Farmer (Jessica Lange) in Frances, and was in The Right Stuff. She played big Mama on V in Cat On A Hot Tine Roof, and was on Medical Center, Night Gallery, Quincy, and shows like that.

*on TV

I absolutely love DL fave Julia Roberts's response when she was asked about Jennifer Lawerence being America's Sweetheart. "Just how many of us are there?" I fucking love this self absorbed narcissistic super bitch.

Jill Clayburgh had back to back Oscar nods and prior to that had 2 big movies with silver streak and semi tough. She turned down Norma Rae to do the awful La Luna and that seemed to be the beginning of some mediocre/bad choices that she never recovered from career wise. I don’t think she cared after starting her family and taking an extended break from acting.

R363, Even though Clayburgh received a GG nomination, wasn't there a controversy over the mother-son incest element of "La Luna" at the time?

Because that motif might not have ultimately been a career winner for Clayburgh with John and Jane Q. Moviegoer.

Meanwhile, Sally Field as "Norma Rae".....

R362, that really is a great response.

I don’t know if this counts, but Don Ameche went from being a popular film star in the 30s and 40s (and doing a lot of radio) to not being able to get arrested where movies were concerned in the 50s or for many years afterward. He was in a hit Broadway musical in the 50s (Silk Stockings) but not movies. I remember when I was a little kid watching him host a weekly show in the 60s featuring acts from international circuses. I think he did some TV in the 70s. Of course his movie career came roaring back after he was cast in Trading Places, and he eventually won an Oscar in the 80s.

They tried to make Jon Hamm the next Clooney. Didn’t happen. Did movies nobody watched. Has returned to television. Begging for a role in the Marvel Universe. Doubt it happens. Always plays the cop/sheriff/FBI asshole. Shows his wide ass and beer gut now.

R567: You know he's desperate now that he's showing his fat ass.

Clooney himself hasn't done much in a long time.

R369, Were Clooney's filmography non-existent, it wouldn't really matter to him, money-wise.

R370 He needed the income from being a star to start the company.

He actually has done some pretty damn good movies.

I recent watched The Truth About Cats and Dogs, and yes, Janeane Garafalo would definitely make that list, but I also remembered that Hollywood was trying to make Ben Chaplin happen (end of the 90's - early aughts. He also starred in Washington Square with Jennifer Jason Leigh and Birthday Girl with Nicole Kidman. Nothing seemed to stick (cute but a bit dull) and I believe he went back to the UK to do stage work. He's also recently appeared in some streaming UK tv dramas.

Anyone else remember this guy? Here he is on Conan:

Desi Arnaz, Jr.

R274 Deanna Durbin wasn’t a failed leading lady.

Ben did a Broadway show with John Lithgow, then disappeared.

William Devane, in the 1970s...he was the love interest of Vanessa Redgrave in Yanks and was one of the male leads in Hitchcock’s Family Plot.

Liv Ullmann was unsuccessful at least in becoming a Hollywood star.

Marthe Keller.

Jason Robards Jr. (as a romantic lead).

Luise Rainer.

Troy Donahue.

Pat Boone.

Robert Wagner

I feel kind of bad saying this, but… Rita Moreno?

I don’t remember her in any leading roles. (Though of course her times were working against her.)

In our time, Rami Malik.

William Devane has had a steady career in movies and television.

Not every actor can become a legend.

And not all of them can win an Oscar, a Tony, an Emmy, and a Grammy!

R381 The name of the thread is “Failed Leading Film Careers.” I. e., any actor who the film industry put in lead roles who failed to maintain a career as a lead in films.

Maxwell Caulfield

Katherine Healy

Dudley Moore

R383, Is there a "retirement age" cut-off as it were, like with normal careers? Or do you mean "maintain" unto 80s, a la Clint Eastwood or Paul Newman?

R46, I'm not a fan, but Timmy does have the lead in next year's "Dune: Part 2."

William J. Peterson.

Jesse Eisenberg.

Kate Hudson is probably the reason Italian men beat their girlfriends.

Carol Burnett, Alan Alda, Richard Thomas, Pamela Tiffin

Elizabeth Ashley

Ronald Reagan

Don Murray

Marlo Thomas

Charles Grodin

Lynn Redgrave After Georgy Girl it was assumed that she would have 'a blazing bonfire of a future'

Farrah Abraham Paris Hilton Kim Kardashian

The plotline in each of their respective pieces left much to be desired.

Miss Dey (yet to comment)

Brooke Shields. You would've thought after that start she could have parlayed it into some kind of film career like Jodie Foster. Something went off there.

She couldn’t act.

Mariah

It’s true Brooke Shields was a fairly bad actress at that age. She turned down a lot of films (like Scarface) while in college, however, and her mother wasn’t a professional manager who’d ever given a thought of building Shields’ career long term. The actress didn’t even have an agent - everything went through (drunk) Teri.

Jodie's mother was her manager too but was not a drunk and much smarter. Plus it didn't hurt that Jodie understood how to interpret a script and understand a character and their motivation. Brooke learned lines and looked pretty.

It’s interesting that both moms (Brandy and Teri) were lesbians.

Maybe they should have hooked up and joined forces.

Seann William Scott.

Owen Wilson.

Jodi Foster's mom was a lez?

Yes. Maybe it’s genetic.

Robert Sean Leonard

Alana Haim -was supposed to be the next big thing and and an Oscar contender before Licorice Pizza laid an egg.

Cuz she's fugly.

Amy Irving

Did someone already say Jennifer Garner? Oof 13% on RT.

Rob Morrow.

Ryan Phillippe.

Edward Furlong.

David Naughton. Griffin Dunne. Julia Sweeney. Lindsay Lohan. George Maharis. Robert Morse.

Jack Webb

Rita Moreno never had the lead in a film, afaik. She blamed it on her being Latina but maybe she also just wasn’t a leading lady type of actress.

^ R379 (I mean we can’t say she had a failed leading film career when she didn’t play leads anyway.)

George Lazenby....Carrie Snodgress....Glenne Headly

Lance Guest...Ken Wahl...Billy Campbell

In other words, everyone except 17 people.

Mischa Barton.

Ellen Degeneress

Jamie Gertz

Ryan O'Neal

R412 God I love that movie. It’s sooo bad.

R420, Ken Wahl's various injuries caused him to retire from acting. He had won a GG as Vinnie Terranova. I loathe his politics, but damn if he wasn't God's gift, KWIM?

There are actors who were very successful as long as their MGM contracts lasted, but once the contracts were over, some of their movie careers as leads died almost immediately. Jane Powell comes to mind - she was still a star, she did Meet Me In St. Louis on TV and other good things, but she was all but over in movies. Same with Stewart Granger (as a popular Hollywood lead). Ann Miller is another one.

(Ann Miller wasn’t really a lead, though.)

Patrick Wilson

Peter Firth.

Treat Williams

Russell Nype. He caused something of a sensation in the show, Call Me Madam. singing "You're Just in Love" with Ethel Merman. Won a Tony. Hollywood beckoned. He was cast in the lead in MGM's Young Man In A Hurry, but was fired after filming a little over a week. He was replaced by Glenn Ford (the film was re-titled Young Man With Ideas). He said later (according to Wikipedia) that he was too young for the role of a man who'd been married 10 years and had three kids. Yet, he was born in 1920, and the film came out in 1952. Ruth Roman (playing the wife) was two years younger than Nype. Glenn Ford was only four years older.

He was also supposed to be in Pat and Mike (1952), with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn (according to Garson Kanin in the book, Tracy and Hepburn). Apparently negotiations broke down, maybe his agent asked for too much money. The part went to William Ching (as Hepburn's boyfriend).

Nype won another Tony and was later in some movies like Love Story (1970) in small parts, but never had that big Hollywood career.

It seems odd to think it, but RDJ never really had leading man status until Iron Man. And I don't know if that counts.

Keri Green was in some excellent teen movies and then ran screaming into the night.

Jennifer Grey removed her nose and her career in one fell swoop.

Lauren Bacall's career seemed to sink early although she had success as an older actress.

R434 Not arguing, just curious, but wasn't Downy a leading man in The Pickup Artist? Or an I mistaking what a leading man is?

*am I

Matt bomer

Chris Evans is not a leading man and this is what I find cute about him.

RDJ certainly had leading roles - they just didn't lead to financial success. He was too unconventional.

So I think what is actually meant re Iron Man is "major star," not "leading man", which is just anyone who is a leading man in a film.

The guy who left Downton Abbey and had plastic surgery in hopes of being the next Tom Cruise.

R420, Ken Wahl quit the Biz because of debilitating injuries.

Sorry for repeating myself, r420! (R442)

IDK, r417; was Jack Webb ever really promoted as a "leading man"? In any case, "Dragnet" remains iconic.

I wonder about the future roles for the immensely talented Freddie Highmore, aka the now-done "Good Doctor." He was before TV the lead in several movies, including "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." Timothee has had the career Freddie should have had.

Sam Rockwell.

[quote]I feel kind of bad saying this, but… Rita Moreno? I don’t remember her in any leading roles. (Though of course her times were working against her.)

She had a very few. The Night of the Following Day and Popi are the only two that come to mind. She had a great villain's part in Marlowe.

Dane Cook--I'm sure he's been mentioned already, though. Same with Russell Brand.

R443 Jack Webb Promoted himself as a leading man.

After the box office success of the Dragnet movie (1954) based on the radio and TV series, Jack directed and starred in Pete Kelly's Blues (1955). Followed that up with The D. I. (1957), -30- (1959) and The Last Time I Saw Archie (1961), co-starring with Robert Mitchum. All directed by Webb.

Jamie Kennedy (Malibu's Most Wanted, 2003).

Michael Sarrazin.

Gloria DeHaven

Tom Drake.

Was just thinking of Melanie Griffith. After Working Girl she got the big build-up. But each film got worse. Bad plastic surgery, then she was relegated to the tabloids.

Fair enough, r447.

Pete Kelly's Blues (1955) trailer w/Jack Webb. (Cool trailer.)