Actors you wish had been more prolific

Elizabeth Hartman who died tragically so young. I wonder what kind of career she would have had. So talented. Ah well.

Coincidentally I think I read that both Hartman and Eggar were up for the role of Katharine Hepburn’s daughter in GWCTD. Both lost out to Katharine Houghton.

I wonder how each of their careers might have developed with a hit like that on their resumes circa 67.

Lee Meriwether

This has often been an issue with British actors who made a splash in a UK hit film or TV series, went on to quickly do a lot of highly commercial work in the US and then gradually just stopped working much or went on to lower profile projects.

Jeremy Northam, Clive Owen, Jennifer Ehle, Dominic Cooper, Kevin McKidd, James Purefoy and most (if not all) of the younger cast of Downton Abbey.

If Emily Blunt hadn't married whatshisname from The Office, she'd be on the list, too.

Cali Timmins

Eric Porter.

I'm serious with this: Dawn Wells.

I wish Montgomery Clift hadn't turned down Sunset Boulevard, High Noon, Shane, On the Waterfront, A Star Is Born, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Rope, and 1938's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Was he really offered all those? He sounds as bad as Jeanne Crain.

Saul Rubinek

Yes, R9, at least according to the sources cited in the link.

While On The Waterfront is a great movie I think the character is wrong for Clift. But for sure, I would have loved to see him in more movies such as Sunset Blvd. and Rope.

Great choice R10

R4 I always thought Clive Owen should have been a bigger star. I enjoyed the series he just did Monsieur Spade. He’s still crazy sexy.

I know this is a hackneyed DL response, but I wish Vivian Vance would have made some kitchen sink dramas in the 1950s. She would have been great.

Marilyn Hassett

Debra Winger

In what universe did Debra Winger not have a prolific career? For fuck sake she was on an episode of Wonder Woman.

I wish Cher had made more movies. She was terrific in the few movies she made.

Alfre Woodard. She is humble unlike smug cunt Viola Davis.

Mark Rylance

Coral Browne

Blythe Danner

Alfre has been in 132 movie and TV shows combined. How much more fucking prolific could she be?

My wife, the actress, Coral Browne.

[quote] Blythe Danner

Blythe Danner was prolific just one time too many.

R8 he was right in turning down several of those. He wasn't low brow enough to play an ex prizefighter from the Jersey docks in OTW, not sexy enough (good looking? sure, but not sexy) for COAHTR, too young for ASIB and not cinical enough for SB.

They ARE actors you wish had been more prolific!

Jessica Harper.

Paula Sands.

And the ultimate: Linda Fiorentino.

Yeah I heard Clift also turned down Orphans of the Storm and My Fair Lady.

I thought Edgar went from Dr Dolittle directly to horror.

Lee Grant in better roles

cheating but Heath Ledger

Jennifer Salt

Genevieve Bujold

Patrick Kilpatrick

David Duchovny

Pandora Spocks

Courtney Love

I think Viv Vance would have made a great Lola in Come Back, Little Sheba. I'm not kidding and please no 'Gary talked her out of it '

Barbara Harris

I would have liked to have seen Lucy in some more adult, dramatic roles. Something far away from Lucy. Drop all her mannerisms and be an actress.

I'll say it: Gwyneth. I wish she'd never done the GOOP shit and had just continued with supporting roles or a series.

I don’t know if I wish he had a more prolific career but I sometimes wonder about Aidan Quinn after he was so damn hot in the early-ish 80s.

[quote]Lee Grant in better roles

Being blacklisted for over a dozen years after her Oscar-nominated debut in Detective Story (1951) certainly didn't help her career any.

Sharon Stone.

DL fave Earl Holliman. Love him and wish he had starred in more feature movies and television.

Robert Walker (The Clock, Strangers on a Train) died in his 30s; had he lived, he could have been a legend.

Also DL fave Max Gail. Extremely talented, and a Williams College graduate. Marvelous rear end, too.

Jack Radcliffe AKA Frank martini

Tatum O'Neal.

Quinn Cummings.

Trini Alvarado.

Kristy McNichol.

Marsha Mason.

Gene Tierney.

I'm a huge fan but her body of work was so small, you can watch it all in three nights flat.

Mental illness is a cruel pirate of talent.

Gene was in 41 movies. As I am Gene's number one fan, practically a Gene troll, I appreciate the sentiment. Just how prolific can one be?

Cindy Williams. She was capable of so much more than the roles she got.

R45, I had no idea! I wonder if they are all available via streaming. I feel as if it's always the same handful of her noir films that are available. I mean Whirlpool, Night and the City and Laura are fabulous, but I can only watch them so many times. Oh yeah, and Advise and Consent, where Gene shocked me by saying, "Bitch."

Robert Walker

There's Leave Her to Heaven and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. Despite the acclaim she got, and deserved for Laura, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir is probably her best movie. If you haven't seen Leave Her to Heaven her you go. You won't sleep tonight.

elinor donahue

^ Don't forget Billy Gray!

Stephanie Zimbalist. She faded out fast after the Big 80s. Beautiful, talented, and a lesbian!

Yeah R52. Stephanie had a good run but she was capable of so much more. She's one of my top five favorite actresses.

Ralph Macchio. I recall The Outsiders and Karate Kid and then.....

Wonderfully talented actor. I want MORE!

Blair Brown

Mary Page Keller

R46, so true. She was perfect in American Graffiti as Ron Howard's girl.

Oprah

Kim Stanley

Actually Sharon Stone looks great and hasn't fucked with her face too much. I can see another role for her.

Jodie Foster. Too selective and the directing career never went anywhere.

In retrospect I think Jodie Foster revealed herself to be quite limited and the same in most roles she played as an adult. Maybe she saw it herself.

Jeanette Arnette. I thought she was so memorable as Chloe's mom in Boys Don't Cry. A few very touching scenes. And it didn't lead to anything.

Kate Manx, whom I have just discovered. Unbelievable screen presence. Unfortunately she went the way of Marilyn at 34.

Catherine Burns

While they all have careers, obviously...I wish the young Kiefer Sutherland, James Spader and RDJ had been used for more serious work.

Lin Shaye has a walk-on in Nightmare on Elm Street and was so good as the English teacher that I really wish she'd had more opportunities. And of course Heather Langenkamp.

Sheryl Lee.

Shelia McCarthy ("I've Heard the Mermaids Singing")

Carrie Nye.

I worked with Carrie Nye a few times onstage. She was a hoot (backstage) but extremely mannered and limited.

What's become of James Spader? Is he still working?

R64 it would have been great to see her in more, I wonder if she was up for many parts after her Oscar nomination for Last Summer.

Her looks and odd build limited her, r68.

Kate Manx indeed had enormous screen presence. PRIVATE PROPERTY should be a DL classic.

Nancy Kovack.

PRIVATE PROPERTY

Liz Montgomery.

She went from being adept at comedy, then did a 180 and focused on serious drama, completely writing off comedy. She said in interviews in the early 90s she was offered many projects to do comedy again, but she was not interested in returning to what made her a success. It would have been wonderful seeing her in a comedy once again.

Patricia Collinge, who gave two unforgettable performances in the 1940s: as the alcoholic Birdie in "The Little Foxes"; and as Emma Newton, the adoring and oblivious sister of Joseph Cotten in "Shadow of a Doubt."

Lenny von Dohlen, from ELECTRIC DREAMS and TWIN PEAKS.

His looks were almost supernatural, and he was an excellent acto,.

I saw The Last Seduction again on the big screen recently and it’s undeniable what a talent Linda Fiorentino was. We were robbed of another Barbara Stanwyck.

Eric stoltz

Kay Kendall

R76, agreed on Linda Fiorentino.

Isabelle Adjani immediately comes to mind — there’s a gorgeous woman who can really act, not only in French but German and English. She started taking years off between films in her thirties and stopped having an American agent after her son with DDL was born. Would have loved to have seen her as Alex in Fatal Attraction, which she turned down, or some of the roles Isabelle Huppert and Juliette Binoche played after she went into semi-retirement. She’s been much more active in recent years, which is nice.

Also: Alison Eliott, Julie Kavner, Carrie Snodgress, Laurie Metcalf (in film), Kim Stanley, and Anne Bancroft (who turned down The Exorcist, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Requiem for a Dream).

R73 like father, like daughter. Bob Montgomery also wanted to be known as a dramatic actor rather than a light comedy specialist

I don't see where the OP means that they cut back on their workload so I'm guessing those that gave up due to typecasting or not doing the casting couch are on the table (so to speak).

The cast of Gilligan's Island for sure as their individual /group chemistry was off the charts.

The cast of Married with Children.

The cast of Three's Company all deserved sequels to their success on that one (besides Ritter & Somers).

That hunk who played the dance guy in that 80s film "Girls Just SWanna Have Fun". I think his name was Lee something. He needed more to do while he was still hot (his acting was acceptable to me in those scenes).

If you consider an actor who made the most out of his few screen appearances. then John Cazale would own this thread.

It was more about actors who probably had more potential to make more out of their careers but chose not to. I used Eggar and James Fox as an example. Eggar was so pretty but her career sort of fizzled out and didn’t reach the heights of Julie Christie for example.

James fox gave up acting for a period after Performance.

r33 Vivian's husband (Phil Ober) once played the lead in a production of Come Back, Little Sheba, interestingly enough.

James Fox became a looney Christian, now that explains why his son is such a dick. Apple didn't fall far from the tree

Brother Edward Fox handily took up most of the roles James might have played. I can barely tell the difference between them.

Which one was danced The Tapioca, again??

Did Tony Perkins ever make a decent film after PSYCHO?

Paul McCrane from FAME.

Elizabeth Montgomery

Matthias Schoenaerts and Guillaume Canet are foreign actors I wish would have had more prolific careers in the US.

Audra Lindley

I always thought Delta Burke was so funny. I know she had so many mental problems, but I thought she was a great comedic actress. It's too bad she seems to have just retired and faded away.

I loved Mabel King

Louise Lasser

Thelma Lawson, Helen’s younger sister.

Nancy Kulp

R84. I’m sure he made a stunning LOLA!

-Pamela Reed

-Kathy Baker

-Diane Venora

-Linda Emond

The girl from Caddyshack

Todd Bridges was so cute when he was younger

Tim Curry. Pauline Kale said it best: "There has never been enough of Tim Curry onscreen."

R79, yes to Alison Elliot. She was extraordinary in Wings of the Dove. A poignant performance, so good at using her face to express subtle emotion. A lovely voice, too. Never understood why she didn't rocket to great success. Maybe it was by choice?

[quote]She had the kind of cut glass English accent and looks that could rival Joan Collins on Dynasty.

Joan Collins speaks like she still has semen in her throat from her last interlude and looks like a Whitechapel whore with a lump of wet coal for makeup.

Lee Remick

R101, just a friendly correction: it's Kael, not Kale.

Bridget Fonda

Mary Stuart Masterson

Goldie Hawn in more dramatic roles.

Lynne Thigpen

Mary-Louise Parker in more films.

Has Goldie Hawn ever done a dramatic role?

Not that I wouldn't mind seeing that.

G…..

Christian Bale had the career Clive Owen wanted and the power players tried to make it happen.

r111...

R111 A few.

R102 hate to speculate but wasn’t wings of the dove produced by Miramax… might explain why. But either way I’m surprised she didn’t get nominations for that role, particularly recognition from BAFTA and the academy.

Like someone above said I urge everyone to check out Kate Manx in Private Property which was recently restored by the UCLA Film Archives and is available on Kanopy which, if you don't know it, is a free streaming app that you can get if you're a member of many public libraries in the US. Kanopy has thousands of films, classic and new as well as many foreign films.

Michael Wincott, especially in comedic or romantic roles

[quote][R101], just a friendly correction: it's Kael, not Kale.

[R105], just a friendly correction: Start your sentences with a capital letter and know that a full sentence following a colon requires its first letter with a capital.

Oh, dear. Oh, dear.

Lauren Tewes

R25, maybe, but very possibly not. You seem to limit Clift tp a narrow range even though he successfully played a wider range of characters: cynical (The Search, The Big Lift), sexy (Red River, The Heiress, From Here to Eternity, Indiscretion of an American Wife) or lowbrow (From Here to Eternity, The Misfits). Judging solely by his former roles, nobody would have cast him as Rudolph Petersen in Judgment at Nuremberg.

Lindsay Lohan is such a disappointment. Emma Stone basically stole her career with half the charisma and far less attractiveness. Jennifer Lawrence also took roles that could have gone to Lindsay. They both have Oscars, while Lindsay is desperately trying to revive her career with a Disney movie that's a sequel to a remake that she made over 20 years ago. Glenn Close has a better chance of winning an Oscar before she dies. Lindsay, on the other hand, will never hear her name being called for the gold, nor will the industry ever take her seriously again. You can only blame her fucked up childhood when she was actually a child. I think she's self-destructive. For reason, she didn't really want it, but it was all laid out for her taking. These days she's trying to convince the public that she's totally changed because she's a mom now and supposedly sober, but she has the mannerisms of an old used up whore still trying to turn tricks. You can tell she's seen and done it all at this point. She's one of the saddest falls from grace.

Please, 15 years ago Lohan already looked and acted like she'd seen and done it all.

I still wonder what Dynasty would have been if Elizabeth Montgomery accepted the role of Krystal

Don't forget when clift drowned the fatty.

Lindsay Lohan was fine as a child/adolescent actor, but she was nothing spectacular and she definitely had/has some phony child actor mannered habits that limit her level of authenticity. She like most child stars was quite charismatic and likable and she was certainly not over the top and off putting, but I don't think she has ever been so talented that you can assume that she would have done well with the parts that Lawrence and Stone (both limited themselves but more discipline and authentic performers) succeeded with.

Sarah Polley, a very striking on-screen presence.

The late Jill Clayburgh.

Carole Ita White

Lizabeth Scott had a solid career, but I wish there had been more of it. She was seriously damaged in the uptight 50s by a Confidential magazine piece alleging she had used the services of call girls. She always denied being a lesbian, but I believe she was.

Good one r130, I enjoyed her performances too.

I have a soft spot for Gloria Grahame and it would have been nice to see her in more good films after The Man Who Never Was. She was great in that one yet it seems her career was already pretty much over by that point as far as being in demand.

I really like a little known actor, David Bruce who appeared as Deanna Durbin’s love interest in Lady on A Train, one of her best films. He was close to making it as a leading man at Universal but faded away after WW2.

His daughter was the songwriter Amanda McBroom (The Rose)

Gloria Gibson

Esther Rolle

Roz Kelly if she had gotten along with Henry Winkler

[quote]I really like a little known actor, David Bruce.... His daughter was the songwriter Amanda McBroom (The Rose)

She wrote one of her most poignant songs, "Errol Flynn", about her dad.

Adam Faith turned in an excellent performance in Stardust. He had the looks of a British Joe Dallesandro.

Helen Walker was very good in Nightmare Alley, one wonders what she could have done in follow up roles had her personal life not derailed.

Amy Ryan

Linda Lavin

Diana Rigg. She did a lot of theatre, wish there were more and better movies.

Jean Peters owns this thread.

Emily Lloyd

Eva Marie Saint could have been a bigger star for sure.

Lisa Welchel

Jennifer Lien.

She was great in everything she did = television, films & cartoons.

Jane Badler.

Jan Hooks

Jane Badler was really something to look at.

R147 I could add the entire cast of V to that.

Some had great roles = Freddy Kruger, Beastmaster, etc. but more of them should've been "household name" actors.

Ron Eldard. Cannot believe it was his ex Julianna Margulies who did better than him.

Robert Fuller

Jennifer Connelly

Robert Culp. Always had a thing for him.

Robert Blake.

^Another Robert. Forster.

Dougray Scott, Jason Patric, and James Remar. All of them more fuckable than Christian Bale or Jason Statham.

I know she gets a lot of hate on this board, but it is shocking that Bonnie Franklin virtually fell off the map after One Day at a Time. I'm astonished that she never had another series get picked up or why she wasn't offered rolls like Tyne Daley's on Judging Amy.

I wonder why Anne Archer didn't work more? Her career was red hot after Fatal Attraction, and yet she was never cast in another big movie. You'd think that she would have at least gotten a big TV role, but not even that.

Christine Lahti

Bonnie Bedelia l

I've always liked Glynnis O'Connor, Michael Vartan, Michael Schoeffling, and Armand Assante. They deserved bigger careers than they've had.

Even though Eduardo Noriega is prolific in Europe, I wish he was as popular in the United States as Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem. I try to watch everything he's in but some of his movies I can't get access to.

A big YES to Glynnis O'Connor. I will add Dina Merrill. It wasn't too long again when I was utterly obsessed with her.

Helen Lawson, silly!

I'm gonna kick your ass R162. I made 103 moving pictures, 6 Broadway plays, and 98 television appearances(not counting when I made the news).

I liked Ron Eldard & the cast of Men Behaving Badly.

He went on some show around that time & said negative things about the gay community.

Fellow MBB cast members Justine Bateman became a born-again Christian around that time & Rob Schnieder went far right too.

I haven't cared for any of them since.

Kitty Winn

R158, Internal Scientology blacklist? Did David Miscavige or Tom C. label her a Suppressive Person?

I think Ron E. went on an episode of "Politically Incorrect" around that time &

when they were talking about the sexual revolution / AIDS, he blamed "the gays" for spreading it.

Ron Eldard today =

Ron Eldard at his hottest =

R168 Ron Eldard really let himself go.

^ You're not a-kiddin'.

R168 = He looks like Jm J. Bullock & Ricky Schroder's love child.

The wonderful Wanda Hendrix. Not many films, but she seemed to play a completely differeent character in each. Thankfully, she did get an Oscar nomination.

Shane Rollins.

R173 she was not nominated for an Oscar

matt dillon, john cazale, crispin glover, tony shaloub

[quote]R35 I would have liked to have seen Lucy in some more adult, dramatic roles.

Mmmm. She would have been great in [italic]The Happy Hooker.

I really wonder if Diana Rigg knew how huge she was in the States because of The Avengers.

[quote]R98 Pamela Reed-Kathy Baker-Diane Venora-Linda Emond

None of those girls had any glamour, which is why they had limited career options.

Tammy Blanchard

[quote]R149 Jane Badler was really something to look at.

I think her eating habits grossed people out.

Roseanne

That is not true about Ron Eldard blaming AIDS on the gays

Eric Roberts

Theresa Russell. Not sure how I feel about her acting, but I always liked watching her.

Speaking of Isabelle Adjani: her 'La Reine Margot' co-star, Vincent Perez. Smoulderingly sexy - his big American debut, the sequel to The Crow, flopped, and his career is a leading man in big French movies petered out in the 2000s.

Adjani can also come across as remote and inept. It’s that French [italic]je ne sais quoi.

R183. Yes, it was because I was a fan up until that moment & even thought he was cute.

After he said that his career was never the same.

I like Teresa Russell in Straight Time and Black Widow

Karen Allen

Virginia Madsen

Yes, R191. That scene between her and Giamatti in Sideways...magic.

And Candyman! "It was always you, Helen."

[quote]Jeremy Northam, Clive Owen, Jennifer Ehle, Dominic Cooper, Kevin McKidd, James Purefoy and most (if not all) of the younger cast of Downton Abbey.

R4 Jennifer Ehle has an American father and was born/raised in North Carolina.

Casey Donovan.

Rula Lenska - International star of stage & screen

Pam Grier

Rula Lenska ruled the screen and stage! Unequaled hair.

Brad Beyer