Hollywood careers that just ended abruptly

The Inbetween is mine

weldoninhio wrote: »

Eric Bana was Chopper and Hulk and then disappeared.

He was in Munich and Star Trek amongst other things...but he's married and based in Australia, so Hollywood isn't his scene it seems

Ash.J.Williams

The Inbetween is mine wrote: »

He was in Munich and Star Trek amongst other things...but he's married and based in Australia, so Hollywood isn't his scene it seems

he did special correspondents in 2017, then a series dirty john and has somethin in the pipeline

wally79

weldoninhio wrote: »

Eric Bana was Chopper and Hulk and then disappeared.

Hardly disappeared. He was in Troy, munich, Star Trek, time travellers wife, hanna, lone survivor and also dirty John on Netflix

NeuralNetwork

Molly Ringwald

She practically defined the Brat Pack era of teen films in the 1980s: The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink etc.

Her career didn't end, but she definitely disappeared as a big name.

eviltwin

NeuralNetwork wrote: »

Molly Ringwald

She practically defined the Brat Pack era of teen films in the 1980s: The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink etc.

Her career didn't end, but she definitely disappeared as a big name.

She got married and moved to France. I think she has said she wanted to live a normal life after being in the spotlight for most of her teens. Then she had children and decided to stay home. She's been in a few things over the last few years but seems happy to just do acting part time these days.

sugarman

sugarman wrote: »

I wouldn't say ended abruptly, but Bill Murray had a fairly sharp drop off post Groundhog Day and Kingpin in the mid 90s when he was still in his 40s. Since then he mostly stuck to cameos and voice work.

That is the wrongest opinion yet. Murray has been in most Wes Anderson movies. Lost in Translation. Lots more. Looks like 1-2 movies a year,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Murray#2010s:_Films_with_Wes_Anderson

Beechwoodspark

xper wrote: »

I don't think Hackman would have had any trouble getting role offers in his 70's. He just elected to retire. Some actors do. Having a few quid in the bank after a successful career helps of course.

Sean Connery being another example - thank god Peter Jackson failed to tempt him out of retirement to play Gandalf despite throwing ludicrous money at him.

Jasus. Connery as Gandalf would’ve been woejus

Ash.J.Williams

Niner leprauchan wrote: »

They both appear for the first 5 minutes of Super Troopers 2 as well and Penn was in the Goon 2. Ok enough film

i went to tallaght cinema to see supertroopers 2 as it was the only cinema showing it, myself, my missus and a random lady pensioner .....i'd love to know what the pensioner made of it

weldoninhio

wally79 wrote: »

Hardly disappeared. He was in Troy, munich, Star Trek, time travellers wife, hanna, lone survivor and also dirty John on Netflix

Never seen Dirty John, but the most recent of those movies is 2013. 8 years is a long absence, especially for someone who was in such decent movies.

Ash.J.Williams

weldoninhio wrote: »

Never seen Dirty John, but the most recent of those movies is 2013. 8 years is a long absence, especially for someone who was in such decent movies.

consult imdb and come back then ...

Metroid diorteM

blue note wrote: »

There's a guy I wish was in more. I love watching him. Saw parenthood again recently. What a great film.

Steve Martin did a pandemic version of father of the bride (Skype call). Its genuinely decent. Its on Youtube

E mac

Mira Sorvino was big in the 90's.

blue note

Beechwoodspark wrote: »

Jasus. Connery as Gandalf would’ve been woejus

I can imagine him in it and I think he'd have been excellent. Hard to imagine anyone better than Ian McKellan, but if it was to be someone else he'd have been an excellent choice.

I believe they also wanted him for Morpheus in the Matrix. Same story for me, Lawrence Fishbourne was terrific and I wouldn't change him. But if someone else was to do it, he'd have been an excellent choice.

chrislad

One eyed Jack wrote: »

I was going to say Freddie Prinze and Sarah Michelle Gellar but they’ve been mentioned already. I’d be gone into hiding too after the embarrassment that was Scooby Doo, but SMG does tv cookery shows, no idea what Freddie is at these days.

Freddie Prinze Jr was the voice of Kanan, in the Star Wars Rebels TV show. Those are Comic Con appearances for life!

weldoninhio

Ash.J.Williams wrote: »

consult imdb and come back then ...

The Forgiven (2017) cost 15m, made 43k worldwide.
Missed him in King Arthur. (2017)
The Secret Scripture (2016) made 700k worldwide
Special Correspondents (2016) Made for Netflix gervais garbage.


Thats quite the fall from grace compared to his previous movies.

check_six

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

Lost in translation? Hyde park on Hudson? Royal tennenbaums? Life aquatic?

Would say his real dip in form was late eighties and early nineties when he was in some awful stuff post ghostbusters but pre groundhog

Apparently, Bill Murray doesn't use an agent. He has an answering machine set up somewhere. You can leave a message for him, but there is no guarantee that he will listen to it anytime soon (can be months in between checks), and if it doesn't pique his interest then it just gets deleted with no feedback to you. He's been at a point in his career where he can do whatever he damn well pleases for a long long time now, and fair play to him!

A lot of the entries on this list are people who tread a very fine line between being box office heavies and being terrible to work with. As soon as the box office deteriorates then being terrible to work with is not so appealing to directors and producers. You'd wonder if those stars are self aware enough to realise their toxic personalities are holding them back. Edward Norton is a good example of a terrific talent, who had several big hits, that nobody is willing to put up with any more.

At the other end of the scale entirely is Keanu Reeves. Not much of an actor, truth be told, but famously easy to work with. He turns up on time, knows his lines, knows everyone else's lines, and is apparently a tremendously nice fellow to have around the set. You'd probably find that a lot of the big stars whose careers have endured over the decades share a lot of these qualities. Some of the more volatile characters were more of a 'flavour of the month' for a much shorter period.

HBC08

sugarman wrote: »

I wouldn't say ended abruptly, but Bill Murray had a fairly sharp drop off post Groundhog Day and Kingpin in the mid 90s when he was still in his 40s. Since then he mostly stuck to cameos and voice work.

He was in Lost in Translation in 2003 which won an Oscar for best original screenplay and had nominations for loads of other including best picture and best actor.....for Bill Murray!

The Inbetween is mine

"Difficult to work with" is a term bandied around quite a lot, and i would think in quite a lot of cases it's absolute rubbish...
Just a case of certain individuals not getting along and an egotistical individual needing to stamp their authority on a situation.
Take Will Smith & Janet Hubert Whitten...he branded her difficult to work with and ruined her career in one fell swoop.

MisterAnarchy

odyssey06 wrote: »

The box office bomb Cutthroat Island seems to have done for her film career and Matthew Modine's, as leads at least.

And rightly so .
I really hate that film, it bankrupted Carolco Pictures who produced some quality films in the 80s and 90s.
Rambo 1-3, Terminator 2, Total Recall, Universal Soldier.

Ash.J.Williams

The Inbetween is mine wrote: »

"Difficult to work with" is a term bandied around quite a lot, and i would think in quite a lot of cases it's absolute rubbish...
Just a case of certain individuals not getting along and an egotistical individual needing to stamp their authority on a situation.
Take Will Smith & Janet Hubert Whitten...he branded her difficult to work with and ruined her career in one fell swoop.

Does it work against men? Difficult men are seen as some sort of artists and have to literally kill someone to be black listed and even at that have big comebacks

Padre_Pio

The Inbetween is mine wrote: »

"Difficult to work with" is a term bandied around quite a lot, and i would think in quite a lot of cases it's absolute rubbish...

In a lot of cases, it's a euphemism for "won't give in to studio/producer/shareholder interference".

Captain Flaps

S.M.B. wrote: »

Kutcher is a very successful tech venture capitalist and is extremely well off as a result. No need to do tough movie shoots when you've got a net worth of $200 million and growing.

He also spends most of his time and money on the charity he founded to combat child porn/exploitation, tbh he seems like a really admirable person.

Ash.J.Williams

Ash.J.Williams wrote: »

i went to tallaght cinema to see supertroopers 2 as it was the only cinema showing it, myself, my missus and a random lady pensioner .....i'd love to know what the pensioner made of it

Yeah, its right on that line of fart jokes at times

pixelburp

Ash.J.Williams wrote: »

Does it work against men? Difficult men are seen as some sort of artists and have to literally kill someone to be black listed and even at that have big comebacks

I don't agree. There are actors like the aforementioned Bruce Willis or Chevy Chase, whose reputations for being total àssholes on set have no doubt caused a diminishing in top roles. In the case of Chase, his career effectively buried after his 80s heyday.

Some like Christian Bale can be "difficult to work with", but more on the spectrum of just being rather intense with their method and role playing. Being a total prima Donna or straight up dick to others will eventually get you blacklisted. Especially if you become box office poison.

Ash.J.Williams

pixelburp wrote: »

I don't agree. There are actors like the aforementioned Bruce Willis or Chevy Chase, whose reputations for being total àssholes on set have no doubt caused a diminishing in top roles. In the case of Chase, his career effectively buried after his 80s heyday.

Some like Christian Bale can be "difficult to work with", but more on the spectrum of just being rather intense with their method and role playing. Being a total prima Donna or straight up dick to others will eventually get you blacklisted. Especially if you become box office poison.

All the actors mentioned have had amazing careers

pixelburp

Ash.J.Williams wrote: »

All the actors mentioned have had amazing careers

Never said that they don't, just remarking that "difficult to work with" only lasts so long in the business before too many bridges are burned to keep one in the top tier. Which the like of Willis is most certainly not part of anymore. There's definitely a grey area when it comes to "artists" as you say, but those tend to be more overt thespians like Christian Bale who can get away with it a bit more. Being a better actor usually helps lol.

The emphasis here is on "had" a good career anyway; Val Kilmer is probably a better example, where shoots like the Island of Dr. Moreau & Batman Forever proved to be the point where his attitude on-set was an actual nightmare and pushed him away from the Hollywood a-list he had hitherto occupied (to the point on thespians, Kilmer shot Dr. Moreau with also infamous ásshole, Marlon Brando, whose own career kinda stalled into b-movie slush over being a noted, "mercurial" ásshat)

silverharp

Ash.J.Williams wrote: »

Does it work against men? Difficult men are seen as some sort of artists and have to literally kill someone to be black listed and even at that have big comebacks

the guy who played Hoch on criminal minds became person non grata , he had a history of being a prick but I think he hit someone on the set

Ash.J.Williams

silverharp wrote: »

the guy who played Hoch on criminal minds became person non grata , he had a history of being a prick but I think he hit someone on the set

Money talks , I guess a wife beater., actor assailant who brings in the viewers can get away with things

Rowley Birkin QC

Oafley Jones wrote: »

Guttenburg really is the ultimate example for me. Emilio Estevez is another who just disappeared.

"On September 27, 2020, during an interview on a Zoom call with Norm Macdonald, Guttenberg confirmed that filming had begun on an eighth Police Academy movie. He confirmed that his character was returning and that his character is wheelchair bound, having lost his foot in the line of duty. "

:eek: Hopefully the sound effects guys is on board too!

GreeBo

Itssoeasy wrote: »

Jennifer grey from dirty dancing seemed to more or less vanish after that film. Didn’t she get a nose job ?

Her career vanished at the same time as her nose.

speedboatchase

I remember how odd it was when, after big roles in Yes Man, Elf and especially 500 Days of Summer in the 2000s, Zooey Deschanel became a TV star in New Girl. That was the end of a movie career, overnight.

Speaking of 500 Days of Summer, Joseph Gordon-Levitt was on fire from 2009-2013 (500 Days, The Dark Knight Rises, Looper, Inception, Don Jon) and then... not much at all really. Seems to be making a comeback of sorts but he made a lot of poor choices in a short span of time.

Smee_Again

speedboatchase wrote: »

Speaking of 500 Days of Summer, Joseph Gordon-Levitt was on fire from 2009-2013 (500 Days, The Dark Knight Rises, Looper, Inception, Don Jon) and then... not much at all really. Seems to be making a comeback of sorts but he made a lot of poor choices in a short span of time.

I read an interview with him recently and he purposefully took a step back for a few years but has had a few releases in the last 12 to 18 months or so.

Padre_Pio

speedboatchase wrote: »

I remember how odd it was when, after big roles in Yes Man, Elf and especially 500 Days of Summer in the 2000s, Zooey Deschanel became a TV star in New Girl. That was the end of a movie career, overnight.

Used to be that being a "TV actor" would kill your career, but streaming and big budget TV shows have more draw than movies now, especially with bigger paychecks, more stable work. TV show acclaim can eclipse even big-budget movies.

Have a look at 2019. Avengers was the biggest movie, but there was more hype for GoT than "another" Marvel movie, and more hate for GoT too
Maybe it's just me and the circles I move in, but 2-5 top grossing for 2019 (Lion King, Frozen 2, Spiderman, Captain Marvel) were all fairly meh and had very little acclaim.

Pedro Pascal in Mandalorian & GoT
Jason Momoa in GoT
Billy Bob Thornton in Fargo
Matthew McConaghey/ Woody Harrelson, Rachel McAdams, Vince Vaughn, and Colin Farrell were all in True Detective
William H Macy in Shameless
Julia Roberts in Homecoming
Dwayne Johnson in Ballers
Anthony Hopkins in Westworld
Henry Caville in the Witcher
Cillian Murphy in Peakly Blinders

You could argue that some are past their prime and probably want an easy life, but they're far from obscure.

dubstepper

Rowley Birkin QC wrote: »

:eek: Hopefully the sound effects guys is on board too!

You bet. It's all he has

ZX7R

What happened to the boldwin brothers.

check_six

Ash.J.Williams wrote: »

All the actors mentioned have had amazing careers

Willis is notoriously cranky. He causes trouble on shoots he's not even part of. When the Game of Thrones lads were trying to shoot the duel between The Mountain and Oberyn Martell he had a boat parked in the background. They asked all the other boat owners to move, and they were happy to do so. Willis threw a strop and refused to move. This escalated to him hooning up and down the seafront in the boat trying to interrupt the filming out of spite. Willis in real life is the type of guy who could do with a solid puck in the gob from John McClane.

speedboatchase

Padre_Pio wrote: »

Used to be that being a "TV actor" would kill your career, but streaming and big budget TV shows have more draw than movies now, especially with bigger paychecks, more stable work. TV show acclaim can eclipse even big-budget movies.

Have a look at 2019. Avengers was the biggest movie, but there was more hype for GoT than "another" Marvel movie, and more hate for GoT too
Maybe it's just me and the circles I move in, but 2-5 top grossing for 2019 (Lion King, Frozen 2, Spiderman, Captain Marvel) were all fairly meh and had very little acclaim.

Pedro Pascal in Mandalorian & GoT
Jason Momoa in GoT
Billy Bob Thornton in Fargo
Matthew McConaghey/ Woody Harrelson, Rachel McAdams, Vince Vaughn, and Colin Farrell were all in True Detective
William H Macy in Shameless
Julia Roberts in Homecoming
Dwayne Johnson in Ballers
Anthony Hopkins in Westworld
Henry Caville in the Witcher
Cillian Murphy in Peakly Blinders

You could argue that some are past their prime and probably want an easy life, but they're far from obscure.

Yes, but unlike your examples, this wasn't pre-Prime and Netflix streaming dominance and wasn't HBO, AMC or Showtime. It was a sitcom on Fox that wasn't really a critical darling or anything and it was pretty much her full-time job for seven years. At the time I thought she would have warranted something bigger.

brinty

Staying in the theme of Back to the Future and Eric Stoltz...

Leah Thompson is another who never really went much further than there

I know she had her own sitcom in the 90's and is sporadically in TV shows, but you rarely see her in films anymore

Agent Coulson

speedboatchase wrote: »

I remember how odd it was when, after big roles in Yes Man, Elf and especially 500 Days of Summer in the 2000s, Zooey Deschanel became a TV star in New Girl. That was the end of a movie career, overnight.

Speaking of 500 Days of Summer, Joseph Gordon-Levitt was on fire from 2009-2013 (500 Days, The Dark Knight Rises, Looper, Inception, Don Jon) and then... not much at all really. Seems to be making a comeback of sorts but he made a lot of poor choices in a short span of time.

And she made about $20m from that show so I'm sure she is happy with the decision.

Did you smash it

check_six wrote: »

Willis is notoriously cranky. He causes trouble on shoots he's not even part of. When the Game of Thrones lads were trying to shoot the duel between The Mountain and Oberyn Martell he had a boat parked in the background. They asked all the other boat owners to move, and they were happy to do so. Willis threw a strop and refused to move. This escalated to him hooning up and down the seafront in the boat trying to interrupt the filming out of spite. Willis in real life is the type of guy who could do with a solid puck in the gob from John McClane.

Hadn’t heard that story. Willis was singled out by Colm meaney as a rude dick onset.

Jakey Rolling

Sherilyn Fenn of Twin Peaks fame - never heard anything of her since Boxing Helena in mid-90's.
Then she turned up on season 3 of Goliath last year - funnily enough there was a Twin Peaks-esque feel to the whole season, some odd goings on and drug induced dream sequences.

Padre_Pio

speedboatchase wrote: »

Yes, but unlike your examples, this wasn't pre-Prime and Netflix streaming dominance and wasn't HBO, AMC or Showtime. It was a sitcom on Fox that wasn't really a critical darling or anything and it was pretty much her full-time job for seven years. At the time I thought she would have warranted something bigger.

Suppose you're right.

I think personal circumstances also play into a lot of the obscurity mentioned here.
Deschanel hit 30 in 2010 when filming started, was recently married, and got a writing gig on the show.
Maybe a steady TV job was better than moving around for filming and worrying about auditions, promotions, and box office receipts.

A lot of other actors probably just reach a point where they've made their money and go on to other things.

tipptom

Rebecca De Mornay,what happened there?

brinty

tipptom wrote: »

Rebecca De Mornay,what happened there?

She became MILF :eek: Atta boy Stifler

Agent Coulson

tipptom wrote: »

Rebecca De Mornay,what happened there?

Last I saw her was on Netflix's Jessica Jones

The Inbetween is mine

tipptom wrote: »

Rebecca De Mornay,what happened there?

She was in Netflix Jessica Jones a few years ago...that was the last I saw of her

Sam Hain

pixelburp wrote: »

Not quite a Hollywood actor, but was thinking of Ardal O'Hanlon recently for similar reasons. Post Father Ted, he had a brief career but seems to have just completely disappeared from screen.

Huh? He is a stand up comedian who acts on the side, and wasn't he recently in Death in Paradise.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/HostilityOnTheSet/LiveActionFilms

A great entry explaining many of the mentions here

The Inbetween is mine

Batrachotox wrote: »

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/HostilityOnTheSet/LiveActionFilms

A great entry explaining many of the mentions here

Michael Caine & Pierce Brosnan in The Fourth Protocol.... Caine one of the genuinely nice guys in movies said he would never work with that man again.

OU812

brinty wrote: »

Staying in the theme of Back to the Future and Eric Stoltz...

Leah Thompson is another who never really went much further than there

I know she had her own sitcom in the 90's and is sporadically in TV shows, but you rarely see her in films anymore

Very in demand director in TV (married to Howard Deutch who directs her in Some Kind Of Wonderful) for 32 years.

Fred Savage is another one who went behind the camera & is also in demand for sitcoms etc.