Actors/Actresses who ruined their careers with a single move.

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Kinda of disagree about Berkley. She needed to be something that would disassociate herself from Saved By the Bell or she wouldn't have had a career. Everyone else who was on that show basically had to do the same thing. Those that didn't, never really worked again (example Screech and Mr. Belding. Those guys never really got any work after the show was over). So she kind of had to do something. The issue was that Showgirls was really bad and almost killed her career. Thankfully for her, it got a niche as a "good bad" movie after a while and kind of saved her career and now I think she's working as an actor now.

Hartnett I think just didn't want to be in movies and moved back to Minnesota for a while.
 
Jasper said:
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Shannen Doherty (Brenda on Beverly Hills 90210) turned into such a massive bitch on set and creator Aaron Spelling ended up firing her - which was a BIG deal as she was the star of the show.

Because she was so horrible (randomly not showing up to work, getting into fist fights with other cast members including Jennie Garth who played Kelly, etc) FOX were willing to anger 90210 fans and lose ratings just to get rid of Shannen.

Following her termination, Shannen was unemployable for over a decade as nobody wanted to hire her, so Aaron Spelling feeling guilty about firing her on 90210 decided to give her a second chance and cast her as the lead in his new show (Prue on Charmed).

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He came to the realization that she was still a massive bitch and impossible to work with, and ended up firing her again.

She hasn't acted since.
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She was on the 90210 revival and has been in other things since 2006.
 
Acorn said:
Elaborate someone?
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I think that they're referring to the fact that Mommy Dearest was a huge flop, but her career going down the tubes was sadly more simple than that: she was getting older, and Hollywood was starting to look for ways to put her on the shelf. A bomb like that is about as good a reason as you could ask for.
 
Cuba Gooding Jr.

Still trying to figure out exactly what movie did it, but it was a real fast decline after his run in the mid to late 90's. By 2001 his career was in serious decline and then Radio must have absolutely murdered it multiple times. By 2003 he was accepting roles not even Eddie Murphy wanted like Daddy Day Camp.
 
Vegetable Lasagna said:
Cuba Gooding Jr.

Still trying to figure out exactly what movie did it, but it was a real fast decline after his run in the mid to late 90's. By 2001 his career was in serious decline and then Radio must have absolutely murdered it multiple times. By 2003 he was accepting roles not even Eddie Murphy wanted like Daddy Day Camp.
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Usually, people point to Boat Trip as being the turning point, since that died at the box office and came under heavy fire for its offensive stereotyping of the LGBT community. It was his first big movie after Jerry Maguire, which made him the biggest target out of anyone.
 
Ridley327 said:
Usually, people point to Boat Trip as being the turning point, since that died at the box office and came under heavy fire for its offensive stereotyping of the LGBT community. It was his first big movie after Jerry Maguire, which made him the biggest target out of anyone.
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I completely forgot about Boat Trip! Boat Trip followed up by Radio... yikes.
 
Ridley327 said:
I think that they're referring to the fact that Mommy Dearest was a huge flop, but her career going down the tubes was sadly more simple than that: she was getting older, and Hollywood was starting to look for ways to put her on the shelf. A bomb like that is about as good a reason as you could ask for.
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Carnby said:
Was supposed to be a dramatic scene but came off as comical instead. That's her screaming something about how wire coat hangers are not allowed in the house.
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Thanks - Oh, well that's disappointingly mundane.
 
Vegetable Lasagna said:
I completely forgot about Boat Trip! Boat Trip followed up by Radio... yikes.
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Just to illustrate how much of the heat Gooding took, his co-star was Horatio Sanz, who would shortly move onto the main cast of SNL for a couple of years.

And now I just made you remember Horatio Sanz for the first time in what will feel like decades.
 
Staccat0 said:
Jane Fonda definitely took a massive hit by protesting the war
.
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She deserved to have her career ruined. She released an anti-nuclear energy film 12 days before the 3 mile island incident, which basically killed the future of nuclear energy in this country. We probably could've kicked our coal and gas addiction by now if not for that.
 
Jean Claude Van Damme

He explained in his reality show that he had been blacklisted in Hollywood since 1994 after refusing a $36 million offer from Universal Studios because he was wasted.
 
SBH said:
Jean Claude Van Damme

He explained in his reality show that he had been blacklisted in Hollywood since 1994 after refusing a $36 million offer from Universal Studios because he was wasted.
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While he's not going to be leading any major blockbusters anytime soon, he's bounced back quite well and he's becoming a pretty damn decent actor to boot. He's not A-list, but I think his reputation is very favorable these days.
 
Vegetable Lasagna said:
Cuba Gooding Jr.

Still trying to figure out exactly what movie did it, but it was a real fast decline after his run in the mid to late 90's. By 2001 his career was in serious decline and then Radio must have absolutely murdered it multiple times. By 2003 he was accepting roles not even Eddie Murphy wanted like Daddy Day Camp.
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'Boat Trip' with Horatio Sanz, and 'Radio' releasing in the same year was a one-two punch that could sink any career.
 
I know that Oscar applause for Polanski is always present in such threads, but honestly...I would like to think the standing ovation/applause is more for the film rather than the director himself. After all, The Pianist is probably the best Holocaust movie ever made (no offense to Spielberg).
 
The Exploder said:
Showgirls was better than Saved by the Bell anyway.
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It was probably the best thing she could've done. Let's be honest, she's a fucking terrible actress that wasn't going to see any substantial roles in any serious projects. At best, she would've just been a pretty face in forgettable dog-shit movies for 3-5 years, then Hollywood would've tossed her aside for the next pretty face.

Showgirls hit cult status, and that's basically the pinnacle for an actress/actor of her caliber. She's probably still receiving decent royalty checks from that turd.
 
studyguy said:
What did Halle Barry do to tank her career?
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I think the triple threat of Die Another Day, Gothika, and Catwoman showed that she wasn't really that great of an actress honestly. Then a string of fairly bad movies she headlined after cemented that (with a couple decent to good ones now and again). I wouldn't say her career tanked, just that she's now in things more of her caliber.

I'll say it- Monster's Ball wasn't an award worthy performance either.
 
The thing with Elizabeth Berkley is that in the 90s, TV stars and Movie stars were seen as totally separate things. It was almost impossible to cross over. Aside from Ted Danson maybe, and Woody Harrelson, there was no precedent for 80s and 90s TV stars to do anything.

A lot of teens from shows went on to do stuff in the 2000s, like Jared Leto, Claire Danes, Mila Kunis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, but Showgirls came out in 1995 before any of the TV/Movie crossover happened.

A lot of Movie actors refused to go into TV for fear it would kill their careers.


jstripes said:
She was good in Stranger Things, but that was after a 20 year span of practically nothing.

Funny how her big comeback was around the same time as Christian Slater, in Mr. Robot.
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I would love to see them co-star in some kind of Before Sunrise type romantic film.
 
Ridley327 said:
I think that they're referring to the fact that Mommy Dearest was a huge flop, but her career going down the tubes was sadly more simple than that: she was getting older, and Hollywood was starting to look for ways to put her on the shelf. A bomb like that is about as good a reason as you could ask for.
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Ironically that film is a cult classic now and the wire hangers line is pretty iconic.
 
Lev said:
Amanda Bynes quitting Hollywood in order to get into the fashion industry. I don't think that was too successful for her since most of the news that I remember about her was when she kept doing crazy stuff. It appeared that she abused marijuana and other drugs which resulted her in getting a couple of DUIs and other criminal charges. At one point of time, IIRC she was even institutionalized. And who can forget about her insane tweets on Twitter.

Bynes' future seemed so bright when she was still a kid on Nickelodeon, but now her life is such a wreck that it's hard to picture if she will ever come back to film.
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I think it was the schizophrenia more than anything that did her career in. I feel bad for her more than anything but I think she's doing okay now. At least better than she was.
 
Dr.Acula said:
The thing with Elizabeth Berkley is that in the 90s, TV stars and Movie stars were seen as totally separate things. It was almost impossible to cross over. Aside from Ted Danson maybe, and Woody Harrelson, there was no precedent for 80s and 90s TV stars to do anything.

A lot of teens from shows went on to do stuff in the 2000s, like Jared Leto, Claire Danes, Mila Kunis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, but Showgirls came out in 1995 before any of the TV/Movie crossover happened.

A lot of Movie actors refused to go into TV for fear it would kill their careers.
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Great point, and to further that, it took Woody a long time to become a serious film actor (or rather, taken more seriously as a bigger film actor).

Now the future for careers seems to be tv/miniseries in addition to films. Not a death sentence, sometimes a career resurrector.
 
Chill Wills' Oscar campaign for best supporting actor performance in The Alamo (1960) cost him a lot of good will.
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Wills was charged with using deplorable means to seek for himself a supporting nomination. At fifty-eight, after half a century in film, Wills realized this was his only chance to win the award.

Thus, he didn’t hesitate to print ads like: “We of The Alamo cast are praying harder than the real Texans prayed for their lives at the Alamo for Chill Wills to win the Oscar.” “Cousin Chill’s acting was great,” he wrote, signing, Your Alamo cousin.”

Another ad read: “Win, lose, or draw. You’re still my cousins and I love you all.”

Comedian Groucho Marx, appalled by Wills’s methods, wrote back: “Dear Mr. Wills. I am delighted to be your cousin. But I’m voting for Sal Mineo (nominated for Exodus).

Wayne himself didn’t approve of Wills’ campaign tactics, reproaching him in print, which prompted Groucho Marx’s comment, “For John Wayne to impugn Chill Wills’s taste is tantamount to Jayne Mansfield criticizing Sabrina for too much exposure.”
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Beartruck said:
She deserved to have her career ruined. She released an anti-nuclear energy film 12 days before the 3 mile island incident, which basically killed the future of nuclear energy in this country. We probably could've kicked our coal and gas addiction by now if not for that.
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Was she, and her studio, supposed to know there was going to be a nuclear-related incident 2 weeks after the film's release?
 
Mo'Nique comes to mind.

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Won the best supporting actress oscar for Precious- and in the middle of that did everything she could to not promote the film and thow director Lee Daniels under the bus. Even failed to mention him at all during the acceptance speech.

She was as close to blackballed for that as you can get in Hollywood. Persona non grata. Did LITERALLY nothing for five years from 2009 to about 2014/2015, and even then was picking up bit parts in a handful of TV movies.
 
Actors/Actresses who ruined their careers with a single move:

Paul Rubens... actually, it was a series of several small ones...

Actors/Actresses who ruined their careers with a single movie:

Kevin Costner went from being a huge star (Dances with Wolves, Field of Dreams, Robin Hood) to smaller roles thanks to Waterworld.
 
Fury451 said:
Great point, and to further that, it took Woody a long time to become a serious film actor (or rather, taken more seriously as a bigger film actor).

Now the future for careers seems to be tv/miniseries in addition to films. Not a death sentence, sometimes a career resurrector.
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Woody did White Men Can't Jump in '92, Natural Born Killers in '94, and The People Vs. Larry Flint in '96, and he got raves in all those films. Throw in the mega-hit Indecent Proposal in '93, and the cult classic Kingpin in '96 given that Cheers went off air in '93, he didn't miss a beat.

Retro said:
Paul Rubens... actually, it was a series of several small ones...
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DAMN!
 
What about Cameron Diaz? She was one of the biggest names in the 90s and early 00s...then she went on to make one shitty movie after another. Last big movie she was in was Shrek 3 I think
 
Retro said:
Actors/Actresses who ruined their careers with a single move:

Paul Rubens... actually, it was a series of several small ones...

Actors/Actresses who ruined their careers with a single movie:

Kevin Costner went from being a huge star (Dances with Wolves, Field of Dreams, Robin Hood) to smaller roles thanks to Waterworld.
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eh...waterworld gets way more hate than it deserves.

Wiki says the movie did 264 million on a 172 million budget- and this was before China was any kind of significant force in the overseas box office, and still while home video was still a substantial portion of sales on top of the box office. That movie was profitable- it's nowhere near a box office bomb.

Costner ended up screwing his career from doing Waterworld, Tin Cup, and The Postman back to back to back- all three were pretty terrible, overwrought films that didn't review well or do any significant box office.

edit: yeah, waterworld was profitable. The Postman though? holy shit what a bomb. 17 million box office on an $80 million budget. THAT one was probably the nail in the coffin for costner as a leading man.

A star can handle one bad film- three in a row tends to kill you though.
 
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