History OneHitWonder / Acting

* Rochelle Davis, who played Sarah in ''Film/TheCrow'', decided to retire from acting shortly afterwards because she was a close friend of Brandon Lee who died during filming. She now works as a massage therapist. She would later act again in a minor role in an independent film ''Hell House'' 16 years later.

* Tami Stronach is only known for being the Childlike Empress/Moonchild in ''Film/TheNeverendingStory''. Her main occupation is ballet, both as dancer and producer.

** Creator/HeatherLangenkamp is only known for playing Nancy in the original ''[[Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet1984 A Nightmare on Elm Street]]'' and [[Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet3DreamWarriors two]] [[Film/WesCravensNewNightmare sequels]]. She had some other small roles, but nothing as notable. Playing ice skater Nancy Kerrigan in a TV movie ''Tonya & Nancy: The Inside Story'' is her second most famous role.

* Sean "Diddy" Combs is a well-kwown, rapper, producer and media mogul but his only major acting role is Sergio Roma in the movie Get Him to the Greek.

** Creator/MarkHamill is a successful ''voice'' actor ([[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries the Joker]]), but Luke Skywalker is his only major ''live-action'' character (at most another DC villain, [[Series/TheFlash1990 the Trickster]]). He does also have a following among classic PC gamers for his role as Christopher Blair in the ''VideoGame/WingCommander'' series, though.

** Creator/MarkHamill is a successful ''voice'' actor ([[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries the Joker]]), but Luke Skywalker is his only major ''live-action'' character (at most another DC villain, [[Series/TheFlash1990 the Trickster]]).

* A large chunk of the ''Series/DegrassiJuniorHigh''/''Series/DegrassiHigh'' cast, like the aforementioned ''Hey Dude'' example, had never acted at all prior to the show (with some minor exceptions), and most of them would either be so typecast they were unable to get any meaningful further work, or they dropped out of the business entirely; while Creator/PatMastroianni and Creator/StacieMistysyn appeared in other TV shows or movies, they are still exclusively known as Joey Jeremiah and Caitlin Ryan, with their only other major gig reprising their roles for ''Series/DegrassiTheNextGeneration''. Creator/AmandaStepto, who played Spike, was also heavily typecast and left acting to study, and like above, her only major gig was reprising the same role as an adult in the revival, and she has not appeared in anything since a ''Next Generation'' TV movie in 2010.

* Most of the actors on ''Series/OneTreeHill'' barring Creator/SophiaBush, Creator/ShantelVanSanten, Robert Buckley, and Creator/ChadMichaelMurray are known exclusively for their roles on the show. While Jana Kramer is nowadays better known as a singer, Alex Dupre remains her only notable acting role.

* The entire main cast of Big Time Rush is known pretty much exclusively for their work on the show. The recurring cast faired a little bit better.
* William Zabka has had a long career as an actor but no role he's played has ever reached the notoriety of his breakout Johnny Lawrence in the Karate Kid movies and SequelSeries Cobra Kai.

* Creator/JonHeder's only memorable role was as the title character of ''Film/NapoleonDynamite''. He followed it up with ''Film/{{Benchwarmers}}'' and ''Film/BladesOfGlory'', which did gain some praise, but not nearly as much as ''Napoleon Dynamite''.

* Creator/AnthonyPerkins played Norman Bates in ''Film/{{Psycho}}''. He became so strongly associated with the Bates character that his career got destroyed due to chronic typecasting.

** John Stockwell is famous for playing Dennis Guilder from the film adaption of ''Literature/{{Christine}}''. Outside of a small role in ''Film/TopGun'' as Cougar, his acting career never took off, mainly due to starring in films that were {{Box Office Bomb}}s and/or critical failures, such as ''Dangerously Close'', which he unfortunately co-wrote. It's why he became a director.
* Creator/NiaVardalos is an actress whose career initially consisted only of one-episode appearances on TV series (her only regular role being on the ''Series/KnightRider'' spin-off ''Series/TeamKnightRider'' as the voice of one of the cars, but even that show lasted only one season) before coming out in 2002 with ''Film/MyBigFatGreekWedding'', which she wrote and starred in, and which subsequently became the highest-grossing romantic comedy of all-time. [[ToughActToFollow She fell as fast as she rose with a number of flops]] (the ''My Big Fat Greek Life'' television show, ''Film/ConnieAndCarla'', ''My Life in Ruins'', ''Larry Crowne''). In 2016, she returned with ''My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2'', which did decently at the box office, but was thrashed by critics and quickly forgotten, and as a result didn't do very much to re-establish Vardalos as either an actress or writer.

* Nikki Blonsky whose most famous role was ''Film/{{Hairspray}}''. It doesn't help that her other roles tried to play up her weight which is an extremely challenging thing to build a career around.

* Despite being a superstar throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Creator/AlJolson is known by modern-day audiences only as Jack Rubin in ''Film/TheJazzSinger'', the first feature-length motion picture with sound.