Actresses That Didnt Hold Up / Hollywood Hype Machine

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/HollywoodHypeMachine/ActressesThatDidntHoldUp

Trini Alvarado had already been working as a child actress from the late '70s to The '80s when she seemingly pivoted towards a successful adult career in The '90s, with her roles in Little Women (1994) and The Frighteners. Sadly, Hollywood, unsure of what to do with Alvarado given her heritage (derived of mixed Spanish-Puerto Rican descent but didn't look conventionally Hispanic, leaving her unable to occupy the roles most Latina actresses were typecast into back then, yet studios were reluctant to cast her in non-Hispanic lead roles), dithered for so long that she lost the hype she gained. She has only worked intermittently since the '90s.
Loni Anderson nabbed her Star-Making Role in 1978 as the savvy receptionist Jennifer Marlowe in the sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati. Anderson remained onboard the series for its entire duration and was nominated twice for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. However, her career after it concluded went nowhere as the bulk of her post-WKRP TV appearances were recurring or guest spots. Her attempt at becoming a movie star failed when Stroker Ace, which she starred in opposite Burt Reynolds (whom she was briefly married to after this film was made), bombed badly with critics and audiences alike in 1983, with Anderson getting nominated for a Worst Actress Golden Raspberry Award. She too has only worked intermittently since the '90s.
Susan Anton started out as Miss California before becoming the runner-up in the 1970 Miss America Pageant. In 1976, Anton beat out 400 hopefuls and became the spokeswoman for Muriel Cigars. Anton's new found notoriety lead to her appearing on talk shows, singing on variety shows, performing on Bob Hope specials, and being featured in her own pinup posters. Anton also regularly popped up in the tabloids due to her romances with the likes of Sylvester Stallone and Dudley Moore. Come 1979, TIME Magazine would list her as one of the most promising faces to keep an eye on. Also in 1979, Anton would star in her prospective breakout role as an actress, Goldengirl, which saw her as a genetically engineered athlete who was training to compete in the then real life upcoming Olympic Games in Moscow. While Goldengirl was a theatrical release, production for the film was partially funded by NBC, who had planned on later broadcasting a special four hour version of the film over the course of two nights during its own Summer Olympic coverage in 1980. However, following the United States' real life boycott of Moscow Olympics, NBC ended up delaying their broadcast of Goldengirl until January of 1981 in only a three hour time slot. To add insult to injury, at the box office itself, Goldengirl only made three million dollars against a seven million dollar budget. While Anton would continue to act, sing (Anton did land a top 10 country hit with her song "Killin’ Time") and perform in movies, TV and on stage (perhaps most notably, in Cannonball Run II and in a recurring role on Baywatch), she would never get another high-profile starring role again following the failure of Goldengirl.
Lysette Anthony was already known for modeling work in her native Britain before pursuing acting, first with a moderately successful stage career before transitioning to the screen. However, her film debut in the fantasy epic Krull was a flop that set her career back many steps. She retreated to television afterwards, where she's cultivated a fine career with roles in several British soap operas like Hollyoaks. Her attempts at a return to film, unfortunately, proved futile following even more worse-received flops like Look Who's Talking Now, Dracula: Dead and Loving It, and Dr. Jekyll & Ms. Hyde in The '90s. She recently made headlines when she revealed she was raped by Harvey Weinstein in the late '80s.
Fairuza Balk made her film debut as a child playing Dorothy in Return to Oz, which got a mixed reception in its initial release in 1985 but later became a Cult Classic. Balk continued working away into her teenage years and adulthood before getting more recognition for her role in The Craft. Its popularity made her a goth icon and led to more high-profile work (American History X, The Waterboy, Almost Famous, etc.), but mostly in supporting roles. Studios had no idea how to market Balk as a lead outside of horror, which soon led her hopes for greater stardom to slip from her grasp.
Jacinda Barrett moved from her native Australia to pursue modeling work in Europe, before making her screen debut in the mid-'90s on the MTV reality show The Real World: London. Barrett pivoted into further television roles as well as film, but her prospects were unremarkable for the next couple of years. In 2006, she seemingly got her big break when she attained significant roles in three films: Poseidon, The Last Kiss, and School for Scoundrels. Unfortunately, each of them underperformed at the box office and were trashed by critics. Barrett saw her potential as a leading lady killed by those failures. She hasn’t starred in any high-profile films since, while her successes on television are few and far between. At best, she had a recurring role on Suits opposite her husband Gabriel Macht and a starring role on the Netflix drama Bloodline (2015), which was enough of a hit to last three seasons to 2017.
Mischa Barton debuted as a child actress in The '90s, notably playing a ghost opposite Haley Joel Osment (see Actors) in The Sixth Sense. Later in the Turn of the Millennium, she further established herself as a TV it girl with Rachel Bilson in The O.C.. However, Barton, unlike Bilson, didn't remain for the whole series, leaving after the third season because of alleged on-set animosity between the cast and crew. She also struggled with alcoholism and drug addiction at the time which worsened after her departure. Barton attempted to extend her success into film, but none of her movies were able to procure the same popularity as The O.C.. She branched out into fashion instead by modeling for many brands while designing her own product lines. Barton's most noteworthy recent screen appearance, ironically, has been as part of the main cast on the first season of the MTV reality show The Hills: New Beginnings, whose parent shows, Laguna Beach and The Hills, were inspired by The O.C..
During The '80s and early '90s, Kim Basinger was not only one of the most sought after actresses in Hollywood but also one of its biggest sex symbols (serving as Hollywood's epitome of "the blonde bombshell"). With a mixture of sensitivity and sensuality, Basinger was arguably the closest '80s equivalent to Marilyn Monroe. After working as a fashion model and gradually paying her dues in films like the unofficial James Bond film Never Say Never Again, Basinger officially reached the A-list when she was cast as Vicki Vale in Tim Burton's 1989 blockbuster Batman. Shortly after Batman however, a series of commercial duds and her ego problems badly damaged her career. Around the same time that Batman was out, Basinger squandered $20 million on a failed film studio and festival in Braselton, Georgia. In the 1990s, Basinger starred in high profile flops like The Marrying Man alongside Alec Baldwin and Ralph Bakshi's Cool World. Most notably, Basinger developed a reputation as a diva for her clashes with the production teams. While working on The Marrying Man in particular, Basinger demanded that the director of photography be replaced and stalled production with having her makeup completely removed and re-applied between takes. Her collaboration on Cool World was particularly disastrous as she censored the movie for sick hospital children (which was not what Bakshi intended), which in turn drove Bakshi away from filmmaking.

However, the biggest story of 1993 for Kim Basinger was Boxing Helena, a movie that she backed out of at the last minute. To make a long story short, just before filming began, Basinger got cold feet about playing a woman who is held hostage by a surgeon who amputates her limbs. Not surprisingly, the makers of Boxing Helena sued^note and Basinger was forced to pay a settlement of $3.8 million dollars^note. But the damage was done; combined with her costly legal battles and failed Braselton buyout, Basinger filed for bankruptcy. It still might have been worthwhile, though, as the film ended up as a notorious disaster that outright annihilated the career of its eventual female lead, Sherilyn Fenn. In 1994, Basinger co-starred with her then-husband Alec Baldwin in the remake of the 1972 crime drama film The Getaway. Despite some buzz if not controversy over some steamy sex scenes, it was not enough to make The Getaway a hit. Ultimately, the aforementioned lawsuits, bankruptcy, and box office flops caused Basinger to retreat from Hollywood for a few years.

Three years later, Basinger was primed for a comeback in the form of Curtis Hanson’s 1997 film noir, L.A. Confidential. Basinger's performance as a glamorous, sexy Femme Fatale earned her an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, putting her back on Hollywood's A-list. Despite the overwhelming success of LA Confidential, Basinger didn’t jump right back into starring roles until I Dreamed of Africa^noteA passion project of Basinger's. and Bless the Child in 2000. Both received bad reviews and underwhelmed at the box office, killing the momentum of her Oscar win. Shortly after that one-two punch, Basinger and Alec Baldwin entered a tumultuous divorce proceeding and custody battle over their daughter, further overshadowing her professional work. Since then, her career has been on a slow decline with Basinger only starring in low-budget movies (or participating in small, borderline "money for hire" parts in films like The Sentinel (2006), Charlie St. Cloud, The Nice Guys, and Fifty Shades Darker^note) and becoming a recluse. Her most high-profile role since was in 8 Mile with Eminem, where she played his character's mother. Once she won her Oscar, it seemed as if Hollywood stopped paying her much attention even when she appears in high profile movies. To put things in proper perspective, Basinger appeared alongside Robert De Niro, Sylvester Stallone, Alan Arkin, and Kevin Hart in 2013's Grudge Match yet was nowhere to be found in the movie's marketing. Nowadays, Basinger is more known for her failed marriage to Alec Baldwin, uncooperative ego, animal rights activism, and lack of financial success than her actual acting abilities. Even most of Kim Basinger's filmography, aside from films like Batman, LA Confidential, and 8 Mile, are only remembered largely as vehicles in launching the careers of such stars as Bruce Willis (Blind Date), Brad Pitt (Cool World), Jennifer Lawrence (The Burning Plain), and Chris Evans (Cellular).
Kimberly Beck's acting career began as a child actor (notably playing one of the kids in the 1968 version of Yours, Mine, and Ours), with her biggest role as an adult being the Final Girl in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (the fourth entry in the Friday the 13th franchise, and definitely not the last). She never appeared in a major project after that one before retiring in 2009.
Irene Bedard received plenty of hype with her Golden Globe-nominated performance in Lakota Woman and voicing Pocahontas, being named the most recognizable Native American actress and getting featured on several 'Most Beautiful Women' lists. Sadly, she's still best known as Pocahontas - though she has been working away, so it seems more to do with lack of opportunities for indigenous actresses rather than talent.
Camilla Belle started her career as a child star in the mid-'90s with parts in A Little Princess and The Lost World: Jurassic Park, among other films. She even worked with Daniel Day-Lewis in 2005's The Ballad of Jack and Rose. Her adult career, though, was far less successful, with many stinkers including The Quiet, When a Stranger Calls, 10,000 BC, and Push. Belle's now known more for having once dated Joe Jonas and for feuding with Taylor Swift.
Monica Bellucci was a famous model in Italy before becoming an actress in The '90s, having modeled for labels like Dolce & Gabbana and Dior. Her fluency in both French and English, as well as her native Italian, gave her the ability to set her star up across the pond, with roles in Italy (The Raffle, Malèna), France (Brotherhood of the Wolf, Irréversible), and Hollywood (Bram Stoker's Dracula, Under Suspicion), with her best-known hits being The Matrix sequels The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, plus The Passion of the Christ. Then, her hype started diminishing in the mid-2000s when The Brothers Grimm and Shoot 'Em Up underperformed. Aside from a widely publicized yet ultimately minor part as a Bond girl in Spectre, Bellucci hasn't been in a major Hollywood film since. She mostly sticks to making French or Italian films nowadays.
Elizabeth Berkley gained a lot of popularity for her role as Jessie Spano in the series Saved by the Bell, and as such the next logical step for her to be the Next Big Thing was to make the move to a film career. In her case, it appeared that she could do so by winning the lead role of Nomi Malone with Showgirls, which attracted a lot of publicity, as the sex- and nudity-laden film was the complete opposite of how Jessie Spano on Saved by the Bell was portrayed as a strong feminist activist, ensuring a lot of morbid curiosity towards her role. Too bad that trainwreck of a film completely derailed whatever film career she may have had. The fallout was so bad that when she requested $2,500 to be interviewed for the V.I.P. DVD edition of the film, she was turned down. Ouch.
Rachel Bilson was something of a TV It Girl during her days on The O.C. Once that ended, Bilson made a few forgettable TV appearances or underperforming films like The Last Kiss and Jumper. She's now primarily known for attending various Hollywood functions or getting paparazzi photos of herself performing mundane daily tasks, although she scored a TV series with Hart of Dixie (which lasted four seasons from 2011 to 2015).
Thora Birch is a Former Child Star who struggled to maintain a successful adult career. She began as a kid in The '90s with roles in Patriot Games, Hocus Pocus and Clear and Present Danger before seemingly establishing herself as an adult actress with American Beauty. Unfortunately, her next part in the Dungeons & Dragons (2000) film was her Star-Derailing Role upon getting a widely negative reception. She later won acclaim for Ghost World, but threw any momentum away when she refused to part ways with her Stage Dad once his tendencies started to cost her many major roles. Her highest-profile role since was a recurring role on season 10 of The Walking Dead.
Yasmine Bleeth was already known for her tenures on soap operas like Ryan's Hope and One Life to Live before getting the role of Caroline Holden on Baywatch, co-starring alongside Pamela Anderson. She left the show after a couple of seasons to establish herself in film with the raunchy sports comedy BASEketball, only for its rather bad reception (which included a Worst Actress Golden Raspberry Award nomination for Bleeth) to snuff that chance before it could go anywhere. Since that flopped in 1998, Bleeth worked infrequently on TV shows and films before her cocaine addiction (which was present for most of her career) got so uncontrollable she got arrested and checked into rehab multiple times. After 2003, Bleeth wouldn't appear in another screen project for eighteen years (which turned out to be a low-budget mob comedy that never got a wide release).
Nikki Blonsky is a rather sad example of this. After being heavily hyped for her role in the 2007 remake of Hairspray, a lot was expected of her. Sadly, Hollywood didn't know what to do with her and she's been mostly stuck being typecast as the fat girl in little-seen TV movies and the short-lived Huge. Her first post-Hairspray film role wasn't until four years later (a small role in the critically panned Waiting For Forever) and it since has been discovered that she's been working in a salon to pay the bills.
Kate Bosworth had bit parts and a cancelled-after-one-season TV show on The WB called Young Americans before her starring role in Blue Crush. Once that hit, she was catapulted to the position of "It Girl", hyped as the greatest and most beautiful actress of her generation (sometimes this phrase was used verbatim), and she became a regular tabloid and fashion mag staple because she was dating the premiere heartthrob of the time, Orlando Bloom. The point where her hype started to push credulity, however, seemed to come when she was cast in Superman Returns as the title character's iconic love interest, Lois Lane, a seasoned veteran reporter (which in the film is also mother of a five-year-old child) despite the fact that Bosworth was only 23 at the time, attracting a great deal of eyebrow-raising and mockery. Fast-forwarding to 2024 and just about every film since Blue Crush and Superman Returns, with the exception of Still Alice, has been a critical and/or commercial failure, though not for lack of trying for that great comeback.
Silent film actress Clara Bow was the original "It Girl" (because she starred in a movie called It). Natural charisma and an earthy sexuality uncommon for that era made her a huge star in the latter 1920s. She was able to overcome a thick Brooklyn accent and transition to talkies, but an exceedingly fragile psyche combined with an adversarial relationship with Paramount Pictures led to a nervous breakdown in 1931. Paramount fired her, and after an abortive comeback attempt she retired from movies at the age of 28.
Lara Flynn Boyle nabbed her Star-Making Role as Donna Hayward on Twin Peaks, and remained onboard the series for its initial run in the early '90s. Its popularity led to Boyle receiving a variety of high-profile roles including Wayne's World and Happiness, which left her unable to return for the prequel (she was replaced by Moira Kelly for Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me). Her biggest role after Twin Peaks finished was as Helen Gamble on The Practice, which got her nominated for an Emmy Award in 1999. However, a combination of the underperformance of Men in Black II (which was generally considered to have suffered Sequelitis after the first one, while Boyle's performance got particularly criticized and a Golden Raspberry Award nomination) plus her dismissal from The Practice due to Executive Meddling and budget cuts hindered her career. Her input since the mid-2000s has been rather erratic.
Back in the 1940s, a former Rockette called Lucille Bremer impressed officials at MGM with her screen test and they began to test her as a potential star. She made a successful debut playing Rose in Meet Me in St. Louis, with director Vincente Minnelli saying more than once that he felt she came close to stealing the film from Judy Garland. However her first starring role Yolanda and the Thief flopped at the Box Office (despite good reviews) because of its fantasy theme. She took the blame for this and, despite a few more starring roles, MGM soon lost interest in promoting her. She opted to retire from films before the decade was over.
Amanda Bynes is a rather sad example. Debuting on All That as a preteen before segueing into her own spinoff The Amanda Show, her knack for physical comedy drew multiple comparisons to Lucille Ball. She was able to successfully graduate off the children's networks to the WB's What I Like About You and did moderately well in her ventures to lead roles in films (and even better in supporting roles such as Hairspray and Easy A.) However, in The New '10s, it started to unravel. Several brushes with the law and bizarre behavior in real life and on Twitter made people worry for her mental health. As of 2024, she hasn't worked in over a decade and has repeatedly been put under psychiatric holds. During this period, Bynes was also placed under the conservatorship of her mother – although it has recently ended with approval from both of them and a judge. Only time will tell if she can properly make a comeback.
Mary Cadorette got what was presumed to be her big break in 1984, when she was selected among over 500 women to portray Jack Tripper's love interest, Vicky Bradford in a spin-off of the sitcom Three's Company entitled Three's a Crowd. Cadorette first appeared in Three's Company's final three episodes as a means of setting up Three's a Crowd. During and around this time frame, Cadorette also appeared as a contestant on several game shows as a such as The $25,000 Pyramid, Super Password, and Body Language. Unfortunately however, ABC would cancel Three's a Crowd after only one season in 1985. One of the big criticisms that was levelled at the series was Cadorette's apparent lack of chemistry with her leading man played by John Ritter. After Three's a Crowd's one and done season, Cadorette would never again get close to having such a leading role on-screen. A majority of her subsequent acting work was comprised of one-off guest starring roles on TV shows . In 1986, Cadorette appeared in the feature film Stewardess School, which only grossed $136,158 against an estimated budget of $8 million. Cadorette's highest profile acting role after her stint on Three's Company/Three's a Crowd was probably in a four episode stint from 1990-91 on Night Court as Judge Harry Stone's love interest Margaret Turner. Cadoertte would continue to work on film and television through the year 2000 with her final on-screen credit being as "Marissa's Mother" on an episode of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction.
Charisma Carpenter got her Star-Making Role as Cordelia Chase in Buffy the Vampire Slayer opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar, leaving after the third season ended to reprise her part for the spin-off show Angel. Upon leaving Angel following the fourth season^note, she continued finding work on TV (with roles in Veronica Mars and The Lying Game) and film (with a bit part in The Expendables and its sequel). However, she hasn't gotten any big roles since 2013.
Keisha Castle-Hughes was regarded as the next big thing back in 2004 after many critics and viewers praised her role in Whale Rider where she's nominated for Best Lead Actress at the Oscars, making her the youngest Best Lead Actress nominee at the age of 13 (until 9-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis beat the record in 2013). Then, she appeared in Revenge of the Sith and had another lead role in The Nativity Story. But after that, she didn't seem to get much impressive roles as she got pregnant too young. She did get a guest role in The Walking Dead and eventually got in Season 5 of the worldwide TV phenomenon Game of Thrones as Obara Sand, the oldest Sand Snake daughter of fan-favorite Oberyn Martell. Unfortunately, the Sand Snakes themselves were hated by viewers and critics alike due to the Narmy lines, flimsy characterization and horrible acting. Though this didn't seemed to put a dent on Keisha's career as she still got more TV roles, it's a long way for her to get back on the A-list. Unlike that of nearly every other actor involved in the show, her role on Game of Thrones has not been able to supplant that of Whale Rider as her best known, and she is widely considered a One-Hit Wonder for it.
Kim Cattrall started off as a promising ingenue in the late '70s. During that time, she appeared in some quality television series (Columbo, Charlie's Angels) and movies (Tribute, with Jack Lemmon). When the '80s came, however, she found herself slumming in forgettable fluff (Porky's, Police Academy, Mannequin), indie movies, and flops (Big Trouble in Little China, The Bonfire of the Vanities). In the '90s, before Sex and the City, she mostly landed one-off TV appearances and Made-for-TV Movies, with the exception being Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the final film to feature the entire Star Trek: The Original Series cast, where she starred as Lt. Valeris (a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for Lt. Saavik from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan). After Sex and the City, she struggled to get any major success before landing the role of the narrator, Future Sophie, in the sitcom How I Met Your Father, the spinoff to How I Met Your Mother. Cattrall herself mused on her place in Hollywood, saying that after Porky's, she began losing roles to Michelle Pfeiffer, another actress of her physical type, leaving Cattrall as a Poor Man's Substitute to Pfeiffer. She could've reprised her Sex and the City role in the Max continuation And Just Like That..., but Hostility on the Set with erstwhile co-star Sarah Jessica Parker motivated her refusal.
Daveigh Chase was a notable kid actress in the early 2000s, with roles in animation (voicing Lilo in Lilo & Stitch plus its related follow-up media, along with Chihiro for the English-language dub of Spirited Away) and live-action (as the protagonist's sister Samantha in Donnie Darko and as Samara in The Ring). But she struggled to transition to an adult acting career, which began well as part of the main cast in Big Love only to sink after wrapping in 2011. She hasn't starred in a screen project since 2016, with what scant headlines she makes now centering on multiple misdemeanors and resulting arrests.
Vanessa Lee Chester was never a big star but did have some supporting roles in some moderately successful children's movies of The '90s, such as A Little Princess (1995) and Harriet the Spy. She then landed her first part in a major blockbuster, The Lost World: Jurassic Park. While a slight success financially, it was widely considered inferior to the original Jurassic Park by critics and audiences. One would think this film would've helped make her into a big name; but given the film's abysmal reception, it did nothing to help her career. In fact, it might've hurt it. Chester has followed it up since then with only doing some sporadic film and television work, where she usually plays characters like "Student #2".
Holly Marie Combs had acted throughout her childhood before landing her first major role on the CBS drama Picket Fences, which received good reviews despite frequently low ratings as part of the Friday Night Death Slot. Her popularity grew when she was cast as Piper Halliwell on Charmed (1998), becoming the only cast member to remain onboard for all episodes of all eight seasons. Though Combs never broke out in film, she continued her TV career with her role in Pretty Little Liars. However, she hasn't acted in anything significant since it finished in 2017.
Rachael Leigh Cook first came to fame thanks to her role in, of all things, a famous anti-heroin Public Service Announcement, a twist on the "This Is Your Brain on Drugs" ad in which she demolishes a kitchen, and became a star proper when She's All That came out. The flop of Josie and the Pussycats (2001) and, to a lesser extent, Antitrust and Texas Rangers (she had supporting roles in those films, and unluckily for her, they came out the same year as Josie) derailed her career, and she spent the following decade playing bit parts on television and various forgettable straight to DVD flicks. In recent years, however, she has had some success as a voiceover artist and plum guest roles in the likes of Psych and Ghost Whisperer, and even remade her anti-drug PSA (this time as a Take That! to the War on Drugs), so a comeback isn't a fully unrealistic possibility. She later starred in Perception alongside Eric McCormack, and had a supporting role in the remake He's All That.
Stacey Dash received her big break with a supporting role in Clueless opposite Alicia Silverstone, then returning for the spin-off TV series of the same name. However, her career didn't reach greater heights after the show finished in 1999. She's gotten exposure plus controversy recently for her outspoken conservative views, most infamously her support for Donald Trump. For a short while, Fox News kept her around as a contributor.
Marion Davies is a famous historical example, since it was William Randolph Hearst who financed her bid for movie stardom. While her looks were as good as people expected from a former Ziegfeld girl, and she was far more talented and off-screen amiable than her Roman à Clef opera singer counterpart in Citizen Kane, Hearst kept pushing for her to be cast in heavy-duty "respectable" dramatic roles when she was better at comedy.
Geena Davis started in television comedy in The '80s but found a Star-Making Role with The Fly (1986), which showed her to be beautiful, funny, and capable of handling drama all at once. She immediately had a major push; come 1988 she had both a box-office smash in Beetlejuice and an Oscar-winning supporting turn in The Accidental Tourist. Seeking the most interesting roles she could find rather than conventional leading lady fare, her next big success was 1991's Thelma & Louise (which saw her and Susan Sarandon nominated for Best Actress Oscars), with A League of Their Own coming right on its heels in '92. However, her next few leading turns – Hero, Angie, and Speechless – did little business. And then there was Cutthroat Island, a pirate movie directed by her husband at the time, Renny Harlin, that suffered a massively Troubled Production and became a Contractual Obligation Project. Its catastrophic failure and that of their follow-up flop The Long Kiss Goodnight dissolved their marriage and permanently harmed their film careers. She has noted that her turning 40 in 1996, the year of the latter film, didn't help her career prospects any; she wouldn't act again until Stuart Little in 1999. At the Turn of the Millennium she returned to TV, but both an eponymous sitcom and Commander in Chief were short-lived (the latter yet another Troubled Production to boot – she won a Golden Globe for it, though).

Nonetheless she found life after the A-list: Out of frustration with the lack of good roles for women in Hollywood (especially in shows aimed at children), in 2004 she founded the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media to research and advocate for change in the industry. She does still appear on TV and in independent films, specifically ones that are female-centric – in 2019 she appeared in the Netflix shows She-Ra and the Princesses of Power and GLOW (2017) in guest roles. That year, she also won an honorary Oscar for her advocacy work.
Kaylee DeFer was already acting in her teens on TV upon landing her first starring role in The War at Home, which got awful ratings and reviews. A few years later, she got more exposure being on Gossip Girl as con artist Ivy Dickens and stayed on the show until its conclusion in 2012. However, in 2013 she announced her retirement in order to raise her growing family.
Big things were expected of Bo Derek. After a minor role in Orca: The Killer Whale, she got her big break in Ten, which propelled both her and Dudley Moore to stardom.^note She was even unironically compared to Marilyn Monroe. However, her follow-up movie, 1980's A Change in Seasons, got unfavorable reviews and disappointed at the box office. The 1981 movie Tarzan, the Ape Man, while doing better financially, was mutilated by critics and earned her a Worst Actress Razzie (shared with Faye Dunaway for Mommie Dearest). She didn't get another film offer until 1984's Bolero, which bombed at the box office and earned her another Razzie. She took a five-year hiatus, but her intended comeback film, Ghosts Can't Do It, only put her career even further in the ground. She spent the next few years making TV films, not returning to the big screen until Woman of Desire came out to very little fanfare. She also co-starred in Tommy Boy, but was overshadowed by the film's comedic performances. After that, her most prominent role was in the 2006 telenovela Fashion House. By this point, it's safe to say that her career is toast, with some even going so far as to ask how she even got so big in the first place.
Susan Dey was a successful teen model before she landed her Star-Making Role role as Laurie Partridge on the 1970s TV series The Partridge Family. Following the end of its four year long run in 1974, Dey attempted to play against the wholesome teen girl image that she got from playing Laurie Partridge in Made-for-TV Movie films such as Cage Without a Key and Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night as well as her portrayal of Jo March in a 1978 television adaptation of Little Women. Dey also appeared in a few feature films, 1977's First Love, 1981's Looker, and 1986's Echo Park. None of these projects however, left as big of a cultural footprint as The Partridge Family. It was also reportedly during this time, that Dey turned down the part of Sandy in Grease (which would ultimately go to Olivia Newton-John) because following The Partridge Family, she didn't want to play another teenage girl. She would eventually though, land the second best known role of her career come 1986 in the form of district attorney Grace Van Owen on the NBC legal drama L.A. Law. Dey ultimately appeared in 126 episodes (that's more than The Partridge Family, which only produced 96 episodes) before departing in 1992. During her time on LA Law, Dey was nominated for multiple Emmy awards and won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama Series in 1988. In February 1992, while still a castmember on LA Law, Dey guest hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live, where she even participated in a sketch that poked fun at her Partridge Family past. Later that year, Dey would headline the CBS sitcom Love & War only to be ousted after the first season and replaced by Annie Potts due to a purported lack of chemistry with her co-star, Jay Thomas. While Dey would continue to work for the work (primarily in TV movies) after her abrupt departure from Love and War, her acting career was for all intents and purposes, winding down by the end of 1990s. And her final credited acting role before her retirement was on an episode of NBC's Third Watch in 2004.
Shannen Doherty became a star in the late '80s and early '90s with hits such as Heathers and three respectable TV shows - Little House on the Prairie, Our House and Beverly Hills, 90210. The late 90s were kind to her as well, when she headlined the supernatural drama Charmed. But cracks started to appear as early 1994 when she was fired from 90210 for getting into fights with her co-stars. Stories surfaced about her difficulty on the Charmed set too - with actor TW King leaving after the first season being rumoured to be because she didn't like him. Tension between her and co-star Alyssa Milano caused her to be fired again. After being fired from two hit network shows, she was given a few reality TV projects to headline - all of which did middling business. She stuck to doing TV movies afterwards, and her star power soon faded. Her recent battles with cancer have also put her career on ice.
Nicole Eggert started out as a child actress in The '80s, before landing a role on the sitcom Charles in Charge with Scott Baio (mentioned in Actors). She transitioned to more adult work upon being cast as Summer Quinn in Season 3 of Baywatch, joining the show at the same time as Pamela Anderson. Eggert left the series after Season 4 while none of her resulting acting work got the same level of popularity as Baywatch.
Carmen Electra started out as a singer/dancer before meeting Prince, who signed her to his record label and produced her eponymous debut album. After it was released to poor sales and reviews, Electra pivoted towards acting work instead. Upon attaining her Star-Making Role as Lani McKenzie on Baywatch (coming onboard after the departures of Pamela Anderson, Yasmine Bleeth, and Nicole Eggert), she got a minor but notable part in the horror parody Scary Movie. Electra saw her status as Ms. Fanservice set up with those in the 2000s, only to spend the rest of her career afterwards typecast. Despite hits like Starsky & Hutch, many of Electra's later films like Dirty Love, Cheaper by the Dozen 2, and various Seltzer and Friedberg spoofs, bombed or were reviled. She doesn't do much these days.
Erika Eleniak made her film debut as a kid in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial before taking up modeling as a teenager, notably posing for Playboy magazine's July 1989 cover. She then landed the role of Shauni McClain on Baywatch ^noteNoticing a pattern here?, which increased her popularity even more. Upon leaving Baywatch and returning to film in 1992, she played the female lead opposite Steven Seagal in Under Siege. Humorously enough, part of her character's backstory has her being Playboy's "Miss July 1989" – just like Eleniak was in real life. However, none of her films afterwards got the same success and she soon drifted to obscurity.
Angie Everhart made her screen debut opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in the action spoof Last Action Hero. Despite its critical and commercial underperformance, that film got her a bit of exposure and she soon parlayed it into a successful modeling career for Sports Illustrated and Playboy (notably posing nude for the latter magazine's February 2000 issue). Everhart's attempts at making a successful film career, however, proved futile, with the bulk of her screen work since 2000 consisting of reality television.
Pamelyn Ferdin was a Former Child Star of The '60s and The '70s who was pushed into it by her Stage Mom. Despite a prolific filmography mostly consisting of kid-friendly fare, she never was especially happy with acting before accepting a role in The Toolbox Murders. That film, which signified a prominent departure for Ferdin as a violent, scary Exploitation Film, was a massive failure, with Ferdin distancing herself from acting after it flopped. She hasn't starred in anything since 2009, and currently is better known for her work as an animal rights activist.
Linda Fiorentino made her theatrical debut in 1985 with three films: the drama Vision Quest, the action comedy Gotcha!, and the Martin Scorsese-directed After Hours. While she kept working throughout The '80s, it was only in The '90s that she truly had her breakthrough with the 1994 neo-noir The Last Seduction. She garnered unanimous critical praise for her performance, with talk of her getting an Oscar nomination even circulating around Hollywood. However, the film, which premiered on HBO at the producers' behest before its theatrical release, was ineligible to receive any Oscar nominations, not even for Fiorentino's performance. She did attain further fame with big roles in Men in Black and Dogma; unfortunately, Fiorentino also became entangled in Hostility on the Set of the latter film. Director Kevin Smith often butted heads with the actress, bemoaning how difficult and demanding she had been to work with in the DVD Commentary for Dogma (though the two would eventually patch things up many years later). Her films released in the early 2000s, What Planet Are You From?, Where The Money Is, and Liberty Stands Still, were critically panned and underperformed financially. In fact, Liberty Stands Still had its theatrical release revoked in 2002 and was shunted Direct to Video. She starred in one more film seven years later, Once More With Feeling. It struggled to nab a theatrical run in 2009 before also going straight to video, leading Fiorentino to call it quits and vanish from the screen entirely.
Deborah Foreman's Star-Making Role came in the form of the female lead in 1983's Valley Girl opposite a then-unknown Nicolas Cage as the leading man. Its massive popularity and influence on '80s pop culture made her big, but it soon proved to be ephemeral stardom. Her next leading role was in 1986's My Chauffeur, which wasn't a hit. Foreman tried to restyle herself as a scream queen in the latter half of the decade, but none of the horror films she starred in made much of an impact. She rarely acts nowadays, with her most notable appearance being a cameo in the 2020 remake of Valley Girl.
Claire Forlani was a major starlet on the rise in The '90s. Numerous blockbusters that she starred in, such as Mallrats, The Rock, and Meet Joe Black, gave her the chance to share the screen with many prolific leading men. However, most of her films afterwards were disappointments. She promptly appeared in several infamous bombs, like Mystery Men and In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. Forlani quickly faded from leading roles and turned towards television instead.
Megan Fox came out of Transformers as the new "It Girl" sex symbol, and promptly rode it to tons of covers, press coverage, etc. However, Jennifer's Body and Jonah Hex were spectacular failures that stuck to her, her attempt to go indie with Passion Play failed (though her performance itself was praised), and she either left or got booted from Transformers: Dark of the Moon following her statements comparing working under Michael Bay to working for Hitler. (Bay said that Fox was fired on orders of executive producer Steven Spielberg, who being Jewish took particular exception of her comments.) She later did get supporting roles in Friends with Kids and This Is 40 and she reunited with Bay for the TMNT reboot, so while she's not quite the hot commodity people were expecting, she's still getting work nonetheless, and motherhood and marriage have mellowed her considerably. Jennifer's Body ended up experiencing being Vindicated by History, especially with regards to her performance, and 2020 saw her starring in several high profile roles. There has also been an increase in public sympathy towards her now with greater awareness of how she was objectified as a teenager (she was reportedly reduced to using botox in her mid-20s under pressure to maintain her Teen Idol looks), plus better understanding of obsessive–compulsive disorder and that her erratic behavior was the result of said disorder.
Sadie Frost is an actress who was getting lots of buzz in the early '90s thanks to notable appearances in the music videos for Spandau Ballet (she was married to member Gary Kemp) and indie films in her native UK. She was poised to become a star when Francis Ford Coppola selected her to play Lucy Westenra in Bram Stoker's Dracula after being impressed with her performance in Diamond Skulls. There was a lot of buzz around her and she recalls being given all these offers - as well as told she should move to Los Angeles at once - but she chose to take a part in the small British film Shopping and opted to focus on indie films and raising her children. She found more success as a producer and fashion designer in the 2000s.
Jennie Garth got her breakout role starring on Beverly Hills, 90210 opposite fellow up-and-coming actresses Shannen Doherty and Tori Spelling, and remained onboard the show for its entire run. Garth later had another hit on television with What I Like About You alongside Amanda Bynes, and also competed on Dancing with the Stars in its fifth season. But after a brief return to the 90210 franchise in the 2008 revival series (where she had a recurring role for the first two seasons), she's mostly done reality TV afterwards.
Sarah Michelle Gellar turned into a star with the success of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, then she was suddenly everywhere in the late '90s. Despite the fiscal success of Cruel Intentions, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Scooby-Doo (2002) and The Grudge, plus attempts to resist typecasting, audiences, unfortunately, couldn't see her as anybody other than Buffy Summers. The failures of The Return and Southland Tales in 2006 saw her turn to voice-over work and/or Direct to Video films, with Gellar soon fading from the mainstream. She tried returning to television to mixed results after Ringer and The Crazy Ones got a mediocre reception. She also took some time off to raise her children.
Susan George's acting career began in her native Britain with a series of risqué roles that established her as a sex symbol of The '60s, with international fame coming her direction after she starred opposite Dustin Hoffman in Straw Dogs (1971) from director Sam Peckinpah. Despite its controversy and graphic content, the movie received good reviews and was a financial hit. The boost it gave George led her to book several similarly scandalous films, although they weren't as well-received. Straw Dogs remains her most well-known work in her decades-long career, with none afterwards coming close.
Jami Gertz became famous in The '80s with her role as Muffy Tepperman on the Cult Classic sitcom Square Pegs and a diverse variety of films (Sixteen Candles, Crossroads, The Lost Boys, Less Than Zero, Listen to Me, etc.). Gertz's biggest project came in 1996 when she co-starred in Twister alongside Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton, though her performance was widely panned as weak and got her a Razzie nomination for Worst Supporting Actress amidst the film's overall success. She hasn't had a role in a major film following Twister, but found slightly more success on television afterwards (notably with roles on Still Standing and The Neighbors). One shouldn't feel too sorry for Gertz though since her net worth is now estimated to be at least $3 billion. This is due in no small part, to her investments in sports franchises like the Atlanta Hawks and Milwaukee Brewers.
Heather Graham got her big break in the early '90s with a supporting role on Twin Peaks, later reprising her role in the prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. She followed that up with supporting roles in Swingers, Boogie Nights, and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, which were all very popular hits that seemed to certify her rise into stardom. However, many critically panned Box Office Bombs released in the early 2000s – Say It Isn't So, From Hell, Killing Me Softly, and The Guru (2002) – ground her career to a halt. She hasn't had a role in any high-profile movies since besides a minor part in The Hangover.
Erin Gray got her big break as Colonel Wilma Deering in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, co-starring opposite Gil Gerard (see Actors). The role was significant at the time as one of the first strong female characters in a sci-fi setting alongside Princess Leia and Ellen Ripley. Unfortunately, Gray, like her co-star Gerard, had a difficult time finding work after Buck Rogers ended, because nobody could view her as anyone other than Wilma Deering. Her filmography since then has comprised primarily of guest spots on television, direct-to-video and/or TV movies. After Buck Rogers finished its run, Gray's most prolific role was undoubtedly that of Kate Summers-Stratton on the '80s sitcom Silver Spoons. She now primarily works as a casting agent.
Danielle Harris. She got her start as a child actress with lead and supporting roles in films like Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, and Free Willy. By the mid-'90s, she was building a steady career as a teen actress with a high-profile supporting role in Roseanne. She later co-starred with Katherine Heigl in the Disney Channel film Wish Upon a Star, and with Sylvester Stallone in Daylight. The June 1998 issue of Teen People featured her on the cover alongside Scarlett Johansson, Kirsten Dunst, and Jessica Biel. Sadly, it was not to last. Aside from voicing Debbie Thornberry in Nickelodeon's The Wild Thornberrys, her career never really took off as once expected, something Danielle herself acknowledges, saying she never really truly got a breakout lead in a mainstream film. She confessed that she was even working at a hair salon in the early 2000s to make ends meet. Danielle did undergo a minor Career Resurrection in 2007 by returning to the Halloween franchise in Rob Zombie's reboot of the franchise, getting her typecast as a scream queen in the years that followed. She also dabbed in directing with 2012's Among Friends. These days, she's largely put acting on hold to focus on her family.
Anne Heche made a big splash in 1997 for two reasons: her critically-acclaimed supporting roles in box-office hits I Know What You Did Last Summer and Wag the Dog, and her coming out of the closet and becoming one-half of what was then Hollywood's biggest gay power couple alongside Ellen DeGeneres. Both of these reasons made up for the fact that her first leading role in a Hollywood film, Volcano, flopped at the box-office. Nevertheless, the studios decided to parlay her newfound fame into an A-list acting career, but the resulting films were Six Days, Seven Nights, Return to Paradise and Gus Van Sant's infamous Psycho remake. The former film was a modest success and the latter were money-losers. The fact that America was still too homophobic to accept an LGBT woman as a female lead may have played a part in her losing more jobs (she was outright told that people didn't want to cast her because of it) and her increasing mental instability (the product of a very broken home), which led to her crashing at a random person's house, didn't help either. And on top of that, DeGeneres and Heche broke off their engagement after a three-year relationship. Her subsequent career was spent mainly in indie films and on TV, and she was probably solely known for being Ellen's ex-girlfriend than anything else. In August 2022, she was seriously injured in an auto accident and died a week later from her injuries.
Katherine Heigl. After several years of TV appearances in stuff like Roswell and Grey's Anatomy, she gained a lot of fans for her starring role in Knocked Up... only to throw them all away within weeks. She was on her way to becoming a household name before leaving Grey's Anatomy presumably to pursue more film work, and went on to star in flops like Killers, New Year's Eve, One for the Money, and The Big Wedding, and developed a reputation of being difficult to work with, in part thanks to her mother/manager. Not long after Knocked Up came out, however, she did a very vocal interview where she attacked basically everyone involved in the film, calling director Judd Apatow a sexist and lead actor Seth Rogen a slob, among other things. Despite the backlash, her next two works, 27 Dresses and The Ugly Truth, did very well at the box office despite mediocre reviews. However, her reputation was battered again when she criticized the writing of Grey's Anatomy publicly on multiple occasions and was eventually Put on a Bus (so bad was the backlash to her behavior that she did an interview with Entertainment Weekly to apologize for her antics). Since 2009, her films have opened under $16m and have grossed less than $60m total domestically, and her latest try at television, in 2014-15 with State of Affairs, was derided by critics and canned after one season despite airing behind The Voice. In 2017, she made another television attempt with Doubt, which got cancelled after two episodes aired, and then made another movie ironically called Unforgettable, which flopped critically and commercially. Her career and reputation are basically in tatters at this point.
Kam Heskin got her start with a role on the soap opera Sunset Beach, which subsequently led to bit parts in hit films like Catch Me If You Can. However, her first significant film role was a supporting part in the Jenny McCarthy film Dirty Love (also starring Carmen Electra). This Romantic Comedy was intended to be a star vehicle for McCarthy, but its near-unanimously negative response put a stop to those notions. McCarthy remained slightly famous for being on reality TV and talk shows, but her co-stars faded from relevance. Heskin had a temporary run on Passions and eventually replaced Julia Stiles in Direct to Video sequels for The Prince & Me, but hasn't been in anything since making the last one in 2010.
Paris Hilton. Unlike the other people on this list, this heiress and socialite did not earn her fame through "legitimate" routes (film, TV, music), but through a Home Porn Movie that was "leaked" online in advance of the debut of her Reality Show The Simple Life. Not only did the video turn her into a mega-star virtually overnight, it also established the home sex tape as a viable route for would-be celebrities and fading stars to boost their careers. She went on to channel her fame into careers in music and (non-pornographic) film, both of which have been non-starters, and the latter notable only for producing her performance in Repo! The Genetic Opera (though House of Wax (2005) was extremely profitable, because audiences turned up in droves just to watch her character get killed off). Despite these failures to branch out she remained a tabloid mainstay till about 2008, when she was replaced as America's favorite reality TV starlet by Kim Kardashian (who rose to fame under similar circumstances as Hilton; ironically, she first gained media attention as a friend and stylist of Hilton). Because of this, by and large the media stopped paying attention to her. She attempted a comeback in 2011 with a new reality show The World According To Paris, but the series was cancelled after only one season. Since then she's kept a pretty low profile, with only an occasional mention in the local Hollywood papers. Hilton has since found moderate success as a DJ and continues to be popular on social media. A 2020 YouTube documentary detailing Hilton's troubled childhood and teen years was extremely well received, leading to what was deemed a successful "rebranding" of her image – which she followed up by launching her successful podcast.
Lauren Holly first gained notice on the critically-acclaimed series Picket Fences and gained even more notice as Linda Lee in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story and as Mary in Dumb and Dumber, where she met and later married Jim Carrey. It was assumed that Holly would successfully make the transition to movies, but she unfortunately wound up in a string of high-profile flops, including Down Periscope, Turbulence, and A Smile Like Yours. Ultimately, Holly was destined to become only known for being Jim Carrey's wife, but their marriage was short-lived. Nowadays, she's been stuck doing B-movies and supporting roles on TV, including a recent turn on the third (and last) season of Designated Survivor.
Julianne Hough first gained fame after appearing on Dancing with the Stars as a professional dancer (winning two seasons), and from then on the ball kept rolling. The remake of Footloose was a decent hit, while the critical and financial flop Rock of Ages... wasn't. However, Safe Haven and Dirty Grandpa were slightly profitable despite lack of critical praise. She hasn't had a major film role since 2017, and instead returned to Dancing with the Stars as a judge and later as a co-host.
Season Hubley had a somewhat sedate start in The '70s before she got her breakthrough in 1979 with two films, the theatrically released Hardcore and a Made-for-TV Movie biopic of Elvis Presley. In the former film (which was directed by Paul Schrader), she starred as a prostitute aiding a worried father (played by George C. Scott) search for his missing daughter. It got mostly positive reviews from critics. She portrayed Priscilla Presley in the latter film alongside Kurt Russell as Elvis, whom she was subsequently married to for four years. However, she struggled to sustain success after that initial bump and never had a substantial role in a major project again (aside from a stint on All My Children in The '90s). She quit acting in 1999 and is nowadays mostly known as Kurt Russell's ex-wife.
Joyce Hyser's initial career in The '80s mostly consisted of supporting roles in various films (Valley Girl, Staying Alive, This is Spın̈al Tap, etc.), before she portrayed the lead role in 1985's Just One of the Guys. A reimagining of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night in the decade's high school milieu, it was a slight success and entered the long list of raunchy teen comedies of the era. Hyser, however, didn't appear in a film again for five years, which wasn't a hit, and none of the films afterwards were either. She mostly did one-off episode roles on TV before retiring in 2014.
Amy Irving (who came from a big family in showbiz, with her father being theatrical director and producer Jules Irving and her mother being actress Priscilla Pointer) began working on the stage before making her film debut as Sue Snell in Carrie (1976). Its success led Irving to reunite with director Brian De Palma as the lead in The Fury. Her popularity seemed like it could only rise up, only to come plummeting down in the early '80s when she won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress for Honeysuckle Rose. She later earned the dubious honor of getting a Razzie and an Oscar nomination for the same performance for Yentl. While she has continued working in Hollywood films (like collaborating with Steven Soderbergh with supporting roles in Traffic (2000) and Unsane), her moment as an "it girl" has come and gone.
Ann Jillian began her career working steadily as a child star, perhaps most notably as Millie Ballard, Steve Baxter's teenage receptionist on the fifth and final season of Hazel and in a 1963 Twilight Zone episode as a mute telepath. Come 1980, Jillian was finally poised for her big breakthrough in the form of the ABC sitcom It's a Living. With her striking platinum bob hairstyle, alabaster skin, and voluptuous figure, Jillian became an instant sex symbol. Plus, Jillian on It's a Living as waitress Cassie Cranston, drew comparisons to Jean Harlow due to her sassy line deliveries. Despite her status as the Breakout Character, ABC would cancel It's a Living after two seasons in 1982. Despite this setback, Jillian soon landed an Emmy and Golden Globe nomination for her portrayal of Mae West. A year later, Jillian had a predominate supporting role in the hit film Mr. Mom opposite Michael Keaton. Later that fall, Jillian got another crack at sitcom stardom, this time, as a ghost on NBC's Jennifer Slept Here. Unfortunately for Jillian, NBC would cancel Jennifer Slept Here after its lone, 13-episode long season. Jillian soon would earn another Emmy nomination though, this time for the CBS miniseries Ellis Island. In 1985, Jillian portrayed The Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland for CBS. Also in 1985, less than three years after its initial run on ABC ended, It's a Living was revived for the first-syndication market. It was during this same time frame, that Jillian was diagnosed with breast cancer. Jillian would leave the revived It's a Living after only only season since it was her main condition in agreeing to come back in the first place. Jillian would later document her cancer battle in a 1988 Made-for-TV Movie for NBC. This led to Jillian to be once again nominated for an Emmy and Golden Globe Award, the later of which, earned her the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV. A year later, Jillian made one final stab at a sitcom in the form of Ann Jillian on NBC, which would be canceled after only 10 episodes of the 13 produced episodes were broadcast. After the Ann Jillian sitcom was canceled, Jillian primarily made sporadic appearances in TV movies before retiring in the year 2000. Jillian would ultimately begin work as a motivational speaker. Jillian's last credited screen performance was from an episode of Walker, Texas Ranger.
Ashley Judd took off in the mid-'90s and had nearly a decade of big roles. Then De-Lovely and Twisted derailed her career in 2004 when they flopped badly, making her focus on modestly-budgeted ensemble and independent features ever since along with prominent political activism. She also revealed that rejecting the sexual advances of Harvey Weinstein made him blackball her in revenge from coveted projects like The Lord of the Rings.
Jaime King already was established as a model in The '90s before pursuing an acting career in the next decade. Her first lead role was in Bulletproof Monk opposite Chow Yun-fat and Seann William Scott, which soon became a critically reviled Box Office Bomb in 2003. King's next high-profile role came only two years later with a dual role in 2005's Sin City, which was received more positively. However, none of her following films (Cheaper by the Dozen 2, The Spirit, etc.) earned any major acclaim. The final nail in the coffin, ironically, came from reprising her role for the 2014 follow-up Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, which wasn't as big a hit as the first film. King's found better luck in television with a supporting role on Hart of Dixie opposite Rachel Bilson.
Ariane Koizumi was prominent as one of the most successful Asian models in The '80s before Hollywood tried making her a movie star, making her film debut alongside Mickey Rourke in the 1985 thriller Year of the Dragon. Unfortunately, the film, which was the first in a few years from director Michael Cimino after the disgrace that was Heaven's Gate, got a mixed reception upon its release, neither reaffirming his stature, nor affirming her stardom. Her performance, in particular, was lambasted as a caricature pandering to Oriental stereotypes. Besides a minor cameo in King of New York from Abel Ferrara, she never acted again. Koizumi later retired from modeling in 1989 and promptly vanished from the public eye.
Nancy Kwan rocketed to popularity with The World of Suzie Wong and Flower Drum Song, and was named the leading Asian-American actress of her day. Kwan's fame, though, peaked in 1962, and those still remain the roles she's best known for. Much like Anna May Wong before her, she had to travel to Europe and Hong Kong to escape getting typecast in stereotypical Asian roles in Hollywood.
After wowing critics with her debut performance in Wish You Were Here (1987), Emily Lloyd was pushed as the next big thing from her native Britain to Hollywood. Her success in America, though, proved minimal, with her one real hit being A River Runs Through It. Bad luck and choices, like declining the lead role in Pretty Woman to star in Mermaids only to be replaced by Winona Ryder in the latter, plus personal crises, dampened her potential fame.
Lindsay Lohan. This one wasn't related to any lack of talent – Meryl Streep, of all people, vouched for her acting ability, as did her Mean Girls co-star Tina Fey. Instead, her decline came from a combination of a disastrous relationship with her parents, chronic partying and drug/alcohol abuse (which did quite the number on her looks and eventually led to legal troubles), and a reputation for being a diva who often showed up to the set late and hungover (if not completely missing filming days altogether). Attempts to revitalize her career – such as the Lifetime biopic Liz & Dick – have mostly flopped, with the qualified success of her 2014 West End theatre debut in Speed-the-Plow the one exception. Nowadays, she's far better known for her appearances in the tabloids and is considered a cautionary tale for the Former Child Star. It's also been joked that Emma Stone has the career she would have had. However, she has started making strides for the better in The New '20s. After achieving sobriety, she released the song Back to Me in 2020, which was her first single in over twelve years. She also signed a deal in 2021 to headline three films for Netflix, with the first one Falling for Christmas released in 2022.
Alison Lohman is notable for suddenly walking away from Hollywood stardom when she was on the cusp of becoming a bigger celebrity. Becoming famous around the Turn of the Millennium by playing the lead role in the 2002 drama White Oleander, critics, taking note of her talent, commented how she held her own alongside many illustrious actresses such as Michelle Pfeiffer, Renée Zellweger, and Robin Wright. Parts in further critical darlings like Big Fish and Matchstick Men followed throughout the decade, before Lohman finally got her first lead role in a Hollywood blockbuster playing the protagonist of Drag Me to Hell. The horror-comedy directed by Sam Raimi was a big success in 2009, with viewers lauding her performance. Lohman, however, stunned many upon announcing her retirement following its release, despite the exposure she got. Besides occasionally making cameos in movies her husband Mark Neveldine directs, Lohman has left fame behind in favor of raising their children and working as an acting coach online.
Kristanna Loken became briefly popular after starring as the T-X in 2003's Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, which was a mild success. Unfortunately, her next major films were two flops directed by Uwe Boll: BloodRayne and In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. Their failures killed off studios' interest in promoting her by the end of the decade. Her films since have mostly gone Direct to Video.
Sophie Marceau was expected by many to have a successful crossover in American films, having found success in her native France and having played major roles in Braveheart and the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough. However, a number of flops and a bizarre, rambling speech she made at the Cannes Film Festival in 1999 fast derailed her in the US. She still makes films, but many of them barely get released outside of France. You would think Don't Look Back, a film where she teams up with Monica Bellucci and which they embraced topless on the cover of Paris Match to promote, would have gotten a decent international push.
When Vanessa Marcil was still on General Hospital, she nabbed the role of the female lead in The Rock. According to her, she then had to decline many subsequent film roles because of her General Hospital contract. She eventually departed for Beverly Hills, 90210, which forced her to decline a role on Ally McBeal. Then she was supposed to be a regular on NYPD Blue only to be replaced after just one episode. After one more primetime stint on the totally forgettable Las Vegas, she ultimately just ended up back on General Hospital.
Pamela Sue Martin was working as a child model before she got her big break on screen in 1972's The Poseidon Adventure, which became an Academy Award-winning and box office success. She became a major starlet in The '70s with many popular roles to her name, notably playing Nancy Drew in The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries. Her success continued into the next decade when she was cast as Fallon Carrington in the hit soap opera Dynasty (1981), but she suddenly left after the fourth season (with the character written off as missing and presumed dead before being recast with Emma Samms). Following her departure from Dynasty, she has only acted sporadically.
Samantha Mathis got an adequate push in The '90s starting with her film debut in 1990's Pump Up the Volume opposite her then-boyfriend Christian Slater, which was helped by her being the daughter of actress Bibi Besch. Her next major film was the hated Box Office Bomb Super Mario Bros. (1993), where she played Princess Daisy. Her career, thanks to roles in films such as Little Women (1994), The American President, Broken Arrow (1996), and American Psycho, stayed afloat for most of the decade, but she wasn't in a major project for four years after the last one until The Punisher (2004), where she played the titular character's dead wife. It underperformed too, sending her career hurtling downwards. Mathis seldom acts these days, while she's mostly known now for dating Slater and River Phoenix. Morbidly, she was on the scene when Phoenix suffered his fatal drug overdose in 1993. Mathis claims the onslaught of media exposure she endured following his death made her more reticent plus less willing to be cast in high-profile projects.
Kelly McGillis had a spectacular debut in The '80s: making her film debut in the 1983 dramedy Reuben, Reuben before reaching the A-list with roles in the smash hits Witness and Top Gun. She starred as a young Amish mother alongside Harrison Ford in the former, which made over $100 million worldwide and became lauded during awards season with eight Academy Award nominations (while snubbed there, McGillis did get a Golden Globe nomination for her performance). The latter, where she starred opposite Tom Cruise, became one of the biggest movies and a cultural touchstone of the decade, grossing over $357 million worldwide. She amassed further critical acclaim with her performance in The Accused, working alongside Jodie Foster (who would earn her first Academy Award for it). She was on top of the world… and then her next film, Cat Chaser, sent her hype plunging back down. It became a Troubled Production that got even worse when McGillis developed growing antipathy for director Abel Ferrara and co-star Peter Weller. The finished film was consigned Direct to Video after poor test screenings, while McGillis was so disillusioned by the experience she ceased acting for two years. Although she resumed in several made-for-TV films and onstage, she didn't reclaim the fame she had in the '80s. She wasn't even offered to reprise her Top Gun role for its 2022 sequel Top Gun: Maverick. Post-the '80s, her most notable theatrical film role was a minor part as an Amish mom (referencing her Witness role) in the critically derided 1994 Box Office Bomb North.
Rose McGowan became a cult favorite in The '90s thanks to The Doom Generation. She got a lot of public notoriety for her 'edgy' image (and relationship with Marilyn Manson) and a prominent supporting role in the Sleeper Hit Scream (1996). It all looked ready to make her a star...except the latter was also the film after which she was raped by Harvey Weinstein, who proceeded to blacklist her from Hollywood afterwards. While she was able to keep working thanks to Aaron Spelling offering her a role in Charmed (1998) (ironically after Shannen Doherty was fired), she still suffered from Harvey Weinstein being the distributor of her high profile Grindhouse roles - and Robert Rodriguez alleges that he buried the films out of spite. She was attached to remakes of Red Sonja and Barbarella for years that never saw the light of day, and she also suffered setbacks when a botched plastic surgery led to a drastic change in her looks (though the lie circulated was that she was in a car accident and it was reconstructive surgery). In The New '10s, she got fed up with Hollywood politics and helped expose the culture of sexual abuse and corruption - leading to a renewed career now as a feminist activist, with her memoir Brave going bestseller. She also expressed an interest in directing.
Zoe McLellan tried and failed to become a movie star via Dungeons & Dragons (2000), which also killed Thora Birch's career as well. She, though, soon established a good career in television during The Aughts and continuing into The New '10s with numerous hits including JAG, Dirty Sexy Money, NCIS: New Orleans, etc. However, McLellan got entangled in a bog of legal issues midway through the 2010s after her divorce worsened into several prolonged custody battles for her son. Following a stint on the second season of Designated Survivor and some made-for-TV films, she hasn't starred in any screen projects ever since 2019. McLellan and her son fell off the grid around 2020, with an arrest warrant put out against her the next year for kidnapping and other charges.
Kristy McNichol started out as a child star in The '70s, before clinching a big popularity boost upon being cast in the TV series Family. The show got her two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, with studios using that push to try making her into a leading lady. Things began pretty well with some hits early on in The '80s like The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia (for which she received a huge six-figure salary in 1981, unprecedented for a teenager back then) and Only When I Laugh, only to soon worsen. First, she appeared in the Samuel Fuller-directed White Dog. It was afflicted with significant controversy because of its touchy subject matter about a dog trained to attack black people, which reduced its distribution to a limited release abroad and cancelled outright from theaters in America. Though well-received by critics in its initial run and eventually reevaluated by the general public as a powerful anti-racism parable decades later, it still was an acclaimed flop. Her following project, The Pirate Movie, became a humongous critical and box office bomb, with McNichol nabbing a Razzie nomination for Worst Actress thanks to it. In 1982, amidst filming of Just the Way You Are, McNichol, who held a documented history of emotional disturbance, distress, and turbulence, suffered a mental breakdown, which delayed filming for over a year while she sought help. Decades later, she disclosed that her nervous collapse was provoked by a mix of the pressures of childhood celebrity plus anguish from her closeted homosexuality during an epoch of ingrained homophobia in the United States. While McNichol kept working in The '80s and The '90s (notably on the TV series Empty Nest), she didn't recover the popularity she had before officially declaring her acting retirement in 2001 and publicly coming out as a lesbian in 2012. Nowadays, McNichol's happy and content living a normal, quiet life out of the limelight and liberated from the stresses of excessive stardom and publicity.
Leighton Meester was hyped as a potential breakout after the popularity of Gossip Girl. However, starring in four huge flops between 2011 and 2012, from The Roommate to That's My Boy, erased her chances at future stardom, though Leighton herself was praised as being better than the material. After Gossip Girl ended, she turned to indie film and forged a slightly successful music career – but nothing with the high profile she once had. She did have a three-year run on the series Single Parents before it was cancelled due to low viewership, so time will tell.
Penelope Ann Miller had an unremarkable career in The '80s before hitting it big in 1990 with supporting roles in three of the year's most popular films: The Freshman, Awakenings, and Kindergarten Cop. She was on her way to seal her fame in The '90s with roles in Chaplin and Carlito's Way, only to see her hype get killed off by the failures of The Shadow and The Relic. Miller keeps working today (notably having a minor part in The Artist), but mostly in rather low-budget fare.
Kelly Jo Minter already made some TV appearances before her film debut in the well-received Mask (1985), which was the first of many high-profile films for her in the later '80s and the early '90s (Summer School, The Lost Boys, The Principal, Miracle Mile, A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, House Party, New Jack City, Popcorn, Out for Justice, Doc Hollywood, and The People Under the Stairs). But Minter's projects became more sparse in the latter half of the '90s, and she didn't make a single appearance between 2008 to 2019.
Beverley Mitchell got her beginning on 7th Heaven alongside Jessica Biel, and also had a little part in Saw II. However, the machine never truly got behind Mitchell as it did with Biel. While Biel at least attained a few roles in some major blockbusters (notwithstanding their eventual status as massive flops), Mitchell's popularity didn't rise beyond a part on The Secret Life of the American Teenager.
Gretchen Mol was touted as another "It Girl" when she debuted in Rounders. It didn't pan out, with Rounders doing middling business, and even she (with newfound indie-cred from playing the lead role in The Notorious Bettie Page) admits that it was a particularly bad example building up an unprepared starlet. She is doing quite well with films and a recurring role on critical favorite Boardwalk Empire.
Demi Moore has had various ups and downs, but has been hyped a lot. She was the most successful member of the Brat Pack and went on to some major success in The '80s, but several huge box office bombs in The '90s completely derailed her star. The Scarlet Letter was universally loathed by critics, and Striptease, a wannabe star-defining role for which she earned the then-highest paycheck of any female in Hollywood history, was another mega-bomb. She vanished for literally a decade, only resurfacing in a storm of hype from her hot body (despite entering her forties) in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle and from marrying a much younger man, Ashton Kutcher, which failed to amount to anything. Now, since her breakup with Kutcher and subsequent dating of an even younger man, she's best known as "that older woman who's into younger guys."
Cathy Moriarty went from being an amateur model in New York to a Hollywood sensation overnight upon getting the part of boxer Jake LaMotta's wife Vikki in Raging Bull, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro as the troubled boxer. Suggested for the role by Joe Pesci, who had already joined the film and was aiding the two with casting other parts, the movie, though not a box office success, was critically raved regardless, with her debut performance getting her nominated for many accolades like an Academy Award. Her next film, Neighbors (1981), which she starred alongside Dan Aykroyd and the late John Belushi, was a financial hit despite its mixed reviews, but then her career ascent halted after she was hurt in a car accident, thus resulting in her needing back surgery. Moriarty didn't act for six years afterwards, and when she returned it was often in minor parts. While she keeps on working till this day, her Raging Bull hype has dissipated.
Haviland Morris had a small but familiar side presence in The '80s beginning with her supporting role as Caroline Mulford in Sixteen Candles, and continuing with an array of other films like the sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch. She worked less frequently in The '90s, as her next film after Gremlins 2 was Home Alone 3 seven years later and only a sparse amount of television appearances in-between. She still pops up sporadically on screen, but her main occupation nowadays is as a real estate agent.
Sophia Myles got started on British television before moving to Hollywood in the 2000s, with things fine at first with a supporting role as Erika in Underworld opposite Kate Beckinsale (and returning for the sequel Evolution). Unfortunately, her attempts at being a film lead failed after Thunderbirds plus Tristan and Isolde bombed terribly. Following a failed crack at American TV when Moonlight got abysmal ratings and reviews, Myles has mostly gone back and worked on British television aside from a minor part in Transformers: Age of Extinction.
Kate Nelligan mostly did theatre work (which got her nominated for a Tony Award four times) in her initial career, barring roles in occasional hits like Dracula (1979) and Eye of the Needle. But she got major exposure in the late '80s and early '90s, with her Emmy-nominated work in the Canadian drama Road to Avonlea, followed by critically praised supporting performances in Frankie & Johnny and The Prince of Tides (with the latter film getting Nelligan an Oscar nomination). Despite efforts to extend her success over the rest of the decade, she unfortunately never reached the heights of that brief period. Her last major role was in 2010, with a guest appearance on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
Rachel Nichols nearly had her acting career torpedoed out of the game by her full debut (after a small appearance in an episode of Sex and the City) in Dumb and Dumberer, but gradually built her career up again in television, most prominently with a recurring role on Alias, and got a second chance at a big-screen career with Star Trek (2009) and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, with the former being a critical and commercial hit (albeit Nichols was a bit of an Advertised Extra), and the latter at least being financially successful despite mediocre reviews. However, her next two roles, Conan the Barbarian (2011) and Alex Cross, both ended up being critical and commercial failures which permanently sunk her career, with all her subsequent credits being in either television or direct-to-DVD/streaming films.
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen catapulted to household name status overnight with the immense success of Full House and they received a huge push after the show ended but never attained the same level of stardom. Their subsequent series of straight-to-VHS films received a lukewarm critical reception but proved highly profitable financially even as the twins became more known for their presence in the tabloids than any particular acting performances. After 2004's New York Minute was a Box Office Bomb the Olsen twins retired from acting to focus on their fashion career, which has been incredibly profitable. They also continue to be paid well from royalties so the lack of acting work isn't an issue for them.
Julia Ormond was unknown in the US when she landed lead roles in three big, very hyped-up, mid-nineties films (Legends of the Fall, First Knight, and Sabrina, the 1995 remake of the 1954 namesake film), starring opposite such actors as Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, Sean Connery, Richard Gere, Harrison Ford, and Greg Kinnear, but all three were box-office and/or critical failures. Whereas her male co-stars were able to rebound with other projects, Ormond hasn't had a leading role since then. She's still working as a character actress, but she never became the "star" Hollywood expected. Ironically, one of her later roles was a supporting role as Vivien Leigh in My Week with Marilyn; during promotional campaigns for those three previous films, Ormond herself was hyped up as "the next Vivien Leigh."
Victoria Principal's screen career started with roles in The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean and Earthquake, among other films. However, she only became a household name later in The '70s when she was cast as Pamela Barnes Ewing in the prime time soap Dallas. During her tenure, she held unexpected power as her own advocate in contract negotiations with CBS and autonomy that few actresses were lucky enough to possess. She stayed on the series for over ten seasons before departing in 1987, during which she expanded her media influence in music (notably collaborating with then-boyfriend Andy Gibb, on his cover single of "All I Have to Do Is Dream") plus print (writing three books on self-care). She mostly did TV films after leaving Dallas, before retiring from acting in 2001. However, she also formed her own profitable cosmetics line post-Dallas. The huge success of Principal Skincare, which contributes to her massive $350 million net worth, shows that she has no need to worry.
Denise Richards started out with mostly mediocre movies until she got the role of military pilot Carmen Ibáñez in Starship Troopers and an all-star nude role in Wild Things, making her a household name (amongst men) overnight. A bit of the Hype Machine got underway, but most of her subsequent films were trashed by critics and weren't too successful at the box-office (with the exception of The World Is Not Enough, and that was hardly down to her, it being a James Bond film; in fact, one of the most mocked/derided aspects of said film was that Richards wasn't convincing in her role of a nuclear scientist). She stopped doing nudity and vanished from Hollywood within the year. A failed marriage to Charlie Sheen later, and she's now more tabloid-bait than an actual star. She now appears on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and The Bold and the Beautiful.
Molly Ringwald is a notorious case of this. She seemed set for great things after the trifecta of Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink with writer/director John Hughes, and she even made the cover of Time magazine when she was eighteen. However, a vicious split from Hughes and many failed attempts to extend her appeal to audiences utterly destroyed her future as a leading lady. After the failure of Betsy's Wedding in 1990, Ringwald has rarely been on the silver screen. She also declined the lead female roles in a few successful movies: like Pretty Woman, Ghost, Days of Thunder, Edward Scissorhands, A League of Their Own, Jerry Maguire, and Scream. She since has retreated to television.
The CGI actress Aki Ross from Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was supposed to have a long "career". The intention was for the computer model created for the movie to be used in projects unrelated to Final Fantasy and spanning multiple media formats (movies, games, etc.). "She" even got a photo spread in Maxim, including a plot on their "Hottest Women" list, and was promoted as the very first in what would be a long line of virtual actors. The failure of the movie to even recoup its astronomical production costs, and the subsequent collapse of the studio that financed it, resulted in a somewhat shorter career than numerous magazines had been predicting. It also ensured that the trend of "virtual actors" was stillborn, no doubt leading many SAG members to breathe sighs of relief (and ensuring that the Hype Machine would remain necessary for the foreseeable future).
Kelly Rutherford started out on television and eventually landed her breakout role on the primetime soap opera Melrose Place in 1996, coming on board in the fifth season and staying until it ended in 1999. Following a bit part in Scream 3 the next year, her input was unremarkable for a temporary interval before she was cast as matriarch Lily van der Woodsen in Gossip Girl. Though a main cast member for the entirety of its run, her career soon sank after its conclusion in 2012 when she was swamped by a litany of legal issues regarding her divorce and custody of her two children (see here). It got so bad that she filed for bankruptcy; she hasn't been in anything big since.
Michelle Ryan initially made a name for herself as Zoe Slater on EastEnders, and had several other popular roles in her native UK, causing her to become the favourite to succeed Billie Piper as the main companion on Doctor Who in 2006. And while she lost out on that part to Freema Agyeman, Ryan got what could have been an even bigger break when she was brought across the Atlantic to play the title role in Bionic Woman. However, the series was cancelled after only eight episodes due to poor audience reactions combined with a writers' strike, forcing Ryan to return to the UK. Afterwards, she finally got her chance to appear in Doctor Who as one-off companion Lady Christina de Souza, only for her performance to get a reception that could best be described as unenthusiastic. Getting such a mediocre reaction in what had been seen as her natural role all but ended her career prospects, with only sporadic film and television roles in the years ahead before her career was derailed completely by the horribly-received 2015 Alec Baldwin vehicle Andròn: The Black Labyrinth.
ABC in the early 2000s attempted to push Kiele Sanchez in anything they could, first in the three-episode flop That Was Then, and later in the sitcom Married to the Kellys without stirring up much in ratings or interest in the actress. Her role as the female half of the infamous Nikki and Paulo couple on Lost finally ended any interest in building her up, upon which Nikki and Paulo were hastily dropped. After a run on Samantha Who? to finish up her ABC deal, Sanchez eventually found steady work on the A&E series The Glades and DirecTV's Kingdom.
Mia Sara made a stellar debut in the mid-'80s with her first roles in Legend (1985) and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. She continued thriving into the next decade with films like Timecop, and also became the first actress to portray Harley Quinn in live-action on Birds of Prey (2002).^note However, her hype waned after the latter was cancelled and led her to quit acting in 2013.
Reiko Sato, who played Helen in Flower Drum Song, was a new contract player for both Fox and Universal, and was getting personal coaching from Marlon Brando. She got to play his wife in The Ugly American right after this, but nothing materialized further and she quickly retired from Hollywood.
Annabella Sciorra debuted in the 1989 independent comedy True Love before picking up steam during The '90s by starring in many of that decade's hit films, including Internal Affairs, Reversal of Fortune, The Hard Way, Jungle Fever, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, and Cop Land. She, however, slowly faded from relevance in the next decade as her input withered into television, though she did garner critical praise for her guest run on Season 3 of The Sopranos. She later revealed that she was sexually assaulted in the mid-'90s by Harvey Weinstein, who used his influence to limit her career opportunities afterwards. In the wake of the #MeToo movement, Sciorra's career began recovering with roles on the Netflix series GLOW (2017) as well as the MCU series Daredevil (2015) and Luke Cage (2016).
Big things were expected for Brooke Shields after she appeared in Pretty Baby, being compared often with Elizabeth Taylor. However, attempts to turn into a major star In the Style of Hayley Mills with Tilt, Wanda Nevada and Just You and Me, Kid all failed to impress either critics or audiences. The Blue Lagoon, while a financial success and a Cult Classic nowadays, didn't receive great reviews, and she was "awarded" the first Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress. Endless Love (1981) which was supposed to be her Star-Making Role, turned out to be a disappointment, only saved by its namesake Breakaway Pop Hit by Lionel Richie. Around the same time, she attempted to buy the negatives from a photo shoot her Stage Mom commissioned for a Playboy Press publication titled Sugar ’n’ Spice, but a judge rejected her plea. Two years later, she unsuccessfully fought to ban the distribution of the photos. She didn't appear in a major motion picture until Sahara, but this time, her fall from grace became clear: she already became Famous for Being Famous, other than being known as a model. She also declined the lead female roles in a few successful movies like Splash, Footloose, The Princess Bride, Dirty Dancing, and Pretty Woman. While Shields moved on to doing stage and television work, she did not become the star the mainstream press once hyped.
Alicia Silverstone exploded into Hollywood in 1995 thanks to Clueless, gaining so much fame that she even had a 3-picture deal with Columbia that even gave her a production company, First Kiss Productions, to call her own. The summer of 1997 completely derailed her career before it could continue, thanks to the one-two-punch of serial career killer Batman & Robin and her company's first (and only) project, Excess Baggage, becoming a major flop. Afterwards, she choose to spend the 2000s focusing on smaller indie films and theatre. She did still show up in some big roles - notably Braceface and Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed - but the poor critical reception of Beauty Shop, her attempted comeback in Stormbreaker becoming a Stillborn Franchise and several cancelled pilots didn't help. Silverstone nowadays is remembered as a quintessential One-Hit Wonder in the acting world, and is now more well-known for her political/social activism and promoting her vegan lifestyle.
Helen Slater received a big pushback in The '80s. It started with Supergirl, which was unfortunately a flop. Her next project was The Legend of Billie Jean, which she hoped would be her breakout role but was a box office disappointment instead. However, it did later get a cult following from TV airings. She did have notable successes in Ruthless People, The Secret of My Success and City Slickers but work seemed to dry up in The '90s. While she's still working away, she's best known as Supergirl; and her high profile work is usually something that acknowledges this, such as Smallville or Supergirl (2015).
Leelee Sobieski started her acting career in her teens during The '90s which, after an uneven beginning with Jungle 2 Jungle alongside Tim Allen (see Actors), steadily got better with bigger roles in Deep Impact, Never Been Kissed, Eyes Wide Shut, and Joy Ride. She also got an Emmy Award nomination for playing Joan of Arc in the 1999 miniseries. Sadly, The Glass House failing abysmally upon its 2001 release damaged her career. From then on, her filmography began dwindling in quality when films she was in next, like The Wicker Man (2006), In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, and 88 Minutes, got even worse reception. She also developed a growing dissatisfaction towards how most roles and movies were sexualized or focused on sex. In 2012, Sobieski announced that she was quitting acting. She's now content as a mom raising her kids away from celebrity culture, as well as taking up a new career as an artist under her married name Kimmel.
Mira Sorvino followed her father Paul Sorvino into acting, being cast in and winning an Academy Award for the Woody Allen comedy Mighty Aphrodite. Sorvino, hence, got lead roles in diverse genres like romance (Beautiful Girls), comedy (Romy and Michele's High School Reunion), horror (Mimic), action (The Replacement Killers), and drama (Summer of Sam), but none of them were hits besides Romy and Michele. She revealed decades later that Harvey Weinstein sexually harassed her and sabotaged her career, slandering her as a tough person to work with. She thus went on a mostly low-profile route while in between raising her family and supporting charitable causes. Starting in The New '20s, she slowly made a return with roles in Hollywood, American Crime Story: Impeachment, and Shining Vale. In 2023, she was on Dancing with the Stars and starred in the Sleeper Hit Sound of Freedom.
Shannyn Sossamon was another teen actor turned media darling who catapulted herself into the A-List in 2001-2002 with roles in A Knight's Tale, 40 Days and 40 Nights, and The Rules of Attraction. Afterwards, she spent the rest of the decade starring in a long string of indie films and TV work (most notably on the short-lived CBS vampire series Moonlight) that failed to drum up any major following.
Tori Spelling was given, as a teenager, acting lessons paid for by her father, prominent producer Aaron Spelling. After several guest spots on TV, she got her breakthrough role at seventeen years old on her father's teen drama series Beverly Hills, 90210 as Donna Martin. Spelling remained onboard the series for its entire duration on the air but didn't find much success beyond it. Aside from returning for various 90210-related media, she doesn't appear much on screen these days besides reality TV.
Catherine Mary Stewart made her acting debut in The Apple, which was intended to make her a star but instead derailed it before it could begin. She continued working for the rest of The '80s on television (with a year-long stint on Days of Our Lives) and film (with minor hits including The Last Starfighter and Weekend at Bernie's), but failed to become the star she was hyped up as initially. Stewart faded from relevance after that decade, with her output since mostly being Made-for-TV Movie fare.
Julia Stiles was poised to become a superstar in the 2000s after the successes of 10 Things I Hate About You and Save the Last Dance, as well as her association with The Bourne Identity and its sequels. But a series of questionable projects - The Prince & Me, A Guy Thing, and the remake of The Omen - caused critics to sour towards her and she found herself disappearing from the spotlight.
Dominique Swain received a lucky break as a teenager in 1997 with two big roles: playing the title character in Adrian Lyne's adaptation of Lolita opposite Jeremy Irons, and the rebellious daughter of John Travolta in Face/Off. Unfortunately, none of her following roles or films got her the same amount of exposure or acclaim those films did. She mostly works in independent cinema nowadays.
Kristy Swanson got a minor push in the late '80s and early '90s, first with One-Scene Wonder roles in Pretty in Pink and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Lead roles came in the form of Flowers in the Attic and Buffy the Vampire Slayer - but the sequel to the former was cancelled and the latter got retooled into the more famous TV series with Sarah Michelle Gellar as the lead. The failure of The Phantom caused high profile roles to dry up for her, and she drifted towards guest spots on TV and TV movies. She's also known nowadays recently for her outspoken conservative political views.
Heather Thomas started acting in her teens before landing the role of Jody Banks in The Fall Guy, which was a hit show for ABC in The '80s which lasted five seasons. However, she also developed a cocaine addiction around that time and subsequently went into rehab. Her shot for the big screen vanished, after Zapped! (1982) with Scott Baio (see Actors) was poorly received. After several unsuccessful projects, Thomas retired from acting in 1998.
Charlene Tilton got her Star-Making Role as J.R. Ewing's niece Lucy on the Prime Time Soap Dallas and soon became a fan favorite, with a larger role as the series continued. At the peak of her Dallas fame, she was paid a $50,000 salary per episode and appeared on at least 500 magazine covers. Unfortunately, Tilton never found a hit career outside of Dallas. Her attempts in film went nowhere, nor did any other television series she worked on nab the same popularity as Dallas. After being one of the biggest starlets of The '80s, Tilton's primarily known as a relic of that era these days. Since then, her highest-profile work was returning as Lucy Ewing for a recurring part on the 2012 revival of Dallas.
Kathleen Turner acquired her breakthrough part as a merciless Femme Fatale in the 1981 neo-noir Body Heat opposite William Hurt, with that film's critical and commercial success making her one of the most highly sought-after actresses in The '80s. Her popularity reached its zenith when Romancing the Stone, Prizzi's Honor, Peggy Sue Got Married (which got her an Oscar nomination), The Accidental Tourist, and The War of the Roses hit big, only to nosedive in The '90s starting with V.I. Warshawski, which was based off a book series and intended to be the first of several films derived from it, but instead became a Stillborn Franchise. She soon developed worsening rheumatoid arthritis around this time which, in a sequence of increasingly bad misfortunes, ruined her good looks, made her easy fodder for negative press who called her ugly, then drove her to alcoholism. While she did acquire infamy in her heyday for supposedly being a difficult person to work with, those health problems exacerbated her mood while disinclining many filmmakers and actors from having her around. Turner's movies for most of the '90s, like Undercover Blues, Serial Mom, A Simple Wish, and Baby Geniuses, failed to be profitable, or were torn apart by critics and audiences (besides an adaptation of The Virgin Suicides by Sofia Coppola). She mostly does stage or television work following that decade, with occasional film roles like in Marley & Me and Dumb and Dumber To. Still, that's a far cry from her glory days.
Kate Upton became one of the foremost models of the early-mid 2010s, and after a few roles such as in the 2012 The Three Stooges film, she was cast as one of the three female leads in The Other Woman (2014). Her performance was regarded as middling at best, and the film got poor reviews, but was a financial hit regardless. Somewhat unusually, what really sank her acting career was a widely-derided commercial for the video game Game of War: Fire Age, with Upton's acting and the general emphasis on using her as a Ms. Fanservice at the expense of any information about the game both coming in for criticism. A few more minor film and TV roles followed until the turn of the decade, when Upton ended her acting and modelling careers and essentially retired from public life in order to focus on raising her daughter.
Nancy Valen could be regarded as a starlet who unfortunately never got any traction in her career. After a couple of bit parts in movies (such as Porky's Revenge and Loverboy as Patrick Dempsey's love interest) and TV (such as Miami Vice and Charles in Charge), she got the cover of TV Guide as one of the stars of an ill-fated attempt at a TV musical drama series on NBC called Hull High. Like Steven Bochco's similar show Cop Rock on ABC, it failed after only a few episodes. After that, she went back to occasional guest-starring roles on TV (like Murder, She Wrote, Full House, Boy Meets World, Friends, Walker, Texas Ranger and perhaps most notably, in the second season of Saved by the Bell as the sexy new school nurse in a role that was originally meant for swimsuit model Kathy Ireland) and appearing in small B-Movie roles. Oddly enough, at least twice she seemed poised to get a long-term role which suddenly evaporated. The first occurred on the late-night USA Network series Silk Stalkings. After appearing as an IRS auditor in Season 3, she returned in Season 4 to play the role of Dr. Jillian Michaels, who became the love interest of Detective Chris Lorenzo (Rob Estes), one of the show's two main characters, but the storyline was never continued. Two years later, she got her gig on Baywatch as the new lieutenant, Samantha "Sam" Thomas (which is pretty much her best-known acting role), who was brought in to replace the long-running character Lt. Stephanie Holden, played by Alexandra Paul. That particular season ended with Sam in bed with none other than David Hasselhoff himself with the two of them discussing how to break the news of their relationship to Hasslehoff's on-screen son, Hobie. So everything seemed set for her to return the next year with an expanded role as Mitch Buchanan's girlfriend and partner in command. Alas, that didn't happen. Baywatch instead returned with even more former Playboy Playmates, including Carmen Electra and Angelica Bridges as the newer lieutenant, and Nancy Valen's character Samantha had disappeared with no explanation. After guest-appearing during the final season of Spin City, Valen seemed to go into semi-retirement from acting. She only had two more roles (last appearing in the 2007 Christian drama film The Wager) only to resurface as an infomercial host.
Nia Vardalos came out of nowhere to star in and write My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which became the biggest indie film and romantic comedy of all-time. After getting an Academy Award nomination for her script, big things were expected from her. However, her star fell as soon as it rose with a series of flops (the TV spinoff My Big Fat Greek Life, Connie and Carla) and she faded back into obscurity. A couple attempts at a comeback (starring in 2009's My Life in Ruins and writing 2011's Larry Crowne) resulted in critical drubbing and box office failure (the latter was also a rare misstep for Tom Hanks), before My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 saw her get her career somewhat back on-track.
Susan Ward was hyped as a potential "next big thing" after marrying one of the heads of Morgan Creek and having a movie built around her (The In Crowd). Then, the movie bombed and her hype fell as fast as it rose. She's better known nowadays for her extensive plastic surgeries rather than the numerous Direct to Video films she appears in or her regular role on the first two seasons of Make It or Break It.
Canadian competitive swimmer Estella Warren got a huge push as an actress in 2001 when she starred as the love interest and femme fatale in two major Hollywood films — Planet of the Apes (2001) and the Sylvester Stallone racing film Driven. That, along with dating her Driven co-star Kip Pardue and landing a spot on Maxim's Hot 100 Babe List before she had a single film out, did a lot to jumpstart her fledgling career in spite of both films' middling box office and scathing reviews. However, Kangaroo Jack killed any momentum she had. What followed were a string of unsuccessful direct-to-video flops and indie films, along with an unsuccessful marketing push in 2005 (features in FHM and a supporting role in Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), which was cut prior to the film's release). These days, she's more well-known for her tabloid antics (including trying to break out of a police station after being arrested) than her film career.
Claudia Wells did television prior to being cast as Jennifer Parker in Back to the Future, whose huge success would've made it her Star-Making Role. But when her mother was diagnosed with cancer shortly after its release, Wells took an acting hiatus to tend to her and told studios she would be unable to reprise her role for the sequels (with Elisabeth Shue being cast as her replacement for them). She returned to acting in The New '10s, but often in Direct to Video work. Her boutique Armani Wells, which she opened in 1991, is her main source of income now.
Gabriella Wilde's claim to fame was initially as a model in the UK before moving to screen work, with bit parts in St. Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold and Doctor Who. She then got bigger roles in The Three Musketeers (2011), Carrie (2013), and the 2014 remake of Endless Love, but they each garnered mixed to negative reception. Wilde later starred on the British historical drama Poldark and made a small appearance in Wonder Woman 1984, but hasn't been in anything since that last one in 2020.
Meadow Williams started out doing bit parts in various '90s films, like The Mask and Apollo 13. After years as an actress failed to generate any success, Williams pivoted to producing instead. This venture was bolstered in 2015 when she, following the death of her husband, vitamin tycoon multi-millionaire Gerald Kessler, inherited the bulk of his $800 million estate, which was contested by his children from his past marriage. Among the films she produced (and starred in) was After. She later produced American Traitor: The Trial of Axis Sally in 2021, additionally casting herself as the lead role of American-born Nazi propagandist Mildred Gillars. Despite finagling such eminent actors like Al Pacino and Thomas Kretschmann into starring in the film, it was horribly received. Pacino later declared his unhappiness working on the film, saying that her conduct as an actor and a producer was unprofessional and bad.
Mara Wilson was a self-inflicted example. A child star in The '90s, she received lots of fame for her memorable turn in Mrs. Doubtfire, and was enough to convince John Hughes to cast her in the planned male role in the remake of Miracle on 34th Street. The film was a massive success, and her next was probably her most iconic - the title character in Matilda. During Matilda's production, her mother passed away and led to several years of her struggling with the grief for that while also trying to keep working (even though she was only eight) - as well as struggling with body image issues as she entered puberty. Her father's refusal to let her do films and TV work that would potentially destroy her family-friendly image led to her passing on scripts like Thirteen (2003) and Arrested Development. Her final film was Thomas and the Magic Railroad, after which she decided to quit acting to focus on schoolwork. She never went back, and instead found renewed success in voice acting and as a writer – to the extent that some people know her more for her writing than Matilda.
Sean Young first showed promise as Rachael in Blade Runner, and got a major push with No Way Out (1987) and Wall Street. But then the one role that could really cement her as a star, Vicki Vale in Batman, wound up landing with the aforementioned Kim Basinger after Young injured herself in a horseback accident. What followed were poor role choices to hamper a possibility of taking off as a leading lady, and Hollywood also turned on her for less than savory off-screen behavior (most infamously, she showed up at Warner Bros. studios in a homemade Catwoman costume downright demanding to get the role in Batman Returns), ultimately leading to a Creator Breakdown with well-publicized drug and alcohol issues. After 1994's Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Young's most high profile acting gigs revolved around returning to Rachael, first voicing her in a Blade Runner game, and decades later having her likeness used in Blade Runner 2049.
Pia Zadora is a notorious example from The '80s. After years of bit parts (including a small role in Santa Claus Conquers the Martians as a child), her bid for fame started when she married billionaire Meshulam Riklis in 1977. Her career peaked in 1981 when she won the Golden Globe for Best New Star of the Year for the film Butterfly, which was largely financed by Riklis. However, it has long been rumored that Riklis had "bought" Pia her Golden Globe by financing lavish trips to Las Vegas for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, allegations not helped by the fact that her performance also won her two Razzies for Worst Actress and Worst New Star. She won the Worst Actress Razzie again the following year for her performance in The Lonely Lady^note, a film that essentially killed her acting career and left her doing small parts and cameos. She wound up having far more success as a singer, even earning a Grammy nomination in 1984.

Hollywood Hype Machine / Actresses That Didnt Hold Up

Previous

Index

Next

Hollywood Hype Machine / Actresses That Didnt Hold Up

Edit Locked

Previous

Index

Next