What's the worst final movie of an actor's career?

[dantheman]

A lot of people are interested in how stars got their starts - what was their big break, what role was the turning point in their career.

But not me. I'm more interested in how they left us!

Some actors go out in style, with their final movie appearance being at worst a fine film, and at best a classic.

Others go out in disgrace, making bad films because they need the money, or because their egos got in the way of sound, sensible decisions.

So what are your choices for the Worst Final Movie in an Actor's Career?

Here are some from me, off the top of my head:

Flesh Feast (1969) - Veronica Lake. She coproduced it, too; she hadn't acted since the late 1940s.

Hillbillies in a Haunted House (1967) - Basil Rathbone. No longer the swashbucklin' foil of yesteryear, or Sherlock Holmes.

The Sinister Invasion (1968) - Boris Karloff. He actually made four films virtually simultaneously in 1968, all in Mexico.

[Coldfire]

Cafe Society

[dantheman]

:smack: :smack: :smack: :smack:

I'm so freaking dumb. That's the second time I've done that.

[Eve]

As much as Bette Davis and Joan Crawford disliked each other, they have to be posthumously snickering at Trog (Joan) and The Wicked Stepmother (Bette).

[gobear]

The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu, a gawdawful "comedy" starring Peter Sellers. Released a few weeks after Sellers' death, and only a year after his Oscar-nominated performance in Being There, this shabby bit of celluloid was a low end to a great career.

[dantheman]

And Bette walked off the set of Wicked Stepmother, too.

[amarinth]

Raul Julia ended with "Street Fighter" based on the video game

[astorian]

Well, I can give you a two-fer:

"Dracula vs. Frankenstein"

One of the worst horror movies ever made... around 1970 or so. And it marked the last film appearance ever for two well-known actors: Lon Chaney Junior and J. Carroll Naish.

Not the way I want to remember either guy

[dantheman]

According to IMdB, Raul Julia was in Down Came a Blackbird, a cable film released in 1995. I think that's his last role.

Also, Sellers died during the filming IIRC of Trail of the Pink Panther in 1982 (wasn't that the one where they had to use a replacement for some scenes?).

[fiddlesticks]

More recent history...
Raul Julia - Street Fighter.

There is an asterisk though, according to imdb.com he appeared a fairly well reviewed TV movie called Down Came a Blackbird which came out after Street Fighter. Can't say which project he finished last...

[fiddlesticks]

Damn, triple-simulpost! :D

[middleman]

What a great topic idea. I have nothing to contribute, but I like the topic!

[Fibonacci]

No contest.
Bela Lugosi in Plan 9 From Outer Space.
Recognized as the worst film ever made.
Bela died during filming, so they used a stand in to finish.
It doesn't get more ignoble.

[dantheman]

Another:

Errol Flynn's final movie was Cuban Rebel Girls (1959). In the movie (which also featured Flynn's final girlfriend, 15-year-old Beverly Aadland) Flynn, playing himself, aids the rebels overthrowing the Batista regime. Yes! He helps Castro!

[divemaster]

Man, I'm always late when I have a good answer!



Peter Sellers

[zev_steinhardt]

Arthur Godfrey's last film was Angel's Brigade (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0078778) (also known as Angel's Revenge for all you MST3K fans out there...). Now there's a stinker.

Zev Steinhardt

[Lute Skywatcher]

Jackie Gleason: Nothing in Common
Steve McQueen: The Hunter

[Dr. Rieux]

Originally posted by gobear
The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu, a gawdawful "comedy" starring Peter Sellers. Released a few weeks after Sellers' death, and only a year after his Oscar-nominated performance in Being There, this shabby bit of celluloid was a low end to a great career. No, You're thinking of David Niven (Sellers died twqo years earlier).
In additon to the double, Rich Little dubbed some of Niven's lines.

[Lute Skywatcher]

I think Mae West's final movie is more in-line with the OP.
Sextette (http://us.imdb.com/Details?0078238)

[ultrafilter]

Orson Welles died shortly after doing the voice of Unicron in Transformers: The Movie.

[Ellen Cherry]

No contest.
Bela Lugosi in Plan 9 From Outer Space.
Recognized as the worst film ever made.
Bela died during filming, so they used a stand in to finish.
It doesn't get more ignoble.

Have you seen "Ed Wood"? Rent it. It helps.

[Lute Skywatcher]

ultrafilter just reminded me of Sorrell Booke, who also ended his career by doing voicework for animated features. His final credit was Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation, before that was Rock-A-Doodle.

[ResIpsaLoquitor]

Don't forget John Candy's performance in the lackluster Wagons East shortly before his death.

And hey...Welles was brilliant as Unicron, darnit.

[TV time]

One assumes that the remake of Planet of the Apes will be Charlton Heston's final film. For a great career of playing in some really well done films, it is something of an ignoble end.

One hopes that whatever Pauli Shore did last will be his final film.

[gobear]

Also, Sellers died during the filming IIRC of Trail of the Pink Panther in 1982 (wasn't that the one where they had to use a replacement for some scenes?).

According to IMDB (http://us.imdb.com/Name?Sellers,+Peter), Sellers died 24 July 1980. Trail of the Pink Panther was released in 1982. Blake Edwards used clips from previous Pink Panther movies to fake a new appearance by Sellers.

No, You're thinking of David Niven (Sellers died twqo years earlier). In additon to the double, Rich Little dubbed some of Niven's lines.

No, David Niven died during the filming of the final Pink Panther film, Curse of the Pink Panther(starring Ted Wass of Soap), in 1983. But Rich Little did dub Niven's lines because the motor neuron disease that ended Niven's life had robbed him of his voice.

[dantheman]

That wasn't the final Pink Panther film - 1993's Son of the Pink Panther was.

[Eve]

I must second Sextette—unwatchable. Groucho Marx's Skidoo, Ginger Rogers' Harlow and Frances Farmer's The Party Crashers stunk up their batting averages, too. Must have made Garbo thankful for Two Faced Woman.

[dantheman]

Then there's Bardot's Ms. Don Juan (1973) - at least I think that was her last one.

[Little Nemo]

Was American Presidents Jack Lemon's last film? Not a total disaster obviously; he was co-lead in a major studio release. But it was a pretty bad movie and probably not the one he would have chosen as his final performance.

[Morbo]

I see no one has mentioned Ray Milland's last film: Serpiente de Mar. English title: Hydra-monster of the Deep.

And I liked The Hunter. :(

[Manduck]

Robert Mitchum's last movie was some horrible Police Academy knockoff, except with firemen.

[Max Torque]

Originally posted by Jeff Olsen
I think Mae West's final movie is more in-line with the OP.
Sextette (http://us.imdb.com/Details?0078238)

Lordy, lordy, Jeff, if you were gonna link to something about Sextette, here's something even better than the IMDB entry: Jabootu's review of Sextette (http://www.jabootu.com/sextette.htm).

Jabootu quotes contemporary critic Vincent Canby:

The character we see in this peculiar film looks less like the Mae West one remembers from even Myra Breckinridge than like a plump sheep that’s been stood on its hind legs, dressed in a drag-queen’s idea of chic, bewigged and then smeared with pink plaster. The creature inside this getup seems game but arthritic and perplexed.

....

The creepiest monster movie of the year to date must certainly be Sextette, in which we are presented with the bizarre sight of the 87-year-old seemingly arthritic Mae West tottering around as she mouths some of her better known one-liners and pretends to be the kind of sex-object that drives men to suicide. When Mae was a kid – in her 40’s, say -- one could say she was parodying sex. When she’s in her 80’s, the spectacle suggests some kinky variation on necrophilia.

[Bindlestiff]

Yeah, I liked The Hunter, too. I thought it was especially cool that Steve McQueen's last movie was about a bounty hunter.

[middleman]

Though on TV, I would think Tuesdays With Morrie (sp?) was his last film. Not a bad way to go out!

[middleman]

My last post referred to Jack Lemmon of course.

[Minor Irritant]

Walter Matthau's last movie was the weepy chick-flick Hanging Up. Not terrible, but I doubt that's how he would have wanted to go off.

And I agree: nobody but Orson Welles could pull off the role of a giant planet-eating robot.

[etv78]

Vic Morrow died making "Twilight Zone: The Movie". Decapitation is not my 1st choice for a way to go.

[Clever Hans]

You think it's bad because you like "The Hunter"? I like Paulie Shore :(

[dantheman]

Originally posted by Little Nemo
Was American Presidents Jack Lemon's last film? Not a total disaster obviously; he was co-lead in a major studio release. But it was a pretty bad movie and probably not the one he would have chosen as his final performance.


You're thinking of My Fellow Americans. Lemmon did plenty after that, including Out to Sea, Tuesdays with Morrie, and even a cameo in The Legend of Bagger Vance.

Robert Mitchum was also in Dead Man, an excellent existentialist Western by Jim Jarmusch that was released in 1995, I think after he made Backfire!, that crappy Police Academy ripoff.

[Max Torque]

Another occurred to me, since I just saw an ad for it: Queen of the Damned, for Aaliyah. Not that she had a long career or anything, but I thought she was good in Romeo Must Die.

[jimmmy]

He will do (alot) of TV appearences and voices for movies and appears as self in achival footage in major movies later.

But IIRC the last time Frank Sinatra actually acts in a movie is Cannonball II

[Seraphim]

I believe Chris Farley died shortly after filming Almost Heroes (1998), not exactly his finest work.

[KneadToKnow]

Originally posted by erictelevision
Vic Morrow died making "Twilight Zone: The Movie"But does that really count since the part of the movie he was in was cut out?

My nomination for this thread would have to be Manos, The Hands of Fate (http://us.imdb.com/Details?0060666), which is #5 on IMDb's worst 100 films of all time (http://us.imdb.com/bottom_100_films) and saw 3 of its stars commit suicide shortly after shooting ended.

Barring that, I would have said Valley of the Dolls (http://us.imdb.com/Details?0062430), but I see from closer investigation that that was not Sharon Tate's last film.

[KneadToKnow]

saw 3 of its stars commit suicide shortly after shooting ended
That's not exactly what I meant to say.

[dantheman]

Originally posted by jimmmy
But IIRC the last time Frank Sinatra actually acts in a movie is Cannonball II

Nah, last time he acted was The First Deadly Sin. In Cannonball he was just playing himself. ;)

[Neidhart]

But does that really count since the part of the movie he was in was cut out?

Vic Morrow's role wasn't cut from the Twilight Zone movie, only the helicopter scene.

His segment is, in fact, the best part of the film.

[Neidhart]

But does that really count since the part of the movie he was in was cut out?

Vic Morrow's role wasn't cut from the Twilight Zone movie, only the helicopter scene.

His segment is, in fact, the best part of the film.

[Manduck]

Originally posted by Seraphim
I believe Chris Farley died shortly after filming Almost Heroes (1998), not exactly his finest work.

What was his finest work then? Tommy Boy?? :p

Originally posted by dantheman
Robert Mitchum was also in Dead Man, an excellent existentialist Western by Jim Jarmusch that was released in 1995, I think after he made Backfire!, that crappy Police Academy ripoff.

I stand corrected. I wonder why he made that POS though. Surely he didn't need the money? Maybe he was just bored.

[Walloon]

Originally posted by dantheman Flesh Feast (1969) - Veronica Lake. She coproduced it, too; she hadn't acted since the late 1940s.

Not quite true. Television:

1. Lux Video Theatre, episode: "Shadow On the Heart" 10/16/1950.
2. 11/18/1950.
3. [B]Lights Out, episode: "Beware This Woman" 12/4/1950.
4. Somerset Maugham TV Theatre", episode: "Facts of Life, The" 5/14/1951.
5. Tales of Tomorrow, episode: "Flight Overdue" 3/28/1952
6. [BGoodyear Television Playhouse[/Bi], episode: "Better than Walking" 10/26/1952.
7. Lux Video Theatre, episode: "Thanks For a Lovely Evening" 1/12/1953.

Movies:

Stronghold (1951)
Footsteps in the Snow (1966)

[dantheman]

Walloon - I meant movies, but I didn't realize she'd done those two. Thanks.

Manduck, my guess is that he wanted to work with Shelley Winters again - they had done Night of the Hunter together back in the day.

[jimmmy]

Originally posted by dantheman


Nah, last time he acted was The First Deadly Sin. In Cannonball he was just playing himself. ;)

I hear you man -- your thread your rules. He WAS playing himslef, but I'd add he WAS acting just as fast as he could:
During the Cameo Frank Sinatra sits in an office supposedly talking to Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise but it is obvious that Frank filmed his scenes separately and Burt and Dom were added later.

[dantheman]

IIRC, he played "The Chairman of the Board" and was referred to as "Frank" - but either way, it was a bad movie.

[Manduck]

Originally posted by dantheman

Manduck, my guess is that he wanted to work with Shelley Winters again - they had done Night of the Hunter together back in the day.

Makes sense. I didn't notice that Shelley Winters was in that movie, but then I didn't watch the whole thing (which would be just about impossible). BIG contrast between the two movies, I hafta say.

[Agrippina]

Richard Burton's last movie was 1984. He played O'Brien.
And Edward G. Robinson's last movie was Soylent Green.

[Agrippina]

Oh, my mistake. I thought the topic was "What's the last movie of an actor's career?" not "the worst".

[Kreekurmudgeon]

Nobody has mentioned John Wayne's last and probably his worst: The Shootist.

[Little Nemo]

But IIRC the last time Frank Sinatra actually acts in a movie is Cannonball II

After my last error filled post, I should probably stay out of this thread. But I read that Sinatra's "part" in this movie was filmed totally seperate from the rest of the movie; Sinatra read his lines in a studio with no other actors present, Reynolds and the other cast members read their lines in another studio, and the two pieces of film were edited together. Having come so close to not being in this movie, it's just unfortunate for Sinatra that he couldn't have stayed out of it all together.

[dantheman]

Originally posted by Kreekurmudgeon
Nobody has mentioned John Wayne's last and probably his worst: The Shootist.

Well.... I didn't mention it because there's no way it was his worst. :) I mean, he did zillions of grade-Z movies, and that wasn't one of them (try The Green Berets, or Chism, or any number of cheapies).

[Walloon]

I'll second that about The Shootist. It is far from John Wayne's worst movie. Leonard Maltin gives it three out of four stars. And the average User Rating for The Shootist on the Internet Movie Database is 7.4 out of 10. The Writers Guild of America nominated the screenplay for the WGA Screen Award.

If you want bad John Wayne movies, I direct you to The Conqueror (1956), with JW as Genghis Khan; or The Green Berets (1968).

[Kaitlyn]

Bruce Lee quit filming in the middle of Game of Death, having filmed a few action sequences, including the finale with Kareem Abdul Jabaar, when he was finally given a chance at a Hollywood movie. That movie was Enter the Dragon, his most famous and most popular, though not his best, movie. Upon its completion, he returned to Hong Kong to finish Game. He was dubbing dialog when a confluence of heat exhaustion and a costar's prescription cold medicine led to the cerebral edema (swelling of the brain) that killed him. Following his death, which became big news due to a bunch of nonsense conspiracy theories, Enter the Dragon became a huge hit, and the producers rushed to finish Game of Death to capitilize on this new popularity. The problem was they had less than half a movie, and worse yet, they had the wrong half--mostly action scenes. The hired a "look-a-like", who looked about as much like Bruce as the average 30 year old Chinese man on the street, to finish Bruce's scenes, filming him from the back or oblique angles, and at some points using a cardboard publicity display as a stand in. The results are laughably bad, even worse than the mediocre The Big Boss (US title "Fists of Fury"). Not content to finish Game of Death, the producers took the roughly 38 seconds of unused footage of Bruce and built an entirely new movie out it called Tower of Death, giving him first billing, then showing one brief shot of him before killing his character in the first few minutes. Even so, it's not as bad as Game of Death