# Actors we thought would be stars **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 17, 2001, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-we-thought-would-be-stars/82264 "2001-09-17T22:02:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Odieman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a87d85/32.png) [@Odieman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odieman)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2001, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-we-thought-would-be-stars/82264/21 "2001-09-20T15:34:48Z")
The two people I thought of when I saw this thread were **Marisa Tomei** and **Rosie Perez**. Marisa Tomei has been touch on, but whatever happened to Rosie, I haven’t seen her in ages. I hear that she will be involved in perfoming some plays that will help raise funds for the WTC but that doesn’t seem to be a star turn. Keith ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2001, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-we-thought-would-be-stars/82264/22 "2001-09-20T17:20:02Z")
Judge Reinhold looked like he was going to be huge, but then he became Mr. Straight-to-video ---
**Author:** ![Oblong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c0e974/32.png) [@Oblong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oblong)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2001, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-we-thought-would-be-stars/82264/23 "2001-09-20T17:53:09Z")
Fiver, that’s pretty interesting. What made me think of it was my wife was watching a Sandra Bullock movie the other night and her ex or soon to be ex was Michael Pare. I didn’t even notice it until the end, then I asked “is that Eddie from Eddie and the Cruisers”, which was on VH-1 last night. I will add Leonardo Dicaprio to this list. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2001, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-we-thought-would-be-stars/82264/24 "2001-09-20T18:22:09Z")
I’m surprised everyone forgot Timothy Hutton, the youngest man to win an Oscar for acting (20, for Ordinary People.) He has huge in the early 80’s and then he just sort of… petered out. He’s a C-list actor now. ---
**Author:** ![jk1245](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/49beb7/32.png) [@jk1245](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jk1245)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2001, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-we-thought-would-be-stars/82264/25 "2001-09-20T19:14:35Z")
anyone remember C. Thomas Howell?? Judging by the posters in my sister’s room at the time, he was gonna be the next Brando. Guess not. Also, someone mentioned Sandra Bullock. Huge for a while, then nowhere. Was “Speed 2” really that bad? Hmmm. that might make for another thread. “Stars whose careers were killed by one bad movie” ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2001, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-we-thought-would-be-stars/82264/26 "2001-09-20T19:28:39Z")
Who can forget **Pia Zadora**? Wasn’t she supposed to be the next huge thing, back in '81? And what ever happend to the guy that played _Manimal_? I also always thought **Catherine Mary Stewart** would be bigger than she was. Remember _Night of the Comet_? ---
**Author:** ![TeaElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@TeaElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaElle)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2001, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-we-thought-would-be-stars/82264/27 "2001-09-20T19:34:46Z")
Samantha Mathis & Martha Plimpton. Samantha’s stuck in indie hell, as is Martha, though she did have a pleasant guest turn on ER a while back. Both of them deserve the stardom and the roles that are going to the banal girls like Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and anyone else who was in a teen horror flick/series in the last seven years. ---
**Author:** ![Syzygy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Syzygy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syzygy)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2001, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-we-thought-would-be-stars/82264/28 "2001-09-20T20:10:36Z")
Only about half of the “Brat Pack” went anywhere. Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy, and Molly Ringwald were nowhere to be seen in the 90s. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2001, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-we-thought-would-be-stars/82264/29 "2001-09-20T21:22:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fiver \* > \*\* > **Katharine Ross**. She made _The Graduate_ with Dustin Hoffman, then what? Not much! \*\* She was in The Stepford Wives. ---
**Author:** ![Crunchy\_Frog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ebca7d/32.png) [@Crunchy\_Frog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crunchy_Frog)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2001, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-we-thought-would-be-stars/82264/30 "2001-09-20T22:47:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Hastur \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Fiver \* > > \*\ ***Katharine Ross**. She made _The Graduate_ with Dustin Hoffman, then what? Not much! \*\* > > She was in The Stepford Wives. \*\* She was also in _Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid_. I always expected **Mark Hamill** to parlay the _Star Wars_ success into, well, something other than guest spots for being “the guy who played Luke in Star Wars” (look what Harrison Ford was able to build off that success). The guy was in three of the biggest films ever, then all but disappeared from the big screen. He is now, however, ubiquitous in cartoon voice-over credits. And whatever happened to almost the entire cast of _Dead Poets Society_? After that movie, I thought we’d **Robert Sean Leonard** , **Josh Charles** , and **Gale Hansen** would pop up all over the place. The last thing I remember seeing Robert Sean Leonard in is the made-for-TV movie _The Boys Next Door_ and my last Josh Charles spotting was in _Sports Night_, but Gale Hansen has dropped off my radar. **Ethan Hawke** still pops up from time to time, but he’s not the big star I had thought he would become. ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-we-thought-would-be-stars/82264/31 "2001-09-21T00:47:46Z")
Kate Winslet went huge in Titanic, then dropped right back off the face of the Earth. She coulda been a star… Also, Billy Zane seems to pop up occasionally, get a lot of press as the “next best thing”, then be forgotten quickly. ---
**Author:** ![Seraphim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@Seraphim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seraphim)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-we-thought-would-be-stars/82264/32 "2001-09-21T01:03:56Z")
How about the actress who (briefly) played Mel Gibson’s wife in _Braveheart_? Haven’t seen her since. ---
**Author:** ![Myrnalene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Myrnalene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myrnalene)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-we-thought-would-be-stars/82264/33 "2001-09-23T00:27:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RickJay \* > \*\*I’m surprised everyone forgot Timothy Hutton, the youngest man to win an Oscar for acting (20, for Ordinary People.) He has huge in the early 80’s and then he just sort of… petered out. He’s a C-list actor now. \*\* He’s currently butchering the character of Archie in the **Nero Wolfe** series on A&E. I think he’s still got the potential to be a good actor, just bad luck, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Heath\_Doolin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Heath\_Doolin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heath_Doolin)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-we-thought-would-be-stars/82264/34 "2001-09-23T02:22:04Z")
::blink:: Is that Juliette Lewis in the commercial with the dancing robots? Huh. Thought she looked familiar. I had no idea Juliette Lewis had such nice tits. Just for the record, the dancing robots behind her are the group Daft Punk. You may know them by the series of good anime videos they have produced with some pretty good beats. They also did the music they are dancing too. ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-we-thought-would-be-stars/82264/35 "2001-09-23T03:36:52Z")
Then there’s Dennis Christopher, who starred in _Breaking Away_, then evaporated. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-we-thought-would-be-stars/82264.md?page=1)