Actors who killed (or very nearly so) their careers by taking *too* memorable a role.

[RickJay]

@Krokodil

Didn’t hurt James Earl Jones. And look again at Carrie Fisher: After she stopped being a cute teenager, she got respect for writing (Postcards from the Edge is good on anybody’s resume). And Natalie Portman sure looks like she’s making good career choices.

Ewan McGregor is not exactly sitting by the phone waiting for the casting agents to call, either.

[Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus]

@Ethilrist

Most of the cast of the original Star Trek were pretty much doomed once the show tanked, even though some of them were actually pretty good actors and should have been able to move on.

Theirs is definitely one of the stranger stories in the annals of show business. By 1970 it looked as though they would forever be relegated to, at best, occasional guest supporting character spots, e.g. Nimoy’s occasionally recurring character on Mission: Impossible. In fact, Grace Lee Whitney (Yeoman Rand), who was a minor character to begin with and was written out after the first season, saw her own life tank to the point where she was turning tricks to survive.

But meanwhile, the first feature film got greenlighted, the cast was rehired, and the resulting film not only pleased the geeks but also took in enough at the box office to pave the way for several sequels. So the cast members were hopelessly locked into their roles, but at least were finally enjoying real professional success.

[Ephemera]

@Mr. Blue Sky

Or the even frostier “Kai Winn” from DS9.

That’s who she’ll always be to me.

I think a lot of people aren’t neccesarily thinking their suggestions through. There are a lot of people in this thread that I don’t have the same reaction to for any number of reasons. Just because the person was so memorable to you in one role doesn’t mean they will be as memorable to someone else.

[supervenusfreak]

@ftg

Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl in “Popeye” is the classic example I heard most often. She just looked too perfectly like Olive. She’s an amazing actress and then “poof” bigtime. Very secondary roles and TV since.

Hmmm did anyone hear of a little Stanley Kubrick movie called “The Shining”? She was terrific as Wendy. She was also great as Dixie in “Roxanne”, yet another hit. Also, like other smart Hollywood actors, she went into the production end of the business, creating, producing and starring in several children’s series for Showtime.

[Chronos]

Quoth Dooku:

In the spirit of the revised explanation of Jadis’ OP, I’ll go with Charlton Heston. Fantastic actor, many, many acclaimed roles, but who would see him on the street and not want to say “GET YOUR STINKING PAWS OFF OF ME, YOU DAMN DIRTY APE!!!”

Not hardly. Yes, he’s remembered for Planet of the Apes, but that’s hardly the only thing for which he’s remembered. Ben Hur, anyone, or The Ten Commandments?

[tracer]

Oh, I know one:

Robert Hays

Unforgettable in Airplane!, moderately rememberable in Airplane II: The Sequel, and hasn’t appeared in anything noteworthy since. (You didn’t exactly see people lined up around the block when Take This Job and Shove It was in the theaters, did you?)

[Otto]

Halfway through the second page and no one’s mentioned Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest yet? Even Dunaway is surprised her career survived that one.

[Jadis]

@DKW

I put Mark Hamill in the same boat as Billy Zane (the short-tempered, insanely jealous, and quite possibly mentally ill Caledon Hockley in Titanic), in that while he’ll always be remember for his one big role, he was never talented enough for another one anyway. For the record, Hamill’s settled very comfortably in his role as a voice actor for a long, long time, and Zane’s been in all kinds of minor roles since Titanic. Just two guys who had their moment in the sun and then settled back into their niche.

Actually, when someone mentions Billy Zane, I think Dead Calm before I think Titanic.

[cbawlmer]

@Jadis

Actually, when someone mentions Billy Zane, I think Dead Calm before I think Titanic.

I think of him playing himself in Zoolander. Or as John Justice Wheeler in Twin Peaks. I always forget he was in Titanic, and I also try to forget that I saw Titanic.

[Morbo]

@Chronos

Quoth Dooku:Not hardly. Yes, he’s remembered for Planet of the Apes, but that’s hardly the only thing for which he’s remembered. Ben Hur, anyone, or The Ten Commandments?

Oh, I totally agree. I was just going with Jadis’ comments in post #35:

I think that the point I was trying to make in the OP was that although people like Ned Beatty and Tim Curry (who I think is another excellent example of this phenomenon) have gone on to many, many other roles, upon hearing their names mentioned, a huge majority is still going to say “Oh, he’s the one who took it in the poop chute by the hillbilly!” or “Hey, he’s the guy who dressed up in fishnet stockings and high heels!”

I’ll bet he’s gotten more POTA quotes tossed at him than quotes from his other movies. “For he truly is the King of Kings.”

[roger_thornhill]

Kevin Costner. ‘No Way Out’ was a good thriller and showed he had talent, but after ‘Dances with Wolves’ his career has been all downhill. It’s as if that film squeezed the life out of him.

Actually, Faye Dunaway in ‘Mommie Dearest’ has already been mentioned.

[SPOOFE]

but after ‘Dances with Wolves’ his career has been all downhill. It’s as if that film squeezed the life out of him.

More like, gave the audiences far more Kevin Costner than anything should ever be subjected to, and the entire population of the planet developed a severe Really-Bad-Actor allergy.

Anyway…

I would nominate Geena Davis. She was good. She was excellent in Beetlejuice, , then she gets, Thelma and Louise, A League of Their Own, Hero… a handful of other good movies…

Then she hits Cutthroat Island. Granted she’s not exactly remembered for it (because nobody saw the goddamned movie), but look at her IMDB profile. Before Cutthroat, she made 16 movies in 10 years. Afterwards, it became a relative trickle.

[Agrippina]

@SPOOFE

Before Cutthroat, she made 16 movies in 10 years. Afterwards, it became a relative trickle.

She’s probably been busy with the three kids she’s had over the last three years. Aren’t two of the children twins, though?

[MaxTheVool]

@DKW

I’m going to nominate David Schwimmer. He should be grateful that he made so much money and has some directing skills, because his acting career is over. It didn’t help that the character he played for nine years wasn’t just so distinctly neurotic, but also annoying, if not downright unlikable, for a lot of viewers. I’d be shocked if he ever did so much as dinner theater again, much less a new TV or movie role.

He played a very unsympathetic character in the excellent Band of Brothers. But it was quite distracting to have ROSS there.

[Marley23]

Almost everything Costner does these days just makes it worse for him. The Untouchables was good (in spite of him)… obviously no one told him that when you’re in a hole, you STOP DIGGING.

[roger_thornhill]

The casting in Band of Brothers was a tease. Your first thought was that Ross had finally grown up; that now he was going to kick some serious ass; that now he was a winner, a leader, a man. Then it turns out that he’s the same old Ross, same old loser, same old woman.

[Otto]

@roger thornhill

Actually, Faye Dunaway in ‘Mommie Dearest’ has already been mentioned.

Gah, so it was. Sorry about that, I try to be so careful in threads like this not to repeat.

[roger_thornhill]

I was hesitant about scolding you for this minor infraction, but this was one of the few times when I had actually read the whole thread before adding my gem, and I felt rather proud of it. And wanted to prove it.

Sorry.

[Starving_Artist]

I would suggest Max Baer, Jr. (Jethro in The Beverly Hillbillies) as a good example of someone who killed their career (acting career anyway, as he’s been successful as a producer) by having the misfortune to take too memorable a role.

[hajario]

Fred Gwynn as Herman Munster.

Haj