# Actors who surprise you by the brevity of their career **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 24, 2011, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-surprise-you-by-the-brevity-of-their-career/586772 "2011-06-24T22:58:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-surprise-you-by-the-brevity-of-their-career/586772/1 "2011-06-24T22:58:01Z")
I was reading [this other thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=613570) in Cafe society where people have examples of actors who “stole the movie” via a single scene. This reminded me of another thing that I noticed recently that surprised me. Can you give examples of actors or actresses that you think did very well in a movie or TV show, and then after that just seemed to fall off the face of the earth? A classic example would be [Jaye Davidson](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001109/) who was nominated for an Academy Award (Best Supporting Actor) for his work in _The Crying Game_, appeared in one other movie, and then quit. Another one would be [Elizabeth Hartman](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0366946/) who was nominated for an Academy Award (Best Actress) for her debut role in _A Patch of Blue_ but had a very brief career. But there are some poeple that are even more obscure. Here is an example of the kind of thing I’m looking for in this thread. Last week I pulled up Netflix Instant Watch to take another look at the funny comedy [Midnight Run](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095631/) with Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin. I remembered at the time a short scene with the daughter of Robert de Niro’s character and on my second viewing I was confirmed in my impression that she did very well with her very short screen time (less than five minutes). Here is her scene. Background: Robert De Niro is an ex-policeman, now a bounty hunter, who is trying to get the bounty on a sympathetic mob accountant who skipped bail (Charles Grodin, who embezzled mob money and gave most of it to charity.) They are being pursued by the FBI who wants Charles Grodin to testify and by the mob who wants to kill them. Circumstances force the bounty hunter to go ask his ex-wife for money. Robert De Niro left the Chicago police force after being framed by some dirty cops acting on the orders of a mob boss (the same one that wants to kill the accountant.) His ex-wife is now remarried to another policeman and has a child from her second marriage. Robert De Niro has not seen his ex-wife or his daughter for nine years. The young actress does a wonderful job of showing the reaction of someone whose absent father just drops in out of the blue. [youtube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxN2YIeYnWE&feature=player_detailpage#t=128s) (she is on from about the 2:00 minute mark to the 6:45 minute mark) I looked up the actress ([Danielle DuClos](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0239936/)) and was amazed to find out that this is pretty much all she’s done. I wonder what happened? ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-surprise-you-by-the-brevity-of-their-career/586772/2 "2011-06-24T23:07:48Z")
I have always wondered why the kid who starred in Caddyshack (Danny Noonan) never seemed to have a career afterwards… (Drugs?) I do think I remember reading somewhere that he was married to Bonnie Riatt for a while, but I am not sure if that is actually true or not. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-surprise-you-by-the-brevity-of-their-career/586772/3 "2011-06-24T23:19:52Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > I have always wondered why the kid who starred in Caddyshack (Danny Noonan) never seemed to have a career afterwards… > > (Drugs?) > > . I just saw Michael O’Keefe in a new HBO film, _Too Big Too Fail_. He played an acquisitions guru. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-surprise-you-by-the-brevity-of-their-career/586772/4 "2011-06-24T23:51:42Z")
Speaking of _Caddyshack_, that is the fourth (and final) credit on IMDB for Sarah Holcomb, the actress who played Maggie. She also had a notable role in _Animal House_, leaving her with one heck of a batting average. I think the drugs got her. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-surprise-you-by-the-brevity-of-their-career/586772/5 "2011-06-25T00:05:56Z")
They did. I think the record may be held by [Fraser Heston](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0381699/#Actor), who appeared as the Baby Moses in _The Ten Commandments._😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-surprise-you-by-the-brevity-of-their-career/586772/6 "2011-06-25T00:23:29Z")
[Mia Sara](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000214/) and [Claudia Wells]([http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0920148/\](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0920148/%5C)) ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-surprise-you-by-the-brevity-of-their-career/586772/7 "2011-06-25T00:23:52Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > I just saw Michael O’Keefe in a new HBO film, _Too Big Too Fail_. He played an acquisitions guru. I don’t see too many movies anymore, and I have never had cable, but Caddyshack was a cultural icon, and it always surprised me that it’s young star seemingly vanished from the face of the Earth afterwards… Glad he’s still alive, and still working, but you have to admit he’s well below the Hollywood radar, by anyone’s objective standards. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-surprise-you-by-the-brevity-of-their-career/586772/8 "2011-06-25T00:30:04Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > [Mia Sara](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000214/) and [Claudia Wells]([http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0920148/\](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0920148/%5C)) I dont know about Wells, but Sara has said herself that she was difficult to work with when she was younger. ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-surprise-you-by-the-brevity-of-their-career/586772/9 "2011-06-25T00:43:00Z")
Phoebe Cates and Pam Dawber both should have plied their craft more than they did. ---
**Author:** ![Sateryn76](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Sateryn76](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sateryn76)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-surprise-you-by-the-brevity-of-their-career/586772/10 "2011-06-25T00:44:42Z")
Tom Hulce ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-surprise-you-by-the-brevity-of-their-career/586772/11 "2011-06-25T01:00:58Z")
According to IMDB, Elizabeth Hartman’s career (or at least her first and last movies) ran from 1965 to 1982. She’s a sad case, was deeply depressed, especially in the last years of her life. In the latter years of her life she abandoned Hollywood, divorced her husband, moved back to Pittsburg, and died in a five-story fall from her apartment in what was believed to be a suicide in 1987, at the age of 43. [Cite](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Hartman) I first noticed/was smitten with her as the go-go dancer Barbara Darling in the movie _You’re A Big Boy Now_. ---
**Author:** ![UntouchedTakeaway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d78d45/32.png) [@UntouchedTakeaway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UntouchedTakeaway)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-surprise-you-by-the-brevity-of-their-career/586772/12 "2011-06-25T03:05:39Z")
> [@Snooooopy](#): > > Speaking of _Caddyshack_, that is the fourth (and final) credit on IMDB for Sarah Holcomb, the actress who played Maggie. She also had a notable role in _Animal House_, leaving her with one heck of a batting average. I think the drugs got her. I found this re: Sarah ☹ > **[Sensitive Content Warning](https://www.blogger.com/interstitial/post?u=http:%2F%2Fbobbyderailed.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F01%2Fsarah-smiles.html)** UT ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-surprise-you-by-the-brevity-of-their-career/586772/13 "2011-06-25T03:21:07Z")
> [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](#): > > Phoebe Cates and Pam Dawber both should have plied their craft more than they did. And Daryl Hannah and Minnie Driver and…what the hell happened to Leelee Sobieski? For a brief time she was an it-girl, and lately, just like Daryl and Minnie, you’ve never heard of 75% of the movies she’s in. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-surprise-you-by-the-brevity-of-their-career/586772/14 "2011-06-25T03:34:15Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > [Mia Sara](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000214/) and [Claudia Wells]([http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0920148/\](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0920148/%5C)) Mia Sara never left showbiz; she just stopped being impossibly young and gorgeous. Happens to the best of us. Claudia Wells dropped out of acting for the better part of two decades (she made an indy film in the 90s), but spent the downtime running a business and raising a family; and now she’s acting again after voicing a couple of “Back to the Future” games. Her new film, **Alien Armageddon** , opens in late July. It has few names I’ve ever heard of attached to it, which is not a good sign. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-surprise-you-by-the-brevity-of-their-career/586772/15 "2011-06-25T03:59:26Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > Her new film, **Alien Armageddon** , opens in late July. It has few names I’ve ever heard of attached to it, which is not a good sign. The name “Alien Armageddon” can’t be a great sign either… ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-surprise-you-by-the-brevity-of-their-career/586772/16 "2011-06-25T05:20:41Z")
One classic example is [Peter Ostrum](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0652578/bio), who played Charlie Bucket in the Gene Wilder version of _Willy Wonka_ and then never acted again. He says his parents were not stage parents and encouraged him to look at it as an experience, after which he went back to being a regular kid. He’s now a large-animal veterinarian and loves his work. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-surprise-you-by-the-brevity-of-their-career/586772/17 "2011-06-25T05:30:36Z")
Every now and then I wonder what happened to [Erzsébet Földi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erzs%C3%A9bet_F%C3%B6ldi), who played Roy Scheider’s daughter Michelle in **All That Jazz**. She was appropriately cute for her age (with potential to be a stunner when she matured), was very natural, and was a helluva dancer. The article says she tried out for **The Blue Lagoon** , didn’t get the role, and quit show business. There are reports elsewhere that she became a Born-Again Christian, which is certainly her prerogative; but it’s also certain (to me) that her absence is a loss. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-surprise-you-by-the-brevity-of-their-career/586772/18 "2011-06-25T06:12:22Z")
> [@UntouchedTakeaway](#): > > I found this re: Sarah ☹ > > [http://bobbyderailed.blogspot.com/2007/01/sarah-smiles.html](http://bobbyderailed.blogspot.com/2007/01/sarah-smiles.html) > > UT I read that a few years back. I’m glad you posted it. Here’s my contribution: [Kaki Hunter](http://a2.tvspielfilm.de/imedia/3744/2303744,LCq8tfRjumGbDYXqHEyycP+o3AoAc1pGg+Tqdy1Y8wFGAGm_VPTb7Yx+dwL7aJ8IkVJ73JFXVJBITH6Gr5I6Gw==.jpg). A cute, funny actress from the _[Porky’s](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084522/)_ movies, and played opposite Meat Loaf in _[Roadie](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081433/)._ She finished off the Porky’s trilogy, and, aside from a singe appearance on television in 1991, never acted again. I read a few years ago that she had some sort of white-water rafting tourism/instruction business, far from Hollywood. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-surprise-you-by-the-brevity-of-their-career/586772/19 "2011-06-25T06:55:32Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > I don’t see too many movies anymore, and I have never had cable, but Caddyshack was a cultural icon, and it always surprised me that it’s young star seemingly vanished from the face of the Earth afterwards… > > Glad he’s still alive, and still working, but you have to admit he’s well below the Hollywood radar, by anyone’s objective standards. Michael O’Keefe is, to me, the geatest of Law & Order’s “Repeat Offenders” - he’s played six different characters in five episodes of all three shows. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-surprise-you-by-the-brevity-of-their-career/586772/20 "2011-06-25T08:55:38Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > I don’t see too many movies anymore, and I have never had cable, but Caddyshack was a cultural icon, and it always surprised me that it’s young star seemingly vanished from the face of the Earth afterwards… > > Glad he’s still alive, and still working, but you have to admit he’s well below the Hollywood radar, by anyone’s objective standards. The same year as **Caddyshack** , O’ Keefe also appeared in a role that garnered him a lot of critical attention as Robert Duvall’s son in **The Great Santini**. In fact, on the basis of that performance, O’ Keefe for a time was on the short list of the most promising new actors of the 80s. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-surprise-you-by-the-brevity-of-their-career/586772.md?page=2)