Well, Chris O’Donnell is now starring in NCIS: Los Angeles. So he’s not starring in big Hollywood movies, but presumably a lead role in a network drama pays well enough.
I thought after Titanic Billy Zane would have got some more high profile roles but he sort of disappeared into forgetable stuff.
I also expected to see more Andy Garcia in starring or supporting roles of big budget films after Godfather 3, Untouchables, Black Rain, etc. The last thing I remember him in are the Oceans movies.
And I don’t know what happened to Val Kilmer. He went from super huge star wise to super huge literally.
Billy Campbell ought to have been a success, in my opinion. The Rocketeer may not have been a huge hit when it came out, but it has had persistent cult appeal and he should have been able to capitalise on that. He’s been in a few TV series, but none have managed to do very well.
NCIS isn’t just the highest rated drama, it’s the highest rated show, period. It has better ratings than Sunday Night Football, for cryin’ out loud. That’s monster ratings.
Note that Harmon’s deal is $700 thousand per episode plus profit sharing. That’s huge. Ashton Kutcher is still likely getting a higher per-episode paycheck but he gets no participation on the back end. According to this link, back in August of this year the top three highest paid TV stars were Ashton Kutcher ($750k), Jon Cryer ($650k) and Mark Harmon ($525k), all figures per episode.
I mentioned him before, but Val Kilmer has a reputation as being VERY hard to work with. While filming The Island of Doctor Moreau, Kilmer got into one of his snits and Marlon Brando told Kilmer “Your problem is, you’re confusing your talent with your paycheck.” You make enough enemies in high places, and it’ll come back to bite you in the ass.
Well, thank you both for fighting my ignorance. I had no idea.
Though, like his BFF DiCaprio, resistant to aging. In the opening scenes of * Lincoln* he’s playing a farmboy turned soldier even though he’'s in his mid 30s.
Re: Judge Reinhold: he also has a reputation for being very difficult to work with/very obnoxious, which is probably all the more damaging since he can’t open a film.
Ditto - I’ve never seen NCIS and didn’t even know Harmon starred in it, much less that it was such a big deal.
Here’s a link that illustrates just how insane it is. I mean, seriously; NCIS? Really?! Contents of link transcribed:
Nielsen Television - TV Ratings for Primetime: 2012-13 Season-to-Date
Top 20 Network Primetime Series through March 24, 2013
#1 NCIS 21,898,000
#2 Sunday Night Football 21,443,000
#3 The Big Bang Theory 18,847,000
#4 NCIS: Los Angeles 17,952,000
#5 American Idol-Wednesday 16,361,000
It beats the NFL, which I still can’t wrap my head around, and crushes American Idol so badly that its spin-off also beats American Idol. heh.
NCIS:LA’s ratings are even more absurd to me, as the show is completely awful.
Yes, which is why I wrote “he is busy fixing that” in my post. Please tell me what his career was like pre Lincoln Lawyer? He was a punchline. Here is a contemporaryreview
Since then his career has taken off and as this article points out,he has not looked back.
There is even a trope for it.
What also hurt Silverstone was forming her own production company. Producing is usually a good idea: gives you creative control. But she was only 18, the first project was Excess Baggage (ever heard of it, except for this? Me neither), and I guess after that, people figured they might as well burn money as invest it in one of her endeavors.
Come to think of it, that’s probably a common factor with many/most of the people mentioned in this thread. Difficult to work with, getting older, not hugely talented…those things matter, but what’s most important is the ability to make money happen. If you can do that, you can be as difficult and old and marginally talented as you like. If you can’t, straight-to-video. Or get married. Or train for something else.
What about Shannon Elizabeth? After her role in American Pie, I was sure she was enroute to the A-list. She’s worked steadily since then, but nothing like I expected.
I was also surprised that the Twin Peaks women didn’t do better in their later careers. David Lynch has a genius for casting actresses that are red hot … Joss Wheedon does, too, perhaps to a lesser extent. But IMHO luck has a lot to do with success in Hollywood. In a country of 300 million, where perhaps the number one most desired fate is to be a Movie Star, beautiful, talented actresses are a dime a dozen. With that kind of competitive pressure, random chance has to be an important element in who succeeds and who does not.
He was actually one of the better actors on Holby City and I was sorry to see him go.
He had a brief but important role in Veronica Mars.
My nomination is Noah Taylor. When I heard “the guy from Shine” had been nominated for an Oscar I assumed it was him as IMO he’d done a stunning job playing Helfgott as a teenager. But no, it was Geoffrey Rush who’d gotten it.
Taylor seems to get steady work but he never really got big. Too quirky, I guess, like a British Crispin Glover with more talent.
ETA: I’ve just noticed he’s in Game of Thrones. Huh.
Ralph Macchio aka Karate Kid. But the world only needed one Fonzie-lite, and it already had Scott Baio.
I know him primarily from English-lit type shows like Middlemarch and Cold Comfort Farm. I was astonished to see him in the recent BBC/HBO version of Parade’s End playing a haggard and completely loony old clergyman. I said aloud, “My god–that’s Rufus Sewell. Remember when he used to be hot?” Doesn’t seem like that long ago.
If we did a thread of “Actors who made it big that you thought would be doing Hallmark Specials”, I’d say Jessica Alba.
After Dark Angel folded, I thought she was all but done.
I thought Adrian Paul would have made a great James Bond.
Speaking of James Bond, George Lazenby could have been sitting pretty, but didn’t want to do Bond.
From Wikipedia: