You should start that thread! Dark Angel was my favorite guilty pleasure, but I wasn’t sure she’d be more than a one-trick jam pony.*
Agree also on Adrian Paul and the Rocketeer guy. Of course, that might have something to do with those being my second and third favorite guilty pleasures of that era…
*(name of the bike messenger company in Dark Angel… I’d quit my job to work there in a minute)
More Australian than British, but not a bad choice. BTW, I was blown away recently (after seeing “The Place Beyond the Pines”) to find out that Noah Taylor and Ben Mendelsohn are two different people, not alternative monikers for a single human being.
Oops. Well - born in the UK and living here again. Really liked Taylor in Simon Magus and one of these days I’ll check out his turn as Hitler in Max.
Looking at his career, apart from a brief dry spell in the mid '00s he’s been in one to three films every year for the better part of three decades. Not too shabby for someone largely off the media radar.
Josh Hartnett.
First saw him in *The Faculty *and figured his boyish charm and cute-ass smirk would let him go places. With Black Hawk Down (and Pearl Harbour I guess, shit movie but it still was a blockbuster) I thought he’d start landing A-list roles left and right. And then… nothing, pretty much.
Gillian Anderson & David Duchovny.
Both were, of course, more than huge back in the 90s. But since then ? Anderson’s done House of Mirth and Bleak House and that’s about it ; while Duchovny seems to have survived on bit parts until he landed *Californication. *
Every British actor EVER is in Game of Thrones. It’s just a teeny little island, you know.
Gillian Anderson purposely walked away to do more theater and spend time with her daughter.
The mention of Val Kilmer made me think of someone else I thought was going to hit it big and didn’t- Cary Elwes.
He was huge in The Princess Bride, then starred in Robin Hood: Men in Tights and Pentagon Wars (great HBO movie, btw…see it if you get the chance. Just remember, everything in the movie really happened) After that, other than a supporting role in Twister and a few guest appearances in shows like Seinfeld, X-Files and Law and Order, he hasn’t really done anything of note since, though from his IMDB bio, he’s been working steadily in TV movies and video and voice work.
A comment on Stephanie Zimbalist, who’s been mentioned quite often…
I thought she was smashing in Remington and Steele, but at the height of the show’s popularity, she appeared on the old David Letterman show, and came across as one of the most socially awkward celebrities I’d ever seen. It’s not like she was drunk or obnoxious or even shy, but more like she’d just left the convent after being there since she was 12 years old. I can only imagine how painful it must have been for her to have to be a celebrity… which is far different from being an actor. I wasn’t surprised to see her career fizzle, although she still acts in small theater companies.
Someone also mentioned Diana Rigg (commenting on George Lazenby as James Bond). I owe a lot to Dame Diana – during her 3 years as Emma Peel (The Avengers) she helped me get through puberty. Now I realize she’s carved out a neat career on British TV playing dowagers and the such (including a lot of theater), but 45 years ago, when she left The Avengers, she was probably the hottest property going. But she never had success in movies, and her attempt at a TV sitcom (Diana (1974) was canceled early. A lot of it had to do with the fact that she was such a unique and quirky individual… very much her own woman.
Steve Guttenberg is insanely rich and has a wide philanthropic streak. He also works steadily as do many of the people mentioned in this thread.
Wow, what irony. I can only imagine what had to have happened for Brando to say something like that.
With Brando right behind him, Kilmer probably took the last doughnut from the craft service table.
I was going to mention him. He sort of abandoned comedy, where he shines, and has been in mostly dramatic roles, where he’s just okay. But he has a recurring comedic role in Psych as dashing thief Pierre Despereaux, and in fact returns to the show in the first ep of the last season, which débuts in about a week.
Wasn’t Elwes also in Saw, which was a bit of a success?
A lot of the actors mentioned in this thread are actors who have constantly worked for decades. Including The Rock for some reason. I guess unless you are the biggest star of all time and never had a flop you didn’t make it big.
Another one for the list unless I missed it earlier, Gary Sandy. Although it was an ensemble cast he was the one who held it together. Handsome and charismatic he seemed like the perfect one for stardom. But I only ever remember him doing a guest spot on Murder She Wrote after that. I gather he has been working but mostly in regional theater.
In fact you can say that about most of the cast of WKRP.
Howard Hesseman had another successful TV show which puts him ahead of most actors and seems to have worked steady but not as a star.
Tim Reid created the brilliant Frank’s Place that was cancelled by idiots. He seems to have done well for himself but never recaptured the brilliance of Frank’s Place. I’m glad he got paid for Sister, Sister but it was an awful show.
The rest not so much. Loni Anderson got some work, some because of being Burt Reynolds wife. Jan Smithers, Frank Bonner and Richard Sanders did sporadic work. Gordon Jump became the Maytag repairman.
Whatever happened to Missy Gold from Benson? She gave up acting entirely and is a Psychologist, which probably helped her sister Tracey on occasion. Every so often I look online for a pic of her “all grown up,” but somehow she’s managed to completely stay offline; she doesn’t even appear in any “Where Are They Now?” type galleries on sites like Huffington Post.
Yes he was and it was a fortunate thing for movie fans. After that if anyone is ever asked for the worst acting performance in movie history they have an immediate answer.
The horror…the horror…
That’s probably when he realized–like he was shot… like he was shot with a diamond… a diamond bullet right through his forehead. And he thought, my God… the Real Genius of that! The Real Genius! The will to do that! Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then he realized–what an asshole!
And I think Brando’s acting award hardware outweighs Kilmer’s.
Rachel Blanchard was a Canadian child actress who became a beautiful and talented adult actress ( TV version of Clueless ) as good as Gwyneth Paltrow, or any other of the, rather thin, crop of current film stars. Last saw her guesting in Psych.
Oh, and Téa Leoni.
I’ll second Stink Fish Pot’s nomination of Maura Tierney. Helen Hunt gets an Oscar, and Tierney, who is a truly brilliant actress, never made it big in movies. There is no justice. Tierney has certainly had a distinguished television career, though.
My nomination is Giovanni Ribisi. The guy is a brilliant actor, and deserves better than the piece of crap sitcom he’s in now (Dads). Come to think of it, Martin Mull, also wasted on Dads, should have had a bigger career. And Peter Riegert, too (speaking of Animal House alums).
Having steady work counts as a successful career but I wouldn’t call it making it big. If an actor never breaks out of supporting roles into the leads, I wouldn’t say he made it big.
Examples of people I would say have “made it big” without being the biggest stars of all time are actors at the level of Tim Allen or Vince Vaughn or Ryan Gosling or James Franco.