# Best/worst celebrity career management **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 26, 2006, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-celebrity-career-management/362217 "2006-06-26T15:56:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mayo\_Speaks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mayo\_Speaks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mayo_Speaks)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2006, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-celebrity-career-management/362217/21 "2006-06-26T21:47:22Z")
[QUOTE=Wile E] I’m surprised Tom Cruise hasn’t been mentioned yet. His film career may be doing well, but his public persona took a nose dive and that may soon affect his marketability and film roles. [/QUOTE] Cruise got $100 million for Mission Impossible 3. That was before he went crazy, granted. But still: _$100 million!_ He’s obviously done something right over the past couple of decades to put himself in that position. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2006, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-celebrity-career-management/362217/22 "2006-06-26T21:52:08Z")
[QUOTE=kunilou] **Henry Winkler** had the good sense to stay with _Happy Days_ rather than do some doomed-to-fail, cash-in series. [/QUOTE] Rather ironic, considering that he was the original shark jumper. 😃 ---
**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 26, 2006, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-celebrity-career-management/362217/23 "2006-06-26T21:53:29Z")
[QUOTE=F. U. Shakespeare] Shelley Long left the top-rated TV show _Cheers_ to star in an impressive string of movie flops. (As did, like, 99.999% of _Saturday Night Live_ cast members). I’ve never understood why damn near every TV star wants to be a movie star. [/QUOTE] Because in the entertainment industry, a TV star is regarded as a second class citizen when compared to a movie star. Movie star fame is considered more substantial and long-term than TV star fame which is like flash powder–it’s hot and intense but only lasts for a short period of time (i.e., until the TV show ends). Shelley Long still gets a lot of flack for leaving “Cheers” after five years but I think that even if she’d stuck around until the series ended, her career would still be at where it is now. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2006, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-celebrity-career-management/362217/24 "2006-06-26T21:54:09Z")
[QUOTE=Mayo Speaks!] Cruise got $100 million for Mission Impossible 3. That was before he went crazy, granted. But still: _$100 million!_ He’s obviously done something right over the past couple of decades to put himself in that position. [/QUOTE] It took quite a few years for Michael Jackson’s eccentricity-later-outright-nuttiness to negatively impact his marketability. In fact, you could argue that it never really did; changing public tastes and the declining quality of his output did. Give Tom a few years to really fuck it up. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2006, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-celebrity-career-management/362217/25 "2006-06-26T22:17:18Z")
[QUOTE=Wile E] I’m surprised Tom Cruise hasn’t been mentioned yet. His film career may be doing well, but his public persona took a nose dive and that may soon affect his marketability and film roles. [/QUOTE] Cruise is an absolute A++ list star, though, one of the biggest box office draws who has ever lived. In terms of popularity and influence, he has literally nowhere to go but down, anyway. I also wonder, really, how much damage he’s supposedly done. I mean, I don’t care about his personal life. If he was a murderer or a child molester perhaps I would, but he’s just kind of weird. Do you know anyone who really gives a shit? I don’t. For best managed career I wholeheartedly agree with the nomination of Arnold Schwartzenegger; I think he has to be the all time champion in this category. 30 years ago, the only human being in the universe who would have predicted that one of the world’s most popular and marketable movie stars would soon be a roid-laced muscleman with an Austrian accent who couldn’t really act was - Arnold Schwartzenegger. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2006, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-celebrity-career-management/362217/26 "2006-06-26T22:41:27Z")
Going back, the classic example of poor career management is George Raft. He was signed to be a major star at Warner’s, but turned down **High Sierra** because he didn’t want to play a gangster who died in the end, and later turned down **The Maltese Falcon** because he didn’t want to work with a first-time director. Humphrey Bogart took both roles and became a major star. Raft was also suggested for **Casablanca** , but Bogart had already been given the part. Bela Lugosi made some horrible choices toward the end of his career, though his drug problems probably caused work to dry up. Carrie Snodgress made the mistake of giving up her (quite successful) acting career to be Neil Young’s girlfriend. Despite being considered one of the top new actresses of 1970 (with an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe win), she vanished from the screen for eight years and was doing TV guest shots instead of leads. ---
**Author:** ![PastAllReason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@PastAllReason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastAllReason)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-celebrity-career-management/362217/27 "2006-06-27T00:34:44Z")
[QUOTE=BobLibDem] Valerie Harper also comes to mind- after her great success in Mary Tyler Moore she jumped ship and had a one year sitcom of her own then got a second chance in 1986 with Valerie’s Family and then jumped that ship. [/QUOTE] Just on the first point about Valerie Harper, I wouldn’t have said she “jumped ship”. Within the same MTM “family” she was “spun off” and went off to five seasons (according to [IMDb](http://http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071040/)) of Rhoda. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-celebrity-career-management/362217/28 "2006-06-27T00:52:22Z")
Sally Struthers never should have left _All in the Family_. I know that Reiner wanted off to, but she should have volunteered to play Gloria’s long lost twin who returns home or something in order to stay. She’s never come anywhere near that and regrettably she’s become something of a joke. Corbin Bernsen was a TV superstar when on _L.A. Law_ but he flatlined and fast. Before it even left the air he was doing majorly stupid movies about frozen sperm and now he has supporting roles in cheesy made for cable movies. Harry Hamlin and Susan Dey should have talked to McLean and Shelley and Sally before leaving L.A. Law (though Susan Dey left for another series that probably made her a really great deal). Shannon Doherty is an actress who like Michael Jackson or Anna Nicole would be locked inside an observed and padded room were she not in L.A. and making enough money for keepers. She can’t seem to keep a series and she has one of the worst reputations in show business as far as personality and reliability to go. Of course it has to really suck hard [no pun intended] knowing that your husband and Paris Hilton made a porn movie together. Carson Daly was caught on film pledging his soul to Satan for the success he’s had. I’ve said it before and will here that of all the people in Hollywood who have careers his is the one I probably understand the least. He’s stupid, ignorant and only marginally cute and Rin Tin Tin would have been his equal at the interview. Get his manager if you can. (Ryan Seacrest, who though I personally am near nauseated by him is cute at least, seems to understand the Arthur Godfrey/Norma Desmond nature of fame and is raking in every penny he can while he’s hot, which I respect totally.) Lisa Bonet first erred by pissing off Bill Cosby to do graphic sex scenes while on his ultra-family friendly sitcom, then ever since she’s just gotten progressively weirder. Last I heard she was on an interview program talking about how she’ll never let her child (by Lenny Kravitz) be immunized because in her considerable medical expertise she’s against vaccinations of any kind. Jasmine Guy and Neil Patrick Harris are two fairly big TV stars that I believe went to stage so they didn’t disappear entirely, but the rest of _Different World_, _90210_ and _Head of the Class_ and other teen heartthrob shows casts seem to have joined a cult. There are lots of talented aging-young stars that have never really hit the bigtime: Alicia Silverstone (she works but she’s definitely B-List), Skeet Ulrich, Wes Bentley (huge buzz for _American Beauty_ then just sort of lay there, LOTS and LOTS of soap opera actors quit the day job and end up doing infomercials or walk ons on low rated sitcoms if they’re lucky. My winner for mismanaged male career is Seth Green. The guy was sizzling hot after the first Austin Powers movie and he comes across as very bright on interview shows. I’m surprised that he’s still stuck in B and C list projects and voiceovers (even if it is for a hit show) when he had the talent and the following to get either starring roles in B list movies (better than the teen comedies he does) or supporting roles in A list movies. (BTW, he majorly pings my gaydar whenever he’s interviewed on a talkshow- does anybody know?) ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-celebrity-career-management/362217/29 "2006-06-27T01:03:02Z")
**George Lazenby** who was the first Bond after Connery decided to not continue the Bond series. Bad for him, good for Roger Moore. His acting career never really flourished after that although he managed to get rich in real estate so I guess he’s okay. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-celebrity-career-management/362217/30 "2006-06-27T01:33:43Z")
Are we focusing on actors, because former athletes (like Mike Tyson) and musicians (like MC Hammer) whose later lives resemble train wrecks would fill a thread ten pages long. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-celebrity-career-management/362217/31 "2006-06-27T01:40:37Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] Jasmine Guy and Neil Patrick Harris are two fairly big TV stars that I believe went to stage so they didn’t disappear entirely [/QUOTE] Guy’s done okay on the cable show _Dead Like Me_ and Harris, in addition to the amusing but short-lived _Star Raving Mad_ was for a time the animated voice of Spider-Man, which I think is kinda cool. I saw Wil Wheaton not long ago on an episode of _CSI_ playing a deranged barely-recognizable homeless guy, which feels vaguely prescient for some reason. Time will tell. He’s been the cartoon voice of Aqualad, who is about fifteen orders of magnitude less cool than Spider-Man. ---
**Author:** ![ululate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/59ef9b/32.png) [@ululate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ululate)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-celebrity-career-management/362217/32 "2006-06-27T01:46:27Z")
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers] … Harris, in addition to the amusing but short-lived _Star Raving Mad_ was for a time the animated voice of Spider-Man, which I think is kinda cool. [/QUOTE] What, am I the only one here who loves **How I Met Your Mother**? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-celebrity-career-management/362217/33 "2006-06-27T01:49:43Z")
Neil Patrick Harris is back on top in **How I Met Your Mother**. Buster Keaton. (I can’t believe I didn’t think of him before.) Keaton was a major star until his agent told him he should go work for MGM (the agent’s brother was an executive there). Despite the advice of all of his friends, Keaton followed the agent’s advice, lost control of his films and was so washed up that his appearance in **Sunset Boulevard** was something of a sick joke. ---
**Author:** ![KSO](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@KSO](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KSO)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-celebrity-career-management/362217/34 "2006-06-27T01:53:02Z")
Paul McGuinness, manager of U2. He’s been with them since the beginning, they’ve only had one concert where a band member didn’t show up, he’s got them set up with multiple corporations and holding companies and what not, and has figured out to get them tons of exposure while avoiding the label of “sellout” (i.e., the U2 iPod that they didn’t get any money for, the current FIFA World Cup ads, that they didn’t get any money for). ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-celebrity-career-management/362217/35 "2006-06-27T01:56:55Z")
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers] Are we focusing on actors, because former athletes (like Mike Tyson) and musicians (like MC Hammer) whose later lives resemble train wrecks would fill a thread ten pages long. [/QUOTE] OP speaking: musicians are fine; athletes too, I 'spose, though being a great big nerd I have naught to contribute to a discussion about them. What about Tyson? I know he doesn’t play basketball anymore, but doesn’t he have a behind-the-scenes role for the Bulls or something? ---
**Author:** ![DxZero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@DxZero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DxZero)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-celebrity-career-management/362217/36 "2006-06-27T01:58:28Z")
[QUOTE=Skald the Rhymer] OP speaking: musicians are fine; athletes too, I 'spose, though being a great big nerd I have naught to contribute to a discussion about them. What about **Tyson**? I know he doesn’t play basketball anymore, but doesn’t he have a behind-the-scenes role for the Bulls or something? [/QUOTE] Jordan? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-celebrity-career-management/362217/37 "2006-06-27T02:01:23Z")
[QUOTE=DxZero] Jordan? [/QUOTE] ::googling:: Okay. Gotcha. Jordan’s the basketball player, Tyson’s the boxer or whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-celebrity-career-management/362217/38 "2006-06-27T02:07:49Z")
Even funnier is that Jordan’s life is a stellar example of _good_ management. When he was pulling down $4 million a year, his manager put him on an allowance and Jordan’s personal discipline (as well as the positive influence of his mother) kept him from going hog-wild and ending up with a drug habit. I get the impression he does Rayovac commercials just to keep his hand in the acting game while waiting for _Space Jam 2_, taking the occasional vacation to count his money. ---
**Author:** ![DxZero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@DxZero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DxZero)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-celebrity-career-management/362217/39 "2006-06-27T02:12:17Z")
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers] Even funnier is that Jordan’s life is a stellar example of _good_ management. When he was pulling down $4 million a year, his manager put him on an allowance and Jordan’s personal discipline (as well as the positive influence of his mother) kept him from going hog-wild and ending up with a drug habit. I get the impression he does Rayovac commercials just to keep his hand in the acting game while waiting for _Space Jam 2_, taking the occasional vacation to count his money. [/QUOTE] Well he is the co-owner of the Charlotte Bobcats, as well as several other notable business ventures, so he’s doing a bit more than counting his money. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-celebrity-career-management/362217/40 "2006-06-27T02:14:09Z")
[QUOTE=Skald the Rhymer] ::googling:: Okay. Gotcha. Jordan’s the basketball player, Tyson’s the boxer or whatever. [/QUOTE] Having just read the wikipedia on Mike TYSON, I may add … damn. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-celebrity-career-management/362217.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-celebrity-career-management/362217.md?page=3)