# Child Actors that didn't crash and burn **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 15, 2013, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964 "2013-03-15T00:52:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2013, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/81 "2013-03-17T02:28:46Z")
> [@Hermione](#): > > \*Someone somewhere once said that for a British actor, there’s no such thing as “slumming”, only working. Similarly, when Jay Leno interviewed Patrick Stewart many years ago, he expressed admiration for how British actors always seem to be busy. He went on to say that for the most part, American movie actors would make a blockbuster and then have a period of downtime until the next one. But a British actor might make a high-profile Hollywood movie, then a small independent one, then a run onstage in Drury Lane, then a miniseries for the BBC…but they were ALWAYS working. That’s actually a good point. You even hear big names doing voiceovers for commercials (Stewart himself, for one, and I recall Hugh Laurie doing a nasal spray voiceover not that long ago). And a lot of film and television stars do theatre not just for money but out of love for the stage and to keep their acting chops fresh. ---
**Author:** ![Renifer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71c47a/32.png) [@Renifer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renifer)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2013, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/82 "2013-03-17T02:56:09Z")
Both Alanis Morissette and Christina Ricci had eating disorders. For Ricci, it was not quite “crashed and burned” but she came close. For Morissette there was massive pressure after Jagged Little Pill; everyone asking “When are you going to do another album?” When her next album didn’t live up to the hype there was a bit of a backlash. Not Melissa Gilbert, but Melissa Sue Anderson has stayed pretty grounded through her life. Jonathan Taylor Thomas, though a bit smarmy, his ego has not led him to any risks to his physical or mental health. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2013, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/83 "2013-03-17T03:09:55Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Hayden Panettiere seems to be doing well - I remember her from her Ally McBeal days. Seems to be staying clean and very politically active; ISTR she got arrested (or narrowly avoided arrest) in Japan for breaking up their annual dolphin slaughter but is otherwise doing well and onto her latest hit show. No, I don’t think so. I’ll agree Panettiere has never had a big public scandal but from the gossip press it’s clear she likes partying pretty hard. If she keeps it up it’s only a matter of time before she’s at the wrong place at the wrong time. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2013, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/84 "2013-03-17T12:42:20Z")
Claire Danes – who made her on-screen debut at 11, years before playing a young victim on LAW AND ORDER way back in the Sorvino era, years before starring in MY SO-CALLED LIFE at 15 – seems to be pretty scandal-free (and Golden-Globe-laden). ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2013, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/85 "2013-03-17T14:37:58Z")
Sarah Chalke, from KidZone to Roseanne to Scrubs and some movies and other stuff. Michelle Trachtenberg did her first commercial at three years old, did some Nickelodeon stuff, and went on to Buffy and has since done pretty well. Sarah Michelle Gellar was in a bunch of stuff as a kid: Funny Farm, some Burger King commercial, Then All My Children - I think we know the rest of the story. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2013, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/86 "2013-03-17T15:41:05Z")
> [@bobkitty](#): > > I seriously read this as “because of injuries due to groin shots.” In fact, I read it that way SEVERAL TIMES. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. > > How about Elijah Wood and Sean Astin? I mentioned Elijah Wood in the OP. He has been acting steadily since he was little and he is now in his 30s. He seems a bit quirky but well adjusted. I purposely left of Sean Astin because I was half remembering problems he had. Maybe it was just his screwed up family I was thinking of. Not on the list: his trainwreck mother Patty Duke. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2013, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/87 "2013-03-17T16:42:37Z")
> [@Hermione](#): > > But a British actor might make a high-profile Hollywood movie, then a small independent one, then a run onstage in Drury Lane, then a miniseries for the BBC…but they were ALWAYS working. Yes, American actors do have something of an ingrained idea that you can’t go “down a rung” - once you’re in a major film, you can’t do anything less; once you’ve done a blockbuster; you can’t aim any lower; once your salary is $5/10/20M a flick, you can’t take less. I don’t know if it’s exclusively British, but there is another entire breed of actor who will fill his or her days with all the work they can fit in, to their benefit, their immediate audience for any work and their entire base of admirers. Which is the long way round to say that my admiration for Stewart is all the higher for having seen him in Pinter’s \*The Caretaker \*a few years back. ---
**Author:** ![Sarabellum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarabellum/32/3492_2.png) [@Sarabellum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarabellum)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2013, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/88 "2013-03-17T17:22:57Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > **Nawtha** -Two points: > > 1.Becky #2 broke Ted’s heart, leaving him at the altar 😃 > 2. JGL wasn’t on Roseanne (don’t think you meant to imply that) He WAS on Roseanne, actually. He played DJ’s “very boring friend” for several episodes, maybe a whole season? I think the character was named George, but I might be wrong about that. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/89 "2013-03-18T02:27:47Z")
I’m a bit surprised this thread has gone this long with out any mention of Scott Baio. He seems to have avoided any of the obvious pitfalls and continues to get work. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/90 "2013-03-18T04:17:07Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Sarah Polley > > Child actor who continued to act as an adult. Now a pretty respected director. Have you seen the preview for her latest? [Stories We Tell](http://youtu.be/ytq4VZ2Nyxg) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/91 "2013-03-18T06:33:09Z")
Cynthia Nixon seems to have turned out just fine. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/92 "2013-03-18T13:29:07Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Not on the list: his trainwreck mother Patty Duke. Hold up the train. Patty Duke has bipolar disorder, a physical disease that was diagnosed and treated. Yes, her life was a trainwreck, but she straightened out and is now fine (except for still in denial about Sean’s paternity, what with DNA proving his father is Michael Tell, a man she still swears she never had sex with). Please do not blame her for her actions during the trainwreck. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/93 "2013-03-18T15:46:21Z")
> [@Sarabellum1976](#): > > He WAS on Roseanne, actually. He played DJ’s “very boring friend” for several episodes, maybe a whole season? I think the character was named George, but I might be wrong about that. Thanks **Sara** for the correction! 😃 I never liked Roseanne. (If I wanted to hang out with a family like that, I would’ve hung out with my own family) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/94 "2013-03-18T17:37:13Z")
There’s also Laurence Fishburne: acting at age eleven in _If You Give a Dance, You Gotta Pay the Band_ before doing soap-opera work at age twelve in _One Life To Live_ and making his big-screen debut in _Cornbread, Earl and Me_ at thirteen before lying about his age at fourteen to start work on _Apocalypse Now_. So in his twenties, he was earning a Tony on Broadway; in his thirties, he started racking up Emmys on television; in his forties, he earned a Tony nomination **and** an Emmy nomination as Thurgood Marshall, which is a neat trick; the point is, I don’t see any personal-life trainwrecks; I just see a guy who wasn’t hurting for work before his Oscar nomination and hasn’t been hurting for it since. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/95 "2013-03-18T18:01:08Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Hold up the train. Patty Duke has bipolar disorder, a physical disease that was diagnosed and treated. Yes, her life was a trainwreck, but she straightened out and is now fine (except for still in denial about Sean’s paternity, what with DNA proving his father is Michael Tell, a man she still swears she never had sex with). > > Please do not blame her for her actions during the trainwreck. Just because it was something out of her control causing the trainwreck doesn’t make it any less of a trainwreck. > [@Infovore](#): > > Not exactly a “star,” but Robbie Rist (Cousin Oliver on “The Brady Bunch” and the second Dr. Zee on the original “Battlestar Galactica” became a musician and is still doing some acting. He was on Galactica 1980, not Battlestar Galactica. Very different shows. > [@JKellyMap](#): > > Lukas Haas has done okay … did some partying in his 20s, but nothing “fucked up” AFAIK – and gets occasional work (recently seen early in “Lincoln”), despite having once said he didn’t plan on being an adult actor. Not sure if he has some other, steadier job these days as well. He’s currently a regular on Touch (Fox, Fridays at 9pm Eastern). Unlike the rest of the child stars from Diff’rent Strokes, I don’t recall ever hearing about Danny Cooksey having any crash and burn stories. He seems to have moved into voice acting and music. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/96 "2013-03-18T18:37:35Z")
Anton Yelchin is, what, twenty-four now? No trainwrecks yet; he’s just a kid who was showing up for an episode of ER at ten, and at eleven he was on the big screen with _Along Came A Spider_, and at twelve with _Hearts In Atlantis_, and after spending his teen years working in some half-a-dozen other movies he suddenly found himself playing both young Kyle Reese and young Pavel Chekov by twenty. It’s maybe too soon to say for sure, but it seems like he’s doing fine so far (and with a leading-man role in post-production as we speak). ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/97 "2013-03-18T22:39:02Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > There’s also Laurence Fishburne: acting at age eleven in _If You Give a Dance, You Gotta Pay the Band_ before doing soap-opera work at age twelve in _One Life To Live_ and making his big-screen debut in _Cornbread, Earl and Me_ at thirteen before lying about his age at fourteen to start work on _Apocalypse Now_. > > So in his twenties, he was earning a Tony on Broadway; in his thirties, he started racking up Emmys on television; in his forties, he earned a Tony nomination **and** an Emmy nomination as Thurgood Marshall, which is a neat trick; the point is, I don’t see any personal-life trainwrecks; I just see a guy who wasn’t hurting for work before his Oscar nomination and hasn’t been hurting for it since. Sadly, his daughter is kind of a tragic case - porn actress at 18. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/98 "2013-03-18T23:28:09Z")
> [@Nawth\_Chucka](#): > > I don’t think any of the main child actors on Roseanne went on to headline-grabbing behaviors or the like. How about Johnny Galecki (who played David Healey), better known as Dr Leonard Hofstadter on _The Big Bang Theory_? He’s been acting since the late 1980s and he seems to be doing OK. Admittedly he wasn’t really a child when _Roseanne_ was on air, but by my reckoning he would have been 17 during his first series with the show in 1992. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/99 "2013-03-19T00:16:28Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > How about Johnny Galecki (who played David Healey), better known as Dr Leonard Hofstadter on _The Big Bang Theory_? He’s been acting since the late 1980s and he seems to be doing OK. Admittedly he wasn’t really a child when _Roseanne_ was on air, but by my reckoning he would have been 17 during his first series with the show in 1992. Yes, I meant headline grabbing in a ‘high speed chase’ kind of way, rather than a ‘Emmy Nominees Announced’ way. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/100 "2013-03-19T00:16:54Z")
At ten, Mila Kunis did a little soap-opera work and auditioned for the lead in _Make A Wish, Molly_; she landed a supporting role, which she played at eleven – as well as acting on _Baywatch_ and _The John Larroquette Show_. At twelve, she was earning paychecks with _Piranha_ and _Hudson Street_ and _Unhappily Ever After_; at thirteen, _Santa With Muscles_ and _Walker Texas Ranger_ and _Nick Freno Licensed Teacher_; at fourteen, _Krippendorf’s Tribe_ and _Gia_ and, apparently, the pilot for _That '70s Show_. She’s coming up on thirty this year and seems to be doing fine, both personally and professionally. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964.md?page=6)