# 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:** 9
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/161 "2013-09-29T20:52:54Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > And the pizza boycott guy in “Do The Right Thing.” Buggin’ Out! A lot has been made of “Can you believe that Hal is Heisenberg?” I always found it even more amazing that Buggin’ Out is Gus Fring. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/jc6_XgtOQgI/maxresdefault.jpg "Do the Right Thing (4/10) Movie CLIP - Your Jordans Are F\*\*\*ed Up! (1989) HD") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc6_XgtOQgI) (some other familiar faces in that scene too) ---
**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:** [September 30, 2013, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/162 "2013-09-30T00:29:05Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > A lot has been made of “Can you believe that Hal is Heisenberg?” I always found it even more amazing that Buggin’ Out is Gus Fring. Daveigh Chase did her first TV movie at eight, and did three more before turning eleven, at which point she played Donnie Darko’s little sister. She was still eleven when folks heard her voicing the kid in LILO & STITCH – same year she memorably crawled out of television sets in THE RING. :eek: (And, for the sake of this thread, I’ll add that she was a castmember on OLIVER BEENE from age twelve to fourteen; at fifteen, she started playing the disturbingly young bride-to-be on BIG LOVE, and kept at it until she was in her twenties; she’s since done movie after movie after movie as a grown woman, showing up for work on time and having no apparent need for either jail or rehab.) ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/163 "2013-09-30T05:34:27Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Daveigh Chase I was going to joke that she counts as a crash and burn because she [made out with her brother for a movie](http://www.celebitchy.com/7829/greys_anatomys_chyler_leigh_kissed_her_brother_for_her_first_movie/), but that was actually Chyler Leigh. [So very squicky](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYO2OdAI3H4). ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/164 "2013-09-30T06:05:02Z")
I think all the stars of Party of Five turned out fine . Also, Carrie Henn, who played “Newt” in Aliens, left the business and has been fine. She mentioned she’s still relentlessly teased by her friends about the line “they mostly come out at night, mostly.” ---
**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:** [September 30, 2013, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/165 "2013-09-30T08:02:47Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Daveigh Chase did her first TV movie at eight, and did three more before turning eleven, at which point she played Donnie Darko’s little sister. > > She was still eleven when folks heard her voicing the kid in LILO & STITCH – same year she memorably crawled out of television sets in THE RING. :eek: > > (And, for the sake of this thread, I’ll add that she was a castmember on OLIVER BEENE from age twelve to fourteen; at fifteen, she started playing the disturbingly young bride-to-be on BIG LOVE, and kept at it until she was in her twenties; she’s since done movie after movie after movie as a grown woman, showing up for work on time and having no apparent need for either jail or rehab.) She also did the English language dub for Chihiro/Sen in _Spirited Away_. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/166 "2013-09-30T08:18:55Z")
I think the incidence of child stars going bad is more about the **star** part. Someone who acted as a child is probably at little more risk than the general population. Someone who was an actual star as a child, though, is another matter. There’s quite a difference between headlining Freaky Friday and Herbie the Love Bug compared to playing Donnie Darko’s little sister. ---
**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:** [October 1, 2013, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/167 "2013-10-01T12:28:51Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > There’s quite a difference between headlining Freaky Friday and Herbie the Love Bug compared to playing Donnie Darko’s little sister. Fair enough, but Freaky Friday and Herbie came out when Lohan was seventeen and nineteen; aren’t you the poster who not two weeks ago figured Keira Knightley and Winona Ryder shouldn’t qualify for this thread, arguing that their big-screen work at fifteen and sixteen shouldn’t count? So shouldn’t your argument be that, at twelve, Lohan headlined The Parent Trap? Y’know, the movie that (a) didn’t hit number-one, and (b) grossed a lot less than Lilo & Stitch _or_ The Ring – both of which _did_ hit number one, the latter while the former was still in theaters and Daveigh Chase was still twelve? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/168 "2013-10-01T15:02:47Z")
Has Roddy McDowall been mentioned yet? ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/169 "2013-10-01T20:21:08Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > FSo shouldn’t your argument be that, at twelve, Lohan headlined The Parent Trap? Y’know, the movie that (a) didn’t hit number-one, and (b) grossed a lot less than Lilo & Stitch _or_ The Ring – both of which _did_ hit number one, the latter while the former was still in theaters and Daveigh Chase was still twelve? Absolutely. I was thinking of Parent Trap when I wrote Freaky Friday. I had the titles so confused that when I read “seventeen” I thought “no way, she was like 10!” heh. Herbie the Love Bug was just to illustrate that she maintained “star” status through childhood into early adulthood. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/170 "2013-10-02T03:36:15Z")
Robert McNaughton, the older brother in _E.T._, left acting altogether in the 1980s and became a postal worker in Pheonix. I think he ended up with just a normal life. ---
**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:** [October 2, 2013, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/171 "2013-10-02T04:41:26Z")
Alfonso Ribeiro got his first television role at eight before performing on Broadway as THE TAP DANCE KID and becoming a castmember on SILVER SPOONS at twelve; after a couple of MAGNUM PI episodes and a few TV movies, the teen famously started playing Carlton Banks on THE FRESH PRINCE OF BEL-AIR and kept at it until he was twenty-four; he then started his three-year run on IN THE HOUSE before racking up seventy-odd directing credits and working as a game-show host while routinely keeping his hand in as an actor, now in his forties with nary a crash nor a burn. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/172 "2013-10-02T05:06:16Z")
Maybe everyone else knows something I don’t, but it mystifies me why Haley Joel Osment hasn’t seemed to make the transformation to a mainstream adult actor. He was incredible as a kid. > [@Loach](#): > > Ron Howard > [@kenobi\_65](#): > > You should probably include his brother, Clint, though it doesn’t appear he would have an acting career as an adult if his brother didn’t cast him in most, if not all, of his films. Yet everyone always forgets Chuck. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/173 "2013-10-02T08:24:57Z")
Didn’t read all the posts, but there are a ton who’s adult careers have been so successful that it overshadowed their child actor origins: 1. Kurt Russell (Computer wore tennis shoes, other disney films from the 70’s) 2. Christian Bale (First role was the child prince in The Last Emperor) 3. Bruce Lee (started acting in 1941 as an infant, IMDB lists 20 acting credits before he turned 20, at 26 he got his big break as Kato on the Green Hornet.) 4. Kirsten Dunst (Big role as Claudia in Interview with a Vampire at 12.) ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/174 "2013-10-02T08:29:08Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > Maybe everyone else knows something I don’t, but it mystifies me why Haley Joel Osment hasn’t seemed to make the transformation to a mainstream adult actor. He was incredible as a kid. I think he just got overexposed, he was in too many movies in too short a time, like Chris O’Donnell in the early 90’s, or Shia Lebouf now. The Goonies cast disappeared as well. I would have expected big things from the asian kid (huge role also in Indy Jones 2). ---
**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:** [October 2, 2013, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/175 "2013-10-02T12:32:28Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > I think he just got overexposed, he was in too many movies in too short a time, like Chris O’Donnell in the early 90’s, or Shia Lebouf now. Speaking of which, how about Christy Carlson Romano? Started getting stage work at six – everything from _Annie_ to _The Will Rogers Follies_ with Keith Carradine to _The Sound of Music_ with Marie Osmond – and by twelve she’s appearing on television and showing up in a Woody Allen film; she’s then thirteen when _Henry Fool_ hits the big screen, on Broadway as Mary Phagan in _Parade_ at fourteen, and in _Goosed_ at fifteen before joining up with LeBeouf for _Even Stevens_ at sixteen. After three years of that, she soon gets an Emmy nomination in her twenties – around the same time she becomes the youngest actress to play Belle in the Broadway version of _Beauty and the Beast_ – followed by four or five TV movies, taking time along the way to head back to Broadway for a run in _Avenue Q_ before fielding yet more big-screen roles; she’s coming up on thirty and doesn’t seem to be slowing down. > [@](#): > > The Goonies cast disappeared as well. I stand by what I said about Martha Plimpton. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/176 "2013-10-02T12:53:12Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Plus: Yes, he was also on The New Leave It To Beaver aka Still the Beaver. Are you saying that’s proof he crashed and burned? He did return to acting, but he also had a very honorable career as a cop. Actually, I didn’t know he was rumored to have been John Holmes. I thought he had done one under his own name. Maybe I combined the Ken Osmond rumor with Jay North’s foray into porn. And I liked Still the Beaver, so no, I did not see his being in that as a strike against him. Since Daveigh Chase has come under discussion, I have to mention her starring role in the very lame S. Darko (I have actually cautioned customers about buying that.) ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/177 "2013-10-02T13:07:09Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > I think he just got overexposed, he was in too many movies in too short a time, like Chris O’Donnell in the early 90’s, or Shia Lebouf now. > > The Goonies cast disappeared as well. I would have expected big things from the asian kid (huge role also in Indy Jones 2). Martha Plimpton, Sean Astin, Corey Feldman, and Josh Brolin disappeared? They seem to be working pretty steadily. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/178 "2013-10-02T18:02:20Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > So shouldn’t your argument be that, at twelve, Lohan headlined The Parent Trap? Y’know, the movie that (a) didn’t hit number-one, and (b) grossed a lot less than Lilo & Stitch _or_ The Ring – both of which _did_ hit number one, the latter while the former was still in theaters and Daveigh Chase was still twelve? After re-reading this it sort of sounds like you’re trying to make the argument that Daveigh Chase was a bigger star than Lindsay Lohan because Chase was in bigger movies. If so, I think the silliness of that argument is self-evident. ---
**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:** [October 2, 2013, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/179 "2013-10-02T19:05:42Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > After re-reading this it sort of sounds like you’re trying to make the argument that Daveigh Chase was a bigger star than Lindsay Lohan because Chase was in bigger movies. Not at all. So long as I’m here, though, I’ll add quick mention of Jonathan Lipnicki, who was a castmember on _The Jeff Foxworthy Show_ at five, turned six shortly before _Jerry Maguire_ came out, and was still under ten when he made _Stuart Little_ with Hugh Laurie and Michael J Fox easy as landing that recurring role on _Dawson’s Creek_. So at ten, he was _The Little Vampire_; at eleven, back on the big screen in _Like Mike_ (and _Stuart Little 2_); he kept working intermittently on through to age eighteen – an episode of _Touched By An Angel_ here, an episode of _Monk_ there, the occasional big-screen movie – and since turning twenty he’s done some TV work and shown up in a couple of movies, with a couple more in post-production, when he isn’t busy acting on stage; nothing spectacular, but no crashing and burning as his twenty-third birthday approaches later this month. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/180 "2013-10-02T19:21:04Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > 1. Christian Bale (First role was the child prince in The Last Emperor) I think maybe you’re thinking of his role as the boy in the POW camp in _Empire of the Sun_? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964.md?page=10)