Well she was with Macaulay Culkin for 8 years so I wouldn’t be surprised if she went through some rough spots. But nothing that I remember spilling into the tabloids.
He’s also the voice of Ferb in Phineas and Ferb.
Bumping this for Giancarlo Esposito, who I hadn’t realized was acting on Broadway at age eight with Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy.
(At thirteen he was performing in Lost In The Stars; at fourteen, in Seesaw; and in his early twenties he won the Theatre World Award, but by then he’d started showing up in assorted movies – and I don’t see any sign of personal problems, just steady work: a lot of quality acting on television and occasional turns as producer/director on the big screen, all in between heading back to the stage time and again for yet more award nominations.)
I had no idea.
He was also in the jail scene of Trading Places. (Link with NSFW language)
Holy crow, even though he’s almost 20 in that scene he looks very young.
Remember the bit in DIE HARD 3 where we quickly learn what Samuel L. Jackson’s character is all about? Having his young nephews call-and-response about the importance of a good education, staying away from drugs, and not wanting any help from white people – and cue our hero in a sandwich board?
That kid of eight was back in theaters at nine, in BED OF ROSES with Christian Slater and Mary Stuart Masterson; he then did small-screen work – everything from NYPD BLUE to BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER – before showing up at thirteen in BIG MOMMA’S HOUSE, and back to spending his teens working his way through the alphabet on television: AMERICAN DREAMS, BECKER, COLD CASE – and A.T.O.M., and BONES, and CHARMED – and heck, even NUMB3RS – along with episodes of ER and episodes of CITY OF ANGELS and episodes of GIRLFRIENDS. You need him, he’s there.
Be that as it may, Aldis Hodge just wrapped up his fifth year on LEVERAGE as the team’s self-assured computer hacker – and, coming full circle, his most recent role was back on the big screen, in the utterly unnecessary A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD.
Traci Lords?
I agree that he’s turned out ok, but by his own admission, he was getting all kinds of messed up during the filming of Apocalypse Now. Granted, the filming of that movie was a surreal nightmare for all involved, but he was still so young. It could have gone very wrong for him coming out of that experience.
He has also done some editing work for TV, including “South Park” for its first few seasons.
Before that, Ms. Shue was also a Burger King hottie. 
She’s still a hottie at age 49. She currently co-stars on CSI. And she replaced Claudia Wells as Marty’s girlfriend, Jennifer, in Back to the Future Pts. II and III. Granted, she slept through most of the two movies, but the producers painted themselves in a corner with the ending of the first BttF movie. They didn’t know there would be sequels and if they had it to do all over again, Jennifer wouldn’t have accompanied Marty and Doc to 2015.
I saw that today is Keishia Knight Pulliam’s 34th birthday, and it occurs to me that Ms. Symone is not the only Cosby/Huxtable child that turned out ok.
Keishia played Rudy, of course, and is still working, last seen on ABC’s “Splash.” Tempestt “Vanessa” Bledsoe and Malcolm “Theo” Jamal-Warner never had a public incident either, to my knowledge.
Lisa Bonet has been through a lot, but seems to be all right now.
Bumping this due to DADS premiering this week: Brenda Song – who started acting on television at six, was on the big screen at eight, and kept picking up work as a nine-year-old in the LEAVE IT TO BEAVER movie before starting her recurring role on 100 DEEDS FOR EDDIE McDOWD at eleven – was showing up for episodes of 7th HEAVEN and BETTE at twelve, and episodes of ER and JUDGING AMY at thirteen, before heading back to the big screen in LIKE MIKE at fourteen; after more television work at fifteen, she got her big Disney break at sixteen on THE SUITE LIFE.
She kept on with that until she was well into her twenties – while still getting roles in COLLEGE ROAD TRIP and THE SOCIAL NETWORK – and keeps working steadily on television while staying trainwreck-free.
I was jealous of Bill Mumy. He was a very busy actor from 1960 - 68. He was the “go-to” boy for Mattel commercials, did a Twilight Zone or two, Lost in Space, and then really cut back, or at least in front of the cameras, till Babylon 5.
Natalie Portman was already mentioned, right? I only skimmed the thread for names.
So this post feels creepy, but ler me preface it by saying that I’ve long maintained that the age bias against actresses over 30 is partially mirrored by a similar age bias against actors under around 27. So for examples of child actors I just started thinking of actresses I like and IMDb’ing them. Turns out most of them were child actors, which sure didn’t turn me off my pet theory.
Both Keire Knightley and Winona Ryder probably don’t qualify since they didn’t make it big until they were 15 or 16.
Reese Witherspoon was a fantastic example up until a few months ago. She still counts, I think.
Need a ruling on Evan Rachel Wood. Was the whole Marilyn Manson thing a crash and burn or what?
How about Kristen Stewart? The affair with a director seems small potatoes compared to a Britney/Lyndsay/Amanda style breakdown.
Ellen Page has never made any negative headlines that I’ve seen.
I have a vague memory of some bad news for Jena Malone, so she could be an example for either good or bad, though I can’t say which.
Amber Tamblyn seems like a decent example.
Not sure how much these would count since they aren’t exactly headliners, but Nikki Reed, Camilla Belle, Shannon Woodward, Lacey Chabert, Kate Mara, Rachel Leigh Cook, Sara Paxton and AnnaSophia Robb were all child actors and I don’t know of any notable scandals involving them.
I’m not certain KS has bottomed out and turned the corner yet.
Turned what corner? KS has never, to my knowledge, ever even come close to a minor fender bender, let alone crashing and burning. She has a very good head on her shoulders and is lucky to come from a very stable, supportive, happy family.
Well, the OP did ask for child actors. So it’s not just that Keira Knightley shot all of her Phantom Menace scenes before turning fourteen, at which point she had that recurring role in the Oliver Twist miniseries; it’s that she did a TV movie with Peter O’Toole at thirteen, and another TV movie at eleven after a big-screen movie at ten and yet another TV movie at nine, after doing yet other television work with Minnie Driver and Rupert Graves at – eight, maybe seven? IMDB says seven.
So, yeah, after all of that she turns fifteen and finally gets a starring role (as Robin Hood’s daughter in Princess Of Thieves), followed by all her teenaged work in Bend It Like Beckham and Pirates Of The Caribbean and Love Actually and King Arthur. But I think she already fit the bill.
WHY does KS get all this grief that she seems to attract? I swear she hasn’t done a single thing to warrant the crap I see written about her either in the press or online. I don’t get it.
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She’s not big on the fame part of acting, and she doesn’t handle publicity well. You can tell she’d rather be anywhere but on the red carpet. People take this as her being snobby and unapproachable.
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She has Resting Bitch Face. Not her fault, but again, it makes people think she’s a bitch.
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She ended up being romanced by one of the most desirable hotties of the teenage girl world. It’s just jealousy there.
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People who hate Twilight automatically turn it into hatred of her because she’s the face of the ‘brand’. Even though she thought she was signing onto a small, indie movie. The first Twilight had only ~$40mil budget and wasn’t expected to become such a spectacle.
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I liked her up until the point she cheated on her boyfriend with a married man. Not only did she choose to hurt her own boyfriend, she chose to hurt someone’s wife. Double ick.