whose career was on the skids
Fixed title.
Hmm. I see tomorrow is the birthday of Jay North. To all you whippersnappers he played the TV roll of Dennis the Menace.
He became typecast as Dennis, and then he grew up. He didn’t wait tables though, he became a prison guard in Florida.
The girl who played Wednesday Aadams tried some soft-core, though.
Personally, I’d get a real estate license or go study chiropractic or something that’s worthwhile. No law says you can’t leave the business, and you could always use that last link to fame to get clients and customers. I’ve always been irked by actors who claim “I had to do nude shots”/“porn”/“projects that would make Leni Riefenstahl say ‘That’s way too radical’” or the like when most Americans who go through tough spells economically never have to do these things. I can only assume that being in front of a camera is like crack and you just can’t stop.
Or if that failed, I’d get born again and go on Christian talk-shows telling how being a Christian ruined my career in Sin City to the moans of most seculars and most Christians but to the cheers of the televangies and deluded Fundies.
Well, he did do this video (sorry for the bad quality but it’s the best I could find- some language, incidentally).
Given the premise that I’d feel the need to keep acting, because that’s my life, I would, first, rearrange my lifestyle back to a lower-maintenance level (selling off the mansion, sportscars and bling may net me a goodly amount or at least relieve a lot of debt; dismissing the posse of hangers-on probably would do so even more), and then carry on as a foot-soldier journeyman actor: seek work in ads, infommercials, theatre, B-flicks, TV supporting spots, reality shows. Do in-house corporate-video work. Voiceovers, too, including games (SW’s Mark Hammill and porn’s Ginger Lynn both did voices for a Wing Commander ep); try and join a morning radio DJ team doing “characters”. Spread the word among indie producers that I’m available way, way cheap. Find out in what English or Spanish-speaking countries abroad I retain inertial popularity in spite of my slide in the home market, and head there.
And yes, as a “journeyman actor” I would have to be willing to take a “pay-the-rent” mundane employment billet. It cannot be beneath me. Sell houses, sell cars, be a public-speaking coach, clerk at the used-book store, heck, run for Governor or Mayor! As Swann (O’Toole) mentions in My Favorite Year being an actor is not the same as being a star… and most working actors at any given time are not starring in anything but just doing yeoman work. If I cannot even survive as journeyman actor, then damnit, that’s the Voice of God telling me to get another job!
Now, to the more profound question: would I take ANY role, no matter how morally reprehensible the piece of work? Or would I say “there’s more dignity in porn”?
Well, it depends on the despicable subjet matter and it depends on the porn, doesn’t it? I don’t think Mr. Goatse (DON’T look it up! If you don’t know who/what, you are fortunate!) looks too dignified. In any case it has been years since porn could be considered a likely destination for “real” trained, working actors who **had ** the beginnings of a mainstream career but then it went downhill. Nowadays usually there is NO “mainstream career” to begin with: the porn producers like it that way 'cause it’s cheaper, and hardly anyone makes plotted porn with actual screenplays any more anyway, so that would not be really a viable alternative for he who wants to “keep acting”. ( BTW Sizemore is taking a page from the book of Justin Diamond and taking what is ostensibly his “Sex Tape” – does anyone NOT have a Sex Tape any more? Does anyone still not EXPECT that if you make a Sex Tape, it’ll end up on the Web?? – and having it overtly commercialized. That didn’t work so well for Screech, either, IIRC.) There is little dignity in *“Hey, look! I once was that guy in a hit movie/TV show! And now I’m waving my dick around! You’re looking at minor celebrity dick and paying for the privilege!” * Besides nobody wants to see most of us naked.
At least playing in the film with the reprehensible subject matter IS acting.
But then there’s the issue of where you draw the line and you can have many decisions to make as to where is it at: at a Jewish organ-harvester in Iraq? at a bloodfest of 101 ways to tear apart a body slowly? How about if all the torn bodies are female? Or black? Is it a bad remake of I Spit on Your Grave? Of * Birth of A Nation*? Do you portray your own ethnosocial group as a bunch of subhuman incestuous criminals? Hey, check it out: you play the Prohet Muhammad and your* face * fills the screen every other shot. Whaddya think of a version of Lolita that roots for Hubert to nail the 11-year-old, and she loves it they all live happily ever after? About a movie version of your most detested Jack Chick tract? A scene where you eat dog poop? One where you masturbate over the body of your comatose classmate all plugged up with electrodes and IV tubes? What about going to another country to make a movie that libels yours?
For a number of those instances, you could argue with a straight face that “reprehensible” is in the eye of the beholder and further that your having played in the film does not equal ideological support for the idea, and not get spat on your face: that’s a number that will vary from audience to audience. Not having watched Kurtlar Vadisi, I have no idea as to how bad the anti-American, anti-Jewish sentiment may be in that movie so I do not know how close it is to the line, though it does sound rather bad.
In the end if the only alternatives are morally/aesthetically “reprehensible” vs. porn, and I am a real actor, then I guess that as Robert Townsend said in The Hollywood Shuffle, there’s always work at the Post Office (or rather, more likely, at the Temp agency) so I can eat and not be homeless while I wait for the next audition, and meanwhile I’ll act for nothing in community theatre to satisfy my expressive drive if I absolutely must.
Personally, I would never aim for superstardom, as there’s only one way to go when you’re on the top of the ladder. I’ve always thought being a character actor is the way to go - you get recognition, steady work, fun roles, and most of the usual trappings movies get you.
Anyhoo, if I actually was on my way down, I’d avoid continuing fame, and go into theatre or some lower profile productions as my retirement plan. Maybe a soap opera, do animation voices, or perhaps radio plays (I have no idea if anybody makes radio plays anymore).
I would go into theatre and work an available indie films - really I love acting and would be happy given the opportunity to support myself doing it - regardless of the level of fame involved.
As long as the work is quality and my rent is paid (I would downsize for sure), what difference does it make if I am on the cover of People?
You may have something there… oh, wait, I can see it: an acting gig as someone who gets “healed” at the revivals – be at death’s door/paralyzed/catatonic one moment, then get smacked upside the head, fall on the floor, writhe a little then jump back up and run up and down the stage praising the Lord like a maniac. Make those donations flood in! 
A couple of thoughts, not directly responsive to the OP.
Doesn’t that IMDB bio for Margot Kidder read a little weirdly? Just seems different than any other IMDB bio I’ve read.
Saw the preview for Balls of Fire. Thought it looked like it might have promise as a mindless silly comedy along the lines of Dodgeball.
Anyone else disappointed in Christopher Walken’s appearance on The Daily Show? I didn’t think he displayed much personality. Just not what I might have expected.