# Once promising actors who went off the rails later in their careers **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 21, 2020, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237 "2020-05-21T12:54:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2020, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/41 "2020-05-26T23:23:00Z")
Caine said he is not retiring on his own. He said if he gets roles he will continue to work. If he doesn’t get any more roles he’s OK with that. He’s 87 now. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2020, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/42 "2020-05-27T00:06:31Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > You know for a two time Academy Award winner…wed don’t hear much from Kevin Costner. He’s been working pretty steadily, but mostly in supporting roles. Good supporting roles, and he gets decent billing, but with one or two exceptions, he doesn’t have the lead. I wouldn’t say that his career has gone off the rails, though–he does have the lead in a drama movie (_Let Him Go_), to be released later this summer. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2020, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/43 "2020-05-27T00:50:21Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > Depp hasn’t, imo, gone off the rails. Eh. I think everything he does is the same old crap. I find him more corny than the Nebraska State Fair. ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2020, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/44 "2020-05-27T02:46:44Z")
I don’t think Al Pacino and Robert De Niro really count. They’ve played plenty of scenery-chewing roles in their later years where they play exaggerated versions of themselves, but that’s because they’ve most been in roles where that’s what they’re supposed to be doing. I haven’t seen _The Irishman_, but it’s gotten very good reviews, as did the acting of De Niro and Pacino in it, and that was released in 2019. I have seen _Hunters_, the Amazon Prime series from earlier this year, and while I thought it was a problematic series, to put it mildly, I thought the acting was generally very good, and that included Al Pacino, in a surprisingly nuanced role in a pulpy action/dark comedy series where he very easily could have gone over the top, but didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2020, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/45 "2020-05-27T03:30:54Z")
Yeah, I think a lot of these examples don’t really meet the OP’s stated criteria of actors “going off the rails”? There’s a difference between losing your acting ability and merely not having roles that actually require acting ability. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2020, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/46 "2020-05-27T03:36:01Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > He’s been working pretty steadily, but mostly in supporting roles. Good supporting roles, and he gets decent billing, but with one or two exceptions, he doesn’t have the lead. > > I wouldn’t say that his career has gone off the rails, though–he does have the lead in a drama movie (_Let Him Go_), to be released later this summer. Some people dial back willingly. E.g. Rick Moranis’ basically willingly retired to raise his family, not because he stopped getting good roles. ---
**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:** [May 27, 2020, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/47 "2020-05-27T03:44:59Z")
> [@gdave](#): > > I don’t think Al Pacino and Robert De Niro really count. They’ve played plenty of scenery-chewing roles in their later years where they play exaggerated versions of themselves, but that’s because they’ve most been in roles where that’s what they’re supposed to be doing. > > I haven’t seen _The Irishman_, but it’s gotten very good reviews, as did the acting of De Niro and Pacino in it, and that was released in 2019. I have seen _Hunters_, the Amazon Prime series from earlier this year, and while I thought it was a problematic series, to put it mildly, I thought the acting was generally very good, and that included Al Pacino, in a surprisingly nuanced role in a pulpy action/dark comedy series where he very easily could have gone over the top, but didn’t. I agree about Hunters. He could have easily turned in a scenery chewing performance but it turned out to be one of his more nuanced roles in years. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2020, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/48 "2020-05-27T04:25:26Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Mel Gibson. > > The man could practically do no wrong for a solid two decades, then after winning the Oscars with **Braveheart** , he didn’t go fully off the rails right away, but the train was definitely teetering, even before his racist, misogynistic rants were made public. Disagree if we’re talking about acting performance. The last two movies I saw Gibson in, were not only terrible, but also breath-takingly racist; racist in a way I thought was not possible any more in the 21st century. But I have no quibble with his acting; he plays the characters in an imposing but understated way which works well (to him I think he’s making Birth of a Nation, so perhaps that’s why he takes it seriously). ---
**Author:** ![BigDfromLA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@BigDfromLA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigDfromLA)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2020, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/49 "2020-05-27T07:03:07Z")
Wesley Snipes was HUGE in the 90’s, then disappeared. Kevin Costner was on top of the world after J.F.K., Dances With Wolves and The Bodyguard. What happened? Remember the show Alias? Bradley Cooper was just a guy, probably the fifth lead. I wonder what his castmates like Jennifer Garner and Michael Vartan think when they see how huge his career has become? ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2020, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/50 "2020-05-27T07:14:37Z")
How about Michael Moriarty? He went off the deep end and then immigrated to Canada. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2020, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/51 "2020-05-27T07:34:02Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > I don’t know if anyone ever though of Dwayne Johnson as a “promising actor” but I think the guy knows exactly what kind of actor he is and is at the peak of his career right now. He’s getting the lead role in campy action blockbusters one after another that are making the studios rich and making him rich. Well, after [his performance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tdg7_tv3ea8) in _Be Cool_, he seemed to have all the potential in the world. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2020, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/52 "2020-05-27T11:15:34Z")
I always liked Tony Rosato (SCTV, SNL). He was a terrific supporting actor, never the leading man, but I could have seen him as the sidekick in a bunch of high-profile films, _a la_ Tony Randall or Dom DeLuise. Instead, he was the second banana in a lot of straight-to-video fare as soon as he got bounced from SNL, and he had legal and mental health issues about 20 years later. He worked steadily until his death in 2017, but mostly doing crap. In their book **Truth in Comedy** , Charna Halpern and Del Close discussed the most appealing traits of a good improvisor: Supportive of all the other people onstage, dedicated to making them look great. They name-checked Beluhi and Mike Meyers, notorious laugh whores. They should have name-checked Tony Rosato. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2020, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/53 "2020-05-27T11:23:21Z")
My favorite example from that book was when they were talking about a scene taking place at a prom. Bill Murray, who wasn’t in the scene, grabbed someone and drug them on stage, and they just slow-danced in the background, helping to create the illusion of there actually being a dance going on. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2020, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/54 "2020-05-27T12:03:08Z")
> [@BigDfromLA](#): > > Kevin Costner was on top of the world after J.F.K., Dances With Wolves and The Bodyguard. What happened? Costner is a limited, wooden actor who went off the rails with hubris rather than acting style, getting involved in ambitious but dubious projects like “The Postman” and “Waterworld” which bombed hard. He turned down the role of Pres on “Air Force One”, which was written for him, to be in “The Postman”. I like this quote from the “[Great Movies Marred By One Bad Performance](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=895778)” thread: > [@Great Movies Marred By One Bad Performance](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/57): > > Costner was perfectly cast in The Big Chill. ---
**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:** [May 27, 2020, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/55 "2020-05-27T12:14:09Z")
Depp remains an excellent actor, despite wringing all the money he can out of Jack Sparrow and being way too fond of starring in Tim Burton films (and his various other personal issues). And Dwayne Johnson is actually a decent actor, despite his usual fare of schmaltzy blockbusters - have a look at him in _Ballers_. ---
**Author:** ![Tusculan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2020, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/56 "2020-05-28T13:48:40Z")
Re Dwayne Johnson: I agree that he seems to have acting skills. I usually like his performance. However the topic is about going off the rails, not about talented actors choosing blockbuster movies in preference to critical darlings. ---
**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:** [May 28, 2020, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/57 "2020-05-28T18:20:34Z")
> [@Tusculan](#): > > Re Dwayne Johnson: I agree that he seems to have acting skills. I usually like his performance. However the topic is about going off the rails, not about talented actors choosing blockbuster movies in preference to critical darlings. In that regard, I don’t think he’s gone off the rails at all. He’s doing pretty much what he’s been doing all along. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2020, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/58 "2020-05-28T20:46:40Z")
Pacino said his Heat character was supposed to be a cocaine addict. guess I’m odd because I thought the Irishman was boring. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2020, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/59 "2020-05-28T21:00:38Z")
Sometime in the 90s Pacino apparently decided to only perform either whispering or yelling. ---
**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:** [May 28, 2020, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/60 "2020-05-28T22:51:15Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Sometime in the 90s Pacino apparently decided to only perform either whispering or yelling. My theory is this: imagine that you’re Al Pacino and it’s 1993 and you’ve never won an Oscar but you’re up for one thanks to your work in _Glengarry Glen Ross_; and then you sit there and watch as you lose yet again; but then, later that evening, you get called up on stage amidst thunderous applause to get handed an Oscar for what you did in _Scent of a Woman_, because HOO-AAH and I’M JUST GETTING WARMED UP and FLAMETHROWER and I’ll rub your NOSE in enlisted men’s CRUD till you don’t know WHICH END IS UP! YOU UNDERSTAND? I’m guessing that something inside you clicks into place right then. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237.md?page=4)