# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2020, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/81 "2020-06-06T14:58:20Z")
Plus there are child actors who got out of the business as they reached adulthood, so it’s not a matter of them failing but just not pursuing it. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2020, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/82 "2020-06-06T16:35:50Z")
Drew Barrymore as a teen and RDJ as an adult both looked like they’d be washed up as adults but managed to get past it. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2020, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/83 "2020-06-06T16:42:17Z")
Teenager? Drew Barrymore was taking drugs even before turning thirteen. She had a very fucked up childhood. ---
**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:** [June 7, 2020, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/84 "2020-06-07T05:45:33Z")
Eddie Murphy. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2020, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/85 "2020-06-07T15:33:53Z")
> [@LLCoolL](#): > > Jodie Foster is Exhibit A. Anna Paquin (The Piano). Saoirse Ronan (Atonement). Christian Bale (Empire of the Sun). So far so good for Elle Fanning. But I’d agree that the failures outnumber the success stories. Scarlett Johanssen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Christina Ricci, Dakota Fanning, Joaquin Phoenix, half the cast of the Big Bang Theory, Chloe Grace Moretz (she’s 23, so still young, but if she was going to go off the rails it would have happened already), Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Kieran Culkin, Claire Danes, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Kirsten Dunst, Jena Malone… There are tons, and I’m only counting people who were relatively successful as children (as in they were in big movies or TV shows, won awards, and featured in magazines and the like), rather than from 14/15 or so - there are way more of those. A couple of them are massive, and the others are getting regular work (Kieran Culkin was nominated for a Golden Globe last year so I’d say he’s doing well). A few of the 90s child stars that were really huge aren’t acting much any more, if at all, partly because in the 90s there was a trend for casting kids who were “cute” but didn’t have the kind of looks that would make them handsome as they got older - they were often cast for their ability to play younger, and for men especially it’s not generally an advantage to be short and stocky as an adult, especially a young adult. And some of them seem to have simply decided to move on. But there are a lot that also continued to do well in their careers and aren’t messed up. Joaquin Phoenix is a bit odd, but seems happy with it. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2020, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/86 "2020-06-07T21:24:18Z")
Has anyone from **Glee** had any significant success since it went off the air (in acting or singing)? Jane Lynch has that Hollywood Game Night thing going on, but that is not Acting. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2020, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/87 "2020-06-07T21:32:25Z")
Define “significant success”. Several of the cast members have done movies or other TV shows since. No, none as far as I know is an A-List movie star, but few people are period. Which is to say that’s different from having one’s career run off the rails. ---
**Author:** ![Tusculan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2020, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/88 "2020-06-08T06:34:44Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > Has anyone from **Glee** had any significant success since it went off the air (in acting or singing)? Do actors of succcesfull TV-series ever have a succesfull later career? I believe many don’t seem to do so well afterwards, with a few exceptions. Maybe TV series acting is different from movies? Or maybe they are too much type-case (Ross, Chandler?). OTOH I believe some long-running shows work well as a spring board for beginning actors. (or maybe it is simply statistics as they hire so many actors). ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2020, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/89 "2020-06-08T07:30:40Z")
Charles Bronson. Consider: he had major roles in three of the best films of the 1960s (_The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape_ and _the Dirty Dozen_), and did a great job in all three. He was on his way to becoming one of Hollywood’s biggest stars… and then he did\* Death Wish.\* Admittedly, the film was a big hit, but it typecast him as an tough-guy vigilante, and he never really did anything interesting after it. In the 1980s Cannon Films got its claws in him, forcing him into an endless series of B-movies; by the time he died, his career was a punchline. It’s really too bad. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2020, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/90 "2020-06-08T08:01:53Z")
OP: checked out _The Last Detail_ yet? 😉 > [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Nic Cage is a good actor with a very poor financial sense that led to him taking any role to meet his debts. I’ll half agree with this statement. > [@LLCoolL](#): > > Jodie Foster is Exhibit A. Took a good 15 or so years, though, for her profile start to ebb, and to an extent that I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say “off the rails”. Didn’t Crispin Glover, considered by some to show promise in _The River’s Edge_ (found him a little arm-wavy in that, but whatevs), go, well, weird? Was Klaus Kinski always off the rails, in terms of manic, semi-drooling, mussy-haired, flirting-with-psychosis crazy-eyedness? (An almost proto-Busey.) ---
**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:** [June 8, 2020, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/91 "2020-06-08T08:22:53Z")
> [@LLCoolL](#): > > Jodie Foster is Exhibit A. Anna Paquin (The Piano). Saoirse Ronan (Atonement). Christian Bale (Empire of the Sun). So far so good for Elle Fanning. But I’d agree that the failures outnumber the success stories. > [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > Took a good 15 or so years, though, for her profile start to ebb, and to an extent that I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say “off the rails”. \*\* LLCool\*\* was offering Jodie Foster as an example of a child star who made a successful transition to an adult career, not as someone who went off the rails. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2020, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/92 "2020-06-08T23:27:51Z")
Ack!:smack: Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soul_brother_number_two/32/3515_2.png) [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2020, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/93 "2020-06-09T00:01:19Z")
BTW, Wesley Snipes was fantastic in that Eddie Murphy Dolomite joint. ---
**Author:** ![cormac262](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@cormac262](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cormac262)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2020, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/94 "2020-06-09T00:23:46Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Charles Bronson. > > Consider: he had major roles in three of the best films of the 1960s (_The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape_ and _the Dirty Dozen_), and did a great job in all three. He was on his way to becoming one of Hollywood’s biggest stars… and then he did\* Death Wish.\* Admittedly, the film was a big hit, but it typecast him as an tough-guy vigilante, and he never really did anything interesting after it. In the 1980s Cannon Films got its claws in him, forcing him into an endless series of B-movies; by the time he died, his career was a punchline. It’s really too bad. I disagree with Bronson going “off the rails”. First off, he did some interesting stuff after the first “Death Wish”. “Hard Times”, “St. Ives”, “Breakheart Pass” come to mind. Secondly, yes, Bronson was in those great movies. But 1) those were also star-studded movies, and 2) though he was great and memorable in each, he didn’t have a big part - no where close to the stars. (“Dirty Dozen” is probably his biggest role of the bunch). My take is that Bronson “peaked” in the 70’s. And didn’t become bigger because he wasn’t as marketable. Simply because he has a face for a tough-guy vigilante (at least tough guy). He took a similar trajectory as Clint Eastwood - started in some American movies, and then did a stint making lower budget Italian movies. Stuff like “Once Upon a Time in the West” and “The Valachi Papers”. But comparing him to Clint, by the time Bronson starts getting offers to do american movies again…he’s now pushing 50. So by the time the 80’s come around, he’s in his 60’s, whereas Clint is close to 10 years younger, and much more marketable. Clint also has more range (and we can be thankful Bronson didn’t opt to try a “Every Which Way But Loose”-like comedy). So in his 60’s and 70’s Bronson is doing “Death Wish XIV” movies 1) that sell, and 2) provide him a paycheck. He’s not looking to gain the critical success that’s eluded him. He’d passed his prime, and was just happy there was still an audience to see him. I consider going “off the rails” is someone who had more potential than they utilized, and squandered that potential. I see Charles Bronson as someone who made the most of what he had to offer. He made some really good movies, and played some memorable roles. But what he had to offer was more limited. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2020, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/95 "2020-06-09T00:48:20Z")
**Tara Reid** and **Lindsey Lohan** could coauthor a book on how to throw away viable careers. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/96 "2020-06-11T03:16:53Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > You know for a two time Academy Award winner…wed don’t hear much from Kevin Costner. This is extremely misleading. First, both Academy Awards were for the same movie, and second, neither were for acting. Just like Ben Affleck, his name can be prefaced by “Multiple Academy Award Winner” but one shouldn’t talk about his Academy awards when talking about people as actors. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2020, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/97 "2020-06-13T17:55:55Z")
> [@glowacks](#): > > This is extremely misleading. First, both Academy Awards were for the same movie, and second, neither were for acting. Just like Ben Affleck, his name can be prefaced by “Multiple Academy Award Winner” but one shouldn’t talk about his Academy awards when talking about people as actors. Agreed. But Affleck is a good actor sometimes. He was fantastic in Gone Girl, and it wasn’t an easy role. ---
**Author:** ![Flare4roach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7cd45c/32.png) [@Flare4roach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flare4roach)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2020, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/98 "2020-06-13T20:01:58Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > Agreed. But Affleck is a good actor sometimes. He was fantastic in Gone Girl, and it wasn’t an easy role. Agree. Loved him in The Town. ---
**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:** [June 13, 2020, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/99 "2020-06-13T20:33:02Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > Was Klaus Kinski always off the rails, in terms of manic, semi-drooling, mussy-haired, flirting-with-psychosis crazy-eyedness? (An almost proto-Busey.) Yes, he was. As detailed in the 1999 Werner Herzog documentary, [My Best Fiend](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Best_Fiend). (Yes, “Fiend,” that’s not a typo.) It details Herzog’s often-violent relationship with this weirdo. ---
**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:** [June 14, 2020, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237/100 "2020-06-14T19:01:22Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > OP: checked out _The Last Detail_ yet? 😉 Eh, it’s $4 to rent through Amazon Fire TV and I’m cheap. Think I’ll just rent it from the library when it opens back up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-promising-actors-who-went-off-the-rails-later-in-their-careers/854237.md?page=6)