Hillary Swank.
In 1999, she came out of nowhere and won an Oscar for Boys Don’t Cry. Then, after five years of nothing, she won another Oscar for Million Dollar Baby. And that’s it - she hasn’t really made any impact since.
Parminder Nagra was excellent in the movie Bend It Like Beckham and truly carried the movie. I have never seen her in any other film. I know she had a small role on ER for a couple of seasons. She even popped up for a small part for 2-3 episodes in Thirteen Reasons Why. She deserved so much better. Her Bend It costar Keira Knightley was just as unknown as Parminder, but she went on to make countless films, as did costar Jonathan Rhys Meyers. She should have had just as prominant of a film career as those two. It’s pretty unbelievable that Bend It Like Beckham came out 20 YEARS AGO next year, in 2022.
Summer Bishil was tremendous in the 2007 film Towelhead, directed by Alan Ball. Making her debut, she acted well alongside stars like Aaron Eckhart, Toni Collette and Maria Bello. Unfortunately, she has not appeared in any notable films since. She did star on the TV series The Magicians which recently ended its run.
Seems to be a pattern. Attractive and talented young actresses of color have it tougher and don’t seem to be respected, despite their talent. This is super unfortunate.
Eric Stoltz had a rather big and important role in Pulp Fiction as Lance, the guy who sells John Travolta the heroin that almost kills Uma Thurman.
i don’t think The Princess Bride was the blockbuster you’re implying here.
e.g. for Wright, Forrest Gump was way more of a “height”, and she wasn’t “secondary” in House of Cards.
Aah, I get it, you’re one of those people who think TV work doesn’t count as real acting, or something. Because Balki is way more famous a character than (had to look this up…) Serge.
And Lou Diamond Phillips would be his Hollywood one-hit doppelganger for La Bamba.
As noted above, child actors are kind of a special case. Nevertheless, Carrie Henn is kind of the apotheosis of a one-hit actor. She is absolutely iconic as Newt in Aliens, and she has literally done nothing else. If she’d wanted, she could easily have parlayed this into a career, but either she or her parents or both weren’t interested, so she did this one massively prominent role, and then moved on.
Penelope Ann Miller had a similar arc-- she had “it girl” buzz at one point, her “breakout” role probably being Carlito’s Way. After that she had prominent roles in a couple more big studio movies-- The Shadow and The Relic, but I believe they both fizzled at the box office. After that she had steady work but nothing too big.
Eddie Furlong. Just 13 when he famously starred in T2. Did a string of indie films, an Aerosmith video, then enjoyed a second peak in 1998 with three films: the critically acclaimed American History X, John Waters’ Pecker, and Detroit Rock City.
Then 2000 came and he basically disappeared. Had drug problems and was not brought back for Terminator 3. Did some crappy staright-to-video B-movies like the third The Crow sequel and the 2009 Night of the Demons remake. Personally, his adulthood has been a complete disaster.
She was already 27 in Bend it Like Beckham. She was then a lead in ER for 7 years. I was sorry not to see her in more large roles after that, but don’t minimize her role on ER.
From Wikipedia:
Nagra became the longest-serving cast member and lead actor of ER and remained so until the series concluded with season 15: episode 22, the two-hour series finale titled "And in the End…
Mark Hamill had essentially one role: Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars films.
Other than that, all he has done is voice acting in a few animated TV programs.
Mandy Patinkin was a star on Broadway even before The Princess Bride, and is probably better known there. He’s also appeared on quite a few TV shows.
Bud Cort, co-star of Harold and Maude (1971).
I also saw him in an episode of Law & Order: SVU where his name was misspelled in the credits. Seems like that would be a bit of a letdown for an actor.
One could probably say the same about Halle Berry. She was riveting in “Monster’s Ball” and won an Oscar for it (the first woman of color to do so). She was one of the highest paid actresses in the 2000s, but everything since MB has been pretty disappointing, IMO.
Dude, he’s THE definitive Joker.
I think there are a few actors who didn’t have big career post-Oscar, such as the ones listed in this article from Insider.
This list has to include Sam Jones (Flash Gordon) and Cleavon Little (Blazing Saddles).
Helen Gahagan (later Helen Gahagan Douglas).
She was big on Broadway, then moved to Hollywood where she had only one role – the starring role in Merian C. Cooper’s iconic adaptation of H. Rider Haggard’s novel She. Douglas’ depiction and costuming undoubtedly influenced the look of the Evil Queen in Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but she had nothing to do with that film. (It also influenced Ray Harryhausen, who pretty clearly based the Lunar Throne Room in First Men in the Moon on the one in She)
She never did another movie. She hated the “atmosphere” in Hollywood. She had a daughter, and around then became politically aware of things like the plight of migrant workers. She had tea with a Nazi sympathizer in Vienna and that, too, motivated her to politics. She became a member of the House of Representatives and later ran against Nixon for Senate (she’s the one who called him “Tricky Dick”)
She returned to acting, but only onstage (She got the surname “Douglas” from marrying actor Melvyn Douglas).
Regarding Tom Hulce, by the way – besides Animal House, Amadeus, and Hunchback of Notre Dame, he was in Kenneth Branaugh’s Frankenstein, playing Victor’s companion Henry Clerval. He’s had lots of other roles, but those are the only ones that stand out in my mind.
Jean Hagen had a spectacular star turn in Singin’ In The Rain as the hilariously stupid Lina Lamont, earning her an Academy Award nomination. She followed that with three seasons of Make Room For Daddy with Danny Thomas but when she decided to leave the show Thomas was so annoyed he had her character killed off. She never really got her film or television career going again. She suffered from alcoholism and died of cancer at 54.
He was quite good in a supporting role in Parenthood.