I will too: I’ve heard he didn’t mind if you raided his refrigerator (my dad was childhood friends with Toni) 
Same for Alan Ladd: not much of an actor, but he gave my grandmother a wire recorder so she could mail it back snd forth to my dad at school, cheaper than long distance phone calls.
Of this list, The Shootist and True Grit are the ones I’ve seen. I agree with The Shootist, but the rest of the cast I think outshines Wayne. I liked the remake of True Grit better than the original.
I think the only John Wayne movie I’ve seen and really liked is Hatari! and that’s because of the African scenery and wildlife. Wayne himself is pretty much a secondary character to that, even though he does a pretty good job in it. I think Mercer’s character fits with Wayne’s acting style.
The problem with his performance as Marty McFly was that he simply didn’t understand the movie was a comedy and continually tried to go all serious. He was completely wrong for the role but some studio bigwig insisted.
Gooding was in A Few Good Men, but in a small role. I think he’s only in one scene, as one of the Marines who testifies for the prosecution at the trial.
The big tragedy of the film “One, Two Three” was that while being filmed, the border between West and East Berlin was still open, and that was a crucial premise to the plot, but at the release date the Wall had been built, so the premise got flawed and it wasn’t funny anymore to joke about that border, so the film tanked. It’s one of Billy Wilder’s best comedies, and nowadays after all that has happened and without that baggage, it’s a hilarious take on the Cold War and the American-German relations at that time. Not only Horst Buchholz (who was great in his role), but also Liselotte Pulver who was magnificent could have had their big American breaks if not for those circumstances.
Gary Oldman is another one with that talent. He can be totally unrecognizable in different roles, and doesn’t get cast for a special type. Chameleon actors are the best.
Sharon Stone was supposed to be the new “it girl” when Basic Instinct came out. Turns out that showing your hoo-hoo in a mainstream film is a great attention-getter, but is a hard act to top.
Nominated for an Oscar and won the Golden Globe for her role in Casino. But really, most of her career was playing femme fatales in a rather large number of thrillers and action movies. Basic Instinct is the best known, but for a one hit actor she has a shit-ton of credits, including numerous leading roles after Basic Instinct.
Three actors that come to mind from the early 2000s are Topher Grace, Michael Cera and Josh Hartnett. All had prominent roles in big movies, but then seemed to all but disappear. I see from a quick search that they have all been working, but in either obscure films, or small parts.
Did anyone think any of them were going to be a big star?
All had multiple roles as leads or near leads in big budget and successful movies. I think that’s probably a good indication.
Sharon Stone was tricked by Paul Verhoeven into shooting that scene, and that was a total dick move. It sure had an influence on her later career, as she was only seen as the immoral vamp.
How many of those were actual hits? Just the one, right? Casino did $116MM worldwide, not even half of what John Carter pulled.
A one-hit actor can have lots of minor credits. In fact that’s probably the norm. No shame in it.
That sucks. I didn’t realize it was sold to her on the false pretense that the lighting would hide the detail. Verhoeven is an asshole for doing that.
You’re thinking of Caesar Romero.
Total Recall did okay. Admittedly before Basic Instinct.
I’m wondering if Jennifer Beals could qualify as a “one-hit” actor.
She starred in Flashdance, and that was about it. She’s had a number of parts in movies and TV since, but never as a star. She has been working steadily, but not in anything as big as Flashdance.
She’s one of the surprisingly large number who went back to university. And The L Word was big, I’d say, and she was the star in that.
Sure, if you specify “movie.” But, if you said “cartoon,” I think most people would know they were referring to him as the Joker. Sure, maybe not quite as many people who know him as Luke Skywalker, but big enough that it counts as a second hit.
That is, of course, assuming that we don’t treat sequels like follow-up albums. Then it’s like his fourth hit or so.
Hence the booming voicework career.
He was also kind of fun in his guest shots on The Flash as “Trickster” and definitely unSkywalkerish. In fact he tended to be the best thing in those episodes.
Loved him in “Deathtrap” though.
Ew.