Pop culture eats its own quickly, but the rise and fall of Lindsay Lohan has been a very quick one. Can you guys think of other actors, singers, or other artists who have had similar really quick rises to fame (magazine covers; taken seriously in their profession; lots of potential) then really hard falls (drunken photos; jail; playboy; no one will hire; etc).
Fatty Arbuckle, but he was a comedic actor. Still, it kind of fits.
Robert Downy, Jr.?
Of course, he was able to eventually drag himself “back up” after his fall, and perhaps even be better now than when he first appeared, but his initial rise and fall were pretty fast, no?
Numerous silent stars after talkies came in: between 1929 and 1932, the careers of John Gilbert, Clara Bow, Mary Pickford, Doug Fairbanks, Vilma Banky, Pola Negri, Mae Murray, James Hall, the Talmadge girls, Ramon Novarro, William Haines, and many others pretty much went down the loo.
Robert Smith comes to mind. He was developing a fairly popular recurring character in a series of commercials for Alexander Keith beer, then one conviction for possession of child porn and poof!
Lindsay Lohan has been famous for about a decade.
More like 13 years, since “The Parent Trap,” which is longer than Fatty Arbuckle was famous before his (much more severe) fall.
Hammer time was pretty brief I think.
Amy Winehouse, perhaps.
Milli Vanilli.
What do I win?
“It happened faster than it took Tara Reid to destroy a viable career.”
-Family Guy
While not directly answering the OP’s question, I think it’s worth mentioning that Lindsay is following a similar path that a fair amount of other childhood starts have followed in the past: Britney Spears, Drew Barrymore, and Angelina Jolie, to name three examples. And all three of them were able to rise again after their fall, so don’t count her out just yet!
After Casablanca, three big Hitchcock hits, and an Oscar for Gaslight, Ingrid Bergman was denounced on the floor of the United States Senate in 1950 when she had an affair with director Roberto Rossellini, and had their son, leaving her husband and daughter. She couldn’t get any U.S. film work until Anastasia in 1956 and bingo! Another Oscar.
It seems that Mary Miles Minter’s career kinda went in the toilet after her director and suspected boyfriend William Desmond Tailor ended up dead. It seems that many of her works have been lost to posterity. It seems her career ended in 1923 so it’s clear that this stuff is nothing new.
Counterexamples:
Alanis Morissette - Wikipedia (former child star, started acting at 12 or 13, then went into music. She’s not as popular as she was but I don’t think she really had any severe fall.)
Shirley Temple - Wikipedia (eventually became a US diplomat, something difficult to do without a good reputation)
How about Vanessa Williams? Her career as a celebrity essentially started when she was named Miss America in September 1983. Her fall from grace occurred when her nude pictures were released in July 1984. So there’s a rise and fall within ten months.
Granted, she eventually staged a comeback as a singer. But her debut album was released in 1988. There were several years were her career was essentially dead.
Her debut movie incidentally was a small part in The Pick-up Artist - a movie which starred Molly Ringwald, Robert Downey Jr, and Dennis Hopper. Definitely a movie for rebuilding careers.
When she first got into trouble, I noted that “She could have been her generation’s Jodie Foster, but instead chose to be her generation’s Tara Reid.” In the fullness of time, it is clear that Tara Reid was her generation’s Lindsay Lohan.
Pity, she really was able to act.
The Corey’s, Haim and Feldman, were mega-famous for about five years and then ppof they were gone into drug addiction.
Errol Flynn?
It was a combination of several things including health problems, WW II, and his constant drinking and partying. But the end result is an actor who was the top of A list in the late '30s and early '40s being almost washed up shortly afterwards.
Jerry Lee Lewis went from nobody to $10K a night superstar to $250 a night in four years.