# Signs that your career moment has passed
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-your-career-moment-has-passed/581696
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 12, 2011, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-your-career-moment-has-passed/581696 "2011-05-12T19:40:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2011, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-your-career-moment-has-passed/581696/1 "2011-05-12T19:40:16Z")
Patrick Dempsey: appearing on the cover of an Avon catalog.
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2011, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-your-career-moment-has-passed/581696/2 "2011-05-12T19:43:10Z")
James Marsden: guesting as a crazy hippie on _Modern Family_
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### Author:  [@Pine\_Fresh\_Scent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pine_Fresh_Scent)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2011, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-your-career-moment-has-passed/581696/3 "2011-05-12T19:53:28Z")
Going on any reality show with “celebrity” in the title.
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### Author:  [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2011, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-your-career-moment-has-passed/581696/4 "2011-05-12T19:59:35Z")
> [@Pine\_Fresh\_Scent](#):
>
> Going on any reality show with “celebrity” in the title.
This is the latest version of a guest appearance on “Love Boat” or “Fantasy Island.”
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### Author:  [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2011, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-your-career-moment-has-passed/581696/5 "2011-05-12T20:08:34Z")
You start your new job as a sports commentator.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2011, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-your-career-moment-has-passed/581696/6 "2011-05-12T20:12:17Z")
Dropping from the first guest position on talk shows.
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2011, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-your-career-moment-has-passed/581696/7 "2011-05-12T20:13:23Z")
Your last name is Baldwin but your first name isn’t Alec.
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### Author:  [@ministryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ministryman)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2011, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-your-career-moment-has-passed/581696/8 "2011-05-12T20:15:48Z")
You lose a Presidential election / nomination
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2011, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-your-career-moment-has-passed/581696/9 "2011-05-12T20:25:12Z")
Your co-star in your highest grossing movie in years was a dog.
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### Author:  [@ministryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ministryman)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2011, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-your-career-moment-has-passed/581696/10 "2011-05-12T20:35:32Z")
Weird Al…never mind…
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2011, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-your-career-moment-has-passed/581696/11 "2011-05-12T20:45:18Z")
You’re a regular in Old Navy commercials.
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### Author:  [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2011, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-your-career-moment-has-passed/581696/12 "2011-05-12T20:47:14Z")
You pose for Playboy…
(the only celebrity women I can think of who didn’t do it as a last gasp were Kim Basinger and Sharon Stone…)
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2011, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-your-career-moment-has-passed/581696/13 "2011-05-12T21:18:19Z")
> [@Sampiro](#):
>
> Your last name is Baldwin but your first name isn’t Alec.
Or Adam.
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### Author:  [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2011, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-your-career-moment-has-passed/581696/14 "2011-05-12T21:18:39Z")
Surprising results. I’m a straight man, and I admit I like “being with” women who are a little bit shorter than me. When I was parking cars for a while, and told my supervisor about my ex-wife (4’10") (I’m 6’3" or maybe 6’2.5"), he said “There must have been some good friction there.” Well, I don’t know about that, but I like smaller women – they seem on average better-proportioned, and it’s not about dominating them. Although, it helps to be able to toss them around during the hours of play.
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### Author:  [@Pine\_Fresh\_Scent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pine_Fresh_Scent)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2011, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-your-career-moment-has-passed/581696/15 "2011-05-12T21:26:55Z")
What am I doing in this thread? Jaledin, can I get a link to where you meant to post? 😃
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### Author:  [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2011, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-your-career-moment-has-passed/581696/16 "2011-05-12T21:28:42Z")
That was the most surprising result of all
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### Author:  [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2011, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-your-career-moment-has-passed/581696/17 "2011-05-12T22:27:17Z")
> [@twickster](#):
>
> Patrick Dempsey: appearing on the cover of an Avon catalog.
It’s sad, he could have been a leading man but decided to take the easy Grey’s paycheque. He would have been the most successful Grey’s alum if he had tried.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2011, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-your-career-moment-has-passed/581696/18 "2011-05-13T03:37:20Z")
> [@kushiel](#):
>
> It’s sad, he could have been a leading man but decided to take the easy Grey’s paycheque. He would have been the most successful Grey’s alum if he had tried.
I think you’re overestimating Dempsey’s options.
_Grey’s Anatomy_ didn’t kill his career; it revived it. Dempsey had been moderately successful back in the late eighties playing teen movies but that part of his career was long over. He was doing b-movies and TV guest shots in the nineties. His biggest part was in _Sweet Home Alabama_ where he played the guy who didn’t win the girl.
_Grey’s Anatomy_ put him back into the public conscious. If he wasn’t on a popular TV show he wouldn’t have been offered the roles in _Freedom Writers_ or _Enchanted_ or _Made of Honor_.
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2011, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-your-career-moment-has-passed/581696/19 "2011-05-13T03:38:52Z")
When you get fired from a hit sitcom and you’re replaced with Ashton Kutcher. 😃
Here’s lookin’ at ya, Charlie.
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### Author:  [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2011, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-your-career-moment-has-passed/581696/20 "2011-05-13T12:45:23Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> I think you’re overestimating Dempsey’s options.
>
> _Grey’s Anatomy_ didn’t kill his career; it revived it. Dempsey had been moderately successful back in the late eighties playing teen movies but that part of his career was long over. He was doing b-movies and TV guest shots in the nineties. His biggest part was in _Sweet Home Alabama_ where he played the guy who didn’t win the girl.
>
> _Grey’s Anatomy_ put him back into the public conscious. If he wasn’t on a popular TV show he wouldn’t have been offered the roles in _Freedom Writers_ or _Enchanted_ or _Made of Honor_.
He also has three young kids and film work is much harder on a family than the set schedule of TV work. It isn’t like he isn’t rich enough that he has to work. In other words, he’s chosen to pass on his career moment.
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