# What actor has fallen the furthest since their Oscar? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 2, 2005, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-has-fallen-the-furthest-since-their-oscar/319660 "2005-09-02T00:29:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-has-fallen-the-furthest-since-their-oscar/319660/61 "2005-09-02T15:43:16Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Come now…even a guest shot on _Alice_ can’t compare to the nadir that is playing an ancient, incredibly stereotypical Chinese kung-fu master in the fine Mickey-Rooney-in-Breakfast-At-Tiffany’s tradition in [Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins](http://imdb.com/title/tt0089901/). [Chiun] Chinese! I am Korean. Korean is the most perfect creature ever to sanctify the earth with the imprint of its foot. [/Chiun] ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-has-fallen-the-furthest-since-their-oscar/319660/62 "2005-09-02T15:49:01Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > _Well!_ > > [stalks haughtily out of thread with scintillating posts about Janet Gaynor and Luise Rainer] Now, **Eve** , I hope you know that it was not intended as an intentional slight. I just prefer to have an actual frame of reference that I can remember from my life. However, if you have some dirt, let’s hear it. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-has-fallen-the-furthest-since-their-oscar/319660/63 "2005-09-02T15:58:36Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Now, **Eve** , I hope you know that it was not intended as an intentional slight. I just prefer to have an actual frame of reference that I can remember from my life. > > However, if you have some dirt, let’s hear it. Seconds the motion. Dirt! Dirt! Dirt! Speaking ill of the dead is fun. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-has-fallen-the-furthest-since-their-oscar/319660/64 "2005-09-02T16:01:55Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Now, **Eve** , I hope you know that it was not intended as an intentional slight. I just prefer to have an actual frame of reference that I can remember from my life. > > However, if you have some dirt, let’s hear it. OK, I got nuthin’. I just like stalking haughtily, is all. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-has-fallen-the-furthest-since-their-oscar/319660/65 "2005-09-02T16:35:25Z")
Hell, how about [Cher](http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0000333/)? Won for **Moonstruck** in 1987, and since then she’s…um…sold hair products on an infomercial. I mean, she still apparently releases albums and such, but the acting gigs seem to have dried up. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-has-fallen-the-furthest-since-their-oscar/319660/66 "2005-09-02T16:43:43Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > While we’re nitpicking, _some_body did mention the '95 thing. Yes, but to lose a decade once may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose it thrice looks like carelessness. > [@jayjay](#): > > Come now…even a guest shot on Alice can’t compare to the nadir that is playing an ancient, incredibly stereotypical Chinese kung-fu master in the fine Mickey-Rooney-in-Breakfast-At-Tiffany’s tradition in Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. What are you talking about? That movie rocked! ---
**Author:** ![phungi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phungi/32/395_2.png) [@phungi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phungi)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-has-fallen-the-furthest-since-their-oscar/319660/67 "2005-09-02T16:50:04Z")
> [@Max Torque](#): > > Hell, how about [Cher](http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0000333/)? Won for **Moonstruck** in 1987, and since then she’s…um…sold hair products on an infomercial. I mean, she still apparently releases albums and such, but the acting gigs seem to have dried up. [yodling voice][v-shaped thong dress]_do you believe in love?_[/v-shaped thong dress][/yodling voice] ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-has-fallen-the-furthest-since-their-oscar/319660/68 "2005-09-02T17:00:07Z")
Maybe this is related to that “regression to the mean” thing, but some of these people didn’t really have far to fall because they weren’t that good to start with. They got a good role, or got lucky, or gave an unusually good performance, and then went back to the crap they’d always been doing. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-has-fallen-the-furthest-since-their-oscar/319660/69 "2005-09-02T17:01:01Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > For the purposes of this conversation, let’s limit the Oscar-winning to Best Actor/Actress/Supporting Actor/Supporting Actress. This automatically disqualifies Sylvester Stallone. Uh, Stallone’s never won any kind of Oscar. ---
**Author:** ![MonkeyMule](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc348/32.png) [@MonkeyMule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMule)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-has-fallen-the-furthest-since-their-oscar/319660/70 "2005-09-02T17:06:14Z")
> [@sciurophobic](#): > > Joe Pesci. > > No movies since 1998, and his last good movie was Casino in 1995. If it weren’t for Scorsese, I don’t think he’d have any good movies. Having Cancer does tend to slow down the movie making process. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-has-fallen-the-furthest-since-their-oscar/319660/71 "2005-09-02T17:08:09Z")
> [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > Uh, Stallone’s never won any kind of Oscar. **Rocky** was Best Picture of 1976. (Happy Bicentennial!) ---
**Author:** ![merrily](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@merrily](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/merrily)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-has-fallen-the-furthest-since-their-oscar/319660/72 "2005-09-02T17:08:38Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > _Well!_ > > [stalks haughtily out of thread with scintillating posts about Janet Gaynor and Luise Rainer] Actually, Luise Rainer was from the 30’s, so she would have been fair game. (She won two years in a row, The Great Ziegfeld in 1936 and The Good Earth in 1937. A lot of people thought her role in The Great Ziegfeld should have been for best supporting actress, if anything, not best actress–it was really for one telephone scene that she got the award. After that, in a couple of movies, but essentially dropped from the scene like stone. All I know is that she was rumored to be a difficult person, and that may have been the reason–fights with studio heads.[This site](http://www.deadoraliveinfo.com/dead.nsf/rnames-nf/Rainer+Luise) says she is still alive at 95.) (Janet Gaynor won in 1928 for two roles, the only time that was done, or, probably, allowed: Sunrise, and Street Angel. She actually was nominated again in 1937 for A Star is Born [one of the many versions] and seemed to work pretty steadily between Oscars, so her career didn’t exactly tank. As for scandal, [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Gaynor) says she was bi-sexual, and, even though she was married with kids, that may have caused her to be forced out of films after 1937. It also said that the great love of her life, and vice versa, was rumored to be Mary Martin.) ---
**Author:** ![lno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-has-fallen-the-furthest-since-their-oscar/319660/73 "2005-09-02T17:10:33Z")
> [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > Uh, Stallone’s never won any kind of Oscar. Well, he won the lead role in [Oscar](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102603/)… ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-has-fallen-the-furthest-since-their-oscar/319660/74 "2005-09-02T17:15:10Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > **Rocky** was Best Picture of 1976. (Happy Bicentennial!) Yeah, but that doesn’t mean Stallone himself won the Oscar any more than Mark Lester won an Oscar for _Oliver!_ or Joseph Fiennes for _Shakespeare in Love_. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-has-fallen-the-furthest-since-their-oscar/319660/75 "2005-09-02T17:42:21Z")
> [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > Yeah, but that doesn’t mean Stallone himself won the Oscar any more than Mark Lester won an Oscar for _Oliver!_ or Joseph Fiennes for _Shakespeare in Love_. Granted, the Best Picture Oscar typically is - what? owned? - by the producer of a movie, Stallone did write Rocky and I think most folks think of him as the driving force behind it. So even if it doesn’t reside on his mantle physically, he gets credit for it… …not that it matters - it really isn’t that great of a movie and was a poor choice for the award, IMHO… as for the OP - Cuba came to mind first… ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-has-fallen-the-furthest-since-their-oscar/319660/76 "2005-09-02T17:52:39Z")
> [@JerH](#): > > Ben Kingsley has bounced a bit between good and bad roles, but can _Gandhi_ ever truly make up for his contributions to _What Planet Are You From?_ and _Species_? > > (And for those who might defend _Species_ for prurient reasons - try watching an edited-for-TV version of it all the way through, and then tell me it’s a good movie.) I know you recognize that he has had good roles, but I can’t believe Kingsley’s name would even come up in this thread. He’s had a wonderful career since Gahndi. Heck, he’s been nominated three more times since winning! He was also in Schindler’s List. He probably would have gotten a nod for that role had it not been such a strong year for supporting actors. Now, if you want to make a list of the “Worst Films After An Oscar Win”, his name may come up. But BK has a great career. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-has-fallen-the-furthest-since-their-oscar/319660/77 "2005-09-02T18:18:53Z")
Every actor appears in clunkers. It comes with the territory. Kingsley still gets good roles, but he seems to get a lot more bad or minimal ones. He’s practically nonexistant in **Dave** and **Slipstream**. His role was pretty smal in **Sneakers** and **Slipstream** , and **Species** was just slummin’. But, heck, look at the awful stuff Donald Pleasance and Laurence Olivier had to do. Jaes Earl Jones was in **City Limits** , fer cryin’ out loud. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-has-fallen-the-furthest-since-their-oscar/319660/78 "2005-09-02T18:31:36Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Yeah, that’s the one I was thinking of, specifically. I saw the previews to that two and a half years ago and am still suffering PTSD. I was exposed to clips from Boat Trip as part of some kind of marketing sample. My response was “this movie should be unmade” I predict Charlize Theron will have a spectacular fall once Aeon Flux opens. ---
**Author:** ![borschevsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/97f17d/32.png) [@borschevsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/borschevsky)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-has-fallen-the-furthest-since-their-oscar/319660/79 "2005-09-02T18:55:29Z")
Jack Nicholson won for _Cuckoo’s Nest_, and then he fell pretty far at the end of _Batman_. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-has-fallen-the-furthest-since-their-oscar/319660/80 "2005-09-02T19:02:51Z")
Kind of late in the thread to post this but here is a link to all the Oscar Winners - Best Film, Best Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress and Director: [http://www.1728.com/page8.htm](http://www.1728.com/page8.htm) Yes, it is a page from my website but it has ALL the Winners in the major Oscar categories on just one page. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-has-fallen-the-furthest-since-their-oscar/319660.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-has-fallen-the-furthest-since-their-oscar/319660.md?page=5)