The recent thread on the Most Spectacular Comeback (sorry I can’t link it, my new setup doesn’t let me see the thread id long enough to trap it) made me wonder who tried, and failed, to come back after having a star career, dipping into obscurity, flickering a little and then dying out completely.
One that comes to mind was Betty Hutton, who was a big Broadway musical and film star of the forties and fifties, leading such pictures as Annie Get Your Gun and The Greatest Show On Earth (that last with Charleton Heston and Jimmy Stewart). After she had been out of the public eye for quite a while she made one sad and desperate attempt at a comeback on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson singing a forties hit of hers My Rocking Horse Ran Away. I felt terrible for her because she was just awful.
Who else can you think of that tried to come back only to fall flat?
Kim Basinger - She had a run of stinkers, then won an Oscar for LA Confidential and looked poised to make a comeback. Which has fizzled away. Not even starring opposite Eminem in 8 Mile recently did much to raise her profile.
Bill Dana. He had to stop his “Jose Jiminez” routines by 1970. Several years later he appeared on The Mike Douglas Show trying to do a regular routine. It stank big time. Biggest flop sweat I’ve ever seen. Started apologizing to the audience and then did a little bit of “Jose Jiminez”. It was painful to watch.
Travolta. Every now and then he does something to peep his head above the pack. Then he promptly throws himself into the mud again. He can do good work, its just his gigantic flops that make his combacks so bad.
Michael Crawford. Scored huge in ** Phantom of the Opera ** in London, LA and Broadway, then stupidly returned to Broadway in ** Dance of the Vampires. ** I doubt he’ll ever be seen on Broadway (or even in a musical) again.
