# What's the worst final movie of an actor's career? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 22, 2002, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-final-movie-of-an-actors-career/125089 "2002-08-22T15:50:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-final-movie-of-an-actors-career/125089/21 "2002-08-22T17:40:19Z")
> [@](#): > > No contest. > Bela Lugosi in Plan 9 From Outer Space. > Recognized as the worst film ever made. > Bela died during filming, so they used a stand in to finish. > It doesn’t get more ignoble. Have you seen “Ed Wood”? Rent it. It helps. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-final-movie-of-an-actors-career/125089/22 "2002-08-22T17:43:45Z")
**ultrafilter** just reminded me of Sorrell Booke, who also ended his career by doing voicework for animated features. His final credit was Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation, before that was Rock-A-Doodle. ---
**Author:** ![ResIpsaLoquitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b3f665/32.png) [@ResIpsaLoquitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ResIpsaLoquitor)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-final-movie-of-an-actors-career/125089/23 "2002-08-22T17:48:16Z")
Don’t forget John Candy’s performance in the lackluster **Wagons East** shortly before his death. And hey…Welles was _brilliant_ as Unicron, darnit. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-final-movie-of-an-actors-career/125089/24 "2002-08-22T18:04:49Z")
One assumes that the remake of _Planet of the Apes_ will be Charlton Heston’s final film. For a great career of playing in some really well done films, it is something of an ignoble end. One hopes that whatever Pauli Shore did last will be his final film. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-final-movie-of-an-actors-career/125089/25 "2002-08-22T18:51:57Z")
> [@](#): > > Also, Sellers died during the filming IIRC of Trail of the Pink Panther in 1982 (wasn’t that the one where they had to use a replacement for some scenes?). According to [IMDB](http://us.imdb.com/Name?Sellers,+Peter), Sellers died 24 July 1980. **Trail of the Pink Panther** was released in 1982. Blake Edwards used clips from previous Pink Panther movies to fake a new appearance by Sellers. > [@](#): > > No, You’re thinking of David Niven (Sellers died twqo years earlier). In additon to the double, Rich Little dubbed some of Niven’s lines. No, David Niven died during the filming of the final Pink Panther film, **Curse of the Pink Panther** (starring Ted Wass of _Soap_), in 1983. But Rich Little did dub Niven’s lines because the motor neuron disease that ended Niven’s life had robbed him of his voice. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-final-movie-of-an-actors-career/125089/26 "2002-08-22T18:54:42Z")
[nitpick]That wasn’t the final Pink Panther film - 1993’s **Son of the Pink Panther** was.[/nitpick] ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-final-movie-of-an-actors-career/125089/27 "2002-08-22T19:36:28Z")
I must second _Sextette_—unwatchable. Groucho Marx’s _Skidoo_, Ginger Rogers’ _Harlow_ and Frances Farmer’s _The Party Crashers_ stunk up their batting averages, too. Must have made Garbo thankful for _Two Faced Woman_. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-final-movie-of-an-actors-career/125089/28 "2002-08-22T19:44:28Z")
Then there’s Bardot’s **Ms. Don Juan** (1973) - at least I think that was her last one. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-final-movie-of-an-actors-career/125089/29 "2002-08-22T19:56:11Z")
Was _American Presidents_ Jack Lemon’s last film? Not a total disaster obviously; he was co-lead in a major studio release. But it was a pretty bad movie and probably not the one he would have chosen as his final performance. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-final-movie-of-an-actors-career/125089/30 "2002-08-22T20:10:06Z")
I see no one has mentioned Ray Milland’s last film: **Serpiente de Mar**. English title: **Hydra-monster of the Deep**. And I liked **The Hunter**. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-final-movie-of-an-actors-career/125089/31 "2002-08-22T20:17:24Z")
Robert Mitchum’s last movie was some horrible Police Academy knockoff, except with firemen. ---
**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:** [August 22, 2002, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-final-movie-of-an-actors-career/125089/32 "2002-08-22T20:40:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jeff Olsen \* > \*\*I think Mae West’s final movie is more in-line with the OP. > [Sextette](http://us.imdb.com/Details?0078238) \*\* Lordy, lordy, **Jeff** , if you were gonna link to something about _Sextette_, here’s something even better than the IMDB entry: [Jabootu’s review of _Sextette_](http://www.jabootu.com/sextette.htm). Jabootu quotes contemporary critic Vincent Canby: > [@](#): > > The character we see in this peculiar film looks less like the Mae West one remembers from even _Myra Breckinridge_ than like a plump sheep that’s been stood on its hind legs, dressed in a drag-queen’s idea of chic, bewigged and then smeared with pink plaster. The creature inside this getup seems game but arthritic and perplexed. > > … > > The creepiest monster movie of the year to date must certainly be _Sextette_, in which we are presented with the bizarre sight of the 87-year-old seemingly arthritic Mae West tottering around as she mouths some of her better known one-liners and pretends to be the kind of sex-object that drives men to suicide. When Mae was a kid – in her 40’s, say – one could say she was parodying sex. When she’s in her 80’s, the spectacle suggests some kinky variation on necrophilia. ---
**Author:** ![Bindlestiff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Bindlestiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bindlestiff)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-final-movie-of-an-actors-career/125089/33 "2002-08-22T20:42:24Z")
Yeah, I liked The Hunter, too. I thought it was especially cool that Steve McQueen’s last movie was about a bounty hunter. ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-final-movie-of-an-actors-career/125089/34 "2002-08-22T20:50:04Z")
Though on TV, I would think Tuesdays With Morrie (sp?) was his last film. Not a bad way to go out! ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-final-movie-of-an-actors-career/125089/35 "2002-08-22T20:51:58Z")
My last post referred to Jack Lemmon of course. ---
**Author:** ![Minor\_Irritant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Minor\_Irritant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Minor_Irritant)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-final-movie-of-an-actors-career/125089/36 "2002-08-22T21:27:03Z")
Walter Matthau’s last movie was the weepy chick-flick _Hanging Up_. Not terrible, but I doubt that’s how he would have wanted to go off. And I agree: nobody but Orson Welles could pull off the role of a giant planet-eating robot. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-final-movie-of-an-actors-career/125089/37 "2002-08-22T22:28:32Z")
Vic Morrow died making “Twilight Zone: The Movie”. Decapitation is not my 1st choice for a way to go. ---
**Author:** ![Clever\_Hans](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@Clever\_Hans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clever_Hans)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-final-movie-of-an-actors-career/125089/38 "2002-08-22T22:31:18Z")
You think it’s bad because you like “The Hunter”? I like Paulie Shore ☹ ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-final-movie-of-an-actors-career/125089/39 "2002-08-22T23:38:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Little Nemo \* > \*\*Was _American Presidents_ Jack Lemon’s last film? Not a total disaster obviously; he was co-lead in a major studio release. But it was a pretty bad movie and probably not the one he would have chosen as his final performance. \*\* You’re thinking of **My Fellow Americans**. Lemmon did plenty after that, including **Out to Sea** , **Tuesdays with Morrie** , and even a cameo in **The Legend of Bagger Vance**. Robert Mitchum was also in **Dead Man** , an excellent existentialist Western by Jim Jarmusch that was released in 1995, I think after he made **Backfire!** , that crappy Police Academy ripoff. ---
**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:** [August 22, 2002, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-final-movie-of-an-actors-career/125089/40 "2002-08-22T23:41:13Z")
Another occurred to me, since I just saw an ad for it: _Queen of the Damned_, for Aaliyah. Not that she had a long career or anything, but I thought she was good in _Romeo Must Die_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-final-movie-of-an-actors-career/125089.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-final-movie-of-an-actors-career/125089.md?page=3)