# Which actor has had the best success after his or her breakout series? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 3, 2013, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-actor-has-had-the-best-success-after-his-or-her-breakout-series/654745 "2013-04-03T17:41:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2013, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-actor-has-had-the-best-success-after-his-or-her-breakout-series/654745/61 "2013-04-06T00:23:13Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Not to mention Christopher Reeve and Mark Hamill. I believe Sara Michelle Gellar was in a soap too. And a Wendy’s commercial. I wouldn’t call it a breakout role but Ben Affleck was in a “blink and you’ll miss it” scene in the movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and he did a commercial too (Burger King). And John Cryer has done pretty well in 2 1/2 Men after doing mostly nothing since Pretty in Pink. Ashton Kutcher, on the other hand, is slumming it. I’d like to give a special shout out to Sam Huntington, who got his start in “Not Another Teen Movie” just for looking like the guy he was parodying, to having a very juicy role in the USA version of Being Human. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2013, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-actor-has-had-the-best-success-after-his-or-her-breakout-series/654745/62 "2013-04-06T13:24:18Z")
And Kate Mulgrew and Yasmin Bleeth, who played Mary Ryan Fenelli and her daughter Ryan on Ryan’s Hope. ---
**Author:** ![Renifer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71c47a/32.png) [@Renifer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renifer)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2013, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-actor-has-had-the-best-success-after-his-or-her-breakout-series/654745/63 "2013-04-06T15:53:53Z")
I remember Joseph Gordon-Levitt from when he was Tommy Solomon in Third Rock From the Sun. ---
**Author:** ![Renifer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71c47a/32.png) [@Renifer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renifer)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2013, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-actor-has-had-the-best-success-after-his-or-her-breakout-series/654745/64 "2013-04-14T01:21:05Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > I’m thinking of people like Michael C. Hall, Michael Chiklis, Timothy Olyphant, and others in their category where the series they were key members of have passed away. > > The one who comes immediately to my mind is Olyphant and _Justified_ after his stint in _Deadwood_. Who’s had better follow-up work than Tim? > > The flip-side of the issue would be those gifted actors whose recovery from their initial success has been slow in coming. Donal Logue in _Terriers_ is an example. In one of the teen magazines in the 1990’s, when Olyphant was being interviewed for Scream 2, he mentioned off-hand that he was the only cast member not being besieged by fans for autographs. 15 years (+/-) later, and he’s more well known than anyone else in Scream 2. (with the possible exception for Sarah Michelle Gellar) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-actor-has-had-the-best-success-after-his-or-her-breakout-series/654745.md?page=3)