# Worst actor/actress that still manages to get work?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-actor-actress-that-still-manages-to-get-work/240385
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [April 16, 2004, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-actor-actress-that-still-manages-to-get-work/240385 "2004-04-16T16:43:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2004, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-actor-actress-that-still-manages-to-get-work/240385/61 "2004-04-17T01:20:19Z")
And who could forget Helen Hunt and Paul Reiser? Each on their own is a major irritant. Together, they reach a critical mass of annoyance that sends me diving for the remote.
The only time I liked Reiser is when I got to see the look of terror in his eyes as the Alien prepared to eviscerate him. Somebody needs to lay an egg in Helen Hunt, and I’d gladly watch that death scene.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2004, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-actor-actress-that-still-manages-to-get-work/240385/62 "2004-04-17T01:23:53Z")
> [@scotandrsn](#):
>
> I also gotta recommend a viewing of **Ruby in Paradise** before you pass final judgement on Ashley Judd. She definitely HAD talent, at least.
I also recommend this movie…if you have insomnia.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2004, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-actor-actress-that-still-manages-to-get-work/240385/63 "2004-04-17T01:25:42Z")
Sweet Zombie Jesus, people, how could this thread get this far without mentioning Vin “I suck the life out of a movie a quarter mile at a time” Diesel?
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### Author:  [@Balle\_M](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balle_M)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2004, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-actor-actress-that-still-manages-to-get-work/240385/64 "2004-04-17T01:30:07Z")
> [@Evil Death](#):
>
> (And who the hell is David Spade?)
I know we’re supposed to be fighting ignorance, but in this case ignorance **IS** actually bliss.
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### Author:  [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2004, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-actor-actress-that-still-manages-to-get-work/240385/65 "2004-04-17T01:56:46Z")
Perhaps this isn’t quite what the original poster had in mind, but I find it quite amazing that Susan Lucci has been continuously employed for over 30 years (!) in the same acting role (Erica Kane blah blah etc. etc. on “All My Children”). Even by the standards of soap opera acting, Lucci is at best wooden and unconvincing. At worst, she chews the scenery like she was in a pie-eating contest. She has played a shrill, one-note character who has never shown the slightest trace of evolution in three decades. She was justly refused a “best actress” emmy for almost 20 years, until the PTB tired of seeing her torrent-of-tears after so many losses, year after year. Why she wasn’t fired and recast the first week she was on the show is a mystery.
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### Author:  [@Anyanka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anyanka)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2004, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-actor-actress-that-still-manages-to-get-work/240385/66 "2004-04-17T02:05:01Z")
Ok, let me preface this by saying it was a great movie, AND, he is a great director, but… Quentin Tarantino as an actor? And “From Dusk till Dawn” was literaly the only movie I ever walked out of.
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### Author:  [@ZombiesAteMyBrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZombiesAteMyBrain)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2004, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-actor-actress-that-still-manages-to-get-work/240385/67 "2004-04-17T02:14:42Z")
My personal list would include
John Wayne - god, I hated those bloody westerns
Jim Carrey - yuck!
Mike Myers - I hated Austin Powers
The captain in Voyager - her voice just made me cringe [i forget her name]
Tom Cruise - who plays the same note over and over
Stephen Segal - fat guy who always comes out on top
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### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2004, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-actor-actress-that-still-manages-to-get-work/240385/68 "2004-04-17T02:16:51Z")
> [@ZombiesAteMyBrain](#):
>
> My personal list would include
>
> John Wayne - god, I hated those bloody westerns
John Wayne is still getting work!?
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2004, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-actor-actress-that-still-manages-to-get-work/240385/69 "2004-04-17T02:26:34Z")
> [@](#):
>
> John Wayne is still getting work!?
He was in that beer comercial not that long ago. 😃
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### Author:  [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2004, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-actor-actress-that-still-manages-to-get-work/240385/70 "2004-04-17T02:28:22Z")
> [@Art Vandelay](#):
>
> Perhaps this isn’t quite what the original poster had in mind, but I find it quite amazing that Susan Lucci has been continuously employed for over 30 years (!) in the same acting role (Erica Kane blah blah etc. etc. on “All My Children”). Even by the standards of soap opera acting, Lucci is at best wooden and unconvincing. At worst, she chews the scenery like she was in a pie-eating contest. She has played a shrill, one-note character who has never shown the slightest trace of evolution in three decades. She was justly refused a “best actress” emmy for almost 20 years, until the PTB tired of seeing her torrent-of-tears after so many losses, year after year. Why she wasn’t fired and recast the first week she was on the show is a mystery.
In partial defense of her, part of the problem is the writers don’t let the character evolve.
Now if we are going to bring soap actors into this, then I will mention a new actress on One Life to Live. I don’t know her name but she plays a character named Kathryn and her acting is so bad she makes all the other soap actors look like freaking Olivier’s and Dame Judy’s. Talk about wooden, her face doesn’t even move when she talks, let alone tries to emote. Even though Soaps don’t exactly have a reputation for the highest quality of acting it’s really hard to believe that anyone would cast this woman in anything.
But if we are going to talk mainstream actors, I will agree with Jennifer Tilly and Melanie Griffith. Tilly’s voice also makes me physically ill.
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2004, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-actor-actress-that-still-manages-to-get-work/240385/71 "2004-04-17T02:35:04Z")
I vote for [Heather Graham](http://imdb.com/name/nm0001287/). I thought that she had the vacuous look of a young burned out porn star down perfect in Boogie Nights. Then I saw her in Austin Powers and realized that it wasn’t an act, there really isn’t anything in that pretty head of hers. Look into her eyes and you can see the gone fishin sign. IIRC I heard Cher’s son Elijah Blue Allman on Stern’s show once and he admitted to an affair with her and also confirmed she was as dumb as a bag of hammers. It shows.
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### Author:  [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2004, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-actor-actress-that-still-manages-to-get-work/240385/72 "2004-04-17T02:45:42Z")
Maybe we need something like a **John Wayne/Sly Stallone/Fran Drescher Award** (for people who are the best in the world at that one-note performance they do, and shouldn’t overexpose that one note, or try anything else.
(FWIW, that one note that Fran Drescher hits _still_ gives me a boner).
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### Author:  [@MinniePurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MinniePurl)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2004, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-actor-actress-that-still-manages-to-get-work/240385/73 "2004-04-17T06:09:55Z")
> [@Revtim](#):
>
> Oh, and my vote goes to Keanu Reeves. Is he really that good-looking that he deserves the roles he gets? OK, I have to give him credit for learning enough martial arts to fight convincingly in the Matrix flicks. But man, he is not a good or even decent actor.
I think he’s a great actor… as long as he doesn’t say anything. As soon as he opens his mouth, it’s all out the window.
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### Author:  [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2004, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-actor-actress-that-still-manages-to-get-work/240385/74 "2004-04-17T06:38:43Z")
> [@Revtim](#):
>
> Oh, and my vote goes to Keanu Reeves. Is he really that good-looking that he deserves the roles he gets?
Damn near, I gotta tell ya. The man is seriously yummy.
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### Author:  [@JoeSki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoeSki)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2004, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-actor-actress-that-still-manages-to-get-work/240385/75 "2004-04-17T11:18:59Z")
Andy Dick. Has anyone ever laughed at him? Me, my family, and my friends have seen him on tv on quite a few shows and on quite a few movies, and I can’t recall anyone ever laughing at him. The man isn’t funny, and he can’t act.
oh, and Ashton Kutcher.
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### Author:  [@kitarak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitarak)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2004, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-actor-actress-that-still-manages-to-get-work/240385/76 "2004-04-17T11:33:06Z")
> [@Loach](#):
>
> I vote for [Heather Graham](http://imdb.com/name/nm0001287/). I thought that she had the vacuous look of a young burned out porn star down perfect in Boogie Nights. Then I saw her in Austin Powers and realized that it wasn’t an act, there really isn’t anything in that pretty head of hers. Look into her eyes and you can see the gone fishin sign. IIRC I heard Cher’s son Elijah Blue Allman on Stern’s show once and he admitted to an affair with her and also confirmed she was as dumb as a bag of hammers. It shows.
Heather Graham wasn’t bad in ‘From Hell’. I wouldn’t have called her great, but her acting seemed fine to me. (Of course I didn’t like the character much, but that’s a seperate issue).
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### Author:  [@FisherQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FisherQueen)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2004, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-actor-actress-that-still-manages-to-get-work/240385/77 "2004-04-17T11:41:22Z")
I like Keanu Reeves.
Please don’t hate me.
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2004, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-actor-actress-that-still-manages-to-get-work/240385/78 "2004-04-17T12:45:27Z")
If we’re including the soaps, then **Deidre Hall** gets my vote.
**Forbidden Hollywood** nominated Keanu, Melanie and Juliette (of course, it was a while ago):
We shouldn’t be in pictures
We shouldn’t even try.
You talk like you’re a baby.
You talk as flat as a brain dead guy.
My mom was Tippi Headren
And in her film debut
The birdies pecked her head in.
Now I’m a bird brain too.
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### Author:  [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2004, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-actor-actress-that-still-manages-to-get-work/240385/79 "2004-04-17T12:55:13Z")
Why has Jennifer Tilly never appeared in “Playboy”? She could justify her existence by showing off her great rack.
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### Author:  [@Evil\_Death](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Death)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2004, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-actor-actress-that-still-manages-to-get-work/240385/80 "2004-04-17T13:09:45Z")
> [@Anyanka](#):
>
> Ok, let me preface this by saying it was a great movie, AND, he is a great director, but… Quentin Tarantino as an actor? And “From Dusk till Dawn” was literaly the only movie I ever walked out of.
Did you see a sign out in front of this thread that says “Dead Nigger Storage”, Anyanka?
IOW, you’re judging Tarantino’s acting on the basis of the wrong film. He’s not brilliant, but he’s adequate and he’s better than a fair number of people who make their living by acting.
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