It’s not easy to make it famous. Sometimes an actor will have to
really pay their dues before finally getting a success. Teri Hatcher
bounced around all kinds of minor roles before Lois & Clark and of
course Desperate Housewives finally made her a name. Lauren Graham had
minor roles in virtually every 90’s NBC sitcom, some were supposed to
last like NewsRadio but none ever did. Until Gilmore Girls made her a
star, and she was great in the Parenthood series which NBC finally ended
last year. And Megan Mulally was an unknown face appearing all over the
place, until her breakout role as Karen on Will & Grace finally
made a star our of her.
But many are not so lucky, and the saddest thing is when they have an
opportunity which should lead to amazing things…but doesn’t. Awhile
back I talked about how actors get screwed over by typecasting, but
sometimes that isn’t even to blame. Not through any faukr of their own,
they just never land the right role and kind of fade away.
Here are five examples of actors who have faded away despite the fact
they were very popular at one time but just never landed that critical
success which would keep their career moving.
Marcy Walker
One of the few soap operas I watched in the late 80’s was Sana
Barbara. The hot couple in that show were Cruz and Eden. Eden was played by
Marcy Walker. Walker was on fire during that time, she was just super popular as part of the ultra hot couple. But then she made some bad choices. The first
was an unsold pilot about lawyers. Then she got cast on a series which
did sell, and in fact she left her soap opera to commit to this series.
The show was “Palace Guard” and lasted like two episode. It was so
boring! Walker went back to soap opera’s but never did get that magic
back. She has lately has stopped acting altogether. Oh, and what about
Cruz? He was played by A Martinez and honestly he should be on this list
too.
Corinne Bohrer
I really like her but she seems doomed to forever be a commercial
actress. She had small roles in minor movies and appeared in other TV
shows in quick guest spots including Friends, Will & Grace, and
Veronica Mars. She is best remembered, by me, as Trickster’s side-kick
Prank in “The Flash” tv series in the 90’s. Prank was kind of an early
version of what would become Harley Quinn in the Batman Animated Series.
She also had two very short lived TV series. One was the forgotten
Eliot Gould comedy called E/R, and the other called “Free Spirit” which I
talked about once. That sucked because it was a romantic comedy with
two leads with zero chemistry. Today she seems to mostly appear in
commercials, which is a shame because I thought she had potential.
Shelly Long
Talk about making bad choices. Shelly Long was huge in Cheers. And when
she made the movie Outrageous Fortune (which was a really, really good
movie) her star grew even brighter. When she left Cheers to star in
movies full time it was huge news, how would Cheers go on?? Well it
turns out it went on better than she would. She ended up making awful
movies (Hello Again, Troop Beverly Hills) and eventually just became a
Hollywood joke and a perfect example of why you don’t leave a hit series
to make movies. In later years she popped up in TV in Modern Family and
reprising her Diane roll on Frasier, and did make her mark in The Brady
Bunch Movie, but for the most part she remains an example of someone
who had it all, and watched it vanish.
Linda Blair
Ok I am just going to say it, Linda Blair was hot. However, she is also
sadly underused. I am not sure if typecasting is really to blame for
this one. Usually an actor is typecast because no one could them in any
other role besides the famous one. Did people really think all she could
do was be covered in make-up while vomiting pea soup? Oh yeah, if you
don’t know she was Regan in The Exorcist. And after that movie, she just
kind of did horror movies and Exorcist spoofs but never really went
anywhere.
Jennifer Grey
Ah yes, she could be the poster child for actor’s who had it all and
then watched it fade away. The worst part is why her career fizzled. She
was a huge name when she appeared in Dirty Dancing and Ferris Bueller.
She was awesome in both movies! Then she had plastic surgery. To be
fair, she did kind of have a big nose. And it is true that she needed
the surgery, it wasn’t just cosmetic. However, the surgery made her
unrecognizable. I mean literally, she just didn’t look the same awesome
girl we loved in the 80’s. She looks great, and is really awesome, but
the work dried up. Even she acknowledged she went into surgery famous
and came out a total unknown. She still works, and was recently on
Dancing with the Stars, but man is she an example of brightest star in
the sky one minute, totally forgotten the next.
Course that was only five, I could go one and one. Did I miss your favorite example of a good actor who just didn’t make it?
No comments:
Post a Comment