Favourite Flash in the Pans

[AndyC]

Just throwing out some old Starlog magazines and happened to read a couple of articles on Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Now, Persis Khambatta is one of my favourite b-movie actresses, and I always thought she had pleasant combination of good looks and rotten acting. However, it is really amazing to see her played up as the next big thing. Such overused descriptions as "the Sophia Loren of India," and even the movie credits that read "presenting Persis Khambatta" as though she were a great discovery, are funny in hindsight. But alas, she believed her own press, made several bad career moves, and with an absence of real acting skill, wound up starring in such gems as Megaforce and Warrior of the Lost World before dropping off the face of the earth. The fact that any obituary I saw for her in 1998 showed her as bald pretty much indicated the point at which her career hit its peak. Just as amusing was her description of the difficulty of going from an emotional character to a machine in Star Trek. She played every character like that. Persis had two settings, moist-eyed emotion or wind-up machine. Still, the publicists at Paramount really made it sound like she was going places.

Who are your favourite crappy actors who just didn't live up to the futures predicted in their early publicity.



Post Edited (11-03-03 14:33)

[The Burgomaster]

* JENNIFER BEALS - From FLASHDANCE to "flash in the pan." She has made dozens of movies and TV appearances . . . but how many can you name?

* JENNIFER GREY - Made DIRTY DANCING, and then followed in the footsteps of Jennifer Beals.

* LINDA KERRIDGE - Compared to Marilyn Monroe when she co-starred in FADE TO BLACK . . . however . . .

* DEBORAH FOREMAN - Co-starred with Nicolas Cage in VALLEY GIRL and then drifted into obscurity.

[raj]

Charlie Spradling did a couple of Full Moon pictures, um ok, that may be why she's dropped off the earth.

Then there is Mark Hamill who's still around but nowhere near as big as in 1977.

[Fearless Freep]

Then there is Mark Hamill who's still around but nowhere near as big as in 1977.

That one really suprises me.  Other than the Star Wars franchise, which I didn't think he was that bad in, he did *nothing* of note.  Before he disappeared into B-Moviedom ("Laser Hawk", "Time Runner", etc..) I would've thought he would've had a t least a few other notiable roles

[yaddo42]

Hamill was in also Sam Fuller's classic "The Big Red One" (although lots of young actors could have played his part. "Corvette Summer" has a small cult following for some reason. He was also aparently a decent young theater actor appearing in plays like "Equus".

But while his movie career has mostly gone bust outside of b-movies (although he was probably one of the best parts of "Jay And Slient Bob Strike Back"), he has proven to be quite successful and rightly so in voice work for cartoons. I know I was shocked when I first found out he was the voice of the Joker in the various runs of Batman: The Animated Series.

[FearlessFreep]

He has proven to be quite successful and rightly so in voice work for cartoons. I know I was shocked when I first found out he was the voice of the Joker in the various runs of Batman: The Animated Series.

I was too, and when I see the Joker , I still can't picture Mark Hamiil doing the voice.

[AndyC]

Guys like Hamill run into trouble because of typecasting. He was too well associated with one role. I imagine most filmmakers were wary of the public only seeing Luke Skywalker in their movies, and people with crappy sci-fi films wanted him for the same reason.

It's sad when this happens to a good actor, but in some cases, it's the best an actor can hope for. They're just too full of their own publicity to realize it. To go back to my first example on this thread, Persis was offered a lot of eye candy roles right after Star Trek, but decided she was better than that. Truth was, she wasn't. I think her landing the role in Star Trek probably had more to do with having nice legs and no objection to the haircut. So, instead of many small appearances in good movies, working with talented people, she took star billing in crap, where her undeveloped acting skills could really shine.

Can anyone think of other actors whose naive arrogance caused them to sink their own careers before they even got going?



Post Edited (11-04-03 14:36)