Actors whose careers have fallen low and fast

[claws]

Cuba Gooding Jr.
Helen Hunt
Kevin Costner
Sharon Stone
Lindsay Lohan (was she ever relevant? Though I liked her in Mean Girls)
Gerard Butler
Mira Sorvino

From the top off my head.

[Hammock Rider]

 I dunno, Kevin Costner has been around a long time. He might have fallen far but it wasn't fast.

I think Helen Hunt put her career aside to raise some kids. She's a good actress and I think could have gone as far as she wanted.

   I think it's too early to make a call on Gerard Butler.

  But aside from all that  I would agree with your list.

  With the way the Disney Channel runs through kid actors they're almost disposable.

[Flick James]

Cuba Gooding Jr.
Helen Hunt
Kevin Costner
Sharon Stone
Lindsay Lohan (was she ever relevant? Though I liked her in Mean Girls)
Gerard Butler
Mira Sorvino

From the top off my head.

Yeah, those you've listed have certainly fallen. I don't know if all of them were fast though.

Cuba Gooding fell pretty hard, but then I never really appreciated him much. I think he has some okay acting chops, but got lucky more than anything.

I don't know what happened with Helen Hunt. I always thought she was a pretty good, but either she started making bad role choices or the public lost interest in her for some reason.

Kevin Costner. I've always had mixed feelings about him. He's been in some of my most hated movies of all time, and some of my favorites.

I think Sharon Stone is a strong actress, but again, sometimes the public just loses interest and they fade away. I thought Casino was a good example of her abilities.

Lindsay Lohan: No comment.

Gerard Butler: I don't think he's all that great to begin with. He's a flash in the pan that got noticed and then immediately started starring in crap like The Ugly Truth and The Bounty Hunter. He seems pretty capable of destroying his own career.

Mira Sorvino: I'm not saying she's an enormous talent or anything, but I've always liked her. I think everything fell into place for her with Mighty Aphrodite, she won the Oscar, and then just didn't have it in her to carry that same weight forward for whatever reason. These things happen.

Another one I think is trending down is Seth Rogen. I thought he was kind of funny when he first came on the scene, but it didn't take long before he started getting on my nerves.

[Psycho Circus]

What the hell happened to Michael Keaton! 

[AndyC]

What the hell happened to Michael Keaton! 

Good question. I was thinking about that when I saw him in The Other Guys. I liked most of his movies, and his performances in them. He's funny, and he can act. But he just seemed to fall off the radar sometime in the 90s.

[Derf]

I don't know of anyone whose career fell faster than Lou Diamond Phillips. With La Bamba, he got critical acclaim and the movie got a Golden Globe nomination. And then came Young Guns, another critically acclaimed movie. Then, a string of low-budget films and softcore porn flicks and now, occasional tv appearances. Maybe he was never considered a "star," but he showed that he can act. I guess work is work, but his choices of roles killed an otherwise promising career.

[Nightowl]

Cuba Gooding Jr.
Helen Hunt
Kevin Costner
Sharon Stone
Lindsay Lohan (was she ever relevant? Though I liked her in Mean Girls)
Gerard Butler
Mira Sorvino

From the top off my head.

Good list. For the life of me I dont know why or how Lohan is so popular? I havent seen anything with her thats worth mentioning. I saw Sharon Stone in a couple of episodes of Law And Order that were decent.

Ben Affleck-One of biggest actors at one time then suddenly out of nowhere everybody started hating him
Tom Cruise-Since he jumped on Oprah's couch his career has been in the tubes.
Gene Hackman-It is believed that Hackman quit the movie business because he disliked his last movie, Welcome To Mooseport, so much he quit and retired

[claws]

I guess we can add Mel Gibson to the list.

[Doggett]

What the hell happened to Michael Keaton! 

Good question. I was thinking about that when I saw him in The Other Guys. I liked most of his movies, and his performances in them. He's funny, and he can act. But he just seemed to fall off the radar sometime in the 90s.

Lots of straight to DVD flicks.

He's my fave actor and it saddens me. I think 'The Paper' was the last really great film he was in.

[akiratubo]

I guess we can add Mel Gibson to the list.

I don't think a man with an extremely successful, 30 year career can be said to have fallen "fast", and he's not even fallen that low.  He's still able to get movies made just because he wants to make them.

[Flick James]

What the hell happened to Michael Keaton! 

Good question. I was thinking about that when I saw him in The Other Guys. I liked most of his movies, and his performances in them. He's funny, and he can act. But he just seemed to fall off the radar sometime in the 90s.

He's been doing a good deal of voice work, particularly for Pixar. He voiced the main antagonist car in Cars and also Ken in Toys 3.

[Hammock Rider]

I wonder if a guy like Michael Keaton just decide to kick back and take it easy. He probably doesn't need to work. He's good enough to do both comedy and drama well. I'm sure voice work is easier than full on acting. Maybe he's just tired of it.

   

[AndyC]

Funny, I just looked at his filmography, and Keaton was in more movies than I thought during the 90s/00s, some of which I did see and even enjoy. I think the problem was that the movies themselves weren't particularly memorable, and Keaton's roles got smaller.

Compare it to that stretch in the 80s to early 90s, starting with Night Shift, followed by real Keaton showcases like Johnny Dangerously, Mr. Mom, Gung Ho and Beetlejuice, a couple of acclaimed dramatic performances and Batman, and I have to wonder what happened. He was on the A-list 20 years ago, and I can't see an obvious reason for a decline. And he hasn't changed. Even in a relatively small role in The Other Guys, I thought Keaton played just about the best character in that movie.

That's something I find really interesting. There are actors who harm their own careers by screwing up professionally or publicly, like Costner, Gibson, Cruise or Travolta. Sometimes they recover and sometimes they don't. There are the flash-in-the-pans, who get lucky, end up famous for a couple of years and quietly fade, like Cuba Gooding, and probably Shia LaBeouf before too long. Then you have somebody like Keaton, who proved himself with a string of good movies, and seems just as good as ever, but just stopped getting prominent parts in memorable movies at some point. I have to wonder why.

Hammock Rider might be right, and he decided to scale back. It's not unheard of. Rick Moranis made several highly successful movies, earned enough money that he never had to work again, and retired in '97 to spend more time with his family. Maybe Keaton still wants to work, but doesn't want anything as demanding as Batman.

[The Burgomaster]

ERIC ROBERTS comes to mind.  Although, I was glad to see him in THE DARK KNIGHT.

[Flick James]

ERIC ROBERTS comes to mind.  Although, I was glad to see him in THE DARK KNIGHT.

HAH! Eric Roberts is one of those quintessential creepy/sleezy actors. I feel dirty every time I see him in something.