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March 28, 2024, 04:39:03 PM

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Movie stars that never were

Started by dead-ced-dead, November 26, 2021, 11:06:34 AM

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dead-ced-dead

I bet you'd all appreciate the movie Vivarium. It's about a young couple who move into a modern home in an estate full of identical houses and find that they can't escape. One day a baby arrives on their doorstep, and it's the kind of identikit baby you imagine all parents in the late twenties/early thirties are saddled with.

Terrifying stuff.

Brundle-Fly

Have you posted in the wrong thread, dead-ced-dead?

dead-ced-dead


Jerzy Bondov

Quote from: Famous Mortimer on November 28, 2021, 11:04:48 PMI'll take "things no male actor has done, ever" for 200, Alex
Rick Moranis Freddie Prinze Jnr

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Roger Livesey gave a brilliant lead performance in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, but (as far as I can be bothered to check) never became a big name.

Quote from: dead-ced-dead on November 29, 2021, 02:30:31 PMI bet you'd all appreciate the movie Vivarium. It's about a young couple who move into a modern home in an estate full of identical houses and find that they can't escape. One day a baby arrives on their doorstep, and it's the kind of identikit baby you imagine all parents in the late twenties/early thirties are saddled with.
And that baby's name was... James Badge Dale.

Famous Mortimer

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on November 29, 2021, 03:02:38 PMRick Moranis Freddie Prinze Jnr
I'll take it. While pondering this thread, I happened upon "Boys and Girls", starring Prinze Jr, Jason Biggs and Claire Forlani, the trifecta of early 00s examples of this thread.

But those people aren't Movie Stars That Never Were. They Were, but no longer Are.

And I humbly offer Mandy Moore as my own nomination.

Famous Mortimer

Who starred in as many movies as Claire Forlani, I'd wager.

Ignatius_S

Two for the price of one - F. Murray Abraham and Tom Hulce, hailed for their performances in Amadeus, didn't have the run of big roles or the career bounce that was expected.

I had read that Hulce said that casting directors so associated him with the Mozart role that it hampered his chances when going up for other roles. IIRC, there was a successful play he starred in, which they then did a film of but decided to go with someone else, which tied into that. That said, from what I've read, Hulce is quite a private person and doesn't enjoy publicity, so not the person likely to crave stardom. In any case, he much prefers directing for a good while.

Ignatius_S

Quote from: Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth on November 29, 2021, 03:21:38 PMRoger Livesey gave a brilliant lead performance in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, but (as far as I can be bothered to check) never became a big name...

Livesey was arguably more of a character actor (or character star, as I've seen him refer to) and chiefly a stage actor - however, he was in a quite a few films, sometimes support, sometimes the lead. In the former, one of my favourite roles he did was in The League of Gentlemen film, where former military officers stage a bank robbery - it's fantastic if you haven't seen it.

These days, I guess he's best known for the three Powell and Pressburger films that he did but some of his other work should be better remembered. He was the lead in Vice Versa, directed by Peter Ustinov, a comedy where a father and son swap bodies - he's brilliant (surprise, surprise) and I suspect one of the earliest he was in.

Ignatius_S

Quote from: lipsink on November 29, 2021, 01:34:45 PMWhat about Christina Ricci? She had a great run as a child star: The Addams Family, Mermaids, Addams Family Values, Casper. Then went into indie movies like The Ice Storm, The Opposite of Sex, Buffalo 66. Then Sleepy Hollow, Monster and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Seemed like her career was really building momentum and then just...nothing. I'd imagine she's probably been accused of being "difficult" too.


Nah. Firstly, a lot of child stars don't go onto having successful adult careers - sometimes they don't want to, but a lot of times, they can't make that transition for one reason or another. It's much rarer for a child star to be an adult star than not.

Secondly, Ricci has been in a fair bit of stuff and has been doing well. I haven't seen the Lizzie Borden work she did, but a friend keeps badgering me to watch it - did rather well and she won rave reviews.

Ignatius_S

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on November 28, 2021, 01:26:28 PMAlso,  how long has the actor, Brian Cox waited to finally become a proper household name?

In a lot of interviews recently, Cox has said that when he was a young actor, people kept saying that he was in for 'the long haul' - which essentially meant that it would take a long time for him to have any success. However, as he says, he hasn't done too badly! From the various stuff I've read about him, he strikes me as someone who loves acting and working but isn't so bothered about stardom. In one recent interview, Cox says he's no longer anonymous when he's public and read to me that he has mixed feelings about this - although sounds like the person that has no issue with a fan going up to him to say hello (or ask him to tell them to fuck off).

IIRC, I think he was disappointed when his and Gary Oldman's Churchill films came out and the latter got much more attention, but feels more like he felt Churchill was the better film, rather than him wanting to win an award or get validation.

Noodle Lizard

Quote from: Famous Mortimer on November 28, 2021, 11:04:48 PMI'll take "things no male actor has done, ever" for 200, Alex

If I remember correctly, James Stewart semi-retired from a hugely successful acting career because his dad said it was for woofters and would rather he work for the family business.

Noodle Lizard

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on November 29, 2021, 01:44:09 PMShe's doing the new Matrix movie according to her IMDB page.

Speaking of, Carrie-Anne Moss might be a good pick for this thread. Between The Matrix and Memento in quick succession, you'd think she would've been in incredibly high demand, but I don't think she really did much else. Same exact thing goes for Joe Pantoliano, come to think of it.

Bad Ambassador

Funnily enough, she also had a major regular role in Jessica Jones as well as a bunch of other regular TV parts.

dead-ced-dead

Quote from: Noodle Lizard on November 29, 2021, 11:29:29 PMSpeaking of, Carrie-Anne Moss might be a good pick for this thread. Between The Matrix and Memento in quick succession, you'd think she would've been in incredibly high demand, but I don't think she really did much else. Same exact thing goes for Joe Pantoliano, come to think of it.

The shame with Joe Pantoliano was that he was a character actor type, so you'd think he'd be able to get decades out of playing assholes cops/journalists/gangsters, etc. And he did throughout the late 90s-early 2000s and then he stopped.

I remember when watching Chocolat that Carrie-Anne's name wasn't included with the main cast above the title on the poster. Surely being in The Matrix had earned her a credit.

dead-ced-dead

I'm drifting from my own OT topic of "Movie stars that never were" to "Character actors that never were," but what the hell happened to Mike Starr?

He was every Italian thug/enforcer during the early-mid 90s, then he disappeared until and admittedly good guest spot in The Office only to disappear again.

dissolute ocelot

Quote from: Ignatius_S on November 29, 2021, 09:49:51 PMTwo for the price of one - F. Murray Abraham and Tom Hulce, hailed for their performances in Amadeus, didn't have the run of big roles or the career bounce that was expected.

I had read that Hulce said that casting directors so associated him with the Mozart role that it hampered his chances when going up for other roles. IIRC, there was a successful play he starred in, which they then did a film of but decided to go with someone else, which tied into that. That said, from what I've read, Hulce is quite a private person and doesn't enjoy publicity, so not the person likely to crave stardom. In any case, he much prefers directing for a good while.
F Murray Abraham was more of a theatre actor, although he popped up in lots of small film roles before his 2000s return with Homeland and Wes Anderson.

Hulce seemed to retire from acting in the 1990s although since then he's produced a lot of theatre and piled up the Tony awards, as well as a bit of stage acting. He didn't have a great deal of luck with his post-Amadeus acting: he starred in Dominick and Eugene which was released the same time as Rain Man about 2 brothers, one of whom is intellectually disabled; did other films which might have been good but are now totally forgotten like Andrei Konchalovsky's The Inner Circle; and Disney voice acting.

George White

It's weird but I know Mike Starr best from his appearance in the 1981 film the Bushido Blade, a shogun/samurai film starring Toshiro Mifune, Sonny Chiba, Richard Boone, Laura Gemser, James Earl Jones, Mako, and Tetsuro Tanba - coproduced by Rankin/Bass and Yorkshire/Tyne Tees (which may explain why it has a minstrel show).

Really...

mothman

I always feel like Laura Linney should have been bigger than she was. OK she's basically a character actor with a TV lead (The Big C) under her belt. But it always feels weird to me to see her in, say, Dave playing "woman who the president's shagging when he has his stroke" given by the time I'd seen it I'd already watched Tales Of The City.

Custard

#140
Quote from: Famous Mortimer on November 28, 2021, 11:04:48 PMI'll take "things no male actor has done, ever" for 200, Alex

I think Matthew Fox from Lost did that. Though apparently he's coming back, as he's the lead in a new TV series

Famous Mortimer

I thought Matthew Fox took some time off due to repeated accusations of him beating women? But think of it as a generalisation which illustrates a point, rather than something to be disproved.


Keebleman

Quote from: Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth on November 29, 2021, 03:21:38 PMRoger Livesey gave a brilliant lead performance in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, but (as far as I can be bothered to check) never became a big name.

And even in Colonel Blimp he is billed third!!

George White

Apparently, he was first choice for Brief Encounter

lipsink

I always expected Juno Temple to become a big star after her role in 'Killer Joe'. I wondered what happened to her but I see she's now in Ted Lasso so maybe her career's doing alright.

Bad Ambassador

Alison Lohmann was another name that seemed poised for big things after having the lead role in Drag Me to Hell.

Turns out she got married to one of the directors of the Crank films just afterwards and retired to raise a family,  except for cameos in her husband's films.

Aki Ross was expected to be the first photorealistic computer-generated "actress" to appear in multiple movies in different roles.

"She" initially appeared in 2001's Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, but when that flopped her career never recovered, with The Animatrix being her only other screen credit.

She did appear on the cover of Maxim magazine, which also ranked her #87 in it's Top 100 Hottest Women of 2001 list.

Keebleman

Bekim Fehmiu of The Adventurers, Toralv Maurstad of Song of Norway, both of them foreigners in Hollywood flops.  No second chance permitted.

Going even further back, there was the 'Man of Mystery' (that was how he was billed on the posters), Turhan Bey.  But whether Universal genuinely regarded him as star material even of the Lugosi and Chaney Jr level is open to question.

Quote from: dissolute ocelot on November 30, 2021, 10:17:10 AMF Murray Abraham was more of a theatre actor, although he popped up in lots of small film roles before his 2000s return with Homeland and Wes Anderson.


Speaking of Homeland (which apparently was still going up till last year! Who knew?), Murray's co-star on that Mandy Patinkin never really ascended to huge stardom following his breakout role in The Princess Bride, but again I think he might be another actor who does their best work on stage. He's certainly not done a huge deal of note outside of Homeland film or TV wise.

Speaking of The Princess Bride, Cary Elwes is an actor who seemed primed for hugeness but then it didn't really happen. He's worked steadily but mainly guest spots and supporting roles.

dissolute ocelot

Speaking of Juno Temple, I just had a look at the BAFTA Rising Star Award which has a fairly decent record at picking people who're still working. First few years: James MacAvoy, Eva Green, Shia LaBeouf, Noel Clarke (his own fault he's now less than popular), Kristen Stewart, Tom Hardy.

But then, Adam Deacon? He was in Kidulthood and sequels, but now seems trapped in low-budget British movies like The Bromley Boys and The Intent 2: The Come Up and a 2021 appearance on Doctors. Will Poulter progressed from Narnia to stuff like Maze Runner and a small role in Midsommar, but definitely isn't Tom Hardy or even Daniel Poulter. Jack O'Connell from Skins and This Is England likewise.

After that, John Boyega, Tom Holland, Daniel Kaluuya, and all is right in the world.