Actors that should have been bigger stars | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Actors that should have been bigger stars

superjohn said:
It's like basketball heights, if a guy is claiming 5'9 he's most likely 5'7.
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I wondered about that.


Back to your list, most of those guys have plenty of presence on screen and several have impressive physiques and are believable playing very physical roles. I'm not tall myself, I've always thought a short buff guy is way more manly than a tall skinny guy.
 
HuskyHawk said:
She single handedly ruined The Karate Kid. I could feel not one ounce of sympathy for that kid. None. She was so far out of his league it was ridiculous.
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Major film critics loved the movie, Roger Ebert mentioned her as the love interest in a positive way. The film won two "Young Artist Awards" for Shue and the Film itself, your anger is disturbing.
 
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Not sure if he completely fits but I was always amazed that Tim Robbins didn't end up doing more big things.
 
Samantha Barks, who played Eponine in Les Miserables, stealing the show in a movie that won 3 Golden Globes and 3 Oscars. She is smoking hot and very talented, but her IMDB profile looks like she practically retired.
 
nelsonmuntz said:
Samantha Barks, who played Eponine in Les Miserables, stealing the show in a movie that won 3 Golden Globes and 3 Oscars. She is smoking hot and very talented, but her IMDB profile looks like she practically retired.
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It appears she is on stage in Pretty Woman.
 
nelsonmuntz said:
Rules: Actor has to be at least 30 and still hasn't broken out.

The criteria for success is repeated critically and/or commercially successful TV shows or movies as lead, co lead, or major character. I would add that if an actor had a long stretch where they were rocking, they probably don't qualify. 10 years at the top is a long time in Hollywood. Make the case if you have a character actor you really like. ​

I am re-watching Mad Men, which gave me the idea for this thread.

For example, most of the Game of Thrones actors have done about what I would have expected them to do. Emelia Clarke can pull off syrupy dramas based on her looks, but is not capable of any more than that because she is not particularly talented or charismatic. Harrington's height is going to be a problem for him, and he needs to do something different than period piece badass. Maisie Williams has potential to be the biggest and longest term star of the bunch. That said, none of the cast has done particularly better or worse than you would expect given their talent, looks and subsequent movie and TV roles.

I kind of feel the same way about the Mad Men cast, with an exception or two.

Two examples that do fit:

Mary Tyler Moore - beautiful, funny, starred in one of the biggest TV hit comedies in history, and was nominated for an Oscar. Yet she was doing cheesy TV movies and reunion shows by her late 50's, and her career was basically over by 2000.

Tim Matheson - had major roles in two of the biggest movie comedy hits of all time (Fletch and Animal House), good looking, good actor, got a mid career reprieve with a recurring role on the West Wing, and he is now guest starring on middle of the pack network TV shows.


Younger actors:

Jessica Pare - I think she is a really good actress, as shown by a very complex role on Mad Men. Playing stupid but not too stupid is not easy, and every twist in her character's development was completely credible in a large part because of her. I think she is stunning to look at, but in a very distinctive way that makes her memorable. The huge overbite makes her more vulnerable and approachable, so she doesn't have to just play the hot babe all the time. She basically got no roles out of Mad Men, and while I haven't seen Seal Team and its ratings are solid, it doesn't look like a career maker for Pare.
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Keith David....Platoon, The Thing, and many others in his early career. His narration of Ken Burns "The War" was
memorable, I think he won an Emmy for it.
 
nwhoopfan said:
Since then he's been in a supporting role in some decent films. Maybe he'll rise back up again eventually, I think he was judged too harshly in '12.
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Sorry for the lameness of quoting myself. Just saw Taylor Kitsch in "Only the Brave," another really solid role for him. I think he is going to rebound. Maybe won't ever get the lead role in a blockbuster again, but should be able to find steady work and good roles.
 
nelsonmuntz said:
Samantha Barks, who played Eponine in Les Miserables, stealing the show in a movie that won 3 Golden Globes and 3 Oscars. She is smoking hot and very talented, but her IMDB profile looks like she practically retired.
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She was astounding in Les Mis. Her On My Own was show stopping.
 
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Chuck said:
I think there is a difference between difficult because of a big ego, demanding needs, or intense work ethic (like using the method) vs. being a bad person to be around at all times. Christian Bale seems like a lunatic, but he'll get jobs. Daniel Day Lewis gets labeled as difficult, but he's gold. I have close second hand knowledge of how Kilmer treated people. A friend who is now a legit industry player was given a Kilmer relationship because nobody else wanted to deal with him. Kilmer treated him like he was lower than garbage and didn't seem to be all there. It makes sense that you wouldn't work too hard for a guy like that so there is less margin for error in their career. Once the actor has to truly audition or push for a part, they are going to continuously come up short because someone will take the opportunity to say no. On the flip side, I believe that some of the people in the foil of this thread (those that get better gigs than they should) get their jobs because they are likable or a pleasure to work with.
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Just seeing this now. Great response, nuanced detail on Kilmer.

I think our conclusion is flawed people that are artists/actors can make transcendent great art, but they are unlikely to be able to do so consistently or hold onto it. So Val Kilmer's performance in Wyatt Earp becomes in a weird way even more outstanding cuz something was right to capture that lightning in a bottle before the damn bottle explodes sending glass chards into everyone nearby.

And of course in Hollywood there are those who get tainted by successes usually too early or too much. Sean Penn comes to mind there with iconic turn in Fast Times and as mentioned in other threads I think his best work is in At Close Range where he literally transforms his body and self into the big time actor (he built towards this, also great in Bad Boys, Falcon and the Snowman). He's had on & off again good performances since, but at this point is quite obviously an insufferable and that is hard to see past in many movies (see Cruise, Tom). I find Mystic River insufferably over-rated partially because Penn over-acts yet also dumbs down the role and mostly b/c I'd read the Dennis Lehane book and Eastwood dumbed down the plot to make more obvious villains & heroes.
 
images
 
I would chalk Kilmer’s problems up to people have seen The Doors.
 
Great piece in New Yorker by Molly Ringwald looking back on her films.
 
Dogdeacon said:
Great piece in New Yorker by Molly Ringwald looking back on her films.
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Saw her a couple of years ago in "Wishin' and Hopin", a TV movie based on a Wally Lamb book. Definitely worth seeing.
 
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Tom Sizemore. He should be rotting in a jail now, but keeps getting out of it because of his celebrity. He is a really good actor though.
 
storrsroars said:
The Station Agent is a fantastic small film. A must-see for any Dinklage fan.
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Agreed, my wife and I discovered The Station Agent several years ago. A great little film. Peter Dinklage, Bobby Cannavale, and Patricia Clarkson make for a wonderful trio in this film.
 
whaler11 said:
I would chalk Kilmer’s problems up to people have seen The Doors.
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Not his fault. I blame the director.

Kilmer has had some awesome performances, HEAT, Tombstone even Top Gun.

I wish he would get it together and start making movies again.

Last I heard he was asking to be included in the Top Gun sequel.
 
ZooCougar said:
Not his fault. I blame the director.

Kilmer has had some awesome performances, HEAT, Tombstone even Top Gun.

I wish he would get it together and start making movies again.

Last I heard he was asking to be included in the Top Gun sequel.
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I remember being in the minority at the time, but I liked the Doors movie - I like some Doors songs a lot (esp when I was in college) but not a Doors fan per se. I thought the movie was an accurate depiction of a self-destructive person. The Meg Ryan stuff was awful and probably wrong, but Kilmer was fine.
 
ZooCougar said:
Not his fault. I blame the director.

Kilmer has had some awesome performances, HEAT, Tombstone even Top Gun.

I wish he would get it together and start making movies again.

Last I heard he was asking to be included in the Top Gun sequel.
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Him and Elizabeth Shue were great in the Saint, made the best of a mediocre script. Arguably his worst movie was Ghost and the Darkness, which if done right could have been a great film.
 
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ZooCougar said:
Not his fault. I blame the director.

Kilmer has had some awesome performances, HEAT, Tombstone even Top Gun.

I wish he would get it together and start making movies again.

Last I heard he was asking to be included in the Top Gun sequel.
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I think he has some health issues recently, although he is still working. He rarely had a bad performance in his prime, but that prime has past, and he hasn't made the transition to father/mentor character.
 
nelsonmuntz said:
I think he has some health issues recently, although he is still working. He rarely had a bad performance in his prime, but that prime has past, and he hasn't made the transition to father/mentor character.
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He just lost a ton of weight so that could very well be. I’d like to see him in more movies at some point.
 
nelsonmuntz said:
Samantha Barks, who played Eponine in Les Miserables, stealing the show in a movie that won 3 Golden Globes and 3 Oscars. She is smoking hot and very talented, but her IMDB profile looks like she practically retired.
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She's a stage actress who took on a movie of a play. There are lots like her. It seems like we used to see more of that, now they cast regular movie actors and ask them to sing, as they did in Chicago and the movie version of Evita (not sure how you categorize Madonna at that point).

I always wondered what happened to Mandy Patinkin after Princess Bride. They didn't even have him sing. Looks like he's had some TV success in shows I didn't watch. Antonio Banderas is no Mandy Patinkin in a musical role.
 
huskyrob1 said:
Him and Elizabeth Shue were great in the Saint, made the best of a mediocre script. Arguably his worst movie was Ghost and the Darkness, which if done right could have been a great film.
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The Saint was great. The title of worst Val Kilmer movie goes to The Island of Dr. Moreau though. My favorite is definitely Heat with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang right behind it.
 
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