Some actors just have that intangible factor that makes them superstars. Others flame out after the role that was supposed to be their big break. These ten actors should have been huge but then their careers simply fell apart.
Josh Hartnett
The name Josh Hartnett might be tickling the memory centers in your brain. You’ve seen him in tons of movies from the late 90s and early 2000s, from Pearl Harbor to Black Hawk Down. He was supposed to be the next big thing, but a string of flops in the late 00s saw him slipping into obscurity, with stinkers like The Black Dahlia and Lucky Number Slevin. He had a great turn in 2023’s Oppenheimer more recently, though.
Marsha Mason
Marsha Mason was everywhere in the 70s and 80s and even won two Golden Globes for Best Actress for her work in Cinderella Liberty and The Goodbye Girl, respectively. However, after her divorce from writer Neil Simon, she stopped appearing in as many films and TV shows.
Taylor Kitsch
Friday Night Lights actor Taylor Kitsch should have been a huge star. He took a few bad gigs in the 2010s that saw him flame out, though. He portrayed Gambit in the hilariously bad X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and then portrayed the title character in the infamous flop John Carter. Those back-to-back stinkers spelled the end of his days as a headliner.
George Lazenby
Every actor who plays James Bond should become a household name, right? Sadly, George Lazenby is mainly remembered as “the guy who played Bond once and was replaced by a returning Sean Connery.” His only turn as the iconic spy was in 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
Cara Delevingne
Model Cara Delevingne was supposed to become a huge star with her breakthrough role of June Moone, also known as Enchantress, in 2016’s Suicide Squad. However, that movie was an outright trainwreck and, combined with the equally awful Batman vs. Superman, brought the DC Extended Universe screeching to a halt. Delevingne’s acting career was another unfortunate victim of this abysmal superhero movie.
Juila Ormond
Ormond was everywhere in the early 90s. She had roles in everything from Sabrina to Legends of the Fall and acted alongside the likes of Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins. For whatever reason, her career just never seemed to take off. She did end up getting an Emmy for her role in the 2010 movie Temple Grandin, though!
Eric Bana
Eric Bana, like Josh Hartnett, was a rising star in the early 00s who appeared in Black Hawk Down. He also had a turn as Bruce Banner in the 2003 Hulk film, itself a maligned entry in the superhero genre. For whatever reason, these heroic turns never quite materialized into a huge career in Hollywood.
Thora Birch
Despite a promising early career as a child actor in the late 90s and early 00s, Thora Birch never quite got the traction she needed to become a household name. These days, she’s best known for her more recent roles in The Walking Dead and Wednesday, but those are comparatively smart parts.
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Sam Worthington
Sam Worthington is great in James Cameron’s 2009 megahit Avatar, but his career kind of just stalled out there with some horrendous genre flicks in the 10s. He was in schlocky movies like Terminator Salvation, Clash of the Titans, and Hacksaw Ridge. He’s still playing Jake Sully in the Avatar sequels, but his career as a leading man is likely behind him.
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Topher Grace
Topher Grace’s descent from stardom is likely a sore spot for the actor. He seemed to tire of his role on That 70s Show as Eric Foreman and abandoned it in its final season to pursue a film career, but his first major turn as Eddie Brock/Venom in the horrendous Spider-Man 3 quickly dashed any hopes he may have had of big-screen success.
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