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"One-Hit Wonder" Actors/Actors who never made it


ArtVanderlay

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What are your favorite bit part actors, or actors who had one notable role and then seemingly fell off the face of the Earth?

 

I ask after watching the original Teen Wolf and wondering whatever happened to the actress who played Pamela, Lorie Griffin.  Her last IMDB role was on a TV show called "The Burning Zone" as a receptionist in 1997, but seems to have disappeared off the face of the Earth since then, not even doing comic book conventions.

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Thora Birch. Probably a combination of her dad being batshit and never really fitting the Hollywood mold. I read an interview she did with The Guardian last year. Some journalist sought her out during awards season. She went back to college, IIRC.

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Emily Lloyd (^ no relation)

 

Absolutely brilliant in Cookie and In Country, but alienated co-stars. Turned down Pretty Woman only to get fired off Moonstruck. Suffered severe depression and anxiety issues and attempted suicide. Thankfully, she seems to be doing better these days, but man she shoulda been one of the greats.

 

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Wasn't Gretchen Mol supposed to be the young actress revolutionising Hollywood movie making forever? Then she disappeared... then came back to do the Bettie Page movie, and promptly disappeared again.

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Karen Sillas.  She got good reviews in a few movies in the early 1990's and then got cast in "Under Suspicion", which was basically CBS' port of Prime Suspect.  She was very good in Under Suspicion and got the full PR treatment as a new heavyweight actress.  I remember critics at the time speculating she'd jump to a movie career pretty quickly.

 

The show flopped and was canceled 7 months after it debuted.  After that, Sillas had 8 or 10 jobs during the rest of the 90's - mostly guest appearances and a few tv movies.  She has three credits since 2000 - a L&O guest shot, a movie role, and a TNT series that lasted one season.

 

In ten years, we can do this topic again and throw out the names of most of the Lost cast. 

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I wouldn't say Heather Matarazzo and Gretchen Mol disappeared. At least not like Birch or Lloyd did. They're didn't live up to their potential, but they're still getting regular work. Mol was in Boardwalk Empire and a few other things. 

 

Linda Fiorintino, meanwhile, seemed to vanish. Yancy Butler too.

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Also: Miracle Laurie was one of the (few) highlights of Dollhouse and, bar a couple of low-profile web series, hasn't done anything. 

 

Emma Caulfield is another Whedon alumni that springs to mind. 

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I wouldn't say Heather Matarazzo and Gretchen Mol disappeared. At least not like Birch or Lloyd did. They're didn't live up to their potential, but they're still getting regular work. Mol was in Boardwalk Empire and a few other things.

Yeah, Matarazzo's been in a bunch of different stuff too. The Devil's Advocate, 54, Scream 3, those Princess Diaries flicks, Sorority Boys, Saved!, The L Word, Hostel 2, Law & Order, Grey's Anatomy, and about a thousand little indy flicks. Madcap just ain't paying attention.

The reason she wasn't getting LEAD roles is because, predictably, Hollywood sucks. The studios decided she was "not fuckable" (literally, they said this to her face).

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Sherilynn Fenn and Sheryl Lee come to mind. Lee has done nothing except Twin Peaks and Fire Walk With Me. Fenn was quite high profile in the '90s then vanished. Then came back to TV for The Brittany Murphy Story on Lifetime. Yeah.

 

These two ladies must have doing cartwheels when the Twin Peaks return was announced.

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Also: Miracle Laurie was one of the (few) highlights of Dollhouse and, bar a couple of low-profile web series, hasn't done anything.

Emma Caulfield is another Whedon alumni that springs to mind.

Miracle Laurie is bad at acting. Emma Caulfield is kinda nutty, I think. I mean, she's at least a vocal Ron Paul supporter. That can't make you too popular in showbiz.

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Also: Miracle Laurie was one of the (few) highlights of Dollhouse and, bar a couple of low-profile web series, hasn't done anything.

Emma Caulfield is another Whedon alumni that springs to mind.

Miracle Laurie is bad at acting. Emma Caulfield is kinda nutty, I think. I mean, she's at least a vocal Ron Paul supporter. That can't make you too popular in showbiz.

 

 

Come on, that never stopped anybody.

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Just watched Jade recently (oof), and it reminded me of that 4-5 year period where Linda Fiorentino was a rising star. Regardless of what the real story was there, it's crazy that she's essentially disappeared off the face of the earth.

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Just watched Jade recently (oof), and it reminded me of that 4-5 year period where Linda Fiorentino was a rising star. Regardless of what the real story was there, it's crazy that she's essentially disappeared off the face of the earth.

 

She was a very, very good '90s femme fatale. Jade and The Last Seduction are great films and she's excellent in both of them.

 

Also: everyone in The Blair Witch Project. Last I heard, Heather Donahue ran a cannabis farm in California.

 

And Laura Harring seemed to disappear after Mulholland Drive. Watts became a mega-star out of it, Justin Theroux did OKish (and got to marry Jennifer Aniston!) but she...didn't do much at all.

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I met Emma Caufield a couple years ago.  Don't know her well enough to have a valid opinion, but "kinda nutty" seemed to cover it.

 

Sheryl Lee appears here and there.  She isn't working steadily, but she hasn't vanished.  A lotta guest shots in recent years.  House, Perception, Psych, CSI NY come to mind.

 

Sherilyn Fenn worked steadily for a lot of years. I kinda assume the problem is that she's an average actress on her best day, and stopped getting work when her looks started to fade.

 

Yancy Butler didn't exactly disappear.  She transitioned to scandal sheets and police reports.  She was supposedly hell to work with on Witchblade and had a long-term substance abuse problem plus numerous legal problems.  I assume she was mostly unemployable after that.

 

And, yeah, Linda Fiorentino is probably the poster child for this thread.  A lot of these other names are people that get work fairly regularly but didn't break out like expected (Gretchen Mol).  Fiorentino seemed to be legit talented and had the presence for the big screen.  Went from getting large roles in at least one or two big budget pics a year..... to having two credits total since 2000.  Odd.

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Sherilynn Fenn and Sheryl Lee come to mind. Lee has done nothing except Twin Peaks and Fire Walk With Me.

If a bunch of indy movies, John Carpenter's Vampires, and guest appearances on everything from Desperate Housewives to House to One Tree Hill to Psych to Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman to Lie To Me count as "nothing", sure.

This thread should be called "Actors I Personally Happened To See In Only One Thing", cuz just about everyone besides Execproducer is shooting airballs in here.

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