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While Barbenheimer continues to win the box office around the world, and actors and writers in Hollywood continue their strike, it's time to talk about movies and failures. Okay, relative failures, because leading roles in even average movies or TV shows are still good money.

But if we compare reality with the expectations that some rising screen stars had in their youth - both from critics or colleagues and movie-goers, then it turns out that many of them clearly did not live up to these expectations. And a recent viral thread in the r/popculturechat community is dedicated to just such actors and actresses. So lights, camera, action, reading!...

More info: Reddit

#1

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After I know he’s had a good run, but surprised that no one said Joseph Gordon Levitt. Dude was everywhere in the early 10’s it felt like. Had a ton of hype off of some solid performances then he seemed to drop off the face of the earth by the late 10’s.

Shenanigans80h , PunkToad Report

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Holly Stevens
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

He runs hitrecord.org now, an open collective of artists, it's really fun, anyone can join, from any creative field, you can post projects or he posts up projects that need different artists or there are daily prompts for story writing etc. It's incredible

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#2

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After I’d like to argue Hayden Christensen After Star Wars, we barely saw him in anything because he had so much backlash over the role even though now he’s remembered quite fondly. He’s had a career revival lately with his performance in the Obi-wan show so I hope he’ll be seen and cast a lot more now

Puzzleheaded_Eye7311 , Geoffrey Chandler Report

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Jrog
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

He was in lots of stuff after Star Wars, mostly unfortunate productions but also a big budget movie such as "Looper" [Edit: "Jumper"]. He tried his hand at producing with alternating results, before going back to his Star Wars roles. He did not disappear because of the reception of his role in SW, he just had a streak of bad casting choices, poor management and pursue of different projects.

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#3

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Eliza Dushku—I thought she was going to be huge, but she kind of disappeared!

meowparade , Gage Skidmore Report

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Jus Frpn
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

She got screwed over on "Bull" Harassed by Michael Weatherly, was written out for speaking up and sued. Was supposed to be a long run role.

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Let's start with the fact that everything is known in comparison. And you can’t call a person a loser just because you expected multimillion-dollar contracts per role, and they now receive “only” a couple of hundred thousand bucks for a movie. And almost all the people on this list continue acting in movies, remain in demand on the market, and, in general, have achieved a decent place in the profession. And the fact that once someone expected them to become "The Next Big Thing" - well, sorry, life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what's inside.

#4

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Taylor Lautner disappeared from the screen after the Twilight movies ended.

SJP_06 , Gage Skidmore Report

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Jason Melvil
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

He actually tried to do quite a lot after Twilight - and almost all of his projects bombed hard.

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#5

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Josh Hurtchenson disappeared after Hunger Games, I was wondering what happened to his career after the last movie, but someone told me they read on a interview that it was his choice, I guess he decided to take a break for a few years, apparently he's living in Spain with his girlfriend, but he's having a bit of comeback this year with a new movie, a horror one I think.

samsienna , Eva Rinaldi Report

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#6

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Was always surprised Sam Claflin didn’t have a bigger career after Hunger Games. I always mixed him up with Alex Pettyfer back in that era, but Sam’s hopefully the less problematic one lol. He was recently great in Peaky Blinders and Daisy Jones though, so hopefully he’ll get more projects!

cymru_yesac , Peter Kudlacz Report

Let's take, for example, Dane DeHaan, who is also in this compilation. Yes, in the first half of the last decade, he was perceived as a rising star, with critics admiring his acting both in Hollywood and on Broadway. It seemed that the next stop for him would be the Oscar... But it wasn't - in 2017 it was Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets which nearly failed, and after that, for six years, the actor did not get a single starring role in movies, and mostly acted in serials.

At the same time, his acting hasn't gotten worse - for example, in Oppenheimer, Dane looks completely decent against the background of his superstar colleagues. It's just the way things were. On the other hand, DeHaan is 37 years old - by Hollywood actors' standards, that's almost youth, so another breakthrough may well happen... Who knows?

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#7

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Dylan O'Brien. He was on Teen Wolf and a big role in Maze Runner. I think he was injured on Maze Runner but haven't heard much from him after that.

bookgeek42 , Gage Skidmore Report

#8

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Michelle Trachtenberg

standinginagalaxy , dodge challenger1 Report

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ojjunior
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think she left artist life. Her instagram account is updated frequently. Nothing related with acting.

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#9

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After I feel like Logan Lerman was supposed to have timothee’s career! He obviously was known for Percy Jackson but I loved him in perks of being a wallflower

yeehawbookworm , Francesca Luna Barone (ig:francabbx) Report

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Bookworm
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Logan Lerman got burned with Percy Jackson - first because the script was so awful, second because he would have been a great Percy for the fifth book, but definitely not the first, he was way too old.

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"This list mostly features actors who have starred in iconic teen movies or TV series, and a lot of the charm of their young characters has been transferred to the performers," says Dmytro Kosygin, a film director and cameraman from Ukraine, to whom Bored Panda reached out for a comment. “It happens, and it has been the whole history of cinema - literally in any decade there were actors and actresses who were predicted to have a superstar future, and they turned out to be 'just' big professionals. Nothing more. In the end, only four acting Oscars are given out a year - you can’t get enough of everyone."

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“On the other hand, the history of cinema has confirmed many times that miracles happen here. For example, John Travolta, who was almost forgotten in the eighties, regained his superstar status thanks to filming in Pulp Fiction, and Robert Downey Jr., who would definitely have ended up on a list like this somewhere in the mid-'90s, over time, not only managed to triumphantly come back, but also became what he was seen as in his youth - one of the main stars of Hollywood. Therefore, who knows - maybe one of the people listed here will get the Oscar in ten years or so?" Dmytro presumes.

#10

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Y’all gonna kill me for saying this but Skeet Ulrich I was told had crazy hype after scream by my older sister and then he completely fizzled out

babalon124 , Dru Kelly Report

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cadena kuhn
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Had a nice little comeback with Riverdale. Thought it was hilarious that the heartthrobs of my generation played the dad's of the heartthrobs of my daughters

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#11

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Shailene Woodley was supposed to be the next Jennifer Lawrence, but her career tanked right alongside Divergent when the YA Adaptation bubble burst.

foxscribbles , Red Carpet Report on Mingle Media TV Report

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Goose of the Ahonkalypse
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Her career tanked? Have they seen Big Little Lies for which she was nominated for an Emmy? Really fantastic series. Skip season two though. The first season is based on a book and the second season just doesn't live up to it.

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#12

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Maybe it's me living under a rock but I feel like Felicity Jones was on track to be super A list but the. just disappeared 

oat_milquetoast , Dick Thomas Johnson Report

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Zoe Vokes
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

She was making a couple of films a year until recently. Now she’s doing one a year (ish). I’m sure it’s her own choice. Some actors / actresses want to make as many films as possible. Others want to have a home life too. She has a husband and child. Maybe she wants to spend time with them and not work non-stop.

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However, this is another reason to scroll this selection to the very end - because then, many years later, if one of the people listed here achieves stunning success, you can always proudly say: “Yeah, I remember how everyone doubted them!" So just read this list, add more names in the comments, in case you remember any more, and maybe go rewatch Twilight or The Hunger Games - but not before you've read this post to the end, okay?

#13

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After sara paxton. they put her in everything to make an effort at making her the next big thing

annnyywhooo , GabboT Report

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StrangeOne
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The only movie I know her from is Aquamarine. Thought she was awesome in it.

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#14

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Who remembers Jai Courtney?! They tried to make him a thing but it never worked out.

LinksMilkBottle , Gage Skidmore Report

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#15

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After I thought Mia Wasikowska was gaining traction in the early 2010s but I haven’t seen her in much since.

veiled_lodger , Gage Skidmore Report

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Joy
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

She may have decided to take the character actor route which offers more work, greater opportunities, certainly more variety and challenges plus a CA still gets all the perks of a very enjoyable well-paid job without the hassle. Not every actor wants to be a Tom Cruise - now seemingly unable to take any mission that's not impossible - or a Pretty Woman. So-called A-listers end up trapped by their looks which have to be perpetuated until they wind-up looking like haunted gherkins. Character actors have it better.

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#16

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After No one mentioned Theo James yet?? Glad he’s getting more attention after White Lotus!

cymru_yesac , Red Carpet Report on Mingle Media TV Report

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Jason Melvil
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You mean besides Sandition, White Lotus, The Time Traveler's Wife? The guy had full on credits for the past couple of years.

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#17

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After This is older but Jenna Malone?! She was in so many iconic movies from the early aughts and kinda fell off. That said, I think she has the perfect level of fame: has had some notable projects that probably have served her well financially, but she’s not overexposed and can live a somewhat private life.

YouNeedCheeses , MAKY.OREL Report

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Lil Miss Hobbit
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Oh, I LOVE Jenna! She is so iconic. I hope she continues to show up here and there and bless us with her talents.

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#19

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Larisa Oleynik! She just kind of disappeared. I think she was in Mad Men for a hot second?

thesmallestwaffle , LA NY LA Report

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Mabelbabel
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

She popped up in an episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, playing the director of a couples reality show.

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#20

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Dane DeHaan. Someone in another thread on here today mentioned how every young up and coming white male actor always gets compared Leo DiCaprio; I remember when Dane DeHaan was starting out and had been in Chronicle and Place Beyond the Pines, he got compared Leo around 2012-2013/2014. After Amazing Spider Man 2 and that Valerian movie with Cara Delevingne, he fizzled out. He was recently in Oppenheimer and he was good in it despite him not being in the movie as much, it made me wish he had become a bigger star.

PinkCadillacs , Gage Skidmore Report

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|||| Nate ||||
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

How has he fizzled out if he was in recent movies like Valerian and Oppenheimer??

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#21

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Lee Pace. He was everywhere like 10 years. Marvel, the Hobbit, had a tv show, etc.

packersaremyboo , Gage Skidmore Report

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g90814
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

He's in the Foundation TV series currently. Season 2 just started in release (AppleTV).

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#22

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Does Emma Watson count? I don’t know if her “phase out” is intentional on her part though…

I feel like she exhausts the general public and doesn’t wow enough in her roles so people just forget about her? Tolerate her? I feel like Dan and Rupert have the bigger cult following, even though Hermione is an extremely beloved character.

ZaZaZaatar , Sergiy Galyonkin Report

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Jrog
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

She did quite a few big budget stuff (including a Tom hanks flick, a Disney movie and Little Women by Greta Gerwig with an all star cast), then decided to take a break and choose carefully her next role, all while focusing on investing part of her considerable capital in startups and green initiatives.

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#23

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After I thought Millie Bobby Brown was going to be bigger by now.

flowersinmyteas , Gage Skidmore Report

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Lil Miss Hobbit
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think Millie's career is just picking up. She's barely 19. She has so much ahead of her.

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#24

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After This was over a decade ago but Brandon Routh was suppose to be huge. The next Tom Cruise but haven’t heard much about him since Superman.

DeeDeeW1313 , Gage Skidmore Report

#25

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Isla Fisher

teetnxo , GJ Kooijman Report

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Goose of the Ahonkalypse
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ah yes, Isla Fisher with her lackluster 55 acting credits /s. My favorite movie of hers is Tag. I did like Wolf Like Me as well.

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#26

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Elisha Cuthbert

mollyclaireh , Kristin Dos Santos Report

#27

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After I loved Anna Sophia Robb, but I haven't heard much about her since The Carry Diaries. 

bunnanamilkshake , Alyse & Remi from Los Angeles Report

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Agfox
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Looks to have had plenty of work since The Carrie Diaries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AnnaSophia_Robb

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#28

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After I haven't seen his name yet but Garrett Hedlund.

KooKoobananaa , Gage Skidmore Report

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Goose of the Ahonkalypse
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

OK I can kind of see this one. He had some early success in things like Troy, Tron, Friday Night Lights etc. Recently he's been mostly known for his tumultuous relationship with Emma Robert's and his drinking issues.

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#29

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Alex Pettyfer! He starred in Beastly and Magic Mike but allegedly had issues with Channing Tatum on set of Magic Mike. His movie I am Number Four flopped and rumours were swirling that he was difficult to work with on set. He was briefly engaged to Riley Keough

UnlikelyFig2822 , El Hormiguero Report

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Bookworm
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I Am Number Four was another bad YA adaptation with a terrible script, so I think the problem went well beyond his acting

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#30

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After James van Der Beek... everyone else from Dawson's creek has had a come back at some point but he really just didn't

heygurl34 , Gordon Correll Report

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#31

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Dianna Agron (and most of the Glee cast). Glee curse is real

invasive-breaker , Mike Ownby Report

#32

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Richard Madden.

He had Game of Thrones which put him on the map. Then hit it big with Bodyguard and won an Emmy. He signed on for The Eternals which was a HUGE deal and had massive buzz but the movie didn't do as well as other marvel movies. Then he got Citadel, which also didn't hit like it was supposed to.

He needs a major comeback.

Punkenerci , Gage Skidmore Report

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Jason Melvil
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Comeback from what? He clearly was working all this time. The fact that projects are bad doesn't mean his career ended. He is obviously still working.

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#33

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Matthew Goode is another one! He’s had a pretty solid career, but he’s so talented I feel like he could have easily been a bigger name I think I remember reading that he may have been blacklisted by Harvey Weinstein for speaking out?

cymru_yesac , Gordon Correll Report

#34

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Liam Hemsworth? I think if you ask the average person his most notable role was as Miley Cyrus’ boyfriend, husband, and then ex. A close second is the Hunger Games.

I feel like in the beginning he was marketed as a new heartthrob but he’s just very… blah. Nothing particularly charismatic about him on or off screen

oliviaaivilo06 , Gage Skidmore Report

#35

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Josh Duhamel

SJP_06 , GJ Kooijman Report

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Fred L.
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Was good in the fantastic but increcibly badly named show Las Vegas.

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#36

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Noah Centineo was everywhere at one pont. And now (thankfully) nowhere to be found.

Maryanne_mjamja , Cris e Panda on YouTube Report

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cadena kuhn
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

He's got a Netflix show. The recruit I enjoyed it. Waiting on season 2

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#37

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Alden Ehrenreich. He played a young Han Solo in “Solo: A Star Wars Story” and it was supposed to be a huge movie (I believe Disney was planning on maybe doing a trilogy) but it “flopped” and he disappeared.

Magnetah , Dick Thomas Johnson Report

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Goose of the Ahonkalypse
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

He was just in Oppenheimer and I thought he did a great job. He'll always be the boyfriend from Beautiful Creatures to me though.

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#38

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After The whole cast of Riverdale. It seemed they could’ve scored big. Some of them actually had decently popular movies but that seemed to have slowed down.

ForTheLoveOfPop , Rach Report

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BluEyedSeoulite
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I've heard terrible things about Riverdale. The production for that show hadn't done them any favors

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#39

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Maybe I'm terribly misinformed, but all of the PLL Liar actors to me seemed as if they'd be upcoming Hollywood actors. The only ones I can think of that were in major roles are Shae and Troian, Troian less so.

Surprised about Lucy Hale most of all of the Liars.

MiNdOfMiNdd , Renan Katayama Report

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Jason Melvil
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Lucy Hale has been consistently working. People need to understand that not being the top headliner of a marvel movie doesn't mean you are out of a career. We have more celebrities today than in the past so it's hard for anyone to become "that big". Hale has been working steadily doing both movie and tv show (Remember the Riverdale Spinoff that failed?) She just did that lifetime movie with the Flash Guy. That is by no means meaning fizzled out.

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