Sometimes a bad movie is all it takes to kill a promising career.
It’s a shame, but it happens.
These stars all had the misfortune to star in critical or commercial bombs, and followed
them up with a long absence from the entertainment industry.
Chris O'Donnell
Remember Chris O'Donnell?
He was all over the place in the mid-'90s, making appearances in such films as Circle
of Friends, where he played a rugby-playing medical student, and Scent of a Woman, where
he waited patiently on the sidelines as Al Pacino aggressively chewed the scenery.
“Get outta here!”
O'Donnell was a solid choice to play Robin in Batman Forever, a role he reprised in the
much-derided follow-up, 1997's Batman & Robin.
While that movie grossed over $107 million, this was far less that what its predecessor
made.
It was so thoroughly disliked that Warner Bros. canceled immediate plans for a further
sequel and put O’Donnell out of work.
He finally appeared on screen two years later, in Robert Altman's Cookie's Fortune.
Roberto Benigni
Already a huge star in his native Italy, Roberto Benigni broke into the global limelight with
La vita è bella, known in English as Life is Beautiful.
Benigni wrote, directed and starred in the film, which was about a father who uses humor
and laughter to shield his son from the horrors of life in a World War II concentration camp.
It won him the Best Actor Academy Award in 1999, and picked up a Best Foreign Language
Film award to boot.
Even Benigni’s acceptance of his Academy Award has become history.
“Roberto!”
Hollywood eagerly awaited the next film from this utterly unique talent, but found only
disappointment in his live-action adaptation of Pinocchio.
Benigni, who was 50 years old at the time, inexplicably starred as the puppet boy who
wanted to become real.
After that movie flopped to the tune of just under $4 million at the U.S. box office, Benigni's
A-list days were over.
His next significant appearance in a major film came more than a decade later, in Woody
Allen’s To Rome with Love.
Colleen Haskell
The first season of Survivor became a pop cultural phenomenon back in the summer of
2000.
More or less popularizinging the entire genre of competitive reality TV throughout the world,
the final episode was watched by more than 51 million people, making it one of the most
watched TV events ever.
The real people who made up the cast all became briefly famous, landing a host of talk show
appearances and guest-star gigs.
Colleen Haskell got the most attention, not because she won, which she didn’t, but most
likely because she was 23 and conventionally attractive.
Inevitably, Hollywood came calling.
In addition to an episode of That '70s Show and a forgotten Warner Bros. show called Maybe
It's Me, Haskell landed the romantic lead in the 2001 Rob Schneider film The Animal.
The movie did middlingly at the box office, as Rob Schneider movies tend to do, and became
the last and only movie Haskell ever starred in.
Matthew Modine
In 1995, Carolco Pictures wanted to make a big, bombastic, good old fashioned pirate
movie, and hired action director Renny Harlin to do it.
He spent $98 million on creating a gorgeous, realistic-looking tale of high seas adventure,
but American audiences just weren't interested in seeing a pirate movie fronted by Matthew
Modine.
“Still rooting for you, mate!”
Usually known for more grown-up fare, Modine’s presence as the lead of 1995's Cutthroat Island
couldn’t save it, and the movie barely squeaked past $10 million at the box office.
Modine didn't make another movie for two years and wouldn’t truly return to the spotlight
until he was cast in Stranger Things, over two decades later.
Brandon Routh
Dormant since the failure of 1987's Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, the Superman franchise
finally arrived back on the silver screen in 2006 with Superman Returns.
Replacing the late, great Christopher Reeve in the tights and cape was Brandon Routh,
an affable and handsome young actor whose resume to that point consisted almost entirely
of bit parts and guest-star roles.
Superman Returns was supposed to be a massive blockbuster, and was set to make Routh a household
name.
Unfortunately, neither of those things happened.
Superman Returns didn't bomb, but it wasn't exactly a major cultural phenomenon either,
and barely made back its production budget.
While director Bryan Singer and co-star Kevin Spacey recovered easily enough, it was Routh's
career that took the hardest hit.
He didn't show up in another movie until two years later but, since then, he's been able
to give superhero-ing another shot as Ray Palmer, one of the many leads of DC's Legends
of Tomorrow.