Hollywood is littered with tragic tales of young actors falling on hard times in adulthood.
But while burning out and disappearing is a common script, not every child star follows
that path; in fact, there's a good chance you've seen some of them on screen recently
without even knowing it.
Here are some former child stars you'll barely recognize now.
Henry Thomas
Getting your big break in a movie as wildly popular as Steven Spielberg's E.T. comes with
certain pressures, and the glare of the media spotlight that followed was too much for this
child actor.
After making that iconic film, he said,
"My world went ­completely crazy.
I was that stupid kind of famous, where you can't go anywhere."
Thomas more or less went into hiding while the E.T. craze wore itself out, but once the
buzz died down a little, he snuck back into acting with little fanfare — which means
you might not have realized that was him strolling with Leo in Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New
York, or playing a manipulative child abuser in the Netflix adaptation of Stephen King's
Gerald's Game.
Most recently, he appeared in a guest role on the critically acclaimed FX series Better
Things.
Diane Lane
Contemporary movie audiences know Diane Lane as Superman's adoptive mother Martha Kent
in the DC movie universe, but her career actually began back in 1979 with a romantic comedy
called A Little Romance, in which industry legend Laurence Olivier played matchmaker
for Lane and a French boy in Paris.
Olivier reportedly called Lane "the next Grace Kelly," and she even appeared on the cover
of Time magazine, but she never achieved the kind of fame that turns child actors into
tabloid headlines.
Instead, she worked quietly but continuously in under-the-radar projects right up until
a well-deserved Oscar nomination for Unfaithful put her back in the spotlight.
Haley Joel Osment
Back in the late 1990s, this young actor answered a casting call for M. Night Shyamalan's The
Sixth Sense — and ended up saying the most iconic catchphrase in modern horror movie
history.
"I see dead people."
But after just one other high-profile role, in Steven Spielberg's polarizing sci-fi flick
A.I., Osment fell off the radar — and returned to the screen about fifteen years later looking
nearly unrecognizable.
Look past the beard, though, and you'll recognize him in Entourage, Kevin Smith's Yoga Hosers,
and in a guest role as wealthy tech mogul Keenan Feldspar on the HBO comedy Silicon
Valley.
Molly Ringwald
This teen icon rose to prominence as a star of essential 1980s cinema and as a prominent
member of the Brat Pack, the group of young actors who dominated Hollywood under the tutelage
of director John Hughes.
But as the 1990s rolled on, the pack members struggled to maintain their careers — and
by the time Ringwald landed her next notable role, it was as the mother of the kind of
character she was once famous for playing.
In 2008, she turned up in the teen TV drama The Secret Life of the American Teenager,
and in 2017 she jumped to another mom role on The CW's Riverdale.
"You know, am I more Betty?
Am I more Veronica?
What am I gonna be like when I grow up?
Who am I?
And then it turns out I'm Archie's mom."
Anthony Michael Hall
Like Molly Ringwald, this actor starred in both Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club,
only to reject parts in John Hughes' next two projects for fear of being typecast as
a nerd.
But playing a teenage dork is still what the Brat Pack alum is best known for — so you
might not have recognized him, all grown up and playing TV host Mike Engel in Christopher
Nolan's superhero classic The Dark Knight.
Since then, Hall has scored minor roles in the Oscar-nominated film Foxcatcher, crime
drama Live by Night, and the Netflix original film War Machine.
And while he's not as famous as he used to be, he did make headlines in 2017 for felony
battery after allegedly assaulting a neighbor — which is one way to escape a reputation
as a Hollywood dweeb.
Taylor Momsen
If someone asked you what kind of career the adorable little girl from How the Grinch Stole
Christmas would grow up to have, rock star probably wouldn't be your first guess.
But as the lead vocalist of The Pretty Reckless, Taylor Momsen is definitely going out of her
way to show the world that she isn't Cindy Lou Who anymore.
Momsen and her band found some major success with their first lead single, "Make Me Wanna
Die," and their following two albums have been even more well received — and from
now on, you're a lot more likely to find her on stage than on screen.
Devin Ratray
For those who grew up on 1990s Christmas classics, this actor will always be known as the awful
older brother Buzz to Macaulay Culkin's Kevin McCallister in Home Alone.
But after playing the bully in two separate films, Devin Ratray labored in obscurity for
more than twenty years — only to have a surprise career renaissance as an adult.
You might not have known it was him, but the actor has turned up in the action comedy R.I.P.D.,
the critically acclaimed indie thriller Blue Ruin, and the Oscar-nominated Nebraska.
And most recently, he's scored a recurring role as Tin Foil Kevin in Amazon's superhero
satire The Tick.
Ralph Macchio
In the 1980s, this young actor scored the role of Daniel LaRusso in The Karate Kid — which
is still the role he's most famous for.
But while he worked almost entirely under the radar for the next several decades before
landing his next high-profile project, this is one child star you actually might recognize,
because Ralph Macchio doesn't age.
"Why don't you come back when you turn 18, okay!"
"F---, you know I'm 48 years old!"
Macchio popped up in Entourage in 2005 and again in the 2012 bio-pic Hitchcock.
But as of 2017, he's taking it back in time to the 1970s with a supporting role on HBO's
gritty period drama The Deuce.
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