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Fans tend to associate actors with the specific characters they play in well-known franchises. Their roles can be so legendary that they practically become those characters. And yet, some stars think that they have outgrown their roles and set out to look for greener pastures.
In a discussion sparked by the ‘Random Question Time’ account, internet users revealed the actors and actresses whose careers didn’t survive this shift. These stars left their franchises looking for something better, and they never recovered.
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#1
David Caruso. Thread closed.
DADDY_AL:
He left NYPD BLue because he won a Golden Globe his first season and thought he was a hot commodity, and deserved a raise because of it. He was wrong.
RELATED:
#2
Are you kidding me?? Terrence Howard in the Marvel series. Dude fumbled the bag in the most egregious way.
itscrawdaddy11:
Terrence Howard was in the MCU lol wanted more money, got replaced by Don Cheadle.
Marno C. 1 day ago
I know Terrance Howard tells the story that RDJ wanted more money so they took it out of his (Howard's) salary. But, I don't think I believe it. Howard is not a reliable narrator. First, I haven't heard the same story from other sources. Are there any? Second, Howard suggest that he should have had a salary more in line with RDJ which is an odd opinion given the difference in their roles (supporting vs. main) and 'star power.' Third, while a movie's overall budget does have its cost vs. savings balancing acts, it isn't usually so oppositional between two specific cast members and it really wouldn't be helpful to the production to be shared with them in such terms. So, that is an odd practice. And Fourth, Howard had a reputation for difficult behavior professionally and mistreatment of women. If RDJ opposed Howard returning, it would likely be on those two issues, not getting a bigger salary. Howard wouldn't want to be honest about that being the cause of RDJ's disdain.
#3
Katie Holmes. Dark Knight.
4headWrinkles:
Marrying a cult member didn't help much either.
According to Box Office Mojo, the biggest movie franchise in the United States and Canada is the Marvel Cinematic Universe, worth a whopping $13.1 billion dollars. The MCU has 44 releases, and the top one is Avengers: Endgame, with a lifetime gross of over $858 million.
Other massively popular franchises include Star Wars (worth $5.1 billion), Disney Live Action Reimaginings (nearly $3.5 billion), Spider-Man ($3.3 billion), and the DC Extended Universe ($3.1 billion).
#4
Stuart Townsend was originally cast as Aragorn in LOTR. He didn't want to play nice with the cast and refused to learn how to ride horses and train with sword, etc. They fired him and replaced him with Viggo Mortensen, and the rest is history.
Rathoren 22 hours ago
Who? And the irony is Viggi literally trained the horse who played Brego to do tricks and they kept it in the movie. He bought the horse after filming ❤️
Pferdchen 16 hours ago
I hope that anyone who loves horses and Viggo has seen "Hidalgo!"
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Chrissie Anit 20 hours ago
That is the first thing that I heard of this reason. AfaIk, Peter Jackson decided minutes before shooting that his Aragorn needed to look older, and Stuart Townsend was too young. He arrived by plane only to be sent home immediately.
Cyhyraeth 5 hours ago
And he trained for months with swordplay et al, in preparation for the role. My only bitter pill about Jackson's LOTR
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🇺🇦 PrincessPatton 🇺🇦 16 hours ago
It's hard for me to imagine him as Aragorn, Viggo Mortensen was a much better choice.
Norfolk and good 21 hours ago
I thought Peter Jackson decided that he wanted an older actor to play Aragorn.
TotallyNOTAFox 19 hours ago (edited)
And good thing that they hired Viggo Mortensen or the one scene where they threw an actual blade instead of a mock up at him would have ended in a serious accident. (Viggo is a trained swordfighter and deflected it)
Lady Eowyn 16 hours ago
I've always heard the producers thought he didn't fit the character, he just wasn't what they were looking for. Viggo already knew how to ride, and according to the swordmaster who trained the cast, Viggo was the best swordsman he ever trained.
Alecto76 1 day ago
Did he mistake it for Lord of the Dance? Horses and swords are pretty integral to the story.
Beak Hookage 18 hours ago
Shades of Rex Reed getting cast in Myra Breckenridge as the protagonist pre-transition, whereupon he told the director that "on no account" did he want to play a gay man who transitions. The source novel was literally about a gay guy who transitions.
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PrettyJoyBird 2 hours ago
Googled him. Says he is an Irish Actor. Was married to Charlize Theron for a bit. She is also an actress, from South Africa.
#5
McLean Stevenson from M*A*S*H. He left to pursue other opportunities and to avoid being typecast. He did work after leaving, but nothing as notable as Col. Henry Blake. *He did have a doozy of a send off though.
#6
Joey Tribbiani - Days of Our Lives.
Miracle Max 1 day ago
He didn't "leave the show" he annoyed the writers and got dropped down an elevator shaft! Still made a nice comeback later on!
No matter the profession, many people naturally want change at some point in their lives. Sure, stability is great, but it’s difficult to play the same role your entire life. You want something new. Something fresh. Something challenging. Something potentially better. This can be both exciting and utterly frightening. There’s no guarantee that you’ll find something better… and yet, you might.
And some actors believe that they’ve either outgrown some projects and need to move on to something different, or they think that they’ve become so talented that the franchises are beneath them.
As fans, the healthy thing to do would be to support the stars we claim to love while they start these new adventures. Well, so long as the celebrity is kind, wholesome, grounded, and humble. If they’re suddenly overly arrogant and unpleasant, they might lose a few fans.
#7
Katherine Heigl was never as popular after she left Grey’s Anatomy.
#8
Julianna Margulies, she admitted this.
ca420111:
She left cause she thought she was going to be a movie star. And if you think The Good Wife was as big as ER, you're dreaming.
Malgosia Garnys:
She definitely left! Producers begged her to stay with a $27M offer and she still said no. She’s the rare actor who actually valued the ending of the character more than the money. It's all in her book Sunshine Girl if you want the real tea.
#9
Nina Dobrev when she left Vampire Diaries.
lauraaa:
The reason she didnt renew was because her male costars were making more money than her when she was doing double the work. She played 2 different characters consistently and I think the network “forgot” to mention it before she signed.
What are your favorite franchises, and who are your most beloved actors and actresses, dear Pandas? Why do you love them so much?
Have any stars quit their franchises in a way that completely devastated you? What is your dream franchise-actor pairing that you’d be happy to make if you didn’t have to worry about the budget? Let us know!
#10
Rege Jean Page from Bridgerton. He should’ve followed Jonathan Bailey’s lead and stayed on the show to help his star rise.
hansdown14:
I feel like everyone forgets that Shonda Rhimes herself said that the original plan was always for Regé to be on bridgerton for ONE season. She said it twice. They asked if he would come back and he declined. It’s semantics but technically he didn’t leave ,he just didn’t come back. He was never supposed to.
Gerry Higgins 1 day ago
He left just as Covid hit so that slowed down a lot of careers. He was in 'Dungeons & Dragons' last year with Chris Pine. Great movie.
#11
Eriq La Salle thought he was too good for ER and left to be a movie star…there were no movies.
#12
Topher Grace. He had a cameo and briefly another sitcom but never the same success as on That '70s Show.
#13
Delta Burke on Designing Women.
dyo1v7ark9gu:
Every episode had a dig about her weight and was a main feature in many episodes. It was destroying her mentally.
Ann Kapoxeet 1 day ago
It's crazy to think about what actresses had to tolerate in the 80s with respect to weight. How many eating disorders were born due to these storylines?
#15
Emmy Rossum from Shameless.
doug_da_slug:
I’m on s11 and still wondering why she left because I haven’t seen her in anything.
Bartlet for world domination 1 day ago
The writers did her a disservice, her character Fiona was becoming unbearable. Apparently it was a dispute about money, but by the time they were done with her the show picked up considerably.
#16
Shannen Doherty and everything she was in... Always thought she was irreplaceable and yet was always proven wrong.
#17
Honestly… Chris Meloni 😬 when he left SVU. I don’t think he anticipated for it go on another 14 seasons without him.
#18
Lisa Bonet... After she left The Cosby show and Different world she was never quite as popular as she was back then! Now you hardly ever hear of her...
#19
Denise Crosby - Star Trek TNG.
#20
Misha Barton left the OC and did maybe 2 low budget films and basically disappeared.
Miriam Insidecor 1 day ago
She works a lot but in really low budget films that no one sees. I think she also joined Neighbours or Home and Away. Her career tanked because of her substance a***e and other issues.
#21
Megan Fox with the Transformer franchise. She says she left, Bay said Spielberg said to fire her, but whatever it was, her career fizzled afterward.
Claudia Cielensky 1 day ago
It is my understanding that she was somewhat blacklisted after calling Bay out for being a s****l predator.
#22
Jessica Raine from “Call the Midwife”. She dropped the ball leaving as Jenny too soon.
#23
Zoe Wanamaker criticised the pay for the first Harry potter film and refused to sign a contract for sequels unless Warner Bros increased their rates. They didn't. she was written out of subsequent story lines.
#24
Dan Stevens from Downton Abbey.
ohnothankyou863:
The one guy from Downton Abbey....Cousin Matthew. I was so in love w him.... ugh. He left and never really materialized into a big name.
Ashtophet’sRevenge 1 day ago
Dan Stevens is in everything, more than you think. Personally I loved Legion, but I can imagine it’s not everyone’s kind of TV!
#25
Ja Rule was supposed to be in more Fast and the Furious movies, but he wanted more money and Ludacris got the role.
Michael P. 23 hours ago
Ja Rule was cast into a Steven Seagal movie, that probably sank his career.
#26
Shemar Moore. I don't think he thinks he was too big for Criminal Minds but he wanted to expand his portfolio and do something different and has literally done nothing other than voice work and another cop show.
Gerry Higgins 1 day ago
He was on S.W.A.T. from 2017-2025 and now he's on the sequel S.W.A.T. Exiles That's pretty consistent work.
#27
I’m gonna get hate, but literally anyone who ever left Grey’s Anatomy - especially Patrick Dempsey & Katherine Heigl.
#28
Lowkey Dacre Montgomery? I mean he’s not doing that bad but recently I heard that it was his choice to leave Stranger Things, the directors had other plans with him. But looking now at season 5 seems like a good choice tho.
#29
Jessica Brown Findlay - Dowton Abbey. I feel like if she had stayed longer while doing other projects she could have been the next huge British actress that’s known for decades - ie the next Maggie Smith & instead she’s only had a few moderate successes after.
Shark Lady 19 hours ago
Her contract was only for three seasons originally, it was always her intention to leave after that, even if she did have some regrets afterwards.
#30
Lacey Chabert left Family Guy as the voice of Meg because she didn’t think that show would go anywhere… 😳 I had to look up her name cause I never remember it.
#31
SEVERAL have left SNL prematurely. Some do great like Jimmy Fallon - and some are never heard from again: Ellen Cleghorne, Victoria Jackson, Cheri Oteri ...
#32
Andrew Lincoln, Walking Dead.
Gambit:
His character was played out, I agree with him leaving. He came back to the spin off "The walking dead: The ones who live" and actually became relevant again.
#33
Jill Marie Jones from Girlfriends. She gave up her role as Toni Childs when the ratings were at an all time high because she thought she could move on to a bigger role. She never got anything bigger than that role.
#34
Crystal Reed aka Allison from Teen Wolf.
Bartlet for world domination 1 day ago (edited)
Gotham, Swamp Thing, Pinball and the Teen Wolf movie. I don't think her career stalled in any way.
#35
girl who played Maggie in The Walking Dead, her show flopped then she came crawling back
#36
That Mark guy from the first two seasons of Parks and Recreation. They brought in Rob Lowe and Adam Scott and the show got sooooo much better.
Michael Melfa 1 day ago
Not really his fault. Creative had nothing for him to do, so he got written out.
#37
Terry Ferrel, though it's disputed what really happened to cause her to leave DS9.
Ann Kapoxeet 1 day ago
K*****g off Dax was absolutely stupid. Her and Worf had such awesome chemistry. The storyline was just too sad, and it forced the rewriting of Trill rules.
#40
Crispin Glover that is why they used a look a like in part 2 of bttf.
#41
Jessica Biel left 7th Heaven.
#42
I don't care what anyone says, Henry Cavill has had 2 (and mission impossible, though that was a 1 off) and nothing has come of them. It's not just the studios at this point!!
#43
Christopher Eccleston, left Doctor Who after one season because he didn't be live in the success of the series.
What do you think ?
Jaya 1 day ago
It's weird that these are all framed as "they were so full of themselves that they thought they were better than their current role, what an idiot to think they would get great movie". I think it's admirable to take a risk and go after your dreams. It doesn't mean people are full of themselves or look down on their current franchise, it just means they have dreams and ambition. Also, staying in a certain series might be a financially safe bet, but if you've gotten bored of that role or it's not the kind of acting you wanna do, there's nothing wrong with taking the leap and hoping that other movies/series will give you roles that you actually enjoy playing. So even if they only get smaller roles and a smaller salary afterwards, it might still be a better choice than staying at a role they don't find challenging or interesting.
Loudawg76 20 hours ago
Everyone makes career/job decisions throughout their working life. Some work out, some don’t. It’s called life 🤷🏻♀️
Apatheist 19 hours ago
True. I left a company after 5 years; the next job lasted 6 months. I left another after 2 years, and that job lasted 20.
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Mook The Mediocre 22 hours ago
You need to remember that an actor in a high-rating show may earn enough in a few episodes to keep average citizens financially comfortable for the rest of their lives. TV actors can earn as much in one week as I did in 30 years of teaching.
Julie S 16 hours ago
I saw an actor talking about this on a chat show. He said when you're in a successful show you get sent loads of scripts for amazing TV shows, films etc. but you can't do them because of the show you're on and then when you leave all the offers dry up, so you're d**n if you do and you're d**n if you don't.
Chad Olin 15 hours ago
Joey Tribbiani on the list? Seriously, you're actually mixing art imitating life, with life affecting life? It was a fake character on show within a show, that never existed on the art it was imitating? Someone on BP got their wires crossed along with their actors and actors playing actors on TV, that didn't really exist on TV. Anyone who's ever watched a 'Friends' episode 2.5 or 63 times, will get thw reference to Joey's circle talking.
Binky Melnik 8 hours ago
It was about his character Drake Ramore on “Friends,” not about Joey,
Load More Replies...
Beak Hookage 17 hours ago
I really liked the character of Tank in The Matrix and was disappointed when he was k****d off between sequels. Turns out that happened because actor Marcus Chong went on a MASSIVE power trip and started acting like a complete jerk, demanding star treatment and such. After that the best he could manage was a role in the truly dreadful "The Crow: Wicked Prayer", and after that his career pretty much died altogether.
Brian Droste 1 day ago (edited)
A lot of these shows I never watched so I don't recognize a lot of these actors/actresses. When a person wants to be a actor or actress and get on a show they should stick with it because they never know when your career will end. If a person gets on a show and it becomes popular and ratings go up and the studio is making money, I understand that the actor or actress want more money but they should not push it to far. They could be written out of the show. Sounds like some of these actors/actresses got a big head and thought more of themselves than what they actually were.
Jaya 1 day ago
It's weird that these are all framed as "they were so full of themselves that they thought they were better than their current role, what an idiot to think they would get great movie". I think it's admirable to take a risk and go after your dreams. It doesn't mean people are full of themselves or look down on their current franchise, it just means they have dreams and ambition. Also, staying in a certain series might be a financially safe bet, but if you've gotten bored of that role or it's not the kind of acting you wanna do, there's nothing wrong with taking the leap and hoping that other movies/series will give you roles that you actually enjoy playing. So even if they only get smaller roles and a smaller salary afterwards, it might still be a better choice than staying at a role they don't find challenging or interesting.
Loudawg76 20 hours ago
Everyone makes career/job decisions throughout their working life. Some work out, some don’t. It’s called life 🤷🏻♀️
Apatheist 19 hours ago
True. I left a company after 5 years; the next job lasted 6 months. I left another after 2 years, and that job lasted 20.
Load More Replies... Mook The Mediocre 22 hours ago
You need to remember that an actor in a high-rating show may earn enough in a few episodes to keep average citizens financially comfortable for the rest of their lives. TV actors can earn as much in one week as I did in 30 years of teaching.
Julie S 16 hours ago
I saw an actor talking about this on a chat show. He said when you're in a successful show you get sent loads of scripts for amazing TV shows, films etc. but you can't do them because of the show you're on and then when you leave all the offers dry up, so you're d**n if you do and you're d**n if you don't.
Chad Olin 15 hours ago
Joey Tribbiani on the list? Seriously, you're actually mixing art imitating life, with life affecting life? It was a fake character on show within a show, that never existed on the art it was imitating? Someone on BP got their wires crossed along with their actors and actors playing actors on TV, that didn't really exist on TV. Anyone who's ever watched a 'Friends' episode 2.5 or 63 times, will get thw reference to Joey's circle talking.
Binky Melnik 8 hours ago
It was about his character Drake Ramore on “Friends,” not about Joey,
Load More Replies... Beak Hookage 17 hours ago
I really liked the character of Tank in The Matrix and was disappointed when he was k****d off between sequels. Turns out that happened because actor Marcus Chong went on a MASSIVE power trip and started acting like a complete jerk, demanding star treatment and such. After that the best he could manage was a role in the truly dreadful "The Crow: Wicked Prayer", and after that his career pretty much died altogether.
Brian Droste 1 day ago (edited)
A lot of these shows I never watched so I don't recognize a lot of these actors/actresses. When a person wants to be a actor or actress and get on a show they should stick with it because they never know when your career will end. If a person gets on a show and it becomes popular and ratings go up and the studio is making money, I understand that the actor or actress want more money but they should not push it to far. They could be written out of the show. Sounds like some of these actors/actresses got a big head and thought more of themselves than what they actually were.
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