What Happened to These 15 Iconic Actors Who Never Found Their Place in Hollywood

The competition among actors is incredibly high! Every day, Hollywood is bombarded with hundreds of young, talented people that hope to be movie stars. More and more new faces appear on the big screen and we don’t always notice when once-iconic actors become less and less popular. After all, it’s been quite some time since we last heard of Joseph Gordon-Levitt or Jennifer Love Hewitt.

Bright Side decided to find out what celebrities that got famous for their great roles did after they disappeared from our screens. As it turns out, some of them gave up on their careers voluntarily like Cameron Diaz, for example — and at the moment, she’s enjoying her life and writing books.

Zooey Deschanel

It’s been a long time since we’ve heard anything about the charming Zooey Deschanel we remember from (500) Days of Summer and Yes Man. Her last big project was working on the show New Girl and she hasn’t appeared in a leading role for 10 years now.

As it turns out, the actress has 2 children and decided to focus on her family. But Zooey is still busy. She has recently started a project that aims to make farm foods more affordable and sometimes she stars in commercials.

Jennifer Love Hewitt

The star of Heartbreakers and I Know What You Did Last Summer doesn’t appear in public as often anymore. In 2012, she took a break to devote her life to her children and husband and she promised to be back with new, bright roles. Unfortunately, since then, she’s only been on the show 9-1-1.

Casper Van Dien

Thanks to his role in Starship Troopers, everyone knew who Casper was and he started to get big offers from directors. After that, he starred in Tarzan and the Lost City and Sleepy Hollow but these roles remain the best in his career to this today. Casper still stars in films but they’re mainly low-budget action flicks.

Daryl Hannah

Her role in the iconic Blade Runner was a happy ticket to the world of cinema for the young Daryl Hannah. She was invited to act in many different projects as the leading actress and day by day, she was becoming more and more famous. Her last big project was as the role of an elite killer in Kill Bill and its sequel in 2004. All her following projects were not as successful according to critics and viewers.

Charlie Sheen

We haven’t really seen Charlie Sheen on-screen since the show, Anger Management. The numerous scandals and health issues the actor experienced outside of the movie industry kept him from returning to the acting world. He still does some roles but they’re usually in lesser-known films or episodes of shows.

Alyson Hannigan

Alyson Hannigan didn’t even need a leading role to be liked by viewers. We loved her in American Pie and absolutely adored her in How I Met Your Mother. After the series ended, the actress continued to star in different projects but all of them were either really bad or just not popular at all.

Andie MacDowell

Many movies with Andie MacDowell became iconic, like Groundhog Day, Hudson Hawk, Michael, and Crush. But still, the star of the 1990s hasn’t had any big roles since 2005. Today, you’re more likely to see Andie at an event rather than on the movie screen.

Claire Forlani

This British actress proved that she could be good in any role, whether it be a comedy or drama. Unfortunately, talent didn’t help Claire Forlani find her place in Hollywood: she doesn’t ever get very popular roles. In the past, she was offered leading roles in films like Meet Joe Black, Hooligans, and Mallrats, but now, she only appears in TV series and unsuccessful films.

Matthew Perry

Among all the actors from Friends, Matthew Perry had the biggest chance of becoming a Hollywood superstar. While the show was still on the air, he had roles in super-famous films with celebrities like Bruce Willis and Salma Hayek. But after the final season of the sitcom, Matthew only got work in 2009 in 17 Again and in 2012 in Go On which quickly ended.

Billy Zane

We remembered Billy Zane for his interesting appearance and talented acting in Titanic and later in Charmed. He was on the list of 50 most handsome men and was nominated for an MTV award for “The Best Villain of the Year”. Unfortunately, it’s been more than 20 years since then and he never appeared in good movies since — most of his work has an average rating of 4 out of 10 on IMDb.

Milla Jovovich

Milla Jovovich became quite popular after her role as Leeloo in The Fifth Element. After that, she had wonderful roles in Jeanne d’Arc and Resident Evil. Everyone knows her as a talented actress but despite all that, these roles are still her most memorable to date.

John Cusack

John Cusack is one of the few actors of the 1990s that was still popular in the new millennium. We remember him being very young in Say Anything and more mature in Serendipity.

After his role in the film adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, 1408, John started to appear on the big screen less often. His last notable role was in The Raven where he played Edgar Allan Poe. It’s been 8 years since then and the actor has only done episodic roles or bad films.

Heather Graham

The beautiful woman who you saw alongside John Travolta in Scream and Johnny Depp in From Hell hasn’t been seen in any notable movies for a long time. Since 2014, she’s only done several roles in various TV series. For example, she’s recently appeared in Get Shorty and Flaked.

Cameron Diaz

The breakthrough in Cameron Diaz’s career was the film The Mask where she starred together with Jim Carrey. After that, she became popular as a star of various romantic comedies. She’s done more than 50 movies and has received many nominations and prestigious awards.

After 2014, the actress disappeared and a bit later in an interview, she joked that she became retired. Cameron deliberately refused to star in movies because she realized that she didn’t know where to go next and what to do. Now, she lives a calm life, writes books, and doesn’t appear on the red carpet.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt

The actor first appeared on-screen when he was just 7 years old and earned a lot of fans. His best work can be seen in Inception, 50/50, The Dark Knight Rises, and, of course, (500) Days of Summer. It may sound strange but since 2016, Joseph Gordon-Levitt has only appeared in a short film and voiced a couple of flicks. We hope that this is only a temporary pause in his career and that soon he will make us happy with some new hit roles.

Whose comeback are you most looking forward to?