Actors Who Ruined Their Career In A Matter Of Seconds

Randy Quaid doesn't always get the credit he deserves for being a solid comedic actor. Sure, not all his movies were prestigious (just try to watch "Pluto Nash"), but his work in the "Vacation" films, "Kingpin," and even "Independence Day" is pretty great. Plus, the guy was nominated for an Oscar in 1974, so how did it all go so wrong? In September 2009, Quaid and his wife, Evi, were arrested for not paying a $10,000 hotel bill, as per The Telegraph. They were arrested again for squatting in a home they used to own, so they skipped town and headed to Canada. Now, not paying bills and squatting is odd behavior for a well-known actor, but nothing too crazy. But in Canada, things got weird.

Though people assumed the Quaids were on the run from the law, they claimed they'd fled to the North to avoid the "Hollywood Star Wackers," a secret organization that took celebs out or manufactured scandals to discredit them. Why Quaid would be on the top of their list, no one knows. Quaid told the Vancouver press about the mysteries behind the Star Wackers and claimed that Heath Ledger, David Carradine, and Chris Penn were the cabal's latest victims. Since those bizarre claims, the Quaids were arrested and released once more in 2015.

In February 2017, Quaid posted a video to Twitter of himself with a full mountain-man beard pretending to get it on with his wife while she wears a Rupert Murdoch mask (via The Telegraph). A big comeback seems unlikely, but Quaid is slated to appear alongside Chevy Chase in "The Christmas Letter."

Wesley Snipes was a big star with roles in "White Men Can't Jump," "To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar," and the "Blade" trilogy. He was doing pretty great. Then Snipes decided to not pay his taxes.

Now, it's obvious that not paying your taxes is bad, but what's the worst that could happen? You pay it back plus some fines and maybe have to make "Demolition Man 2" to get some cash? Nope. Snipes' tax offenses were bad enough that he went to jail, reports The New York Times. Snipes was found guilty of willfully not filing taxes for three years and got a year in the slammer for each year he failed to make a trip to H&R Block. Plus, he had to pay back $17 million in taxes and penalties. Since it's pretty hard to make a "Blade" sequel from jail, his tax evasion put a complete stop to his career. Let that be a lesson to all you movie stars out there: If you want a career, don't try to get tricky with the tax man.

With scandals receding from the collective memory and a groundswell of nostalgia for his iconic roles in '90s movies, particularly as a vampire-hunting vampire in "Blade," Snipes is slowly staging a comeback in the 2020s. He recently starred alongside Kevin Hart in Netflix's "True Story," cameoed as a vampiric version of himself on "What We Do in the Shadows," and stole all of his scenes in the long-awaited '80s sequel "Coming 2 America" as the unsettlingly friendly General Izzi.

Actors who dabble in the minefield of stand-up comedy need to ensure that their routine isn't going to negatively impact their career on-screen, though one thing you can never fully predict is the influence of hecklers. When Michael Richards of "Seinfeld" found himself in a battle of wits with a member of his audience during a live show in 2006, he made a split-second decision that destroyed his career in an instant. Richards responded to the man's criticism with a series of racial slurs, demanding that the African-American customer be thrown out of the club, reports The Washington Post.

A video of the incident soon found its way online, showing Richards stopping his show mid-monologue and turning on the audience member, telling him that "fifty years ago they'd have you hanging upside down with a f*****g fork up your a**." There were audible gasps in the room as the incensed actor then repeatedly used the N-word, despite the man shouting back that the language was uncalled for. The comedian left the stage without finishing his routine.

Richards appeared via satellite on the "Late Show with David Letterman" to apologize for his outburst, telling the nation that he was "deeply sorry" about what happened and insisting that he wasn't actually a racist. It didn't do him any good; his career since has mostly been limited to the occasional token TV appearance.

Being under the spotlight is nothing new for Lindsay Lohan, who began working as a child model when she was just 3 years old. She soon made inroads into the acting business, with her regular spot on soap opera "Another World" getting her noticed by Disney, which cast her in their surprisingly successful 1998 remake of "The Parent Trap." The redheaded actress became a teen sensation in the years that followed, finding more success in 2003's "Freaky Friday," 2004's "Mean Girls," and 2005's "Herbie: Fully Loaded." Her hot streak came to an abrupt halt early in 2007.

On May 26, Lohan was taken to the hospital in Beverly Hills after getting into a car accident, reports CNN. The actress had recently been discharged from the Wonderland Center rehab facility in Los Angeles for undisclosed problems, though the nature of these issues became all too clear when Lohan was charged with DUI, possession of cocaine, and misdemeanor hit-and-run following the incident. If her career wasn't compromised on this occasion, it certainly was when she was arrested on the same charges just two months later, days after another unsuccessful stint in rehab.

The severity of her downfall was highlighted by the critical response to her next film, the "incoherent and semi-vile" "I Know Who Killed Me." Lohan plays opposite herself in the two main roles, and her double performance won her the worst screen couple at the 2008 Golden Raspberry Awards as well as worst actress. The film took home a record eight Razzies in total. But all is not lost for Lohan. In 2022, she starred in a high-profile Christmas movie for Netflix, and in 2024, news broke Lohan will join Jamie Lee Curtis in a "Freaky Friday" sequel. 

One of the items confiscated from Paul Reubens' stash of pornography was the infamous Rob Lowe sex tape (via the New York Post), the first video of a celebrity having sex to be copied and sold at large. Lowe was a prominent member of the Brat Pack in the early and mid-'80s, appearing in the likes of "St. Elmo's Fire" and "Youngbloods," but when a video of him having sex with a 16-year-old girl was leaked, his promising career took a severe nosedive.

Lowe was in Atlanta to attend the 1988 Democratic National Convention when he took two girls to bed after meeting them in a nightclub, unaware that one was only 16, reports People. As the legal age of consent in Georgia is 16, Lowe escaped prosecution, but his public image was dealt further damage when a second clip showing him and a friend having sex with a woman at the same time surfaced. While he admits that he has never been out of work, Lowe is aware how much of his career those tapes cost him, claiming that he lost a role in "Titanic" because of the fallout, as per GQ. But Lowe tenaciously crawled his way back up the Hollywood food chain to where all of this tawdry business is almost completely forgotten because he was just that good (and, as it turns out, quite funny) in stuff like "Wayne's World," "Tommy Boy," and "Parks and Recreation."

Jeffrey Jones rose to fame in the '80s as the principal in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," a guy who had a job to do and rules to enforce and somehow became the villain for it. Turns out, he's quite the villain in real life, as he not only has child pornography on his record but a knack for repeatedly trying to hide that fact from the world.

In November 2002, Jones was arrested on suspicion that he had hired a 14-year-old boy to pose for inappropriate pictures. He pleaded no contest and received no jail time, though he did receive five years' probation and was ordered to register as a sex offender. And just like that, his career skidded to a halt. He's had only a few screen credits since, though he did wrangle some decent screen time on a couple seasons of HBO's "Deadwood." 

But in 2010, some years after leaving that show, he sunk the knife just a little deeper into his career, getting himself arrested for failing to update his California sex offender status, CBS reports, something all offenders are required to do each year. He received three more years' probation plus 250 hours of community service, which is the most work he's done in years.

Once upon a time, Amanda Bynes was a rising star. But that was a long time ago. The star of "The Amanda Show" and "She's the Man" ran afoul of drugs and alcohol like many child stars before her, but what truly killed her career was her complete and total Twitter meltdown in the weeks after her arrest. It was like a teenager getting fired from McDonald's for tweeting how much they hated working there, only so much worse.

Her 2012 tweetstorm, as compiled by E! Online, included such claims as how much she wanted rapper Drake to "murder [her] vagina," a suggestion Drake wisely passed on. She also tweeted Rihanna, taunting that "Chris Brown beat you because you're not pretty enough." She called Miley Cyrus and Jay-Z "ugly" and berated herself for being the same. Away from Twitter, she apparently set a driveway (and her own pants) on fire. All this resulted in her being diagnosed with bipolar disorder and twice placed in a psychiatric facility, and her career being placed on ice. 

Years later, a seemingly reformed Bynes is still trying to regroup and regain her life. She went to Los Angeles' Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising to learn about clothing lines and claimed she had no real interest in acting. Considering what acting had already done to her, that was probably a wise choice. In June 2017, that wisdom went out the window when she stated she was ready to come back. But, according to People, as of summer 2021, she's been laying low at the beach, finishing up her degree, and apparently dabbling in rap music. 

Controversy has helped make Kathy Griffin famous. But then she went too far, with a stunt that, depending who you ask, was either a poorly presented joke or a violent threat to the life of a sitting president.

In May 2017, Griffin posted a picture of herself holding a blood-soaked Donald Trump mannequin head. According to her, she was mocking Trump's remarks that reporter Megyn Kelly had "blood coming out of her wherever" (via Time). Unfortunately for her, few saw it that way, least of all her employers. CNN quickly canned her from its New Year's Eve broadcasts, and Squatty Potty (yes, Squatty Potty) flushed their contract with her down the toilet. The FBI even investigated her over the picture. Griffin apologized, saying the joke went too far, lamenting, "I don't think I'm going to have a career after this. I'm going to be honest, [Trump] broke me."

Months later, she seemed less broken. In August 2017, she retracted her apology, reports the Los Angeles Times, saying the backlash had gone too far. According to her, not only did she lose her CNN gig, but her entire standup tour was canceled because most of the theaters got death threats. She says her "little picture" cost her jobs, money, and close friendships, and she's done apologizing for something everyone blew way out of proportion. 

Griffin returned to the road for a sold-out tour in 2018 (according to Forbes), and in the 2020s appeared on the popular comedies "Crank Yankers" and "Search Party."

In a career spanning the best part of 70 years, Robert Blake went from child star of MGM's "Little Rascals" to the Mystery Man in David Lynch's "Lost Highway," the last character he played before the murder of his wife in 2001. Bonnie Lee Bakley was shot in the head at point-blank range in Blake's car, which was parked around the corner from the Studio City restaurant the couple ate at that night, as per History. Blake claimed he had to return to the restaurant to collect his missing gun when the fatal shooting of his wife took place.

Police determined that Blake's missing gun was not the one used to kill Bakley, though Blake was arrested in 2002 when two former stuntmen came forward claiming that the actor had tried to hire both of them to murder his wife on separate occasions. Both men had a history of drug abuse, something Blake's legal team leaned on heavily during Blake's defense. Three years after his arrest, Blake was acquitted, though a civil court claim later found him guilty of "intentionally" causing Bakley's death and ordered him to pay $30 million to Bakley's children.

Blake's criminal trial was the nail in his career coffin, though that didn't stop the then-71-year-old actor from issuing a plea to producers in the aftermath. He proclaimed himself "broke" and announced himself available for work. Unsurprisingly, work never came.

Dating in Hollywood has never been straightforward, but it isn't just the actresses of Tinseltown who find their love lives under intense scrutiny. Former Miss Korea contestant and up-and-coming actress Sung Hyun-Ah had a short relationship with a prominent Korean businessman, and it eventually destroyed her show business career. Sung found herself embroiled in a prostitution scandal in 2013, indicted for allegedly accepting a payment of 50 million won (approximately $44,000) from the businessman in exchange for three instances of sexual intercourse, reports the Korea Times. The actress attempted to counter-sue, but the court dismissed her claims and found her guilty.

Sung took her case to the Supreme Court which, two years after her guilty verdict, overturned the decision and found her innocent of all charges relating to prostitution, reports the International Business Times. But the damage was already done. Her lawyer confirmed that her career would be taking a backseat while she recovers from her ordeal. She has since returned to acting, with roles in a television series and a feature film called "Transfer Student." 

After "Scream" and the prank show "The Jamie Kennedy Experiment," Jamie Kennedy's prospects faltered, and he took on roles in flops like "Son of the Mask" and started playing white rappers in stuff like "Malibu's Most Wanted" because a white person pretending to be a grossly stereotypical African-American urban youth is apparently hilarious. By 2012, Kennedy was at the point where he had to host a Los Angeles-only New Year's Eve special broadcast on the local CW affiliate. "First Night 2013" produced some live television magic; in other words, it was a disaster.

As The A.V. Club details, in Kennedy's opening monologue, he made an off-color joke about Psy (of "Gangnam Style" fame): "Now when you hear the word, 'Asian rapper,' you won't just think of a little plastic bag that holds your fortune cookie." Technical gaffes marred the production, as did product placements for Carl's Jr. and a local casino. (For the latter, Kennedy appeared in a comedy sketch dressed up like a Native American chief.) Later on, Kennedy interviewed an African-American woman on the street and coined a crude, "white" version of the saying "once you go Black, you never go back." The whole point of a New Year's show is the countdown, which Kennedy somehow bungled, unable to locate a clock at midnight and missing the moment by 10 seconds.

Unbelievably, Kennedy told The New York Times that the show was terrible on purpose. "It was totally supposed to be like that," Kennedy claimed. "We wanted to make almost an anti-New Year's Eve show."

Playing Mikaela Banes in 2007's "Transformers" made Megan Fox a star. Within a couple of years, she'd made the sequel "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," the comedy "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People," and the cult horror-comedy "Jennifer's Body." That year, 2009, was also when Fox sat for an interview with the U.K. magazine Wonderland. When asked a softball question about working with "Transformers" director Michael Bay, Fox answered honestly and provocatively. "He's like Napoleon and he wants to create this insane, infamous mad man reputation," Fox said, comparing her director to a man who tried to conquer Europe two centuries earlier, and then to another, even more notorious historical figure. "He wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is."

Despite comparing him to the mastermind of World War II and the Holocaust that took the lives of millions of Jewish people, Bay still hired Fox for "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" but, according to The Guardian, was reportedly overruled by producer Steven Spielberg, director of "Schindler's List" and founder of the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, a Holocaust awareness organization. Fox's team denied reports to People that she'd been ousted and rather stated she left the project of her own volition, but the career damage was done. Fox appeared in a couple of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" movies, some flop indie movies, a few episodes of "New Girl," and a music video for her fiancé, Machine Gun Kelly.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Fox said she retreated from Hollywood to "escape" the misogyny and find her "purpose."

In the 1960s, when TV was lousy with variety shows, "The Ed Sullivan Show" stood apart as the premiere showcase for emerging talent. The Sunday night institution could instantly make a star out of a performer or elevate an established celebrity by providing a captive audience of nearly 30 million viewers.

In October 1964, Jackie Mason performed on "The Ed Sullivan Show" about a dozen times in three years, delivering one of his meandering humorous monologues that made him one of the era's best-known stand-up comedians. Mason was running long and threatened to jut up against a scheduled televised speech by President Lyndon Johnson to which the show would break away. According to the "Sullivan" website, the host wildly signaled to Mason to wrap it up immediately, to which the comedian responded by mockingly aping Sullivan's gestures back to him. Sullivan, however, thought Mason had given him the obscene middle finger gesture, and on television no less. According to The New York Times, Mason vigorously explained and apologized, but to no avail — Sullivan canceled the comedian's six scheduled appearances and refused to pay him for his performance that night. The two eventually made amends, but for two years, Mason was blacklisted from the highest-profile avenue for comedians, seriously upending his career momentum.

With only a few credits to his name, Alex Pettyfer looked to be one of the breakout stars of 2011, thanks in large part to his starring role in "Magic Mike," one of the most talked about movies of the year that also received critical praise and earned $113 million at the American box office. Just before the release of Pettyfer's "I Am Number Four," The Hollywood Reporter ran an exposé alleging the actor's misbehavior on the set of that film (in the wake of a salary standoff) and on another upcoming film, "Beastly."

Rather than do much damage control, Pettyfer doubled down on the animosity. In an interview with VMan, the actor called Los Angeles a "s***-hole," and "an insidious pool where nearly everyone lives in fear." He likened acting to a prison sentence. "You go, you serve your time, you try to replicate Johnny Depp's career — and then you move to Paris," Pettyfer quipped. The actor later told the Mercury News that the interview may have led to a rift with his "Magic Mike" co-star Channing Tatum. At any rate, Pettyfer wasn't invited back for "Magic Mike XXL," and he's appeared in supporting roles and in relatively obscure fare ever since.

In 1978, Klinton Spilsbury made two brief TV appearances then secured the title role in the big-screen "The Legend of the Lone Ranger" because he looked good in the character's iconic mask. Really. "We had to find an actor whose eyes were not close together," producer Martin Starger told Entertainment Weekly.

Amidst the media hype leading up to the 1981 release of the movie, Spilsbury agreed to a meeting with Andy Warhol, proprietor of Interview Magazine. Warhol would go on to call the interview "nutty" in "The Andy Warhol Diaries" because the actor seemed dead-set on "blowing his whole image" of being a heterosexual leading man in that far more conservative era. Spilsbury claimed to have married and had a child with a wealthy woman who left him because he needed too much alone time. Then he got drunk in front of Warhol and admitted to crushes on male actors and a one-night stand with the fashion designer Halston.

Apart from that weird press, Spilsbury was apparently difficult to work with. Co-star David Hayward said that Spilsbury needed dialogue cuts "because he was having trouble with the lines," and producers had to eventually dub in another actor delivering his lines (via Entertainment Weekly). Critics hated "The Legend of the Lone Ranger," with Janet Maslin of The New York Times calling it "half-hearted adventure fare." It flopped at the box office, earning $12.6 million and quickly disappearing from theaters. Spilsbury disappeared, too — he'd never act in another movie or TV series.

Dani Mathers was just starting to get her acting career going when a quick snapshot intended to be social media content derailed her rise and landed her in a courtroom. The 2015 Playboy Playmate of the Year, the model and actor had landed only a few small roles in a few projects, including a short film, the daytime soap "The Bold and the Beautiful," and the TV series "Badass!" In July 2016, Mathers entered the showers and locker room area of an LA Fitness gym in Los Angeles. She then captured and posted to Snapchat a photograph of a much older woman taking a shower — naked, and with a physique Mathers found grotesque, judging by her expression of shock and the caption (per The Washington Post), "If I can't unsee this then you can't either."

Body-shaming — for which Mathers received a mountain of criticism and bad press — is merely untoward, but it's illegal to publicly distribute a photograph of a naked person taken without their knowledge. For her Snapchat post of the 71-year-old nude stranger, Mathers was charged with a misdemeanor count of invasion of privacy. After entering a no contest plea, Mathers received a sentence of three years probation and 30 hours of community service. Since the case, Mathers has acted on screen just once, in an 2023 indie horror movie called "Kill Her Goats."

A comic actor with dozens of credits to his name, Jay Johnston was best known for his association with edgy, alternative comedy. He was part of the original cast of the HBO sketch series "Mr. Show with Bob and David," had a recurring role on "Arrested Development," appeared in "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy," and co-starred as Officer Jay on "The Sarah Silverman Program."

More than 1,200 people were arrested for their involvement in the siege on the U.S. Capitol building which involved rioting, looting, and violence with the ultimate goal of stopping the certification of the 2020 election in support of losing candidate Donald Trump. In March 2021, the FBI posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, a photo of a man at the Capitol on January 6, resembling Johnston. Comedian Tim Heidecker, a collaborator of Johnston's, gave a positive identification, as did a former co-star, Cassandra Church. Johnston was arrested in June 2023 and faced a felony charge of obstruction of officers during civil disorder as well as impeding passage on the Capitol grounds, and unlawful entry of restricted property. Johnson allegedly used a swiped Capitol Police riot shield to force back arriving authorities.

From 2011 to 2021, Johnson played the title character's restaurant-owning nemesis Jimmy Pesto on "Bob's Burgers." Johnson lost that job in December 2021, and he hasn't booked any new ones since.

After a few roles in indie films and TV series in the 2010s, Jonathan Majors' career exploded in 2020. He landed the leading role of David in Spike Lee's "Da 5 Bloods" and starred on HBO's "Lovecraft Country," for which he earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Leading Actor in a Drama Series. Majors quickly lined up prominent roles in big franchise movies, including "Creed III" and "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," portraying Marvel Cinematic Universe mega-villain Kang the Conqueror. Majors was all set to be a focal point of Disney's MCU for years to come, starring in, at the very least, "Avengers: The Kang Dynasty."

In March 2023, police in Manhattan responded to a 911 call reporting a domestic assault. Authorities noted the victim's visible injuries, and the accused perpetrator, Majors, was charged with assault, harassment, and strangulation. By April 2023, Majors had lost his manager, his publicist, and roles in the films "Otis and Zelda" and "The Man in My Basement," as well as a Texas Rangers marketing campaign. In October 2023, the release of Majors' bodybuilding movie "Magazine Dreams" was canceled. That same month, Disney+ aired Season 2 of the MCU series "Loki" which strongly featured Majors as Kang, the last project he'd complete before his arrest. Immediately after Majors was found guilty on a misdemeanor count of assault and a minor harassment charge in December 2023, Disney parted ways with Majors, removing him from its future MCU plans.

Armie Hammer made a big impression in major movies by important directors in the 2010s. He co-starred in David Fincher's "The Social Network" and Clint Eastwood's "J. Edgar" before headlining "The Lone Ranger" and "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." and then moving back into artsier fare like "Call Me by Your Name" and "On the Basis of Sex."

About six months after Hammer's wife filed for divorce in the summer of 2020, a woman known only by the Instagram handle @houseofeffie shared texts Hammer sent her during their four-year dalliance. They graphically depicted the actor's violent fantasies regarding cannibalism, vampirism, and sexual assault. More women came forward with similar stories about Hammer, including app developer Courtney Vucekovich. "He said to me he wants to break my rib and barbecue and eat it," she told Page Six. Another former partner accused Hammer of multiple acts of violence, sexual coercion, and sexual abuse. The Los Angeles Police Department formally opened an investigation into the actor's potentially criminal acts.

Within weeks of the first allegations in early 2021, Hammer's agency cut ties with the actor, who subsequently lost all the roles in which he'd already been cast. He was fired from the streaming series "The Offer," the films "Billion Dollar Spy" and "Shotgun Wedding," and the Broadway play "The Minutes." As of 2022, the year his last completed project to date, "Death on the Nile," hit theaters, Hammer was working as a timeshare salesperson in the Cayman Islands.

A highly active Hollywood gadabout, James Franco stayed perpetually busy for about 20 years. After breakthrough roles in "Freaks and Geeks" and "James Dean" (for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award), he appeared in more than 100 projects, ranging from blockbusters like "Spider-Man" to awards-graspers like "Milk" and "127 Hours" to broad comedies like "The Pineapple Express," alongside frequent collaborator Seth Rogen. He also hosted the Academy Awards; directed narrative films, TV episodes, and documentaries; published several books; and opened and operated an acting school. It's the latter which would provide Franco's undoing.

In 2018, an actor alleged on X, formerly known as Twitter (via NPR) that Franco sexually assaulted her and attempted to seduce her 17-year-old friend. Franco dismissed the claims at the time, but those allegations would lead to a lawsuit filed in 2020 claiming that Franco's institution, Studio 4 Film School, coerced students into making sexually charged class assignments. Franco settled the lawsuit, paying $2.2 million to his accusers. The once prolific Franco has made just one TV appearance in the 2020s; even his once close friend and cohort Rogen won't talk or work with the actor anymore.

Jeff Conaway had a very successful 1978. He starred as Kenickie in the movie-musical "Grease," the top-grossing film of the year, and then settled into a role as cabbie and aspiring actor Bobby Wheeler on the lauded ensemble sitcom "Taxi." Conaway landed two Golden Globe nominations for the show, but after four seasons, he left "Taxi." At the time, Conaway said that he had grown bored and frustrated playing Bobby and needed a change. "Bobby was written into an empty hole. There was nowhere to go," he told The Daily News Leader. "Not only was the character going down the drain, but me too. I had to make a move before becoming a has-been."

More than a year after exiting "Taxi," Wheeler re-emerged, starring in the CBS fantasy series "Wizards and Warriors," which lasted just eight episodes. After that, Conaway's career descended primarily into guest-star stints, main roles on quickly-canceled shows, and low-budget B-movies; nothing on the level of "Grease" or "Taxi." In 2006, Conaway turned up as a contestant on VH1's "Celebrity Fit Club." After an on-screen meltdown, Conaway checked into a drug rehabilitation facility. In 2008, "Taxi" writer Sam Simon revealed on "The Howard Stern Show" that Conaway's substance abuse had gotten the actor fired from the sitcom — he hadn't actually quit. Conaway died in 2011 at age 60.

The first James Bond replacement actor, stepping in for original series headliner Sean Connery who had decided five 007 movies was enough: George Lazenby. A model with no screen-acting credits at the time, it was a remarkable vote of confidence from Bond movie producers and a coronation of sorts for Lazenby as a new star in the making.

Lazenby's Bond debut, 1969's "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," was a hit, and filmmakers wanted to be in the Lazenby-as-Bond business for a very long time. Offered a $1 million bonus on top of a handsome salary for portraying Bond in six more movies, Lazenby declined it all. He thought the character, and the 007 movies, were in danger of becoming archaic relics of another time in the wake of the countercultural movement of the late 1960s. "You had to have bell bottoms, long hair, flowery shirts. That all gave me the impression Bond was over, so I didn't feel like I was doing the wrong thing by myself," Lazenby told the Sydney Morning Herald in 2017. And with the youth of the world wrapped up in the hippie movement, Lazenby believed that if he kept playing Bond, he wouldn't get to enjoy himself. "It was 'make love not war.' I just wanted to get laid, and if you had a suit on you looked like a waiter," explained Lazenby, who never again starred in a blockbuster movie.

Stand-up comic T.J. Miller made his screen debut in the hit monster movie "Cloverfield" then parlayed his oddball persona into dozens of comedic and voiceover roles. Miller co-starred in "Extract," "Yogi Bear," "Big Hero 6," and the "How to Train Your Dragon" franchise, all before securing his two most significant parts: bartender sidekick Weasel in the "Deadpool" movies and Erlich Bachman on HBO's "Silicon Valley."

In 2017, "Silicon Valley" wrote out Erlich — he wound up trapped in a perpetually drugged state in an Asian opium den. That was all done to get Miller off the show. "It was kind of becoming clear that he didn't want to do the show anymore," co-creator Mike Judge told The Hollywood Reporter. The actor often missed taping days, and if he was present, he was often intoxicated.

Less than a year after he lost his job on "Silicon Valley," Miller was arrested for a federal crime. In March 2018, Miller drank heavily on an Amtrak train and grew loud and angry after a female passenger didn't respond to his attempts at flirtation. After a verbal altercation, Miller made a 911 call to report that the woman was in possession of a bomb. Miller was ultimately tossed off the train before his destination over his drunken behavior. The federal charge of reporting a false bomb threat was dropped in 2021, the last year to date that Miller acted professionally, voicing a character in an episode of the animated series "F is for Family."

In the late 1970s, Steve Whitmire landed a dream job for a puppeteer: a position with Jim Henson's studio responsible for all Muppet media. Following the tragic death of Henson, his family asked Whitmire to succeed the entertainer in his two most important roles: operating and voicing Kermit the Frog in various TV and film projects and Ernie on "Sesame Street" properties. Whitmire served in that capacity for more than 25 years, until he was fired by Muppets parent company Disney in October 2016. Whitmire, a self-styled guardian of the legacy of the Muppets, engaged in creative disputes over the direction of the 2016 adult-oriented sitcom "The Muppets."

"The first issue was that they felt I had been 'disrespectful' in being outspoken on character issues with the small group of top creative people during the ABC series," Whitmire told The Hollywood Reporter. "I also have insight into their limitations with respect to how well they know the Muppets." It all stemmed from a scene where Kermit tells a small lie to his nephew, Robin. "Kermit is too compassionate to lie to him to spare his feelings," Whitmire said.

The two parties weren't able to resolve their differences, but Whitmire may have sealed his fate by being too expensive. Unnamed sources close to the situation told Gizmodo that Whitmire asked for "too much money" and wanted Disney to pay for perks like first-class flights and a separate, substantial paycheck for his wife-slash-manager.

"The O.C." led to lasting careers for three of its four main young stars: Ben McKenzie, Adam Brody, and Rachel Bilson. Seemingly left out of the career opportunities was Mischa Barton, who portrayed idealized girl-next-door Marissa Cooper. At the end of Season 3 of "The O.C.," Marissa Cooper dies in a car accident, and Barton spoiled that plot twist. "My character has been through so, so much, and there's really nothing more left for her to do," Barton told "Access Hollywood" (via E! News) in 2006, days before the episode aired, announcing her exit from "The O.C." But "The O.C." creator Josh Schwartz later said that Barton's exit wasn't necessarily per her request. "Mischa didn't want off the show anymore than any of the other kids wanted off the show," he told The Daily Beast. "It was a complicated chemistry with the cast."

Fifteen years after her exit, and following a string of quickly-canceled series and overlooked movies, Barton told E! News why she departed "The O.C." "We started doubling up on episodes and shooting [got] so much harder, and again a lot of that was too much for me. I didn't know where the character was going," Barton said. "And sort of general bullying from some of the men on set that kind of felt really s*****." An unidentified "O.C." insider told Page Six that Barton's recollections were incorrect. "It wasn't that she was bullied. People didn't appreciate waiting for hours for her to show up."

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, may be the victim of child abuse, or is struggling or in crisis, contact the relevant resources below:

• The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
• The Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services.
• Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org