Who’s Fallen Furthest?

In order for an actor/actress to earn the distinction of falling the furthest, they would have to have ascended to some measurable height in their career, which, in my view, would disqualify Levy from contention/consideration. I would regard him as something of a footnote at his peak of fame.

Right now, I'd have to vote for Tom Cruise or Mel Gibson, both of which really define falling from lofty heights.

Deadguy........you know, of course, this means war.

I still look at The Godfather 1 and 2, along with Dog Day Afternoon and Serpico and I miss the time when Al Pacino used to boil and simmer until he exploded. Nowadays he looks like George Harrison (that means he looks haggard) and sounds like he has a mouth full of gravel. You just know he's gonna scream once a movie, the difference is now it's as if he already screamed right before act one started and it seems like he's going to blow up right before act 3.

Actually HeadRazz, I think I need your help on the last post, did Welles' work start to decline in the 60's or 70's?

Response from Head RAZZberry: Technically, Welles' career began to decline the minute he finished CITIZEN KANE (since there was essentially no way he was going to top such an impressive debut). Towards the end of his life, Welles' profligate tastes and excessive self-indulgence led him to take almost anything and everything offered him, including doing voice-overs-for-hire plugging wines, movies and (famously) a brand of pea soup for which he had no respect at all. By the time of his death in 1985, he had become a bloated, embarrassing parody of himself, merely going through the motions on nearly every assignment he took. I'd pinpoint his late career decline as starting when he accepted the role of the blow-hard lawyer (a part he shamelessly over-acted) in COMPULSION ( LINK ) shortly after what most people consider to be his last laudible effort, 1958's TOUCH OF EVIL ( LINK ).

By the way, one of Welles' last screen appearances, as a tipsy  judge in Pia Zadora's pitiful screen debut BUTTERFLY ( LINK )  actually earned him a Worst Supporting Actor RAZZIE nomination in 1982. The film itself garnered a then-record 10 nominations, and "won" three spray-painted statuettes ( LINK ). In a perfect example of why most people in the industry have no respect for them, the Golden Globes actually gave both Zadora and Welles nominations as the year's best for BUTTERFLY (and Zadora actually won a Globe for it)... 

 

I've never seen Compulsion.  I thought Welles was great in Citizen Kane, The Third Man, and A Touch of Evil. Too bad he started just going through the motions after the latter, although I'm kind of glad I haven't seen any of his work after the snowball started rolling.  (To this day I won't watch The Island of Dr. Moreau, just because I'm a big Brando fan, and I'd really rather not see him at his Razzie "winning" worst. Besides, the Razzie voting for that one was completed long before I ever was a member! )

Let's get this discussion going someplace!

Ben Kingsley! 

Cuba Gooding, Jr.!

Nicholas Cage!

Shirley Jones!

Joan Crawford! 

Billy Bob Thornton!

Robin Williams!

Sharon Stone!

Richard Dreyfuss!

John Travolta!

Dan Aykroyd!

Jane Fonda!

Dudley Moore!

Faye Dunaway!

Shirley MacLaine!

Roy Scheider!  (Not Schneider, Scheider!)

Along the same lines, I'd like to mention that Kevin Costner seems to be redeeming himself. I'd throw in Dennis Hopper's name, but he's apparently been doing really well with his role in 24.

Some of these are tough to guage.  For example, Ben Kingsley.  Many people love Lucky Number Slevin and You Kill Me, but then he turns around and stars in BloodRayne, and this upcoming weirdness the HeadRAZZberry clued us into called The Wackness.

Rod Steiger is also a good one, though he did play the judge in The Hurricane... 

 

I would add Elizabeth Taylor, and is Rula Lenska still doing TV spots for
Hostess cakes? But I guess she was never really that high up. All of Halle
Berry's movies suck these days...and where has Geena Davis been? I
would not agree that jane Fonda has fallen..she just was not around for
so long...hmmmmm who else....I guess I wonder why some are not
around, rather than if they have fallen...like Debra Winger, Jessica Lange

Well, mollydodd, when I composed the list above, I looked at either the last few movies the actor has appeared in, or, if the actor has had an active career, what they have done over the last ten years.   As for the ones in your post. . .

Elizabeth Taylor has starred in some movies and mini-series, both on the screen and on TV, of note over the last 35 years, especially The Mirror Crack'd, Winter Kills, Malice in Wonderland and North and South.  However, many of her duds are included during this time, too, including Hammersmith Is Out, Divorce His--Divorce Her, Ash Wednesday, Indentikit, The Blue Bird, A Little Night Music, and, of much more recent note, The Flintstones.  I'd say she qualifies for discussion in this thread.

Rula Lenska, aside from her TV work, hasn't starred in anything that has been significantly reviewed or is held in high regard.  The closest she has come to a career high on the screen seems to be the recent Gypo.

Halle Berry has starred in the well-received X-Men movies, although the third installment seemed weak and some people don't like her playing Storm, as well as Die Another Day, Swordfish (which was weak) and the voice of Cappy in Robots.  I liked Gothika, but it seems I'm in the minority.  Although she has performed in unquestionable crap like Perfect Stranger, the aforementioned Flintstones and, need I mention, Catwoman, I wouldn't put her on this list because of the good/okay movies she's done.  I will say, though, it's been a long time since she's given a great performance in a really good movie.

Geena Davis cut her own throat with Cutthroat Island, it seems.  It seems since that movie, with the sole exception of The Last Kiss Goodnight, her movies have been poor, including and especially the Stuart Little movies, which Rotten Tomatoes scores well, but IMDb doesn't, and I agree with IMDb on this one, especially on the second and third installments.  The TV series Commander In Chief seemed well-received but was taken off the air.

Jane Fonda was included because of her last three movies -- the rip-off of The Miracle Worker called Stanley & Iris, the horrid Monster-In-Law, and this year's Georgia Rule.  She still has the talent.  I'd like to see it again in something I really like.

Debra Winger has starred in Radio and Eulogy, both of which the opinion is divided (although the critics in Rotten Tomatoes have declared both rotten).  Depending on how you feel about those two movies will determine whether you feel she belongs on this list or not.  However, everyone is in agreement on Big Bad Love, and certainly Winger can pick better than any of these movies.

Jessica Lange's last ten movies include the widely appealing Broken Flowers, Big Fish, Normal and Titus.  Although it appears she's also done duds like Masked and Anonymous, Hush and A Thousand Acres, the four movies I listed above should be more than enough to keep her off this list.  She's probably the one actor brought up so far who has actually chosen to perform in several good movies lately.