They Believed The Hype (And It Blew Up In Their Face): 15 Celebrities Whose Careers Were Hurt By Hubris

» By Ike Oden February 27, 2013, 8:18am

Hollywood runs on ego. If you’re going to be the best at what you do, be it directing, writing, or acting, you’ve got to be confident in your skills and talent. This means it is also necessary to keep an ego in check to avoid the alienation of one’s audience or peers.  When a celebrity starts believing their own hype and acting on that instinct, it usually leads to bad decisions. As proof, here are 15 Hollywood careers who were hurt by equal combinations of hype and hubris.

Chevy Chase

Chevy Chase PF WENN

Photo: WENN.com

“I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not.” With these words, comedian Chevy Chase became the first breakout success in Saturday Night Live history. After managing to star in a series of seminal comedies during the 1980s (including National Lampoon’s Vacation), the actor’s career experienced a downturn during the1990s. This was in part due to his inflated ego and a penchant for taking paychecks regardless of the project. The actor’s downturn became painfully apparent with the Chevy Chase Show, a late-night talk show conceived by Fox. The studio paid the host $3 million for his work and never saw a cent of it back. The Chevy Chase Show lasted merely five weeks on the air and garnered Chase some of the worst reviews of his career. The actor has failed to successfully bounce back as a Hollywood leading man since.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/david.jines.98 David Jines

    I would watch anything Mel Gibson Produced, or starred in. The rest of those has been ego inflated pop tarts can stay obsolete.

    • Mel

      I sort of agree about Gibson. He’s a rare case in that his mouth and personal life have gone downhill later in his career, but that’s also when he’s done his best work. Apocalypto, Passion of the Christ, Edge of Darkness, etc.

    • smokehill

      It must drive the Hollywood snobs absolutely furious when Gibson keeps turning out really good films that make money, even with basically unknown casts. Not to mention some that have little or no English spoken in them.

      If that’s not the mark of a really talented director, I don’t know what is.

      Yet they’ll sneer at Mel Gibson but hump the leg of has-beens of minor talent like Danny Glover, who’s an America-hating, anti-White communist.

      But of course Mel is neither Black nor far-Left, so he gets no free ride.

  • kimaras31

    Quentin Tarantino, a has been. Please stop. Have you not seen Django Unchained? the rest yes

    • Lane Meyer

      Sure he is. Keep on believing that.

      If “Death Proof” is the worst film he’s ever made, I’d consider him the most successful director of all time.

      • Truth

        I think that, judging by what else was said, kimaras31 meant to convey the idea that it is ridiculous to think that Quentin Tarantino is a has-been and in actuality agrees with you, Lane, but unfortunately worded it poorly. Very poorly.

        • Lane Meyer

          Huh. Yeah, you’re right.

          My bad.

  • p

    i definitely disagree with certain names on this list … tom cruise ?? really ? people just won’t accept him in a dramatic role , i loved Valkyrie he did a great job and i also liked War of the worlds .. i will watch mel gibson movies anytime . i don’t believe it was ego , i think he was just in a bad place and he couldn’t handle it , normal people do freak out it just not in the entertainment news !

    • tevra

      I did watch War of the Worlds and it was total crap especially compared to the original film.

    • smokehill

      Cruise is a competent actor, but just barely. I can think of dozens of others who could have done Valkyrie or War of the Worlds better than he did — but they didn’t have the “big box-office name” to attract theater-goers.

      I have difficulty getting past Cruise’s complete psycho mentality, and his gutlessness in letting the Scientologists pull his strings because of what everyone already knows anyhow.

      As South Park said …. Tom Cruise, come out of that closet!!

  • dmso

    Tarantino won second Oscar and has directed Christoph Waltz to two Oscars. Costner recently won an Emmy. Losers!

    • tevra

      Costner is one of those who has won awards for both good and bad movies.
      I can’t say he is a good actor but he has been in both good and bad movies

  • gordon_wagner

    Whoa… fifteen full page redraws? That’s a lot of clicking and a lot of waiting. You fellas heard of web 2.0 technology? Perhaps you ought to look into it.

    • Anonymous

      I don’t know if “Styleblazin’” is part of the MadamNoire, et al., site but they all do this. I hate surfing to them.

    • mdinaz

      It’s to increase page hit count to land at the top of search engines and increase ad displays. Why settle for one page hit when you can have 15? Other sites that have the story on one page instead continually redraw and refresh the page whether you do anything or not.

    • http://www.facebook.com/drtravislangley Travis Langley

      Seriously! Are they just trying to increase page views by making us go through so many clicks to get all the way through the article?

  • librarian

    Why not use a dictionary while you write – you probably meant “peaked” not “piqued” for Van Damme, right?

  • EP Sato

    Vandamme’s career “peaked” not “piqued” with Timecop. Big difference.

    • Wordsmith

      and Eli Roth “piqued” the curiosity of horror fans, not “perked.” Bigger difference since the words are not even homonyms.

  • http://www.facebook.com/DavidCFranklin David Franklin

    Yo, pinhead! The word “racist” doesn’t have a “1″ in it! The intentionally misspelled words and numerical substitutions, common to “Urbanspeak” (I prefer to call it “Ebonics”) may seem cool to texting teenagers, but it doesn’t to anyone else. Such substitutions certainly have no place in a news article, even if it is an entertainment puff piece. Learn how to write (and spell) properly if you want anyone to take you seriously as a journalist.

    • Anonymous

      I think it was more so they couldn’t be quoted as actually calling him a racist, “all we said was he was a rac1st, not a racist.”

  • Ray C

    Well I for one liked The Last Airbender and Devil. I also still think Kevin Costner has a path the being a major player in holloywood

  • seventhson74

    Yeah, for the record, most are cool with Mel…..

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Algeria-Touchshriek/1814353689 Algeria Touchshriek

      Not really. His career is in the toilet, whatever Mel fanatics want to claim.

      At least some of these other people (ex: Tarantino) still have success in the industry.

    • Denver778

      yeah, that’s why he no longer matters, cause we are cool with a racists pig. pay attention!

  • http://www.facebook.com/dmelges Dave Melges

    Ummm, I don’t think you understand the Kevin Costner situation at all…..sure he had a big ego, but he starred in 7 movies from 94-99 and was nominated for a RAZZIE as worst actor in FIVE of them.

    It wasn’t his big budget post-apocalyptic flicks, he just wasn’t that good an actor. Even in GREAT movies, his acting is wooden…sometimes that works…..but most often, movies work DESPITE his acting, not because of it.

    • mdinaz

      Schwarzenegger is a terrible actor, but his movies succeed because of the story in spite of his acting. Some of Costner’s films are the same, or other “actors” like Keanu Reeves.

      • tevra

        the difference with guys like Arnie is even his fans knew he wasn’t a good actor but he was always fun to watch anyway. The others guys took themselves too seriously and thought they were all giving us high art and serious theatre when they are just playing pretend like the kids at recess.
        this is why B movies are so often more enjoyable than the Art movies that critics love and us filmgoers will not pay a penny to see

  • Lolima

    M. Night Shyamalan’s “Devil” was actually not a bad movie. Nowhere near as good as The Sixth Sense or Signs, but not a bad movie at all. I enjoyed it and would watch it a second time.

    “Unbreakable,” on the other hand, bored the hell out of me…should have been called, “Unwatchable.” I dunno, maybe you have to be a comic book fan to get it, but then, shouldn’t a movie manage to have a wider appeal than that?

    • http://twitter.com/ShawnWhiteEsq Shawn White

      Many people agree with you, but I am a die hard comic book fan, so to me it was a masterpiece.

      • Lolima

        My boyfriend at the time said the same thing. We saw it together. When the movie ended, we looked at each other, and I said, “God, that was terrible,” while simultaneously he said, “This is my new favorite movie!”

        • tevra

          good point many of my favourite films are bad movies. those that the critics hate are usually what I enjoy the most.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Keh-Tai-Culbreath/100000732909349 Keh-Tai Culbreath

    I didn’t watch Love Guru, but I’m almost certain that the hockey player was played by the black dude in the movie and not Timberlake. I think the whole black hockey player bit was supposed to be funny.

    • burnWood

      then watch the movie because you are wrong. Timberlake played the hockey goalie.

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Keh-Tai-Culbreath/100000732909349 Keh-Tai Culbreath

        No, there is no way I’m watching that shitfest. Also, Timberlake isn’t the main hockey athlete character the black guy is, so, no I’m not wrong.

  • http://www.facebook.com/jerome.ayalon Jerome Ayalon

    Leave my boy Van Damme alone! he was my favorite among all martial arts action heroes, and to judge from this story it was not really hubris, but a bad biz decision, and he is honest enough to full admit it.

    • Promontorium

      Van Damme it probably the most full of himself actor in film history. Try to count how many films he portrays himself as 2 characters, both looking exactly the same, and in some cases acting exactly the same. I honestly lost count. I get that some people like to play multiple actors (like Eddie Murphy) but he doesn’t do that. He just has himself in the same movie with himself. Over and over. And then he crowns his career with a film romanticizing himself, named after himself, starring himself, but then when you ask him he’s like “no this is just a character”…that happens to have his exact same name, is played by him, and is a washed up action star too.

    • tevra

      he was good at martial arts if not much of an actor but he was rather full of himself

  • Bibliophilist

    Suzanne Somers? McClean Stevenson?

    • mdinaz

      Most people under the age of 40 have no idea who they are. And that’s “McLean”, not “McClean”.

      • tevra

        McLean Stevenson was a good comedian/actor and not to be confused with Mr Clean

  • Coño, meng!

    What is this stupid article talking about? While yes, Grindhouse and Dusk to Dawn were mediocre, Inglorious Basterds was a smash and Django won him Best Screenplay.

  • marmagmar@

    Ditto on looking into web 2.0. What a pile of dung to go through. And asinine ads!

  • observer

    what about Eddie Murphy or Terrence Howard? . . . this list seems a touch racist.

  • observer

    Eddie Murphy and Terrence Howard? . . . what about them?

    • Vigilant Satyr

      I don’t think it was Eddie’s ego that tripped him up, just bad choices of films to star in.

  • idiocracyrules

    I think the main problem is that the stars of yesteryear are getting old and are not so attractive anymore.

  • James Adams

    It seems Leno is going out on top. His show has consistently beaten the competition. He is leaving so NBC can retool their show to attract a younger audience. His successor is about the same age Leno was when he took over The Tonight Show.

    • Vigilant Satyr

      And there was nothing in there about the way that NBC execs were behind the whole thing.
      - They promised the Tonight Show to Conan early to keep him from jumping ship without even consulting Jay about it.
      - They gave Jay a late night style show at 10PM where Jay pulled ratings similar to his Tonight Show ratings but which were horrible for a 10PM time slot.
      - They angered all of their affiliates when the affiliate 11PM news ratings went down the drain.
      - They expected two late night talk shows in a row, broken up by local news to maintain the ratings from before all the way through. What were they thinking?
      - They practically begged Jay to comeback when they panicked at the result of their idiocy.

  • http://www.facebook.com/ianbowman Ian Bowman

    No Adam Sandler, therefore East Coast bias.

    • tevra

      CORRECT – Sandler is the Paulie Shore of this day and age – having him is a guarantee the movie is dreck

  • mjazzguitar

    Mel Gibson’s rants were anti-semitic, not racist. Unless that’s what “rac1st” means.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1143193585 Gene Equality Kelly

      go back and see that he also went on about the Mother of his child being raped by Black Guys…

    • iHM

      Jews aren’t the only semites. His rants were about Jewish people, not semites. Unless I’m remembering it wrong and he really did say something about all semites, in which case, wouldn’t that be racist?

  • Darren Hood

    Doesnt anyone find it ironic that the man who penned and directed the greatest film ever made died after recording lines for Transformers: the Movie an animated film produced as an action figure commercial?

    • http://twitter.com/ManAboutIt Man About It

      Transformers: The Movie is a generational and cult hit. Though no one knew that in 1986 of course.

  • True Patriot

    So Mel goes on a rant and he is still in “exile” years later. But Chris Brown can beat the shyte out of his girlfriend and he’s given a grammy award. Somehow everyone’s cool with Chris but not Mel? I’m just saying.

    • mdinaz

      Apparently you are not aware that only white people can be racist.

    • smokehill

      You are overlooking the fact that Hollywood liberals really don’t expect much from Blacks …. you know, them being a lot more culturally primitive and all ….

      The reluctance of liberals in general to EVER criticize abominable behavior by minorities tells us all we need to know about what they really think.

      • Truth

        One of the most pathetic things that Tea Baggers do is respond to a completely non-political statement with a prejudiced and inaccurate diatribe about The Eeeviilll Liberals and how it’s all their fault.

        Sad, but it just proves you guys and your entire political philosophy, if you want to call it that, are in your death throes. You do this because you can’t come up with any sort of effective argument to justify your way of doing things anymore. But please, keep playing as you go down with the ship, it’s amusing to the rest of us.

        By the way, please remove the Gangrel emblem from your avatar. You don’t deserve to have it. Or, let me guess, you had no idea that wolf emblem actually represented something, and just picked it because you thought it looked “cool”?

    • http://twitter.com/ManAboutIt Man About It

      If Chris Brown dropped a J-bomb or something homophobic, it would be a completely different story. Ask Isaiah Washington in the case of the latter.

  • avlisk

    I defend The Postman. Don’t listen to critics. See it for yourself. It is one of my all-time favorite films and even has Tom Petty in it.

    • mdinaz

      I really enjoyed “Open Range” – a great show even though Costner’s acting isn’t A-1. What Costner lacked Duvall made up for.

    • a k

      I do too. It was quite long, but enjoyable. I like those kinds of movies, like King’s The Stand. I’ve actually seen WaterWorld a few times and liked it too. Of course the whole gasoline thing was off the hook stupid. Anyone knows that today’s Ethanol laced gas goes bad in a few months, let alone years and years, or at least long enough for some people to start developing gills as depicted there. But I won’t even go there…

  • kp22kc

    I for one absolutely loved Grindhouse! I saw it on a rainy Tuesday afternoon with only a few other people in the theater but I could tell from their reactions that they were enjoying it as well. When I was getting a refill after the movie a guy came up to me and asked if I was one of the ones in the theater and I said yes and he said it was just like being at the old drive-in theater that used to be in the spot where the mulitplex is now and that the movies were just like that back in the day. We talked for a few minutes and he really loved the movie. I hate seeing that Tarantino said this is one of the worst movies he could ever make. I thought it was great!

  • delorb

    Steven Seagalls movies all had three words in the title.

    • Lane Meyer

      No they didn’t.

  • VeriSimilis

    The description of Orson Welles’ career and is disputes with Hollywood aren’t even close to being accurate. His alleged production problems with Citizen Kane did not prevent studios from offering him Magnificent Ambersons (which they then butchered when this “leftist” was off making war-supporting films for the U.S. Government). Welles became a caricature later in life, but he waited a lot long than the author of this piece did, who started going off the track very early in the article.

  • JaxFalcon

    Since when did racist and sexist rantings become “overreaching liberal politics”? Rush Limbaugh is the king of such diatribes, and he is by no means liberal.

    • mdinaz

      Limbaugh is neither sexist or racist. He uses absurdity to explain absurd liberal politics. He’ll say something sexist as an illustration to show why something a liberal has said or done is sexist but gets a pass in the media. He uses liberal definitions against liberals, thus people think he believes things when he doesn’t, he just uses them to expose liberal policies. You’d actually have to listen to several programs to understand this.

      • smokehill

        You don’t really expect liberals to understand irony or satire, do you?

        If they had that degree of intellectual development they wouldn’t be liberals.

        • mdinaz

          Good point.

      • Truth

        Limbaugh is both racist and sexist. He is not exaggerating “liberal beliefs” as his own to expose liberal politics – those are his beliefs. But you’d actually have to stop blindly worshiping him and do some actual research to understand this.

        • mdinaz

          “Research” would imply listening to his show, which I have, for the past 20+ years. Maybe you need to do some research other than reading what MSNBC says about it. In doing so you’d find out his #2 for the entire time is a black man – oh wait, that’s racist in the “I have black friends” category. Never mind.

  • http://twitter.com/ThomasWickett Thomas

    Leno has the highest ratings in late night.

  • http://www.facebook.com/johnw.th John W. Ta-Tao Hale

    These people just got old like everyone else does.

  • Jill Valentine

    Stalone made a major comeback with the Expendables franchise.

  • Bah Humbug

    Oh, for God’s sake. “Jean-Claude Van Damme’s action movie career PEAKED in 1994 …” Believe it or not, whoever hires for this site, there are people looking for writing jobs who can actually, you know, write in English.

  • MerleMorrigan

    pique: a transient feeling of wounded vanity : resentment Just because it is spelled correctly it doesn’t mean it is the right word.

  • http://www.facebook.com/travis.bowman.188 Travis Bowman

    i agree with most of the folks listed, but think that Quentin will always be an outsider. He makes movies for the fans, not the industry. KIU Quentin

  • http://amillennialist.blogspot.com Santiago Matamoros

    Mel repented of his alcohol-fueled, anti-Semitic tirade.

  • Eric Balkan

    How about adding “Ike Oden” to the list? Promising writer, who thought people would read anything he wrote off the top of his head. Last seen claiming that Quentin Tarantino is a has-been, after Django Unchained grossed $160M just in the U.S.

  • tevra

    not going to wade through the entire list – they probably are all like Chevy Chase who believed the agents and friends who told them they had talent and still can’t believe they didn’t have incredible success. it must be the dopes and plebs out there …all those common people who just don’t appreciate brilliance

  • iHM

    Sites like this need to understand most people use AdBlocker. Making us click more isn’t going to help. I stopped at number 3. Those guys are all legends, so it didn’t seem like it was worth it to keep going anyway.

  • Cee Betterchoice

    Can’t even spell right – “Van Damm’s career piqued…”? Why, was it in an annoyed and pissy mood. You mean “Van Damm’s career peaked…”

  • Areyoukidding?

    Tom Cruise and Sly Stallone…has-beens? Lord, I sure you didn’t get paid for this inaccurate article. Your boss must be desperate for webspace.

    • L0lwut

      Weren’t the new Rambo and Rocky movies both hits? I think you might be right about the need for garbage to fill pages with.

  • u2u2u2

    The guy who wrote this is a moron. Basically, every major action star’s career ended because they were too full of themselves, not because they got too old to do action movies. I’m surprised Jackie Chan isn’t on the list.

    • papajack1

      And they were getting old and wrinkled.

  • papajack1

    Ths is teh moste worstes artikle ive never red. it is eat up wit tipos and mispelens, udder then tthat de artikle is purty much know good.

  • bunnasoo

    Keith Olbermann should be at the top of this list. And this is coming from someone who liked him at first. His ego completely destroyed his career and now he’s tweeting pictures of sunsets.

    • http://twitter.com/ManAboutIt Man About It

      Sadly, I gotta agree. There’s no way he shouldn’t be on TV now but for the bridges he burned.

  • nothing

    It’s a myth that Waterworld recouped or turned a profit. People repeat that myth by not understanding how box office receipts work nor by doing any research. In effect, the studio’s domestic haul is half the domestic gross, and the international haul is about forty percent of that gross. Factor in marketing costs, and you’ll see that Waterworld lost about 100 million.

  • Teach

    You state: Jean-Claude Van Damme’s action movie career piqued in 1994
    Pique is: A state of vexation caused by a perceived slight or indignity; a feeling of wounded pride. The word I believe you were looking for is peaked…. Spellcheck don’t allus git it rite.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-Johnson/100000200112663 Michael Johnson

    Costner is out of place with the boneheaded no-talent actors on this list. And how do you compile this and omit David Caruso? Costner has made several of the best sports movies ever, and anybody that doesn’t “get” Waterworld is working with less than a full load. And Costner’s performance as the kidnapper Butch Haynes in A Perfect Life is one of the finest in American movies in the last 30 years.

  • Judith_Priest

    “career PEAKED”, not “piqued”. You know, like a mountain, it went up real high??

    People suffer “fits of pique”; careers “peak”.

  • bill

    :These guys are just getting old and ugly – which brings up the question – why aren’t there any women on this list ???

  • burnWood

    Most of these have nothing to do with ego and just growing older.

  • Bobb

    So you couldnt think ot ONE female celeb in this group? Lame reporting.

  • http://www.facebook.com/jerry.dodson.7 Jerry Dodson

    “Jean-Claude Van Damme’s action movie career piqued in 1994 with Time Cop.”

    uh, no. you meant “peaked.” why do they hire illiterate people for these sites? at least conservatives know how to spell.

  • http://www.facebook.com/jerry.dodson.7 Jerry Dodson

    “Where Hostel’s gory excesses perked
    the curiosity of horror fans across the globe, the film’s lack of
    emphasis on characters and plot rendered it something of a novelty film.”

    ah, so this is where the word “piqued” went. the jean claude van damme slam used the word incorrectly, and it should go here in place of “perked.”

    who hired this person to write copy when he can’t even use words correctly? this site is just a sad example of what the internet is all about: ignorance gone to seed.

  • sgnoyes

    Anyone notice that all 15 are men? Hmmm….

  • TonyMonterey

    I agree with the people saying the action stars got older… add to that the fact they are all multimillionaires and don’t have to work if they don’t want to and I can see why they stopped making a movie every six months.

  • ketchikan9

    Stallone has redeemed himself with the Expendables.