Can't-miss stars who missed anyway

[Bossy Monkey]

I think the queen and ascended master in this category has to be Karen Allen, she of "No, I don't want to do a Raiders of the Lost Ark sequel." Good career move there, Karen. Come to think of it, the Raiders franchise hasn't exactly been a boon to any of the female stars. Capshaw worked again, but being married to Spielberg might have been a bit of a leg up. I have no idea what became of Alison Doody.

In music, the list is endless. Ben Vaughn, Peter Case, etc., etc. Michael Penn and Elvis Costello never sold as many records as they should. Probably the queen here is Rosie Vela, a fashion model basically fronting Steely Dan (not a sex thread) who had a marvelous voice, great songs (well, one anyway, Zazu) who sold maybe 10 records. Go figure.

Yours?

[Sufi Marmot]

1. Costello may not have had the top-40 hits...

...but he can still sell out theaters and auditoriums (auditoria?) all over North America. I don't think he's suffering from lack of fame or fortune. Graham Parker, on the other hand, is criminally under-appreciated. I'm still hoping his music will undergo a popular revival, like all the old bluesmen had in the 60s.

-SM

[adwon]

2. Alison Doody was in Major League 2

Though I'm really not sure what direction on the career ladder that choice worked out to be.

I thought Karen Allen was great in Starman.

[Norbert]

3. The Wonders

I loved the song "That Thing You Do" but I never heard from them again.

Seriously.

Susan Anton(sp) She was s'posed to be a star in the late 1970s then dropped off the radar screen.

Every Mother's Son was another one of those groups yhat was going to be the next Beatles. They had one top 10 hit(A fairly good song called Come on Down to My Boat), another one in the top 50 and poof, the next Beatles were a memory by the time the real Beatles made Hello! Good-bye! By the way, what ever happed to another group dubbed "the next Beatles" named Mungo Jerry?




Elvis Costello is one of the most respected names in music. His biggest fault is that he wasn't out for selling a lot of top 40 hits In our fair city just about sold out a decent sized hall. Elvis Costello and Diana Krall are just about the most talented husband-wife duos in the world of entertainment.

[Norbert]

4. I ask this question?

Michael Penn, Amiee Mann, Matthew Sweet and others like them. What constitutes stars who missed? The three I mentioned are as talented as anyone, yet are virtually ignored by the record execs while they fall all over Ashlee Simpson. Starpower and teen idols are preferred by the powers that be over talent and skilled songsmiths as the publiity machines churn these modern day court jesters out. But then again this may be for another thread.

[Bossy Monkey]

9. People our age don't buy a tenth as many records as teens do

so the music biz will always be aimed at young people. Ditto Hollywood. But hey-- there's always Sting.

[Richard Steele]

5. Back around '82 or so...

...A well-respected ROCK critic said:

"Nothing, bar nothing, can stop Steve Forbert now!"

Nothing except the fact that noone NOTICED his album, let alone BOUGHT it. Steve WHO?

"And we're walking...."


And,.... was it CBS who blew 90% of their year's ad budget once...
to promote their ground-breaking, earth-shattering, sure-fire 'HIT of the DECADE' sitcom...
The IRONICALLY named, "The Famous Teddy Z"???

Jon Cryer didn't work for 11 years after that turkey!


Ok, real post OVER.

undisclosedlocation: You said "doody". Huh. HuhHuh. Huh.:D

[Bossy Monkey]

7. Apparently, Sean Connery followed her around the set, saying Doody! Doody!

Little Stevie Orbit had the one hit. Probably that's what killed him; sort of musical typecasting. It was so catchy and cheery that people just identified him with it and it with him. Hootie would face the same problem 20 or so years later.

[NewHampshireDem]

6. Your mention of Karen Allen and 'Raiders' reminds me of Star Wars

Looking at Eps 4-6, who beside Harrison Ford actually did anything of note beyond the franchise? Carrie Fischer had what was essentially a cameo role in 'Blues Brothers' and Mark Hamill, well, 'Corvette Summer' anyone? 'Empire' did little to revive the career of Billy Dee 'Works Everytime' Williams.

And the Ewoks? Well, they never worked again. :evilgrin:

[Bossy Monkey]

10. Don't forget The Ewok Adventure! (ducking, running away)

Still, Hamill was kind of short and funny-looking for leading man status ("Aren't you a little short for a storm trooper?") and Carrie probably didn't really want to be in the star system that much. Wrote at least one phenomenally successful book, though.

[LynneSin]

8. Michael Penn is actually doing very well with his wife Aimee Mann

He plays in her band and helps write the songs!

[dean_dem]

11. If you're talking about music....

New Order is a perfect example. They almost never gave interviews or tried to get media exposure, so they missed out a lot in the States. They should have been huge.

Another good example is The Wrens. In the mid-90s they released an album for little-known Grass Records. It got moderate college-radio airplay but nothing much else. Then Grass Records became Wind-up Records, dropped the Wrens, and signed Creed and Evanescence in their place. We all know how that story ends up. But it's a travesty the Wrens aren't huge right now.

[Butterflies]

12. Billy Squire

He had that one big album in the early '80s and that was the last I knew of him (though I didn't really try to keep up.)

[CO Liberal]

13. The Bay City Rollers

They were supposed to be the "next beatles". Not unlike Oasis.....

:hide:

[Bossy Monkey]

15. Especially around the eyebrows n/t

[Lisa]

14. Timothy Bottoms

He started off in his early 20s with well-received performances in several films (Johnny Got His Gun, The Last Picture Show, The Paper Chase). Maybe not in the first rank of "classic" movies, but good solid films which many people rate highly. He usually played the goodnatured, naive guy who ends up in trouble because of what someone else did -- but appeared to be trying some character roles as well.

One of his brothers was in "Apocalypse Now" -- for a while, it looked like they were going to be like the Baldwins, with the whole family in acting.

For some reason he wasn't getting as many roles, after the 1970s -- he was doing bit parts in B-movies and on TV, but apparently not enough to even cover his SAG dues. He moved sailboats and exercised horses for other people, worked for a surveyor, managed a tree nursery and an apartment building, just to pay the bills and put his kids through school. The last major role he landed was as George W. in the Comedy Central series (which was cancelled, and after 9/ll a related movie project was put on hold). He did another version of Bush for the Showtime movie -- it got panned by the critics (not just the Democratic ones either).

I asked around a bit (one of my friends lives in the same area) and there don't seem to be stories about him being a prima donna type, getting in trouble with the law, or holding flaky or unpopular political views.