Constant rejection. Fierce competition. No guarantee of a major breakthrough or longterm employment.
The odds of becoming a successful actor in Hollywood are incredibly slim. And yet, that never deters the ambitious many, the true believers who feel they have nothing to worry about. They will be discovered and they will become big stars, no matter what.
Most will be inevitably crushed by reality (the business isn’t for everyone, regardless of how gifted you may be) but for the persevering few who do become known to the public through their various on-screen performances, fame & artistic success bring about a new set of challenges. If unlucky or careless, a series of bad decisions can lead to a significant period of decline where audiences, the critics and the business itself question just how much of a future your once shining talent has left.
Many stars come and go, never to be heard from again. (Only the smartest and luckiest have long, consistently fruitful careers.) But then there are the exceptions, the ones who go on to enjoy a resurgence in popularity & creativity after a frustrating lull.
Don’t call it a comeback, call it a second chance, a rare opportunity to climb back to the top after years of failure, absence or personal misfortune. Here are six such stars who made the most of their unlikely returns.
1. Vin Diesel
Eight years after a small, unbilled role in Awakenings, this New York muscleman caught a big break playing a soldier in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan. In 2000, he found his first signature character, the anti-hero Riddick in Pitch Black. In The Fast & The Furious and XXX, he found two more.
Either not appreciating his good fortune in acquiring these gigs or thinking it would permanently trap him in Franchise City, Diesel didn’t appear in either 2 Fast 2 Furious nor XXX: State Of The Union. (Ice Cube replaced him in the latter.) Although he did return as Riddick in The Chronicles Of Riddick in 2004, it didn’t do so well. Beyond the awful family comedy, The Pacifier, which made almost 200 million worldwide, Diesel couldn’t figure out a viable way out from his most famous roles. All but one of his other films were either ignored by fans, panned by critics or both.
After a quick, unhyped cameo in The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift, he returned as Dominic Toretto in the fourth installment, Fast & Furious. He has stuck with the remarkably lucrative franchise ever since. (Despite the tragic death of co-star Paul Walker, look for him in Fast 7 next year.) After the third Riddick movie’s surprise commercial success in 2013, Diesel is set to return as Xander Cage in the third XXX movie. Perhaps he should’ve never left any of these series in the first place.
2. Mickey Rourke
Unlike Diesel, this New Yorker didn’t have the benefit of returning to a multi-million dollar franchise. In fact, despite respected performances in films like Diner, 9 1/2 Weeks and Barfly, he never really had a breakout hit. (How different his career might have been if he accepted the offer of playing Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop.) He also had a big mouth.
Publicly knocking legends like Warren Beatty & Robert De Niro (his co-star from Angel Heart) probably didn’t endear him to a number of important Hollywood decision makers. (He also had a famous spat with Spike Lee over the 1992 LA Riots.) Also not helpful was all the beatings he took during a brief foray as a professional boxer in the first half of the 1990s. (He was an accomplished amateur boxer in his youth.) Several botched plastic surgeries followed. All the while, he never stopped acting.
But good roles were hard to come by. In between fine efforts in John Grisham’s The Rainmaker and the otherwise underwhelming Get Carter remake were a lot of low profile gigs that few cared about. Then in 2003, he was cast in Once Upon A Time In Mexico. That was followed by Tony Scott’s Man On Fire with Denzel Washington. Suddenly, Rourke’s luck was changing.
By 2005, he had a major part in Frank Miller’s Sin City, one of the best movies released that year. Three years later, he achieved his first ever Oscar nomination for playing Randy “The Ram” Robinson in The Wrestler. In 2010, he was the villain in Iron Man 2 and part of the ensemble cast of action heroes in The Expendables, both critical & commercial faves.
Far less outspoken now than he was in his cockier early days in the business, look for the more appreciative Rourke next in the upcoming Sin City sequel.
3. David Caruso
After almost two decades in the business, this distinctively voiced redheaded New Yorker was finally able to make a name for himself when he was cast as Detective John Kelly in the influential TV drama, NYPD Blue. But just as soon as he landed the role, there were problems. A perfectionist, Caruso was a bit demanding during shooting which alienated the cast & crew. Just a few episodes into the show’s second season, he was written out. He never returned.
After a couple of high profile film bombs (Kiss Of Death, Jade), he tried another dramatic series, Michael Hayes. It lasted a season. After a supporting role in the Meg Ryan/Russell Crowe stiff, Proof Of Life, Caruso’s career seemed to be in freefall.
Enter CSI. Three seasons into the blockbuster TV crime series, a spin-off, CSI: Miami, was ordered. Caruso was cast as Lieutenant Horatio Caine. The gig would last a decade. He learned his lesson.
4. Dennis Hopper
He was in Rebel Without A Cause, Giant, Cool Hand Luke, the original True Grit and Easy Rider. But after 1971’s The Last Movie, this notorious Kansas native disappeared from the American mainstream for almost a decade. Blame all the hardcore drugs he was viciously abusing.
In 1979, he made a triumphant return as a stoner photog in Francis Ford Coppola’s memorably gut wrenching Vietnam masterstroke Apocalypse Now. In the 1980s, he would continue to deliver acclaimed performances in features like No Looking Back, Rumble Fish, Blue Velvet and Hoosiers, the latter of which generated his only Oscar nomination for acting.
In the 90s, he had memorable heel turns in Speed and Waterworld. And in the Aughts, he appeared on several episodes of 24 during its first season. Five years after appearing in George A. Romero’s zombie sequel, Land Of The Dead, he tragically died of prostate cancer. The former hippie turned latter-day conservative was 74.
5. John Travolta
After the disappointing Saturday Night Fever sequel, Staying Alive, this one-time sweathog floundered for almost the remainder of the 80s. That is, until he played the cabbie love interest of Kirstie Alley in the surprise hit romantic comedy, Look Who’s Talking. Too terrible sequels kept his name out there in the next decade. Thankfully, all it took to erase their unbearable stench was a memorable appearance in Pulp Fiction. Cast as a chatty hitman who can do a mean twist, it earned him his second Best Actor nomination.
The following year he played Chili Palmer, another chatty hitman (this one an ambitious movie fan) in Get Shorty. In 1998, he portrayed a thinly-disguised Bill Clinton in Primary Colours and a redemptive lawyer in A Civil Action, two very strong features. Throughout the rest of the decade, he would have more commercial hits than misses.
Despite some missteps (most notably, the incredibly silly sci-fi debacle Battlefield Earth), Travolta continues to be an audience favourite thanks to financial successes like Wild Hogs, and critical hits like Bolt and the musical version of Hairspray where he took a rare turn in drag. His opening speech was the best thing about the ultimately undercooked Swordfish and his lead work in A Love Song For Bobby Long (which costars Scarlett Johanssen) remains underappreciated.
After the tragic death of his only son, look for him to make up for lost time with a succession of features in the coming years.
6. Al Pacino
One of the most respected actors in the history of cinema, he achieved no less than five Oscar nominations between 1973 and 1981. But after appearing in 1985’s Revolution (it made less than $400000), he retreated to the stage for several years.
When he returned in 1989 to appear in Sea Of Love with Ellen Barkin and John Goodman, it was as if he had never left. The 1990s were a particularly fertile period: Dick Tracy, Frankie & Johnny, Scent Of A Woman (his only Best Actor Oscar), Carlito’s Way, Heat, Glengarry Glen Ross, the documentary Looking For Richard, The Insider and Any Given Sunday, not a stinker among them.
In the Aughts, he was the guilt-ridden sleep deprived cop in the terrific Insomnia remake, Colin Farrell’s CIA boss in The Recruit and a casino owner in Ocean’s Thirteen. He found even greater success on Television playing closeted anti-gay lawyer Roy Cohn in Angels In America, controversial assisted suicide advocate Dr. Kevorkian in You Don’t Know Jack and the eccentric rock producer turned convicted murderer Phil Spector, all Emmy-nominated performances. (He won for the first two.) It’s a testament to his incredible talent that he didn’t embarrass himself in the otherwise egregious Adam Sandler misfire, Jack & Jill. He’s often very funny, particularly in the scene where he interrupts his own theatrical performance on stage to take a call from Sandler.
Now approaching 75, it’s hard to imagine he has anything left to prove. But a lifelong passion is not so easy to extinguish.
Dennis Earl
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Sunday, July 6, 2014
8:58 p.m.
CORRECTION: An astute commenter over on The Huffington Post (where this piece can also be seen in slightly revised form) has correctly noted that John Travolta didn’t make a film called Old Hogs, it was called Wild Hogs. (I must’ve got this confused with Old Dogs.) Anyway, the right title is now in the piece. (I’ve asked HuffPo to correct their version.) My thanks to Andrew J. Coutinho for pointing out the error. It’s now been corrected.
Dennis Earl
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Thursday, July 10, 2014
3:39 a.m.
THE WRITINGS OF DENNIS EARL 
President Obama’s War Crimes
He promised to deliver “hope” and “change” to the American people. He vowed to oversee “the most transparent administration in history”. He reassured the world that he was different from George W. Bush, that he would scale back the excesses and abuses of The War on Terror, and bring the United States back into harmony with international law.
But after five and a half years in The White House, President Barack Obama has a lot of explaining to do. As cynicism and anger continue to rise in global opposition to his policies, it’s time to examine the worst of his transgressions, the war crimes he has committed in America’s name.
Torture
In 1984, President Ronald Reagan signed The United Nations Convention against Torture. Article 2 states that all participating nations “shall take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction.”
Two times a day at the Guantanamo Bay gulag in Cuba, hunger striking detainees are forcibly removed from their cages by US military personnel in riot gear and taken to an isolated room where they are strapped into a chair.
Then, a tube is violently stuffed down their throat through one of their nostrils. It is filled with liquid meal replacement. Detainees often feel the need to vomit because of the excruciating pain. But they can’t or the process has to start all over again. It can take as long as two hours to complete. There are no bathroom breaks.
When questioned about this barbaric practice, which has been condemned by numerous medical associations, Obama argued that he didn’t want the detainees to die. So torturing them is the only alternative?
Article 12 of the UN Convention explicitly states that there should be “a prompt and impartial investigation…wherever there is reasonable ground to believe that an act of torture has been committed in any territory under its jurisdiction.”
During a famous 2009 interview on ABC shortly after winning the Presidency, Obama declared that it was best to “look forward, not backward” with regards to the Bush Administration’s horrifying torture legacy, the first of many examples of his utter contempt for international law.
Article 13 enforces the obligation to prevent the “ill-treatment or intimidation” of the tortured as well as whistleblowers “as a consequence of his complaint or any evidence given.”
Syrian detainee Abu Wa’el Dhiab, who was cleared for release from Gitmo years ago, has been trying to convince a judge to end his force feeding for good. No longer able to walk, he requires a wheelchair. He claims the US military has taken it away because of his ongoing legal fight. Despite a brief reprieve, he continues to be violently force fed against his will. He grows weaker by the day.
In Afghanistan, the US Army continues to oversee the Bagram gulag where roughly a few dozen prisoners remain. As the BBC noted in 2010, they have been subjected to all kinds of psychological torture. And as The Guardian reported recently, they, too, have been hunger striking in protest.
What does it say about the state of the American justice system that John Kiriakou, the former CIA operative who blew the whistle on Bush’s torture policy (which is clearly continuing under Obama), is the only government official to ever pay a price for it, thanks to Obama’s ruthless, “legal” retaliation.
Indefinite Detention
As of this writing, there are 149 detainees remaining in Gitmo and about 40 in Bagram. (And those are just the gulags we know about. (AUGUST 4 UPDATE: I had forgotten about Somalia.)) More than half of those in Gitmo have been cleared for release, meaning they are not guilty of any crime, by two different administrations.
The Bagram detainees are a different story. Like the Gitmo prisoners, they have also not been charged with any wrongdoing. But it’s not certain if any of them have been cleared by the military. (AUGUST 4 UPDATE: Yunus Rahmatullah has been released.) They certainly haven’t had their day in any legitimate courtroom.
As a result of so much cowardly inaction by Obama, hunger strikes (which began during the Bush era) are the last resort of these desperate people who have completely and understandably run out of patience. (Some have been locked up in cages for a decade or longer.)
Despite vowing to close Gitmo within the first year of his Presidency, Obama was never interested in releasing all the detainees. Instead, he had hoped to relocate them to a Supermax prison somewhere in America. Republicans balked and the Gitmo gulag remains open for torturous business.
As Human Rights Watch noted in 2011, this is a violation of the UN’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which “prohibits arbitrary detention”. (The US signed the treaty in 1992.) Furthermore, “detentions are arbitrary if not in accordance with due process of law or are manifestly disproportional, unjust or unpredictable.”
Before it was practically neutered by Bush’s draconian Military Commissions Act of 2006, indefinite detention would also be a human rights violation under the Clinton-era War Crimes Act of 1996 which also condemns torture.
With no domestic or international investigative body willing to hold Obama accountable for this and no sustainable, intensely pressurized public campaign against the policy, indefinite detention will continue unabated as the failed War on Terror drags on.
Drone Assassinations
Drones were first developed during President Clinton’s time in office but became flying death machines during the Bush years. Under Obama, their use has accelerated. Wrongly considered more precise and safer than invading ground troops, there have been numerous civilian casualties. Because of Obama’s depressingly common use of secrecy, however, it’s not clear why any of them were killed in the first place.
There are so many examples to highlight but one sticks out more than the rest: Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, the 16-year-old American son of Al Qaeda propagandist Anwar Al-Alwaki.
According to a UN report released this past February, on October 14, 2011, Abdulrahman was murdered along with several others when “precision-guided munitions were launched at an outdoor location in Azzan in Shawba province” in Pakistan. The Obama Administration claims he wasn’t the target along with all the other civilian casualties that tragic day but no “legitimate military target for the operation” has ever been put forward. (None were at the scene.) Dirty Wars author Jeremy Scahill noted in his book that Abdulrahman was only identified by the discovery of his long hair connected to a detached piece of his scalp.
Is it possible that because he was the son of a radical Muslim-American preacher (who himself was murdered by a drone that same year under questionable circumstances) the government viewed him as a future threat that needed to be terminated immediately? (For the record, there is no evidence Abdulrahman was a “terrorist”.)
Considering that Obama personally authorizes every drone strike before it happens, including the one that killed this teenage American boy, how is it possible that it was an accident? If there was a legitimate military target for that particular assassination campaign, why hasn’t it been mentioned publicly? The fact that it hasn’t raises suspicions of a cover-up, one of many on this sole issue alone.
Funding Israel’s Ongoing Genocide of Palestinians
The occupation of Palestine has gone on for more than 60 years. The recent, ongoing massacre of the open prison known as Gaza is one of innumerable examples of Israeli war crimes. Making matters worse is that America has long financed these egregious human rights abuses through various administrations, both Republican and Democrat, and has constantly protected Israel from potential repercussions at the UN.
Under Obama, and with the full support of Congress, military aid for Israel is now more than 3 billion a year. That money has helped pay for the murders of more than 500 people and injured thousands more in this recent massacre of Gaza alone, not to mention destroy much of the area’s civilian infrastructure including numerous residential homes & hospitals. It’s been reported that between 70 and 80% of the current victims are innocent civilians. These are not careless mistakes, they are deliberate acts of genocide funded by the United States federal government.
According to the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, “complicity in genocide” is a violation of article 3. (The US finally signed on to it 40 years after it was first unveiled.) The definition of “complicity” is not narrowly defined nor restricted so when it comes to the matter of the ongoing collective punishment of the Palestinian people, financing this genocide, an act of complicity, is indeed a violation of that convention.
Instead of restoring America’s respect for international law as he promised all those years ago, President Barack Obama has made a mockery of it time and time again, not unlike his predecessor. If no legal authority is willing to hold him (or George W. Bush, for that matter) accountable for his atrocious human rights record now, America will no longer be defined by its mythic “dream” but rather for its entrenched system of injustice.
Dennis Earl
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Monday, July 21, 2014
3:05 p.m.
- Commentary
- Politics
on July 21, 2014 at 3:05 pm Comments (2)