23 Celebs Who Had A Massive Fall From Grace

Buzz Feed

09-03-2025

Time and time again, we witness cherished celebrities fall from the height of their careers. In some cases, it's self-inflicted, as we've seen with folks like Ye, who lost a billion dollars after a string of anti-semitic comments.
Or, in a more extreme case, That 70's Show star Danny Masterson, who was convicted of rape and sentenced to 30 years to life in prison.
On the other hand, people find themselves canceled for ridiculous reasons, leading their careers to plummet entirely. Colin Kaepernick, for instance, has been exiled from the NFL after taking a knee in protest of police brutality and racial inequality.
The number of celebrities who've fallen off of the face of the Earth is astounding, but in a lot of cases, it's actually very dark. Below is a list of 24 celebrities who fell from grace for various reasons.
Note: Some entries have been edited and condensed for clarity and pulled from this Reddit thread and this Reddit thread.
1. " Matt Lauer. This guy was NBC royalty. Hosting the Olympics, he was there on 9/11...he was a fixture of the network. Then his sex pervert abuser secrets got out, and he just f**king vanished."
2. "Oscar Pistorius. He was an international inspiration to people with disabilities. Then, he was a murderer."
3. "Allison Mack"
"Her character in Smallville was original to the show and not part of the Superman mythos. She did so well by it that they introduced it into the comics.
But she had to go co-run a cult that sex trafficked women and branded them like animals. End of career, no reunion shows, no Comic Cons, character dropped from the comics, so no cool legacy. Oh yeah...and jail."
– u/zo_you_said
4. "I'm surprised not to have seen Rudy Giuliani on here already. America's Mayor after 9/11; put the New York crime families behind bars. Not only did he file for bankruptcy, but he was charged in Georgia under the same RICO laws he himself developed to prosecute the mafia in New York."
"After 9/11, all he had to do was nothing. Literally, nothing–his place in history was sealed. His fall from that pedestal to the national punchline is genuinely extraordinary."
– u/TheLittleWinstonBaby
5. "Robert Downey Jr. was a popular and talented actor, with a major substance abuse problem."
"In and out of rehab, jail, and prison for years. The infamous incident where he broke into a neighbor's house and passed out in one of their beds.
He explained in 1999 to a judge: "It's like I have a shotgun in my mouth, and I've got my finger on the trigger, and I like the taste of the gunmetal."
At rock bottom, h'd absolutely lost it all. His wife left and took their son, he was homeless, near bankrupt, and unemployable. If anyone wanted to hire him, they couldn't, because no insurance would cover a production he was on.
He finally reached a point where he wanted to get sober, not forced to get sober by others. He was fortunate to have friends who still wanted to help him find work and could afford to sponsor him. He came so close to being another tragic story of 'imagine what he could've done if he'd lived.'
He recovered and became one of the top-grossing actors of all time, award-winning, respected, and admired. From the top to the bottom, then back to the top, and blew the roof off."
– u/randomguide
6. "Josh Duggar."
Kris Connor / Getty Images
7. " Jonathan Majors had the best possible kickoff for a career in such a short span of time."
"He was in a Marvel film, a Rocky film, an Oscar-bait film (not released), a Super Bowl commercial, and a speaker at the Oscars in the span of probably two months.
He had it all, and it's so disappointing."
– u/MidichlorianAddict
8. " Jared Fogle, aka Subway Jared."
9. "Corey Haim had millions but bad spending habits, a drug habit, and terrible decision-making and contract agreements (he chose to get paid in lump sums rather than get royalties) that left him destitute and living with his mother at the end of his short life. When he died, he only had about $5,000 to his name."
10. "My girlfriend and I were just remarking today how we admire Corey Feldman for standing up against abuse in Hollywood and getting blacklisted. I can't even imagine the horrors that guy witnessed, and he never backed down. You look at every celebrity or producer that's been Me Too'd and Feldman's been calling each of them out for decades."
11. "Ellen DeGeneres. 'Be kind to one another' unless you work for me. Then, all bets are off."
12. "Gina Carano"
"She was an up-and-coming new star. She had just played a cool, badass character on The Mandalorian that was beloved by millions. She was slated to get her own spin-off series. Her future was set. Once you have an in with Star Wars, one of the biggest IPs on the planet, you're set for life.
But then she posted shitty takes on Twitter and got blacklisted from LucasArts. Sure, she'll probably bounce from right-wing podcast to Fox News interview, but her moment came and went, and she blew it."
– u/MrSnippets
13. "Lindsay Lohan is another famous person who seemed to have everything going for her but faced a series of personal and professional setbacks due to her struggles with addiction and legal issues."
14. "Judy Garland. Basically, everyone important in her life screwed her over towards the end of her life, leaving her destitute, broke, and in poor health. There was even a song dedicated to Judy Garland called 'Don't Cry Out Loud.'"
15. "Chevy Chase hosted the entire first season of SNL, had National Lampoon, Three Amigos, etc., and was on course to be one of the biggest American comedians in history."
"He eventually outed himself as an absolute douchebag interpersonally, racist, sexist, and homophobic. No one wanted to work with him."
– u/redditrandom1408
16. "Scott Adams had one of the most successful comics in the world. His family could've lived off that gravy train for generations. But he went full fascist/MAGA idiot supporting Trump, portraying himself as the fount of some magical persuasion genius. It all went south earlier this year after he published a video in which he referred to Black people as a 'hate group' and advised white people to 'get the hell away from Black people.'
17. "Scott Storch, one of the great music producers of his time. He produced hits like 50 Cent's 'Candy Shop,' 'Still Dre' by Dr. Dre, and 'Lean Back' by Fat Joe, to name a few. He also dated Hollywood's hottest, from Kim Kardashian to Paris Hilton. He was worth around $100 million and squandered it in a matter of a year after getting addicted to coke. He is making a comeback, though."
18. "MC Hammer. To this day, he's still used as a warning to up-and-coming musicians."
Icon Sportswire / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
– u/TealBlueLava
19. "Debatable if you'd say he was super famous, but Armie Hammer before he couldn't hide his cannibalistic side is up there."
Todd Williamson / NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
– u/conesy23
20. "Jackie Coogan. The first Hollywood child star. He made the equivalent of around $50 million during his career, and almost all of it was squandered on the high life by his mother and stepfather."
Hulton Archive / Getty Images
"The California law protecting child actors is named after him."
– u/lorgskyegon
21. "John Wilkes Booth. He was a famous and highly-regarded actor with a very successful career before he murdered President Lincoln."
Photoquest / Getty Images
– u/sevenwheel
22. "Henry Ruggs III, a first-round pick in the NFL. Racing his Corvette through Vegas at 3 in the morning, he crashed at 160 mph and killed a woman and her dog. He was one of the top prospects in the game. He's 24 years old now, and he's going to spend 3-10 years in jail and lose out on any and all NFL hopes and dreams. He only made it two seasons in the league before essentially ruining his life."
Ethan Miller / Getty Images
– u/ConversationOk7832
23. "Suge Knight. He literally had a $400 million hip hop empire in Death Row, which was the hottest label in rap during the early-mid 1990s, with some of the hottest stars like Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Tupac, but threw it all away."
Steve Grayson / WireImage via Getty Images
– u/Upbeat_Tension_8077