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The Sun
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Frederick Forsyth – the reporter who turned his foreign adventures into best-selling thrillers
FROM RAF pilot to journalist with romantic links to a Hollywood star, Frederick Forsyth loved to travel the world and get up to mischief. It is no wonder the dashing former MI6 agent used his adventures to help him write more than 25 books, selling 75million copies in a half-century long literary career. 7 7 7 It was during his time as a journalist that The Day Of The Jackal, about an assassination attempt on then French president Charles de Gaulle, was formulated. And a year-long assignment in Soviet East Germany, when he ran errands for Britain's secret services, is thought to have inspired many of his other thriller novels. Last year, the twice-married author, who was also romantically linked to Hollywood star Faye Dunaway told The Sun: 'I got a lot of attention from the secret police, the Stasi. I was followed all over the bloody place. 'I thought the only way to survive is to take the mickey. They had no sense of humour, so I would do stupid things. 'Too stupid' 'I knew my apartment was bugged, so I would go into the bedroom and have an extremely passionate orgy with a non-existent female. 'Knowing every word was being recorded I used two or three voices and then there'd be a knock on the door. 'Mein Herr, your gas is leaking'. 'They would search the flat and discover I had an invisible mistress.' Forsyth, who died yesterday morning after a short illness, was born in Ashford in Kent in 1938. His mum ran a dress shop and his dad was a furrier. He attended a private school nearby in Tonbridge and wanted to leave home aged 17 to become a bullfighter in Spain. Trailer for new adaptation of The Day of the Jackal starring Eddie Redmayne Instead Frederick had to do national service and became one of the youngest RAF fighter pilots aged 19. Frustrated that he wasn't getting to travel the globe as much as he'd like, he joined the Eastern Daily Press as a trainee reporter. From there he went to Reuters, where his ability to speak French saw him posted in Paris during an anti-de Gaulle campaign by a far-right paramilitary organisation called the OAS. He said: 'There definitely was an OAS trying to assassinate President de Gaulle and I was there covering it as a Reuters reporter in 1962 to '63. 'I thought to myself that they probably would fail because they were so penetrated by French counter intelligence that it was hardly possible for four of them to sit around a table.' From there he went to East Germany, where MI6 asked him to run errands. 7 7 He said: 'I was once picked up in Magdeburg by the Stasi and interrogated through the night. 'I was like the PG Wodehouse character Bertie Wooster. 'Eager to please, helpless, hopeless, hapless and therefore harmless. 'Having shouted at me all night, they took me down a long corridor to a door. 'I didn't know whether it was the execution chamber or what it could be. 'Turned out to be the car park. 'They were chucking me out. 'As I was getting in the car, I heard one of them say 'He's too stupid to be an agent'.' Frederick then covered the civil war between Biafra and Nigeria for the BBC but his contract was not renewed after six months. Every friend I had told me very, very clearly that I was absolutely insane. Frederick Forsyth He wanted to go back to tell the world what was going on because up to two million people died of starvation in the conflict. Finding himself unemployed at Christmas 1969, he set about writing The Day Of The Jackal. Freddie said: 'I was skint, out of a job and I thought I'll write a novel. 'Every friend I had told me very, very clearly that I was absolutely insane.' He turned out 350 pages in 35 days, not a word of which was changed on publication. Although he said he took the sex scene out because he didn't think he had written it well. The book proved to be a massive hit, with the publishers offering Frederick a then princely £75,000 for the rights forever. He regretted accepting the deal because the book sold 12million copies and was turned into two films and a ten-part Sky drama starring Eddie Redmayne. It probably would have earned him a million pounds in royalties. 7 7 There were plenty more novels including The Odessa File, The Dogs Of War and The Fourth Protocol. Frederick claimed his romantic life was untroubled even though he divorced his first wife Carole in 1989. Shortly afterwards he said: 'We have both been very determined indeed to keep it civilised.' Then, in 1994, he married one of his fans Sandy Molloy, who he was with until she died in October 2024. Frederick had to keep writing because he was swindled out of £2.2million by dodgy financial adviser Roger Levitt in 1990 and his final novel Revenge Of Odessa is due to be published later this year. 'Extraordinary life' In 1997 he was made a CBE for services to literature. His friend David Davis, the Conservative MP, paid a warm tribute, saying: 'Freddie believed in honour and patriotism and courage and directness and straightforwardness. 'We haven't got many authors like him and we will miss him greatly. 'James Bond was total fantasy but everything that Freddie wrote about was based in a real world.' The author, who died at home in Buckinghamshire, left behind two sons Stuart and Shane from his first marriage. His agent Jonathan Lloyd said: 'We mourn the passing of one of the world's greatest thriller writers. 'Only a few weeks ago I sat with him as we watched a new and moving documentary of his life, In My Own Words, to be released later this year on BBC One and was reminded of an extraordinary life, well lived. 'He will be greatly missed by his family, his friends, all of us at Curtis Brown and, of course, his millions of fans around the world. 'Though his books will, of course, live on forever.'
Daily Mail
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
80s soap opera star turned beloved 1990s sitcom mom is unrecognizable at 75... who is she?
A 1980s soap opera star who then played the mother of one of the most iconic sitcom characters of the 1990s was unrecognizable in Los Angeles this week. Born in 1950, she began her career as a body double for Faye Dunaway and then rose to become a reigning sex symbol in her own right. During the 1970s and 1980s, TV viewers could catch her on some of the top soap operas of the age, ranging from Dallas to Falcon Crest. By the 1990s she was a regular presence on top sitcoms - with one particular role winning her an enduring fanbase around the world. During her latest sighting, however, she swapped out her famed glamour-puss image for a dressed-down ensemble including a loose band t-shirt and leggings. Can you guess who she is? She is none other than Morgan Fairchild, who went from a soap opera siren of the 1980s to Chandler Bing's mother on Friends in the 1990s. When she arrived in Hollywood from her native Texas, her silken blonde hair and willowy figure stood her in instant good stead, landing her a job as Faye Dunaway's body double in the seminal 1967 film Bonnie & Clyde. Her soap opera career took off in the 1970s, beginning with a four-year run on Search For Tomorrow and then an episode of Dallas in 1978. In the 1980s, she spent years on Falcon Crest and the short-lived Flamingo Road, establishing herself as a megawatt glamour icon. She became especially notable for 'rich b****' roles, prompting her home state's paper Texas Monthly to call her 'evil queen of eighties trash TV.' Early in her career, a producer had told her: 'Let me explain something to you. I can get an ingenue anywhere. But a good b**** is hard to find.' Her platinum blonde hair, angelic face, high camp costumes and icy delivery of withering put-downs made her an unforgettable presence on TV. In the 1990s her glitzy froideur won her a global audience that lasts to this day, via her role on Friends as Nora Bing, the mother of Matthew Perry's character Chandler. As an emotionally distant but sexually insatiable romance novelist, Morgan proved a delight to fans - along with Kathleen Turner as Chandler's drag queen father. She has kept acting in recent years, including with a recurring guest shot on General Hospital from 2022 to 2023, a return to the soap opera genre. Also in 2023, she featured in a Lifetime comedy called Ladies Of The '80s: A Divas Christmas, about a group of soap stars who reunite - played by actual 1980s TV sirens Morgan, Nicollette Sheridan, Loni Anderson, Donna Mills and Linda Gray. On the personal front, she tied the knot with music executive Jack Calmes in 1967 when she was only 17, but the marriage fell apart by 1973. She found lasting love in 1987 with studio executive Mark Seiler, whom she remained with until his death of a heart attack in 2023 at the age of 75. When Morgan surfaced this week, she still sported the radiant complexion that helped make her one of the most recognizable faces in America. 'You see a lot of bad aging in Hollywood and I have always tried to live real clean. So that helps. I did no drinking, smoking and no drugs,' she told in 2023. 'When you are younger you just do it because you think it is a good idea. But when you're older you see other people and say I am glad I didn't do that. A lot of that hard partying ages you a lot. I am just so boring.' Morgan observed: 'It is all about a good diet too. I grew up in Texas, so if I kept eating the way I did with everything deep fat fried it would be a whole other story. Part of it is just educating yourself on nutrition and different therapies.'
The Independent
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Best luxury hotels in LA for 2025, reviewed
Given that it's home to more celebrities per square mile than any other city on Earth, it's no surprise that Los Angeles does luxury well. Whether you're keen to soak up some old-school Hollywood glamour or just want to chill out and let your troubles drift away at an exclusive Malibu hideaway, there are a wide and varied selection of high-end hotels and resorts scattered around the city ready to make you feel like an A-lister even if your name isn't likely to ever appear on the Walk of Fame. Many of the city's best hotels are clustered around Beverly Hills and West Hollywood, but if you're hoping for Pacific views then there are also excellent options in Malibu and Santa Monica. You'd also be remiss to overlook Pasadena, a gorgeously landscaped and historic neighborhood with a landmark hotel to match. Here's our pick of the most luxurious places to stay in Los Angeles in 2025. Best luxury hotels in LA 2025 1. The Beverly Hills Hotel Take a dip in the pool made famous by Faye Dunaway's iconic morning after the Oscars photograph (The Beverly Hills Hotel) A hotel that's almost as famous as the stars who like to call it home, the 'Pink Palace' of Beverly Hills is an iconic luxury destination. The property sprawls over 12 acres of gardens containing bougainvillea, banana plants and towering palm trees, and there's a beautiful outdoor pool ringed by towering palm trees beside which Faye Dunaway was famously photographed the morning after she won the Oscar for Network in 1976. The hotel's history dates back long before that, to 1912 when Beverly Hills was yet to become a city and wealthy newcomers would stay here while looking to buy property in the area. The Polo Lounge remains one of the most famous restaurants in Los Angeles, a longtime favourite of Hollywood deal-makers as well as stars like Humphrey Bogart and the Rat Pack. To make your stay extra luxurious, splash out on one of the 23 bungalows hidden amongst the gardens. Address: 9641 Sunset Boulevard, Beverly Hills, 90210 Read more: How to explore Beverly Hills like a Real Housewife 2. Hotel Bel-Air This pink-hued hotel evokes elegance and sophistication (Hotel Bel-Air) Nestled in a dozen acres of lush gardens in the canyon hills, the secluded Hotel Bel-Air is just a mile west of Beverly Hills but seems to occupy another time and place entirely. Many of the 103 rooms and suites open directly onto private gardens, the ideal way to soak up the Californian sunshine away from the buzz of the city or, well, any distractions at all. Hotel legend has it that at one time, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were all staying on site and none of them even knew the others were there. The hotel dates from 1946 and its pink-walled, mission-style buildings speak of discreet elegance. Grace Kelly lived at the hotel prior to her marriage to Prince Rainier Grimaldi III in 1956, and the particularly luxurious suite where she stayed is named in her honour. Address: 701 Stone Canyon Road, Los Angeles, 90077 Read more: Best hotels in LA for beach views, luxury stays and Hollywood glamour 3. Calamigos Guest Ranch & Beach Club hotel Calamigos offers a sense of calm amid the buzz of Los Angeles (Catherine Dzilenski) You probably don't associate rural nature reserves with Los Angeles, but that's exactly what makes the Calamigos Guest Ranch so enticing. Set on a 250 acre ranch in Malibu wine country, a stay at this one-of-a-kind resort also includes access to their exclusive oceanside beach club located off the nearby Pacific Coast Highway. This is the sort of place you come when you're ready to truly get away from it all, with dwelling options including cabins, cottages and bungalows. Enjoy the sunshine and the Malibu countryside from your outdoor soaking tub, before sitting out under the stars by the fire pit. The onsite Spa Calamigos features five pools, a tranquil jacuzzi and a wide range of opulent treatments. You won't believe you're still so close to the buzz of LA – and may need some convincing to return. Address: 261 Calamigos Road, Malibu, 90265 Read more: The best things to do in Los Angeles 4. Langham Huntington hotel The Langham's historic ballrooms often cater to grand events (Langham Huntington) The Langham Huntington dates back to the Gilded Age, and really feels like it. First opened in 1907 as the Hotel Wentworth, it was purchased a few years later by railroad tycoon Henry E Huntington and reopened as The Huntington Hotel in 1914. Huntington's eponymous nearby library and botanical gardens remain a must-visit attraction. The Langham Huntington's grand building and sprawling grounds have made it something of a favourite Hollywood location, and over the years it has appeared on screen in everything from The Parent Trap to Westworld and Hacks. These days, the hotel is managed by the Langham group, so you can expect plenty of their signature luxury touches, such as regular servings of a decadent afternoon tea. There are two pools on site, as well as the highly-rated Chuan Spa, which offers treatments, massages and facials. Address: 1401 S Oak Knoll Avenue, Pasadena, 91106 Read more: How to spend a day in Crenshaw, LA's modern hub of art and creativity 5. Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows hotel Searching for a coastal vibe? Fairmont Miramar's rooms feel as if you have stepped into a Californian beach house (Fairmont Miramar Hotels) Located not far from Santa Monica Pier, this five-star hotel offers ocean views and a high-end take on the idea of a seaside resort. The historic property dates back to 1889 when John P Jones, who'd helped found Santa Monica after making his fortune in silver mining, built a mansion here. After his death, the estate was bought by King Camp Gilette, inventor of the safety razor, who sold it a few years later to hotelier Gilbert Stevenson. It was converted into a resort in the early 1920s, and Greta Garbo was one of the first celebrities to call it home. Today, the hotel features 31 spacious bungalows, the only accommodation of its kind in the area. They provide the perfect way to combine the Californian beach house dream with a prime Santa Monica location. Address: 101 Wilshire Boulevard, Santa Monica, 90401 Read more: How to have a sports-filled trip to LA ahead of the next Olympics 6. Nobu Ryokan Malibu hotel Nobu's charming lounges offer an ideal place to relax with an sundowner after a long day in the city (Fairmont Miramar Hotels) A truly unique and luxurious destination even by LA's standards, the Nobu Ryokan Malibu opened in April 2018 and offers a rare combination of minimalist Japanese design and Californian ocean-front living. Situated on one of the most desirable stretches of beach in the world, this exclusive hotel has just 11 guest rooms and five beachfront bungalows. Each room comes complete with handcrafted teak soaking tubs, bamboo towels and cashmere robes. You can choose between garden, beach or ocean views, while some rooms also have their own fireplaces. The property is located just a few steps down the beach from Nobu Malibu, so naturally the food is as exquisite as you'd expect from chef Nobu Matsuhisa and Robert De Niro's trailblazing sushi restaurant. Address: 22752 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, 90265 From: $2,000 per night (minimum two-night stay) Book now Read more: The best California cities to visit on your next holiday, from LA to Santa Barbara 7. The Maybourne Beverly Hills hotel The Maybourne focuses on a chic and sophisticated design throughout its interiors (Maybourne Hotel) The heart of Beverly Hills is known as the 'Golden Triangle', a walkable area enclosed by Santa Monica Boulevard, Wilshire Boulevard and Canon Drive and known for its art galleries, upscale restaurants and the luxury shopping boutiques of Rodeo Drive. The Maybourne, a grand yet chic hotel overlooking Beverly Cañon Gardens, is the Golden Triangle's landmark hotel. On the rooftop you'll find a cabana-lined pool and the al fresco Dante restaurant and aperitivo bar. Fittingly for the area, The Maybourne also focuses on showcasing international art and you'll find works by Ed Ruscha, Damien Hirst and Harmony Korine on display around the property. The hotel's Whisky Bar houses a world-class whisky and cigar collection, and is also notable for being one of just three locations in Beverly Hills where smoking is permitted. Address: 225 N Canon Drive, Beverly Hills, 90210 Read more: Why the LA to Palm Springs 'desert route' is the perfect California road trip 8. The Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel More than just the set of Pretty Woman, this Four Seasons resort offer large rooms with breathtaking views (The Beverly Wilshire) The Beverly Wilshire is probably best known as the setting for much of the Julia Roberts and Richard Gere rom-com Pretty Woman, but this elegant Four Seasons property has a long and storied history besides that. Located in a prime spot in Beverly Hills at the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and the shopping highlights of Rodeo Drive, both Elvis Presley and Warren Beatty have called it home and John Lennon hid out on the property during his 'Lost Weekend'. The suites are large, offering spectacular views of the city, and there's an onsite spa, a Mediterranean-style pool modeled after the one at Sophia Loren's Italian villa and several excellent restaurants. As Julia Roberts might say, not taking the chance to enjoy a stay here would be a big mistake. Huge. Address: 9500 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, 90212 Read more: Forget driving in LA – here's how to explore the sprawling California city by bike 9. Regent Santa Monica hotel Private balconies complete with fire pits will make you feel like you never need to leave your room (Tanveer Badal Photography / TANV) Opened in October last year following a $150 million renovation, the Regent Santa Monica has been described as offering not just luxury but 'ultra-luxury' with its oversized rooms, 10,000sq-foot Guerlain Spa and sprawling oceanfront pool deck. At this expansive property it's all about enjoying your space, with even the most reasonably-sized rooms spanning 720sq feet while the Regent's Signature Suites go all the way up to 3,200sq feet. Sure, the hotel is excellently located in the heart of Santa Monica and the beach is just a stone's throw away, but when the huge rooms offer complimentary minibars, game rooms and private balconies the challenge will be finding a reason to ever go out. Address: 1700 Ocean Avenue, Santa Monica, 90401 Read more: How to have a budget 72-hour break in New York City 10. Ritz-Carlton, Los Angeles hotel The Ritz-Carlton's rooftop pool is surrounded by plush cabanas and day beds (Ritz-Carlton, Los Angeles) If you want to stay in luxury in downtown Los Angeles, you won't find a better option than the Ritz-Carlton. This sleek, modern hotel opened in 2010 and towers over the LA Live entertainment complex and the Arena that the LA Lakers call home. It's the only hotel in downtown to offer a first-rate, full service spa, and there's a cabana-flanked rooftop pool on the 26th floor. If you really want to splash out, check yourself in to the 3,000sq-foot Ritz Carlton Suite and make use of the formal dining room, fully-equipped entertainment room and spacious primary bedroom. Needless to say given the location, whichever room you end up in you're guaranteed spectacular views. Address: 900 W Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles, 90015 From: $598 per night Read more: The best cruises to travel America
The Independent
23-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
‘I lost everything': 17 acting careers ruined by a single role
Most movie stars can survive a flop or two. But then there are roles that completely upend an actor's career, leaving them out of work or forever changed in the eye of the public. It's not really possible to talk about Faye Dunaway's career without mentioning her notorious performance in Mommie Dearest, for instance. Or to google Brandon Routh in any other context than 'what happened to Superman Returns star Brandon Routh?' Often this is unfair – women historically tend to bear the brunt of career-shaking backlash, and there are typically many different reasons why movie stardom hits a wall. But whenever an actor does seem to drop off the radar, it's usually a specific film that is to blame. From Meg Ryan's unfairly maligned erotic thriller to the body-swap comedy that prevented Judge Reinhold from becoming one of Hollywood's biggest comedy stars, here are 17 films that derailed the fortunes of their stars single-handed. Released in 1981, the Joan Crawford biopic Mommie Dearest – starring Faye Dunaway and adapted from a harrowing bestseller by Crawford's daughter Christina – painted the star in a less than flattering light. Namely, as an unhinged tyrant prone to chewing up her daughter as well as the scenery of every room she was in. The latter, in fairness, was more Dunaway's fault – and it promptly took a pick-axe to her leading-lady roles. She drew the worst reviews of her career, along with a Worst Actress Razzie, and Dunaway was so embarrassed by the film that she rarely spoke about it again. In a series of rare comments made in 2016, Dunaway said the film 'turned my career in a direction where people would irretrievably have the wrong impression of me,' adding: 'That's an awful hard thing to beat. I should have known better, but sometimes you're vulnerable and you don't realise what you're getting into.' Elizabeth Berkley in Showgirls Expectations were high for the release of Showgirls in 1995. It marked a reunion between Basic Instinct 's director and screenwriter – Paul Verhoeven and Joe Eszterhas, respectively – while many assumed the film's star, the former Saved by the Bell actor Elizabeth Berkley, would be shot into the Hollywood stratosphere much like Sharon Stone after Basic Instinct. Then people actually saw Showgirls. While the film's reputation has (rightly!) turned around in the decades since – along with appreciation for Berkley's broad and undeniably mesmerising performance – the film's dismal initial response cratered Berkley's fledgling movie career practically overnight. 'There was so much cruelty around it,' she said in 2020. 'I was bullied. And I didn't understand why I was being blamed. The job as an actor is to fulfil the vision of the director. And I did everything I was supposed to do. No one associated with the film spoke up on my behalf to protect me. I was left out in the cold and I was a pariah in the industry I had worked so hard for.' Shannen Doherty in Mallrats When Shannen Doherty left the Nineties teen soap Beverly Hills 90210 in 1994, she had aspirations to launch a movie career. She had, after all, starred in a number of hit movies before going to TV, including the 1988 teen classic Heathers. But her choice of project – Kevin Smith's slacker comedy Mallrats, alongside then-unknowns including Ben Affleck and Jason Lee – was a box-office flop, and as the biggest name in the cast she took the blame. 'It died and so did my film career,' she said in 2024. 'People literally thought that I was carrying the movie so [because] it was a box-office failure, it was completely on me. There was no film career after that, which was a little brutal.' David Caruso in Jade Now best known for putting his sunglasses on and then taking them off again in the long-running CSI: Miami, David Caruso was at one point positioned to be a bonafide movie star. After a high-profile dispute with the show's producers over pay, he'd left the cop drama NYPD Blue in a blaze of negative publicity in 1994 with designs on film stardom. But his two 1995 star vehicles, the cop actioner Kiss of Death and the erotic thriller Jade, crashed and burned. The latter, for which he was paid a $2m salary, was the kind of expensive disaster that few could climb out from under, let alone an actor who'd already burnt so many bridges in Hollywood. 'When Jade came out and did $4m at the box office, the town went silent,' Caruso said in 1997. 'I could have taken my telephone and my answering machine and thrown them both in the dumpster.' That year, he slunk back to TV. No one is exactly complaining about The Godfather: Part III killing Sofia Coppola's acting career, let alone Coppola herself – she never had a love for acting, and was only pulled into the movie by her father Francis at the last minute because a number of other actors were unavailable. Cast as Michael Corleone's doomed teenage daughter Mary, Coppola saw her performance widely panned upon the film's release on Christmas Day in 1990, with one newspaper describing her as 'hopelessly amateurish'. 'It was embarrassing to be thrown out to the public in that kind of way,' Coppola said in 2020. 'But it wasn't my dream to be an actress, so I wasn't crushed. I had other interests. It didn't destroy me.' Coppola only acted twice more – once in an indie film called Inside Monkey Zetterland and again, sans dialogue, in a not-so-indie film called Star Wars Episode I – The Phantom Menace. Instead she became one of Hollywood's most celebrated female directors, responsible for films including The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation and Marie Antoinette. What a happy ending! Rupert Everett in The Next Best Thing Rupert Everett was, for a time, a real anomaly: an out gay actor who Hollywood really wanted to invest in. But then he made 2000's The Next Best Thing, a catastrophic romcom about a gay man and his female best friend (an unsurprisingly miscast Madonna) having a baby together, and things went awry. 'Career death is rather like real death, so it gives you an opportunity to see what real death feels like,' he said in 2017. 'One minute, you're careering round the corridors of power, and everybody's going: 'That's a fabulous idea.' The next minute, you're still careering around but you're like the Canterville Ghost: everybody's walking right through you and you've died, and you didn't realise.' The film was a critical and commercial disaster, taking out both Madonna's acting career and Everett's mainstream, name-above-the-title Hollywood career in one fell swoop. 'It blew my new career out of the water and turned my pubic hair white overnight,' Everett wrote in his must-read 2004 memoir, Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins. With all due respect to the Back to the Future star Lea Thompson, it remains somewhat baffling why she agreed to star in a sci-fi movie in which her character apparently has sex with an anthropomorphic extra-terrestrial duck. Released in 1986, this was a superhero movie for kids, by the way. Howard the Duck remains one of the most infamous disasters of Eighties cinema, with Thompson later suggesting that while she appreciates the film's cult notoriety today, it did have professional side effects. 'In the course of a year, I was in the biggest hit [ Back to the Future ] and the biggest bomb,' she said in 2022. 'So that probably destroyed my film career. Even though I did some good films after that, it was really difficult.' Matthew Modine in Cutthroat Island One of the biggest bombs in Hollywood history, the 1995 pirate movie Cutthroat Island helped curtail Geena Davis's career as a leading lady and briefly derailed the career of director Renny Harlin. But worst off was the film's star Matthew Modine, who seemed set for leading-man stardom before Cutthroat sank. In 2016, the actor said that he made the error of reading a review of the film the morning of its press junket. 'It was horrible! And then I picked up another one of them and it was more horrible! And then I thought, 'There's got to be one that's good.' And it was just one after the other that was horrible, horrible, horrible. And I went downstairs to have breakfast and I felt like everybody in the café was looking at me going like, 'Oh my God! The walking dead,' you know?' He added: 'It hurts to get kicked like that really hard. And I think in some ways it kind of damaged my career.' Modine has always worked – notably in The Dark Knight Rises and Oppenheimer – but hasn't led a major studio movie since. Judge Reinhold in Vice Versa An Eighties staple, Judge Reinhold seemed set to become one of the biggest names in Hollywood comedy, particularly after major supporting roles in hits including Beverly Hills Cop and Ruthless People. But his run of star vehicles bombed, with 1988's Vice Versa – in which his character swapped bodies with his 11-year-old son – his critical and commercial nadir. 'That was really the end of my highfalutin Hollywood career,' Reinhold said in 1992. 'That's when the phone stopped ringing.' Wounded, he left Los Angeles for a small town in New Mexico, and was forced to confront his past poor behaviour on film sets. 'It was an extremely painful thing for me – to recognise and take responsibility for the damage that I'd done,' he explained. But he even expressed gratitude for his career downturn. 'If Vice Versa had become a success, I might not have dealt with any of this and I'm not sure where I would be now.' Kelly Clarkson in From Justin to Kelly Somewhat inexplicably, the winner of the very first season of American Idol was contractually obligated to star in a musical romantic comedy film. For Kelly Clarkson, who won the series before achieving global superstardom, that meant appearing alongside the show's runner-up in From Justin to Kelly, a 2003 disaster that remains her one major acting role. 'It was a very miserable time of my life,' she said in 2019. 'I can get over the fact that it's silly and cute – that's not embarrassing to me at all. I just don't find it very cool that somebody makes you do something that is not your passion and you don't want to do.' Clarkson begged to be let out of her film contract, to no avail, but did manage to convince her team to release her first single – 'Miss Independent' – before the film's release. 'I think that literally saved my career,' she said. 'The fact that ['Miss Independent'] was successful, I think that overcame what the movie was.' Clarkson hasn't acted in a live-action film since, but has lent her voice to animated movies including The Star and Trolls World Tour. John Gilbert in His Glorious Night Gossip has always surrounded the first 'talkie' starring the silent movie superstar John Gilbert, who found fame as a handsome – and quiet – romantic lead. Released in 1929, His Glorious Night cast Gilbert as a military officer who falls in love with a princess. On paper, it bore close resemblance to the films that made Gilbert a box-office draw, but audiences were reportedly bothered by the actor's 'squeaky voice', which had previously been concealed in his silent era. Gilbert's family have long disputed this, however, claiming that his career was sabotaged by studio boss Louis B Mayer – who disliked him – and that his voice was actually fine. Whatever the truth, Gilbert's career declined in the wake of the film. He died at the age of 38 following a battle with alcoholism. The Monkees in Head The pop band – think a manufactured Beatles – never recovered from their surreal 1968 film endeavour Head, which members of the band went so far as to suggest was a deliberate ploy to ruin them. A deliberate stream-of-consciousness movie not unlike the Spice Girls' sole Hollywood vehicle Spice World, Head sees the band – playing variations on themselves – rebel against their corporate overlords in search of creative freedom. Head was a massive flop, both soiling the band's fortunes as musicians and as aspiring movie stars. Band member Michael Nesmith once compared the movie to a 'murder' of the band, something engineered by their creator Bob Rafelson – who'd go on to direct films including Five Easy Pieces. 'By the time Head came out, the Monkees were a pariah,' Nesmith said in 2012. 'There was no confusion about this. We were on the cosine of the line of approbation, from acceptance to it was over. Head was a swan song.' Maxwell Caulfield in Grease 2 It's quite miraculous that the maligned sequel to Grease is a mere footnote in Michelle Pfeiffer's long career – her leading man Maxwell Caulfield, who was positioned to professionally sky-rocket à la John Travolta, wasn't as lucky. The 1982 film was a box-office bomb, and while Caulfield eventually bounced back on TV, his major movie career flatlined in an instant. 'I didn't work for practically two years, I was stone cold dead in Hollywood,' he said in 2022. 'I had a three-picture deal going into that movie with Paramount and it died a death. They'd given me this huge break and so they wanted to stitch me up for two more movies of their choosing as long as they wanted to make them. But because the film was so rush released, the film came and went and they didn't exercise their option.' He added that the experience was a bit like getting past the velvet rope in a nightclub, 'but then you just gotta try and stay in the night club and not get thrown out the fire exit.' Jennifer Grey in Wind In the aftermath of Dirty Dancing, Jennifer Grey seemed to have Hollywood in the palm of her hand. But then an incident on the set of 1992's yachting drama Wind convinced her to get a nose job, and her career was never the same. As she recalled in her 2022 memoir, Grey was filming Wind when the movie's cinematographer asked her about 'a bump' on her nose. It was the latest in a number of remarks about her nose, which led her to finally get it 'fixed'. But she was floored once she saw what her surgeon had done. 'The way the nose was oriented on my face was all wrong,' she wrote. 'This nose looked truncated. Something about the proportion was off. The placement.' Her co-stars no longer recognised her, and reshoots for Wind – which were ordered after she'd had surgery – had to be shot in a specific way to conceal her new facial feature. She didn't act in another studio film for eight years in the aftermath. 'Overnight I [lost] my identity and my career,' she wrote in her book. 'I spent so much energy trying to figure out what I did wrong, why I was banished from the kingdom. That's a lie. I banished myself.' Brandon Routh in Superman Returns After the release of Bryan Singer's Superman reboot Superman Returns in 2006, the actor Brandon Routh – who'd been chosen from thousands of auditionees to play the Man of Steel – never quite managed to build a movie career. Other than small roles in Scott Pilgrim vs the World and the comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno, he has largely acted in TV, with Superman more of a hindrance than an asset. In 2020 he revealed that he struggled in the wake of what should have been his star-making role. 'Thankfully, I didn't lean on drugs or alcohol,' Routh reflected. ' Superman Returns did not pan out the way I thought it was going to [or] the way everyone around me thought it was going to. I really had to come to terms with a lot of that. There was no sequel. The movie was widely well-reviewed. People liked the movie. It made almost $400m worldwide but that wasn't enough and it was a very slow fizzle out over the possibility of a sequel over the next two/three years.' Meg Ryan in In the Cut An outlier in this list primarily because it's really, really brilliant, In the Cut should not have dented Meg Ryan's movie career as it did. An erotic thriller from Oscar-winning filmmaker Jane Campion, the movie – a murder mystery in which Ryan's character embarks on a dangerous affair with a cop – proved too big a leap for audiences accustomed to seeing the star in winsome romcoms. The 2003 film remains one of Ryan's last studio movies, and acting roles entirely, with Ryan largely retreating from the spotlight and focusing on directing in the years since. In 2019, she reiterated her pride in the film, while expressing bemusement at the criticism sent her way because of it. 'The reaction was vicious,' she said. 'I was surprised by the negative reaction. I loved the movie and loved that experience and loved Jane Campion … Since then, I've had publicists say to me, 'You should've prepared your audience for your doing something different.' In the Cut was a sexual thing, and sex throws people.' She added that her exit from Hollywood superstardom soon after was a 'mutual' decision: 'I felt done when they felt done, probably.' A star vehicle designed to boost Greta Garbo's reputation in America – her previous films had largely been European hits – 1941's Two-Faced Woman proved to be a career-ruining disaster, and a film that led Garbo into early retirement at the age of just 36. Problems came early: the script for this oddball romcom, in which Garbo's character pretends to be her own twin sister in order to win back her ex, kept being rewritten during production. Garbo herself was said to have remarked that the film 'was not good and it could never be made good'. Reviews were unkind, with critics remarking that Garbo was 'gauche and stilted' and 'embarrassing'. Time magazine said her performance was so bad that it was 'almost as shocking as seeing your mother drunk'. The actor was reportedly humiliated by the press response, and a deal she had with MGM was terminated – allegedly by mutual agreement. She never made a film again.
