I remember I saw her for the first time in one of the Mission Impossible movies, and I thought she was so unbelievably sexy and I was instantly in love, but she never really seemed to capture those heights again for whatever reason.

I think black men can push through the barrier if they are super charismatic (Will Smith, Denzel Washington), but I think with "ethnic" women the color barrier is real and exists for reasons I admit I dont even begin to understand, and it really is difficult to become a "star", although Zoe Saldana seems to have a good job cornering the market on hot alien supporting actress.

Newton is in NBC's The Slap right now, pretty big part. Her looks have gone a little south over time tbh.

I remember Newton from way back in Flirting, The Journey of August King, and Jefferson in Paris. The woman can act, but I'd guess major stardom just wasn't her thing - some don't have the desire for it, and would rather take it in doses.

Some of the Latin actresses have done quite well too.

Steve Zahn.

First time I saw Clerks, thought "Not sure about anyone else, but the guy playing Randall has real screen presence."

I love zahn.

he was so hilarious in saving silverman.

If you watch Joy Ride and tell me that Paul Walker and not Steve Zahn is going to be the star coming out of that movie, I wouldn't believe it.

Who is Paul Walker?

Steve Zahn? I love him but he's short and funny looking (aka kinda boyish and not leading man looks) and has a weird voice. He's had a great career given his potential. But yeah I never thought Paul Walker would be a franchise star. He sucked in She's All That and was fairly wooden in Joy Ride. But being tall, built, and having dark skin and light eyes will take you far. This reminds me, Leelee Sobieski I thought would have done a little more. I kinda wonder if she looked too eastern European for America to fully embrace her.

I think C. Thomas Howell's career died when he did that blackface movie.

I asked my wife if she could think of any actors since I couldn't and she came up with Christian Slater, Molly Ringwald, and Giovani Ribisi.

Yeah, Slater was set for super-stardom and then just sort of faded away. He did some nice indie work though, I thought.

I would have thought after her Oscar winning performance in My Cousin Vinny she would be a huge star but that win didn't really do much to spark her career and it kind of floundered. Same thing with Mira Sorvino. Oscar win and then not much of to speak of when she seemed poised for a break out.

Zahn had the greatest scene of all time in Banditas when scantily clad Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz (at their peak) were crawling all over him. Had to be awesome

Judd Nelson

Eric Bana. I blame Lucky You.

Christian Slater would have been a bigger star if he didn't get blacklisted from Hollywood for several years. He was a big coke dealer to the younger(at the time) Hollywood crowd and supposedly got a lot of them hooked. Just about all of the Brat Pack bought from him.

Zahn's problem was he got typecast as the goofy guy but you can see in some roles that he has serious skills.

She's been working in Hollywood since 1984, made 48 films, been in 12 stage productions and has won 19 awards including 1 Oscar. Not too shabby. Looking at her Filmography I suspect she suffered more from poor role choices than anything else. She also languished a bit due being tagged as difficult to work with as well as her refusing to do any nudity until 2007.

Yup. And you can say the same thing about most of the names mentioned here. They got a chance to prove whether they could carry a movie, and it failed. If your first starring role is a hit, you can have 7 or 8 flops but they'll keep running you out there forever as a "move star". If your first big lead doesn't do well, it's hard to get even *one* more chance. There are exceptions, but not a ton of them.

I love Steve Zahn and Sam Rockwell, and while I guess you can say they should have had Owen Wilson type careers (whom I also like), I'm pretty happy with their output and choices as they stand. For good early examples of their goofy personas, check out the mostly forgotten Freak Talks About Sex (with the also great Josh Hamilton) and Box of Moonlight (an early John Turturro movie by Tom DiCillo). And Zahn's commentary on the Joy Ride DVD is worth watching that really mediocre movie again.

Yeah it makes you wish podcasts had come along sooner, at least. I feel like we missed out on almost a decade of Aukerman and Tompkins being two of the funniest people on the planet. But at least we have what we have, so that's cool.

One of the interesting character explorations on BCS is seeing how much effort Jimmy puts into his job (and Saul was shown to be shady, but never lazy). According to the Mr. Show crew, Odenkirk had an almost legendary work ethic. And unlike Saul, but very much like Jimmy, he wanted every sketch to not just be funny, but have a higher level of purpose and message. So happy he had this career renaissance.

Good list, kioshk! Ulrich seemed truly destined for awhile. Maybe it was the Depp similarity. And David Keith did have a few starring roles.

There was this decent indie movie called This Girl's Life that came out over a decade ago now. It starred this actress named Juliette Marquis, who was amazing (think a more talented and likable, but just as gorgeous and sexy, Megan Fox). The first paragraph of Roger Ebert's review nailed it pretty well:

And then she did a really bad Steven Seagal movie, and was basically never heard from again. Weird.

Saffron Burrows

Nice one, yes! Though I think she has a good chance of pulling a Diana Rigg in GoT like 20 years from now.

Natascha McElhone



She has sch a unique, gorgeous look, and she's talented, that I'm not sure why she didn't become a big star. I know her husband died suddenly and she had to raise her three kids on her own, so that may have had something to do with it. Hollywood stardom probably didn't seem that important after that.

She was great in Ronin way back in 1998.