Five Oscar-winning actors nobody heard from again
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(Credits: Far Out / CBS Television / Wikimedia / Starlight)
Whether they are willing to admit it or not, most actors spend decades imagining the moment they stand in a theatre full of their peers, brandishing the statuette of a little gold man named Oscar. Winning an Academy Award is the highlight of most actors’ and filmmakers’ careers. It becomes part of the person’s name, like a knighthood or a doctorate, and it should, by all logic, ensure a long and fruitful career.
And yet, the Oscars curse is a real phenomenon whereby actors who win the most coveted award of their profession end up in a career spiral shortly thereafter. Marcia Gay Harden, who won an Academy Award for her performance in Pollack in 2001, was pretty blunt about her experience, saying, “The Oscar is disastrous on a professional level. Suddenly, the parts you’re offered become smaller and the money less. There’s no logic to it.” And that’s coming from someone who went on to win a second Oscar three years later for Mystic River.
There are several logical reasons that a person might have a career slump right after reaching the pinnacle of the industry. If it’s an actor who wasn’t famous when they earned their nomination, it’s possible that directors and casting directors simply associate them with the character for which they won the Oscar and assume they can’t do anything else. Others might not have opportunistic enough management to capitalise on the moment.
Whatever the reason, there are, sadly, many Oscar winners who fall so far into obscurity that people forget their names altogether, let alone the fact that they won the highest honour that the profession has to offer. Given how many options there are, this list does not include performers who are famous in other fields despite being relatively anonymous in cinema. Joel Grey and Mercedes Ruehl, for example, were famous and highly successful on Broadway before and after their Oscars, while Louis Gossett Jr and Art Carney were famous on television.
