The movie business can be rough. Some actors make it at a young age and only get bigger, others fizzle out under the strain of constant pressure to perform. Once in a while, an actor has a big role but doesn't do anything else for several years, only to return with a huge TV show or movie. All of a sudden that actor is back in the spotlight and is bigger than ever.
Over the years, several actors have shown their ability to be tenacious, not giving up until they land the role that gets them back in the public's eye. David Duchovny, for instance, had a huge hit tv show in the 1990s with The X-Files, but re-emerged several years later as a chauvinistic writer in Californication. Other actors share similar success stories, and these are some of the celebrities that seemed to have disappeared but then returned with massive hit shows or movies.
10 Robert Downey Jr.
It's hard to picture an actor with a more epic comeback story than Robert Downey Jr. After earning critical acclaim for his performance as Charlie Chaplin in 1992's Chaplin, Downey Jr. joined the cast of the very popular show Ally McBeal. Unfortunately, his drug problems got the best of him and he was eventually fired from the show. Things seemed to go downhill from there and Downey Jr. was ordered by a court to go to rehab in the early 2000s.
Fast-forward several years later and Robert Downey Jr. was given an amazing second chance. He was cast as Tony Stark/Iron Man in Iron Man in 2008 and his career has been on an upward trajectory since. He's since played the character in multiple sequels and spin-offs and has become the face of the MCU to legions of fans around the world.
9 Jennifer Coolidge
Jennifer Coolidge has been on fire in recent years. Back in 1999, she played Stifler's Mom in American Pie, a role that made her instantly recognizable to college kids around the world. She also appeared in movies like Best In Show and Legally Blonde, among others. Although some of Jennifer Coolidge's best performances came after the American Pie role, she wasn't as recognizable through the 2000s and 2010s.
In 2021, Coolidge returned to the small screen in HBO's The White Lotus, where she played a lonely guest staying at a bizarre upscale resort. The actor is also a spokesperson for Old Navy, appearing in a series of holiday commercials in 2022. Her next role is alongside Brian Cox and Dustin Hoffman in a new comedy movie called Riff Raff.
8 Brendan Fraser
Brendan Fraser has had a long and varied career. He's done everything from baseball movies like The Scout to offbeat Disney comedies like George of the Jungle to straight-up action movies like The Mummy. Until recently, the latter was probably his most memorable movie. It came out in 1999 and was a massive hit at the box office, raking in more than $416 million at the box office - over $700 million in today's dollars.
After The Mummy, Fraser's career went a bit south. He did corny comedy movies like Dudley Do-Right and Monkeybone which didn't exactly earn rave reviews. In 2022, Fraser returned with a (literally) huge role in Darren Aronofsky's The Whale, a film about a lonely, obese man who desperately wants to reconnect with his daughter before it's too late. The performance earned Fraser an Academy Award for Best Actor, and his career is back on track.
7 Kieran Culkin
Kieran Culkin wasn't a big name when he was young. Actually, he sort of lived in the shadow of his older brother Macaulay Culkin, who hit it big as a child actor in Home Alone. Kieran Culkin had a small role in that movie as well, but he didn't have a recognizable film in the 1990s as his sibling did. Igby Goes Down from 2002 is probably his most famous movie, and it's one of his best.
Television is a different matter. Kieran Culkin had a memorable turn in Fargo as Rye Gerhardt in season two. He's also been killing it as Roman Roy in the HBO series Succession since 2018. His character is wickedly funny and somewhat reckless, but also smart and in sync with what today's tech users want. Kieran Culkin cemented his comeback in 2021 by hosting Saturday Night Live and was all set to host again in 2023 before the writer's strike shut everything down.
6 Ke Huy Quan
Ke Huy Quan is originally from Saigon, South Vietnam, but relocated to America as a refugee with his family at a young age. He grew up in California and became an actor as a child. His first major role was playing the sidekick Short Round alongside Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. He landed several roles in the '80s and '90s before going quiet around 1996.
In 2022, Quan made a huge comeback in the critically acclaimed movie Everything Everywhere All At Once. His role as Waymond Wang landed him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Quan may be on a role with his return to Hollywood, but fans expecting to see him in the new Indiana Jones movie shouldn't get their hopes up.
5 Anna Chlumsky
Anna Chlumsky made a name for herself at a very young age. She starred in My Girl and My Girl 2 as Vada Sultenfuss as a preteen alongside Dan Aykroyd, who played her father. She continued her career by taking on other TV and movie roles but stopped acting to go to university in the late '90s.
By 2007, Chlumsky had returned to acting, appearing in episodes of Law & Order and 30 Rock. But her biggest break came in 2012 with a reoccurring role on the Julia Louis-Dreyfuss-led HBO Comedy Veep. Chlumsky nailed her comeback and has since scored big roles in the great true crime Netflix series Inventing Anna and voicing Charlotte Pickles in the Paramount+ revival of Rugrats.
4 Betty White
The late Betty White is a legend of television. She starred in The Mary Tyler Moore Show from 1973 to 1977, then in The Golden Girls from 1985 to 1992. By 1995, White had already been inducted into the Television Hall of Fame. Her career leveled off in the '90s, though, and most of her screen appearances were cameos in different TV shows.
Betty White re-emerged in a big way in 2010. After a successful fan campaign, the then-88-year-old actor hosted Saturday Night Live to rave reviews. She then scored a huge hit with the sitcom Hot In Cleveland, which ran for six seasons on TV Land in the United States. White left behind a strong legacy of a celebrity who genuinely cared about people and animals.
3 Michael Keaton
For some DC fans, Michael Keaton is and always will be the one and only Bruce Wayne/Batman. The actor appeared as the title character in Tim Burton's 1989 flick Batman, and again in the 1992 sequel Batman Returns. Keaton's gruff demeanor and detached sense of ego made him a great fit for the part. He also scored big hits early on with 1982's Night Shift and 1988's Beetlejuice, the latter of which was another Tim Burton collaboration.
Keaton quietly fell off the map in the early 2000s but made a hugely successful comeback in the early 2010s. First, he starred as a neurotic, washed-up actor in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), which landed an Academy Award for Best Picture. Then, Keaton landed a role as McDonald's head honcho Ray Kroc in The Founder. Since then, he's had memorable turns in The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Minions, among others. Micheal Keaton will be reprising his role as Beetlejuice in Tim Burton's 2024 sequel Beetlejuice 2.
2 Winona Ryder
Winona Ryder is another actor who appeared in Beetlejuice back in 1988. She rose to prominence in the late '80s and early '90s and even earned consecutive Academy Award nominations in 1993 and 1994. The late '90s were not so kind, however, and Ryder had a number of movies that fairly poorly with critics and audiences. In 2001, she was arrested for shoplifting, was addicted to pain medication, and didn't appear on-screen much until several years later.
Cut to the present day and Winona Ryder is a huge star again, thanks to the paranormal Netflix show Stranger Things. On the show, she plays Joyce Byers, the mother of a boy who is abducted by a mysterious life force haunting a small town in Indiana. Ryder recently turned 50 and fans still love her. She will also be reprising her role in the Tim Burton sequel Beetlejuice 2 in 2024.
1 Adam Sandler
Adam Sandler may be one of the most polarizing actors in Hollywood. Moviegoers seem to either love him or hate him. He had a string of hit comedies in the early '90s, like Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore, but his work has become more and more silly as the years go on. In 2016, he scored a huge deal with Netflix doing exclusive movies, but the first few weren't very popular. Films like The Ridiculous 6, The Do-Over, and Sandy Wexler didn't give his fans much confidence that the deal was a good idea.
Though you could argue Adam Sandler never truly went away, his comeback after those disappointing films have been fun to watch. In 2018, he released an original comedy special called 100% Fresh that was very entertaining. Some of Sandler's more recent movies haven't been too bad either, such as Uncut Gems, Hubie Halloween, and Hustle.