Former Child Star: Difference between revisions

No doubt [[Growing Up Sucks]] for them...especially if they're [[Contractual Purity|treated as though they never did]].

 

 

{{examples}}

 

 

* The Broadway musical ''[[Avenue Q]]'' features Gary Coleman as a superintendent.

** And in the Mexico City production, the character was turned into a [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]] version of Carlos Espejel, a Mexican comedian who was a child actor in eighties' Mexican TV. Imagine a kid dressed up as Dracula, trying awfully hard to be scary and [[Hilarity Ensues|failing miserably, time after time...]]

 

== Real Life ==

* As a musical example, [[Britney Spears]] fell on this ''hard'' in the early 2000s. Though her musical career has rebounded, her personal life and reputation became a massive train wreck, with her remaining in the conservatorship of her father all the way until 2021.

* [[Lindsay Lohan]]... Oh dear. It was a mix of [[The Prima Donna|her personality]] (even as a child) and [[Stage Mom|her parents]] that eventually demolished anything she had left resembling a professional career.

* Judy Norton Taylor was thirteen when she was initially cast as Mary Ellen in ''The Homecoming'', the [[Pilot Movie]] for ''[[The Waltons]]'', and had a few other roles before that. She was considered a "child actress" well into her twenties, and even posing in ''[[Playboy]]'' in 1985 didn't seem to help much. Although she still acts (and writes and directs), the majority of her "big" roles since 1981 have been in the various ''Waltons'' [[Reunion Show|reunion TV movies]], the last of which was in 2000.

 

* [[Elizabeth Taylor]], going from a child star in movies like ''[[Lassie Come Home]]'' to one of the most famous film actresses '''ever'''. Her private life, however, was notably less successful: she was notorious for her large number of weddings and divorces, and was treated for alcoholism and prescription drug addiction.

* [[Jodie Foster]]. First major role (after a series of Disney films) was in ''[[Taxi Driver]]'' as a twelve-year-old child prostitute. Even after the scandal over [[Stalker with a Crush|John Hinckley]], she went on to have a very successful career which includes ''two'' acting Oscars (so far).

* [[Brooke Shields]] started as a child model, transitioned to acting with the infamous film ''[[Pretty Baby]]'', and continued acting through her teens, until like others on this list she took time off to attend [[Ivy League|Princeton University]] in the mid-1980s. Her career appeared to die for about a decade, but after a notable guest appearance on ''[[Friends]]'' as a [[Stalker with a Crush]] she got her own sitcom, ''[[Suddenly Susan]]'', and despite raising a family has managed to maintain an active acting career since.

 

* During the last decades of the 20th century, [[Jackie Earle Haley]] was the embodiment of this trope, having starred in '70s hits ''[[The Bad News Bears]]'' and ''[[Breaking Away]]'', but then failing to make the transition to adult roles and quit acting for 13 years. However, in 2006 he returned to Hollywood and after playing supporting roles in the remake of ''[[All the King's Men]]'' and ''[[Little Children]]'' (and getting an Oscar nomination in the latter), he starred in ''[[Watchmen (film)|Watchmen]]'' as Rorschach, signed a multi-picture deal to star as Freddy Krueger in the rebooted ''[[Nightmare On Elm Street]]'' series, and is co-starring on ''[[Human Target]]''.

* Once famous as a child actor in Sweden and the son of a famous actor, Alexander Skarsgård gave up acting for quite a while until returning a decade later and becoming famous for roles on ''[[True Blood]]'' and ''[[Generation Kill]]''.

* [[Jackie Coogan]] starred with [[Charlie Chaplin]] as [[The Kid]], sued his parents for squandering his film earnings before he became an adult ([[There Should Be a Law|which led to]] the California Child Actor's Bill, AKA the Coogan Act), and much later became known as TV's [[The Addams Family|Uncle Fester]].

 

* Ironically played with in the life of Mickey Dolenz. He was the child star of ''[[Circus Boy]]'' for several years, after which his parents took him out of show business entirely to avert this trope. By all accounts, it worked... far better than when he gained and lost fame ''again'' as one of [[The Monkees]].