While some Hollywood stars are fortunate enough to enjoy consistently strong careers from their initial breakthroughs all the way to their twilight years, there are many others who haven't been so lucky.
For various reasons, many actors once considered to be among the most acclaimed and profitable of their generations have gone through major slumps – dismissed by studios and audiences as past their best and no longer at the peak of their powers.
But a great number of those actors have gone on to well and truly prove their doubters wrong, staging impressive careers that propelled them back into the cultural zeitgeist and launched new periods of major success.
Below we've spotlighted twelve of the most notable Hollywood comebacks – from Golden Age icons like Joan Crawford to modern day examples such as Brendan Fraser. Scroll down to check out our picks!
1. Marlon Brando
Given how iconic his role as Vito Corleone became – and how legendary his career in general was – it's hard to believe that prior to the release of Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather in 1972, Marlon Brando was hugely out of favour in Hollywood.
The star had become one of cinema's most important leading men in the 1950s thanks to roles in films such as A Streetcar Named Desire, The Wild One and On the Waterfront, but by the time the early '70s rolled around, he'd appeared in a string of critical and box office duds and developed a reputation for having a short temper.
In fact, his stock had fallen so low by this point that Paramount executives were desperate for the role of Vito to go elsewhere – and Coppola himself was more in favour of giving the part to Laurence Olivier (with Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson and Orson Welles among the other actors considered for the part).
Author Mario Puzo was especially keen for Brando to take on the role, however, and eventually a somewhat complicated arrangement – involving a secret screen test and a bond deal – was struck that let the actor grab the role.
The rest, of course, is history. The film became not only a huge critical smash but also – at that point – the highest grossing movie ever made, with Brando being singled out for special praise and winning his second Oscar.
More success would follow – including another Oscar nod a year later for The Last Tango in Paris – and Brando is now regarded as one of the most successful actors to ever grace the silver screen.
2. William Holden
One of Brando's contemporaries, Holden was another major star of the 1950s with key roles in Billy Wilder films Sunset Boulevard, Sabrina and Stalag 17 (for which he won a best actor Oscar) and the iconic war flick The Bridge on the River Kwai.
But just like Brando, he also suffered something of a slump in the 1960s, with most of the films he starred in that period failing to set the box office alight or get him much critical attention, while he also suffered from alcohol addiction during this period.
Then came Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch. Released in 1969, just as the New Hollywood movement was changing the face of the American cinema, the violent Western not only gave Holden his best role in years but also allowed him to show that he could play more morally complex characters than the romantic leads he had earlier been associated with.
His performance was hugely acclaimed and helped bring about a new phase in his career into the 1970s, with key roles in that decade including an Emmy Award-winning performance in TV movie The Blue Knight and parts in major films such as The Towering Inferno, Network and Fedora.
He sadly passed away and 63 in 1981, but his impressive legacy saw him named 25th on the American Film Institute's list of the 25 greatest male stars of Classical Hollywood cinema.
3. Joan Crawford
Another legend of the Hollywood Golden Age, Crawford is unique among the stars on this list in that she not only made one major career comeback but two – first in the 1940s and then again two decades later.
Crawford originally established herself as a flapper in the 1920s and enjoyed a hugely successful career that made her one of the biggest stars – and indeed, one of the most highly paid – in the first half of the 1930s.
That success initially didn't last, however, and by the end of the decade a succession of flops had seen her earn the unenviable reputation as "box office poison" – labelled as such in an infamous 1938 advert published in The Hollywood Reporter (others mentioned in the ad included Greta Garbo and Katharine Hepburn).
By the time the iconic film noir Mildred Pierce was released in 1945, Crawford – who was then 41 – hadn't appeared on the big screen for two years, and in fact she herself campaigned for the role after director Michael Curtiz initially had his eyes on Barbara Stanwyck.
The film came to be recognised not only as a major classic but also as arguably Crawford's defining role, and after attracting universally positive reviews she was also handed the Oscar for best actress.
A more successful period followed, but after another slump later in her career, Crawford was once again forced to become her own publicist to land a role in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane in 1962 (more on that below), the success of which once again revived her fortunes.
4. Bette Davis
Much has been made – including a Ryan Murphy TV series – about the reported feud between Crawford and Bette Davis on the set of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (with the actors themselves always publicly denying it took place).
But perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the gothic thriller was that it served as a major comeback vehicle for both of its stars (and indeed the reports of the feud may actually have played their part in helping to revitalise public interest in their careers.
Davis had become a major star after first moving to Hollywood in the 1930s, with key roles from her legendary career including leading roles in such classics as Now Voyager and All About Eve, before her career fizzled out during the 1950s.
In fact, such was the slump in her career that just a month before the film was released, Davis had taken out an advertisement in The Hollywood Reporter in which she wrote – perhaps not entirely seriously – that she was seeking "steady employment in Hollywood".
Later – during an appearance on The Jack Paar Program – she explained that when the idea of her and Crawford starring together in a film together was first pitched to studios, they were told by executives that "we wouldn’t give you a dime for those two old broads".
In the end, she was nominated for best actress at the Oscars for the role – now very much back in the Hollywood big time and without any need to advertise her services in the paper.
5. Ingrid Bergman
Another of the most iconic stars from Golden Age Hollywood, Swedish star Ingrid Bergman had established herself as a huge draw thanks to roles in films such as Casablanca, Gaslight and Notorious.
But just a few years later, she became the subject of an affair which became a major scandal in Hollywood. After travelling to Italy to star in Roberto Rossellini's Stromboli, it was revealed that the two had begun an affair and that she had become pregnant, while both had been married to other people.
The reaction in the US was so severe that Bergman decided to continue her career in Europe rather than return to Hollywood, where she was suddenly unlikely to find so much work.
Still, she remained successful away from the US and eventually returned in 1956 to star in the historical drama film Anastasia. The result? Her second best actress Oscar and her reputation in Hollywood now fully restored, with several more major roles following throughout the rest of her career.
6. Demi Moore
Now onto some more recent Hollywood comebacks, and it's hard to look past the huge acclaim that was poured upon Demi Moore for her role in the hugely acclaimed 2024 body horror film The Substance – which came within a whisker of winning her a best actress Oscar.
Of course, Moore had first broken out as part of the "Brat Pack" in the 1980s, with roles in films such as Blame It on Rio and St Elmo's Fire, before establishing herself as a major movie star in the early 1990s with a string of box office hits such as Ghost, A Few Good Men and Indecent Proposal.
However, later in the decade, the commercial success began dwindling – with The Scarlett Letter and GI Jane among those that struggled – and for much of the next two decades her roles became more sporadic and less high profile.
Ahead of its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, not many would have predicted that The Substance would be the film to propel her firmly back into the spotlight, but it did exactly that – with her performance earning all sorts of plaudits and nominations.
Although she just missed out on the Oscar to Anora's Mikey Madison, Moore did win The Actor Award and The Golden Globe – explaining in her acceptance speech for the latter that a producer had once told her she was only a "popcorn actress".
She certainly proved that producer wrong.
7. Robert Downey Jr
It's safe to say that Robert Downey Jr is now regarded as one of the most successful actors of his generation – thanks both to his long-running role as Tony Stark/Iron Man in the MCU and his Oscar-winning part in Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer (in addition to key roles in films like Zodiac and Good Night, and Good Luck among others).
But this was very much not the first phase of his career. Downey Jr had first broken out in the 1980 – like Moore, he was considered a member of the Brat Pack – with roles including Weird Science and Less Than Zero.
The success initially continued into the 1990s, earning him an Oscar nomination for playing Charlie Chaplin in Chaplin and also appearing in films such as Short Cuts and Richard III, but towards the end of the decade he began to struggle with drug addiction.
Soon afterwards, he entered a court-ordered rehabilitation program, and he has remained sober since 2003, with his comeback well and truly sealed when with the release of Iron Man in 2008, after he had gradually rebuilt his reputation in the five years prior.
8. Brendan Fraser
Fraser established himself as one of the most popular young movie stars in Hollywood in the '90s and 2000s, with his most famous roles being the titular part in George of the Jungle and Rick O'Connell in The Mummy films.
However, his career slowed considerably from the late 2000s, due in part to waning box office appeal but also because of the fallout from an incident in which he was allegedly groped by an industry exec at a Hollywood luncheon.
Fraser wrote about how the incident had led to a deep depression that had forced him to take a break from his career, while at one point he pointed out that he may have been blacklisted after the allegation (although he later said he wasn't sure that had been the case).
He began to pick up more film roles again in the early 2020s, and it was his lead role in Darren Aronofsky's The Whale that propelled him back to the spotlight – also earning him one of the most popular best actor wins of recent years at the Oscars.
He's continued to work steadily since, with key credits including Killers of the Flower Moon and Rental Family, while he's now also set to reprise his role as Rick O'Connell in a new entry in The Mummy franchise.
9. Pamela Anderson
When it comes to stars who have been dismissed by Hollywood – and especially by the critical elite – they don't come much bigger than Pamela Anderson.
Anderson had become a major global star due to her leading role in 1990s TV sensation Baywatch, but – due in part to the leak of a sex tape in 1995 – she became the subject of much controversy and was rarely seen as a serious actor.
But during the 2020s, she's started a major career resurgence which has also seen her reclaim her own narrative. The comeback arguably began with her acclaimed turn as Roxie Hart in a 2022 Broadway production of Chicago, and has now continued on the big screen as well.
In 2024, she attracted much acclaim – and a Golden Globe nomination – for her role in the drama The Last Showgirl, while she also showed off her comic chops in the 2025 reboot of The Naked Gun, while she has numerous other film projects currently in development.
10. Ke Huy Quan
There can be few career comebacks in recent years that have been more welcomed that that of Ke Huy Quan.
The Vietnamese-American achieved huge success as a child actor in the 1980s thanks to his memorable roles in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies, while he also had TV roles on Together We Stand and Head of the Class.
However, from 2002 he took an almost two-decade break from acting – working as a stunt choreographer and assistant director in that time – only to return for the Netflix film Finding ʻOhana in 2021.
But it was with his role in Everything Everywhere All at Once the following year that he truly made his comeback complete.
After receiving huge acclaim for his role, Quan capped off a dominant awards season by winning the Oscar for best supporting actor, and all sorts of roles have followed since – including supporting parts in Loki and Zootropolis 2.
11. Winona Ryder
Another star who enjoyed huge success in her earlier career only to experience unfortunate personal struggles, Ryder was one of the big stars of the late 1980s and 1990s thanks to roles in films such as Beetlejuice, Heathers, and Edward Scissorhands.
She received Oscar nominations for her roles in The Age of Innocence and Little Women as her career continued to go from strength to strength, but after she was arrested for shoplifting in 2001 she became the subject of intense media scrutiny and took a break from acting in major projects for much of the decade.
Supporting roles in Star Trek and Black Swan saw her begin to return to the spotlight, but it was when she was cast as Joyce Byers on Netflix TV show Stranger Things that she truly became part of the zeitgeist again – with that series becoming one of the most popular in streaming history.
She also reprised her role as Lydia Deetz in Tim Burton's 2024 sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, while next year she's set to join the cast of yet another major Netflix hit in the form of Wednesday.
12. Lindsay Lohan
Another star who achieved huge success early in her career only to become the subject of much media scrutiny is Lindsay Lohan.
Lohan is one of the most famous child stars of all time, breaking through with her incredible dual performance in The Parent Trap and going on to win further acclaim for her lead roles in hits such as Freaky Friday and Mean Girls.
From the mid-2000s, she was hit by a number of personal setbacks including legal issues and addiction struggles, which led to regular rehabilitation stints and a slump in her acting career.
But more recently, she's returned to the spotlight with roles in Netflix original films such as Falling for Christmas and Irish Wish, while last year she reprised one of her most iconic roles in sequel Freakier Friday.
While these films perhaps aren't as critically acclaimed as those described in the entries above, they do prove that Lohan is still a charismatic screen presence who has a lot to offer as an actor.
Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
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