The Greatest Hollywood Comebacks Ever

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The Greatest Hollywood Comebacks Ever
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March is Oscar time, and traditionally any awards season will have its nominees who are on something of a comeback trail – actors whose careers have dipped but then righted themselves again, thanks to a breakthrough performance. This piece looks at such performances, either in awards-bound movies or studio blockbusters, which resurrected careers thought to be permanently over. We look at John Travolta in Pulp Fiction, Renee Zellweger in Judy, Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man, Lauren Bacall in Dogville, Matthew McConaughey’s ‘McConaissance’ period and more, to show how a single performance can turn fallen actors into marquee names.

By Victoria Luxford

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The Greatest Hollywood Comebacks Ever.
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Robert Downey Jr, Iron Man (2008) – The blueprint for any acting comeback was drawn up in the late 2000s, when a man thought to be one of Hollywood’s great lost causes changed the business forever. Following a triumphant breakthrough in films like Air America and Chaplin, a string of legal troubles and substance abuse issues saw Downey become too risky a name for big-budget movies by the turn of the century, despite some impressive performances in smaller films. Jon Favreau decided Downey was worth the gamble, believing Downey’s past would lend credibility to the character of playboy billionaire Tony Stark. It worked, and the rest is history. Iron Man’s success led to the all-conquering Marvel Universe, and Downey became one of the most bankable stars of the past decade.

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Renée Zellweger, Judy (2019) – Sometimes, all you need for a great comeback is a little time away. After a string of hits such as Jerry Maguire, Cold Mountain, Bridget Jones’ Diary and Chicago, the Oscar winner found herself floundering in the late 2000s with a string of forgettable misses. Zellweger took a six-year hiatus from acting between 2010 and 2016, citing fatigue, and came back stronger than ever. The peak of this comeback was Judy, in which Zellweger played the iconic Judy Garland in her final years. The haunting, emotional performance brought the late star to life in a story of struggle and regret, earning Zellweger her second Oscar in the 2020 awards season.

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Judy Garland, A Star Is Born (1954) – The woman Zellweger played had a comeback or two of her own during an infamous career. Having started so young in the business, she was only 32 when she starred in the first remake of A Star Is Born: the film that would give her a much-needed second chance. Arguably her strongest performance, Garland played would-be starlet Esther Blodgett whose sense of grit would distance Garland from the ‘girl next door’ image that had launched her into stardom. More career strife would follow, but for a brief time, the world fell in love with Judy all over again.

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Burt Reynolds, Boogie Nights (1997) – One of the biggest stars of the ‘70s, Burt Reynolds’ career had as many twists as the car chases in his famous Smokey and the Bandit comedies, as he suffered from flops and turned down iconic roles (James Bond, Michael Corleone and Han Solo, to name a few). However, the disco era would save him once again in Paul Thomas Anderson’s breakthrough drama Boogie Nights, where the actor played adult film impresario Jack Horner. It was a performance that rekindled his star quality, exhibiting a grace that came with his advanced years. He won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar, going on to appear in comedies such as The Longest Yard and Dukes of Hazzard before his death in 2018. Sadly, it’s not a film the late actor looked back on fondly, turning down a role in Anderson’s follow-up, Magnolia.

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Laura Dern, The Master (2012) – A bright star of the ‘80s and ‘90s, Dern never really stopped working after the rapturous reception of 1993’s Jurassic Park, although she tended towards interesting supporting roles rather than making headlines. Her talent burst through in 2012’s The Master, however, making audiences take notice despite a relatively small role in a packed cast. She followed that up with hard-hitting biopic Wild, a trip to a galaxy far, far away in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and her most celebrated role in Netflix’s Marriage Story. Combined with TV hit Big Little Lies, movie fans have come to appreciate her ability to make a powerful statement in a variety of roles.

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John Travolta, Pulp Fiction (1994) – Director Quentin Tarantino became known as a master of reinventing actors whose careers were on the skids. The most famous example is John Travolta, whose success with Grease and Saturday Night Fever were a distant memory by the ‘90s. The filmmaker took him from has-been to cinematic icon with Vincent Vega, the ponytailed hitman in Tarantino’s crime anthology. His performance is still timeless today, and the success of the movie has made him a big box-office draw for decades since.

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Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) – If Beale Street Could Talk, filmmaker Barry Jenkins’ follow-up to the epic Moonlight, featured a number of strong performances throughout the film. It was Regina King, however, who took the headlines – and the eventual Oscar – as a mother who tries to help her daughter Tish (KiKi Layne) clear the name of her lover Fonny (Stephan James). The heart-wrenching performance was her first live-action acting role in seven years, and prompted her resurgence both in front of and behind the camera. A prolific performer who had never stopped working on TV, she became the lead in HBO’s Watchmen, is currently on the awards circuit as director of drama One Night in Miami, and will soon star in western The Harder They Fall.

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Michael Keaton, Birdman (2014) – Many actors experience ‘The Curse of the Cape’, where a memorable run in a superhero role leads them to be typecast. Michael Keaton was one such actor, never really capturing the success of his time after playing Batman in Tim Burton’s ‘90s blockbusters. However, the actor made a huge comeback in the 2010s with a role that addressed a few demons; Best Picture winner Birdman saw him play an actor struggling to move past a famous superhero role, and the darkly comic turn thrust him back into the limelight and brought him the dramatic roles he always sought. Ironically, his status also saw him return to superhero movies, this time as a villain in 2017’s Spider-man: Homecoming.

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Lauren Bacall, Dogville (2003) – Any career as long and prestigious as Lauren Bacall’s will have had several highs and lows. However, toward the end of her life, she enjoyed a career resurgence thanks to arthouse director Lars von Trier. In Dogville, the Hollywood legend was stripped of the lavish sets and effects, as she played a shopkeeper in a peaceful town that takes in a fugitive (Nicole Kidman). The success of the film led to a run of memorable performances from Bacall, including Jonathan Glazer’s Birth, also with Kidman, Studio Ghibli’s classic Howl’s Moving Castle, and a fun cameo as herself in 2000s TV drama The Sopranos. Bacall would pass away in 2014, but this final flourish was an apt closing chapter to an incredible career.

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Matthew McConaughey, ‘The McConaissance’ (2011-2014) – Unlike many on this list, Matthew McConaughey wasn’t exactly struggling when his comeback began. A talented dramatic actor, his career had plateaued with a string of high-paying rom-coms that relied on his easy Southern charm. Wanting to challenge himself, he turned down a big paycheque in order to work in a run of low-budget dramas like Killer Joe, Mud and Magic Mike, all of which added edge to his charisma. Nicknamed ‘The McConaissance’, his evolution was confirmed in 2014 when he won an Oscar for The Dallas Buyers Club, and starred in Christopher Nolan’s complex sci-fi Interstellar. The actor never looked back, cementing a legacy that’s more than just “alright, alright, alright”.

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Pam Grier, Jackie Brown (1997) – After hitting big with Travolta, Quentin Tarantino’s follow-up to Pulp Fiction would be Jackie Brown, starring Pam Grier in the lead role. Grier had been a star of 1970s ‘Blaxploitation’ films such as Coffy and Foxy Brown, making her the perfect choice for the director’s crime drama inspired by that era. While consistently working throughout her career, Jackie Brown showcased her capabilities as a dramatic lead, and Grier would go on to find success on the big and small screens, particularly in TV drama The L Word.

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James Coburn, Affliction (1997) – A talent who shone in classics like The Great Escape and The Magnificent Seven, James Coburn’s later career was halted by debilitating rheumatoid arthritis that kept him away from movie sets for most of the 1980s. Having found a treatment for his pain, he experienced a ‘90s renaissance with comedies like Sister Act, Maverick, The Nutty Professor and Monsters Inc. His crowning glory came with Paul Schrader’s Affliction, playing an abusive father to Nick Nolte’s small-town cop. The Oscar he received for the film felt like a victory both for his performance and his personal strength.

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Katharine Hepburn, The Philadelphia Story (1940) – Katherine Hepburn’s comeback story is not one of ‘right place, right time’, but rather an example of a talented artist seizing their own destiny. After starring in films that didn’t gel with the public, she turned to the stage to star in the play The Philadelphia Story, in a role that subverted her somewhat serious public image. After the success of the stage version, she took it to Hollywood, and the crowds went wild. The four-time Oscar winner’s career remained steady thereafter, thanks to that desire to challenge herself in the roles that she took.

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Ben Affleck, Gone Baby Gone (2007) – Sometimes failure can be a good thing. Ben Affleck’s career seemed in tatters after three horrendous releases in the early 2000s – romantic dramas Gigli and Jersey Girl, as well as superhero bomb Daredevil. Affleck returned to his indie roots, opting for more serious roles and turning to directing, starting with the incredible Gone Baby Gone. The dark crime thriller didn’t feature Affleck on screen, but showed his ability as a storyteller, reinventing him as an actor/director who would delight audiences with films like The Town and awards magnet Argo. His rejuvenation seemed complete with his casting as Batman in the DC Cinematic Universe.

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Marlon Brando, The Godfather (1972) – It’s hard to believe, but director Francis Ford Coppola had to fight to get Marlon Brando his most famous role, Don Corleone in The Godfather. By the early ‘70s, Brando was considered a faded star, having made a run of flops and grown a reputation for being difficult. He was also up against the far more credible Sir Laurence Olivier for the part, but luckily Coppola got his first choice – and Brando was incomparable. He would follow this breakthrough with some of his finest work with Coppola in Apocalypse Now.

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The Greatest Hollywood Comebacks Ever

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