Val Kilmer has not squandered his potential. He was never the typical hero type. Wonderland, Salton Sea, Tombstone, Heat, Spartan, and apparently Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (haven't see it) showcase just how consistently amazing Kilmer is.

I say:

Ray Liotta - I love the guy, but his choices have been horrible since Goodfellas.
Rutger Hauer - He's always good, in crappy movies.
Jean Reno - He was brilliant in the Professional, but every performance since has been forgettable and sometimes even awful.
Jason Patric - He's a genuinely good actor, but now you see him once every ten years.

Comedy option: The two Coreys.

Not squandering, but making a conscious decision to avoid massive success/popularity while still achieving greatness IMO - Robin Wright Penn.

rob lowe - i think he could have been a big name movie star. his acting is limited but he could have chosen unique roles that fit him like brad pitt has done.

aside from poor movie choices, his other downfall was having a sex tape before sex tapes were in vogue

I think that he put his career on the backburner after he almost croaked from a botched heart operation!

Yeah, it's not like he's doing bad movies, he's not doing any movies.

I think that most SNL alumi could be listed in this thread though. For every one who makes it, there are a dozen who don't seem to even try.

Master of Disguise?

While I don't think he could have been great, he does have a good recurring role on Everybody Hates Chris.

Mira Sorvino. Oscar-winner who recently did a made-for-TV movie with Stephen Dorff and the DVD cover tries to rip off The Bourne Identity cover as well as try to make Dorff look like Jack Bauer.

Charlie Sheen. Squandered his Platoon/Wall Street cred.

Julia Ormond - Plays the female lead in Legends of the Fall, First Knight and Sabrina - all at least modest profit makers. Fights off a lot of other big names to play the lead in Smilla's Feeling for Snow - then nothing.

Also agree with Mira Sorvino. How she went so quickly from oscar winner to virtually nothing was embarrassing.

He's terrific in "First Snow".

I love Ed Burns. . . I really liked "The Groomsmen", which he wrote/directed/starred in, but he's had pretty low-profile projects. His "Purple Violets" doesn't look like it has a release date outside of playing at Tribeca. Seems like he has the lead in "One Missed Call", but being in a horror remake is not really what I'd like to see him doing. . .

I always wondered what happened here too. He is just as good as Mike Myers but didn't have the same luck.

Very true...

Wesley Snipes. Cashed in early on his New Jack City/White Men Can't Jump fame to make some pretty dumb action movies (Demolition Man being an exception), and while it led to Blade, his bad attitude and diminishing returns also led him to the straight-to-video Lundgren/Van Damme/Seagal pile.

Interestingly enough, I don't own any Seagal or Van Damme movies! and don't intend to. :thmbsdwn:

I thought Will Patton was great as Coach Yoast - yet he continues to play such ancillary characters in the most recent film's he chosen to be in.

For some reason Lindsey Lohan comes to mind today. Ok, maybe not great, but pretty good. Well, not terribly good, but at least cute.

Robert Guillaume - not his fault, probably, but should've gotten much more visibility after "Benson."

Edward Furlong was Hollywood's golden child after Terminator 2 came out. He's blown any chance of a career with drugs ever since.

Natasha Lyonne

What kind of career with drugs would anyone want? A pharmacist?

Isn't Lindsey Lohan not just a "Train wreck waiting to happen", but a "Train wreck happening"?

She comes to mind most days.

How come no one has said ROBERT DE NIRO and AL PACINO? These two greatest actors have been good co-starring, but they haven't been the leads in any successful movies for about 10 years!!! Pacino's last successful movies in which he was the lead was 2002's INSOMNIA and 1997's DEVIL'S ADVOCATE. DE NIRO's last sucessful movies in which he was the lead was 1998's RONIN and mid-90's HEAT, THE FAN, and CASINO (Eventhough he was funny in the Analyze This/That movies and the Meet the Parents/Fockers movies, I don't count them, because they aren't serious flicks).

These two actors were bad-asses, is it because they are too old that they can't be the main headliners anymore? People will pay money to see De Niro or Pacino in respectable serious headlining (not co-starring) roles again.

That's because you didn't read the thread title closely enough! :D

I dont think she was mentioned: Heather Graham