Was watching Road to Perdition again...I absolutely love this movie. Anyways I thought Tom Hanks' kid in that movie did a decent job and wasn't once annoying. Then I looked him up for other roles that he's done but he hasn't done any other noticble roles in movies, but only in TV. This got me thinking for young actors, doesn't have to be child actors per say, that had promising starts but never really did anything else. The only other actors that I could think of would be the kid that played Short Round (I know that he was also in the Goonies but disappeared after that right?), and River Phoenix (died but the potential was still there).

Just about every member of Our Gang (Little Rascals). With two exceptions--Jackie Cooper and Robert Blake.

We've had numerous threads on the same topic, check some of these out. The search engine kind of sucks, but if you play around you can find what you are looking for (I found all of these by searching for Gretchen Moll )

Who were the up-and-coming actors that never became huge stars?

What actor are you surpised isn't a bigger star?

How did ______ not become a star?

Actors hyped as the next big thing after ONE Movie but who died off just as fast

Young Actor/Actresses whose Careers have already JUMPED THE SHARK

1. Corey Feldman - I thought he was the Jack Nicholson of kid actors when I was a kid. Not a good adult actor.

2. Q'orianka Kilcher - after The New World, nowhere to be seen?

3. Giorgio Cantarini - the cute kid in Life is Beautiful and Maximus' son in Gladiator. I hope he has a career in Italy.

4. Catinca Untaru - the main girl in The Fall. She should have been Oscar-nominated.

5. John Francis Daley - the main kid from Freaks and Geeks. He's busy on tv though, but maybe Judd will write a movie for him.

6. the whole cast of Undeclared - besides Jay Baruchel and Seth Rogan, the rest of the cast seems to be left in the dust.

7. The two kids that portrayed the John Lone Pu Yi character in the Last Emperor - when I saw this film as a kid, I thought those two kids were larger than life (because they were playing emperors)

8. Everlyn Sampi - the main Aborigine girl from Rabbit-Proof Fence.

9. Yorlis Domínguez from Maroa - I'm sure most of you haven't seen this Spanish/Venezuelan film, but if you do, you will understand why she's on this list.

10. Craig Warnock - the main kid in Time Bandits.

11. Ivana Baquero from Pan's Labyrinth - the main girlI hope she's gonna succeed.

my bad

Most new threads are rehashings or re-wordings of old ones. It's not a big deal to start a new thread. If you are annoyed, don't write in it.

That James Franco never amounted to much did he.

Um...Yeah...James Franco was never in Undeclared

I wasn't annoyed, I was informing him that we've had numerous threads on this topic and that maybe he should search to see if he can find something similar before making a new one. Pretty simple if you ask me.

oops got it confused with freaks & geeks for some reason.

Ashleigh Aston Moore

Jason Segel appears to be doing just fine.

Same with Charlie Hunnam, who's got his own show now (Sons of Anarchy).

If you are naming people who are still kids (the girl from The Fall, the girl from Pan's Labyrinth), then I don't think it is fair to say that they never fulfilled their potential. They still have plenty of chances to make it big, assuming they want to be actors in the first place.