17 Celebrities Who — Let’s Face It — Kinda Destroyed Their Own Careers

Warning: This post mentions drug addiction and rape.

There’s something both fascinating and tragic about watching a celebrity throw away their own success — especially when the full story reveals they weren’t entirely acting alone.

While some stars let their egos and bad decisions wreck their careers, others were steered toward self-sabotage by toxic relationships, industry pressures, or misguided attempts at reinvention.

DUTCH/Bauer-Griffin / GC Images via Getty

Earlier this year, I highlighted nearly two dozen celebrities who were entirely f*cked over by Hollywood. The flip side of this would be stars who went into self-destruct mode and fumbled their careers as a result.

I recently came across a viral post on r/AskReddit that asked users to name Hollywood stars who had “squandered their own careers.” Some of the most infamous cases involved celebrities who self-destructed — whether on social media or on set — turning their reputations to ash and derailing years of hard work.

But not every downfall was the result of reckless behavior. For many, especially women, personal choices that had little to do with their public personas ended up costing them opportunities they might have otherwise seized.

Whether it was a high-profile meltdown, a career-killing scandal, or a seemingly small decision that had irreversible consequences, these celebrities all played a role in their own downfall — but not always without a push from outside forces:

Note: these entries have been edited for length/clarity. 

2. “Katie Holmes had so many projects until she got with Tom Cruise.”

3. “Jennifer Grey (Dirty Dancing, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) was sensitive about her large nose because of her school years and early acting career. With Dirty Dancing being a hit, she finally had the money to get a rhinoplasty. Unfortunately, Hollywood disagreed and felt she lost her distinctive look; she was deemed too plain for the big screen and couldn’t build off her success. She continued working but didn’t get to have a career as a leading lady.”

4. “Ja Rule turned down an offer to remain in the Fast & Furious franchise after the original movie because he thought they were lowballing him with their offer. After he turned them down, they wrote in a new character to fill the slot in the script that Ja Rule would have had and gave the part to Ludacris.”

5. “Lillo Brancato. He broke out in A Bronx Tale, had a good supporting character in Crimson Tide, and had a recurring role in The Sopranos. He became addicted to heroin and was involved in a home invasion robbery where his accomplice murdered the off-duty police officer living there. Promising career right down the toilet like in Trainspotting.”

6. “Lea Michele. The lead in the Funny Girl revival was hers for the taking, but she spent her entire career being mean and difficult to work with, and now — shocker — no one wants to work with her.”

7. “I used to love Boy Meets World, and based on interviews they did after the show, they all thought they would be big, but none of them got any work for a while. I think they’re all working now in various fields, but I’m surprised they didn’t immediately shoot in popularity once the show ended.”

8. “Charlie Sheen could have been one of the greats. Went from Platoon in 1986 to Wall Street in 1987, and then he shot his fiancé and future wife of John Travolta, Kelly Preston, in the arm “accidentally” by 1990. And then a series of ups and downs before we all saw the unraveling into tiger blood and ‘winning’ two decades later.

9. “Pretty sure Gina Carano squandered her career.”

10. “Katherine Heigl was everywhere, and then gone. She bad-mouthed so many people, writers, shows, and movies that it was inevitable.”

11. “Kevin Spacey. You know why.”

12. “Not an actor, but Mike Richards destroyed his career by seemingly giving himself the Jeopardy hosting job.

13. “Michael Richards from Seinfeld. But at least he’s not at the top of the Google results anymore.”

14. “James Franco. I’m surprised no one brought him up yet.”

15. “I’d argue Shia Labeouf, but despite everything that has happened he still seems to remain active.”

16. “Joe Son, the guy who played Random Task in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. He was arrested for vandalism, and then when the police took a DNA sample, they found he was also guilty in a rape case several years prior. And then he killed his cellmate, so he’ll be in jail until the 2030s.”

17. “Crispin Glover. After Back To The Future, he could have built a great career, except he was really a strange person and not very good at hiding it. Though he has been able to consistently find work in low-budget/indie projects, he could have been an A-lister if he weren’t such an oddball.”

18. “Cas Anvar. He was the main character in The Expanse, a SciFi show that has been skyrocketing in popularity since being picked up by Amazon. He had credible accusations of sexual harassment leveled against him that ended with him being removed from the show.”