9 A-Listers Who Ruined Their Careers

It takes a lot to build a career in the City of Angels, yet one small incident can make all that effort to go down the city sewers. Considering this, we would expect celebrities to be extra careful with what they do in their public – and private – lives. This however is just not the case, and we have numerous instances of big name A-listers who, often unintentionally, did or said stuff that did not go down well with the public. Net result? Sudden extinguishing of their popularity, and with it, their money, credibility and influence in Hollywood. Below, we have nine Hollywood stars who somehow self-destructed and ruined their own careers.

1.Katherine Heigl

Some years back Heigl had a plum role in Grey’s Anatomy and appeared poised to become the next queen of rom-coms. Then the actress let her big mouth loose on the writing of Grey’s and Knocked Up, essentially biting the hands that launched her career. The industry took note. The movies she did thereafter were not well received, and now no one wants to hire her anymore.

2.Ben Affleck

Blame it on Bennifer. Perhaps the Good Will Hunting star should have been told that there’s a limit to the public’s tolerance for his overt relationship with Jennifer Lopez. Then again, perhaps someone should have given him better acting classes so we could have been spared his wooden performances in Daredevil, Paycheck and Gigli. Naturally, Affleck’s career tanked and it took him years of effort to get back on the star charts of Hollywood. Argo and his low-key family life with Jennifer Garner seems to have put him back on the right track.

3.Mel Gibson

Having won two Academy Awards for Braveheart, Gibson appeared to be ensconced as a celebrated screenwriter, director, actor and producer. Sadly, he was caught driving under influence and chose to abuse the officer with a barrage of offensive epithets. If that wasn’t enough, he soon found himself guilty of spousal battery and ended up on tape using some colorful language to threaten his ex. He hasn’t been on the VIP lists of Hollywood since then.

4.Gwyneth Paltrow

Perhaps dating Brad Pitt and winning an Academy Award for Shakespeare In Love went to her head. Whatever the cause, for a long time now Gwyneth has been making insensitive and elitist comments that suggest she’s completely detached from working class reality. Her outlandish lifestyle website Goop didn’t help matters. Needless to say, such snobbish behavior has turned her dreams of remaining one the the Hollywood A-listers into a far-fetched fantasy.

5.Lindsay Lohan

The Mean Girls star was being offered $7.6 million a film when her life began to take a downward turn. Following multiple bouts in rehab, DUIs and plenty of reports about her being difficult to handle, her once promising career seems to be headed towards an early end.

6.Robin Thicke

Only a year back, Thicke was on top of the charts with his hit Blurred Lines and was enjoying a happy marital life. Instead of building on this solid base he took to partying and womanizing, which led to his wife of nine years separating from him. Public attempts to get her back have fizzled, including an awkward dedication of his latest album to her. Now his fans seem to be deserting him as well.

7.Winona Ryder

The Girl Interrupted star was on a roll in the late 80s and 90s, but then she got caught shoplifting at Saks. Since then, her anxiety and depression problems rather than her acting career have been the topic of discussion – and even that buzz is getting increasingly scarce. Sorry, Winona, reality bites.

8.Charlie Sheen

Comfortably settled in a role on Two and a Half Men, Sheen was raking in $1.8 million per episode, which made him the highest paid male television actor of all time. Why he chose to make disparaging remarks about the show’s creator Chuck Lowe we don’t know, but the result was a very public meltdown. Unlike a lot of others people on this list though, he did not have to trudge the hard road back to fame. He owned his bizarre behavior and landed a solid role in Anger Management soon after this debacle.

9.Anna Heche

A television starlet of the 1990s who was turning into a budding film actress, Heche was set to become one of the A-listers when she began publicly dating Ellen Degeneres. Following their break-up, she had a breakdown and seemed to be losing her mind. She wrote book detailing her experiences with mental illness, Call Me Crazy, which described her talking with aliens in strange tongues. Not surprisingly, casting directors no longer offer her many roles.