10 of Hollywood's Most Unpredictable Career Arcs

Include the full arc for Mr. Cage.
Bit-part actor (starting out in Fast Times at Ridgemont High) to Oscar winner to starring in direct to DVD crap

 

Who would've thought that Ted (Keanu Reeves) from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure would go on to be an action star in Speed, the Matrix triology, a surfing FBI agent (Point Break) and an NFL quarterback (The Replacements)?

 

Don't forget starring in the 80s classic Valley Girl.

 

What's surprising about that? Actors become directors all the time. Howard was a success at every point in his life because he gets acting and movies.

 

I would add to the list Sean Penn. If you first saw him—as I did—in Fast Times at Ridgemont High—it would have been impossible to predict the overwhelmingly heavy nature of his body of work. He wasn't like Murphy or Hanks, morphing from comedy to drama. He went straight from Jeff Spicoli to the most serious guy in the room.

After Fast Times, Penn must have been offered a hundred stoner scripts in which he played variations of Spicoli. I always thought his career was, to some degree, a reaction to that.

 

My first thought was Travolta...from Sweathog to sex symbol to obscurity to bad ass hit man to overpaid Scientologist.

I also thought of Lindsay Lohan, but I guess her career isn't exactly as unpredictable as her current behavior is. And even her behavior is probably predictable. I wouldn't be surprised by any headline featuring Lohan.

 

Ron Howard, for sure.

 

That's a great call.

 

So far ...
Sean Penn
Keanu Reaves
Ice T
Ice Cube
Mark Wahlberg

I'll add Steve Martin ... comedian, actor to respected - and I think award-winning - Blue Grass musician
Flavor Flav .. Gansta rap to whatever the hell he is now.
Sebastian Bach .... Skid Row to Gilmore Girls. Nobody saw that coming.

 

And don't forget his 5- or 6-year run as Madonna's husband.

 

And he played Hamlet. Go figure.

 

Ben Affleck should be on this list. From lightweight actor/former tabloid cover boy to soon-to-be Oscar-nominated director.