Some movies make careers, other films end them but what are the best movies and TV shows that actually revitalized some stars’ careers? From Oscar-worthy dramas to binge-worthy TV, many Hollywood flicks and TV shows restore some actors to their former glory days.
In the long history of the silver screen, career comebacks make for an irresistible Cinderella story where once-discarded talent make a roaring return to the spotlight to remind us why we loved them in the first place. Other times, an actor has been pigeonholed and typecast into a certain light, only for a project to change how we see them forever.
Some of the most beloved movies and best TV shows of all time happen to star actors undergoing a career reboot. These outings are proof of giving second chances, so here are 32 movies and TV shows that revitalized careers.
32. The Whale, with Brendan Fraser
Year: 2022
Director: Darren Aronofsky
During the peak of the #MeToo movement, Brendan Fraser gave a revealing interview to GQ in 2018, recalling an incident of assault by a powerful producer; subsequent depression over it led to his career stalling hard after reaching dizzying heights in the early 2000s. While Fraser had some noteworthy TV roles in the late 2010s, namely Doom Patrol, his starring role in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale restored Fraser’s career image. His sympathetic performance as a morbidly obese man desperate to reconnect with his daughter drew acclaim and was a highlight over the movie’s own shortcomings as a drama. The part won Fraser his first Oscar for Best Actor.
31. 24, with Kiefer Sutherland
Year: 2001
Creator(s): Joel Surnow, Robert Cochran
Kiefer Sutherland was born into acting royalty, being the son of Donald Sutherland and Shirley Douglas. But while Sutherland maintained a career in movies throughout the 1980s and 1990s, it wasn’t until he starred in the smash hit TV series 24, beginning in 2001, that Sutherland earned his own household name. Over the course of its lengthy run, Sutherland became known for his portrayal of action hero Jack Bauer, a federal agent who goes to great lengths to get his job done. The series cemented Sutherland’s celebrity, affording him a career outside the shadow of his thespian father.
30. Cobra Kai, with Ralph Macchio and William Zabka
Year: 2018
Creator(s): Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg
Prompted by a guest appearance on the sitcom How I Met Your Mother, actors Ralph Macchio and William Zabka revived their teenage rivalry from the Karate Kid movies for the legacy sequel series Cobra Kai. The success of the show, which flips the script on the movies to follow an adult Johnny Lawrence (Zabka) as the underdog hero, allowed Macchio and Zabka to attract a new audience who might never have seen the original Karate Kid movies. The success of the movies led to the 2025 movie Karate Kid: Legends, with Macchio co-starring with Jackie Chan in a crossover of the two different films.
29. The Wrestler, with Mickey Rourke
Year: 2008
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Mickey Rourke’s exile from Hollywood was for only a few years, but the short years away did a number on his once-sterling profile. After appearing in a string of unremarkable movies in the 2000s, Rourke bounced back with a noteworthy role in the 2005 comic book tentpole Sin City. The part gave Rourke momentum to star in Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, a harrowing drama about a has-been professional wrestler trying to stage a career comeback. The parallels between Rourke and his character cannot be overstated. The movie earned the star an Oscar nomination for Best Actor (he lost to Sean Penn in Milk) and thrust Rourke back into the mainstream. He starred in the Marvel blockbuster Iron Man 2 shortly after.
28. Airplane!, with Leslie Nielsen
Year: 1980
Director(s): Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker
Surely, we are serious. It’s hard to fathom it now, but Leslie Nielsen was once a “serious” actor with movies like Forbidden Planet and The Poseidon Adventure, his starring role in Airplane! was a revelation due to his expert deadpan delivery. In later interviews, Nielsen stated that he always dreamed of doing comedy and relished the opportunity. The success of Airplane! allowed Nielsen to star in more cinematic comedies, including leading the Naked Gun series to appearing in parody movies like Scary Movie 3 and Superhero Movie. Among his last movies before his death were the comedies Stan Helsing and the low-budget Stonerville.
27. Wild, with Reese Witherspoon
Year: 2014
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée
In “High School Never Ends” by Bowling For Soup, Reese Witherspoon is “the prom queen.” In Hollywood, it was true for a time. Following a string of teen movie hits like Cruel Intentions and Legally Blonde, Witherspoon maturation as an actress peaked early with Walk the Line in 2005 before languishing in mediocrity. It wasn’t until 2014’s Wild, based on the memoir by Cheryl Strayed, that Witherspoon regained attention as a serious actress, playing a self-destructive young woman who goes on a walkabout along the Pacific Crest Trail. Witherspoon received a nomination for Best Actress at the Academy Awards, and the movie reinforced herstanding in Hollywood to expand into entrepreneurship.
26. Pulp Fiction, with John Travolta
Year: 1994
Director: Quentin Tarantino
It goes to show you never really can tell. After his disco days in Saturday Night Fever and Grease were far behind him, John Travolta was practically persona non grata in Hollywood until he portrayed the ice-cool Los Angeles hitman Vincent in the ’90s crime masterpiece Pulp Fiction, directed by Quentin Tarantino. While Travolta would again see career setbacks and comebacks afterward, not to mention some wickedly weird appearances at the Oscars, his starring role in Pulp Fiction is legendary for giving Travolta his groove back.
25. Peaky Blinders, with Cillian Murphy
Year: 2013
Creator: Steven Knight
For years, Cillian Murphy was entrenched in the public eye as a supporting actor, a veteran who was more than talented enough to be in tons of movies but lacked that leading man X factor. His fortunes changed in 2013 when Murphy landed the lead role in the BBC’s hit period crime drama Peaky Blinders, which enjoyed a worldwide audience from Netflix streaming. It would be another ten years, but in 2023, Murphy’s profile was finally big enough to star in Oppenheimer, helmed by frequent Murphy collaborator Christopher Nolan. The role ultimately won him the Oscar for Best Actor, a decision that was no rocket science.
24. Deadpool, with Ryan Reynolds
Year: 2016
Director: Tim Miller
Once a romantic comedy powerhouse, Ryan Reynolds was at a career crossroads in the early 2010s after the disastrous Green Lantern. As other attempts at a tentpole franchise failed, a proof-of-concept trailer with Reynolds as the Marvel antihero Deadpool leaked online. (Reynolds had been working on the project behind the scenes for years, encountering problems with executives over creativity and commercial viability along the way.) The viral buzz over the leaked trailer finally gave Reynolds leverage to pursue Deadpool as an irreverent R-rated action-comedy, which made the movie an immense success when it opened in February 2016. It’s been blue skies and rainbows for Reynolds’ maximum efforts ever since.
23. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, with Danny DeVito
Year: 2005
Creator: Rob McElhenney
In the mid-2000s, Danny DeVito was hardly a has-been actor. But in a time when the lines separating movies and TV were still firmly drawn – the year 2005 – DeVito got roped into the low-budget FX comedy It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the end result being beneficial for both parties. While DeVito was a late addition to the cast insisted on by the network, the Always Sunny crew has since stated that DeVito was the last piece of the puzzle that took their show to a new level, adding to the show’s menacing chaos in a way that only the sour and stout DeVito could offer.
22. In Bruges, with Colin Farrell
Year: 2008
Director: Martin McDonagh
Colin Farrell was by no means washed-up when he starred in In Bruges in 2008. Farrell was a certified Hollywood heartthrob and a staple presence in the tabloids. But perhaps it was precisely that ubiquity that made his multi-layered performance in the crime comedy In Bruges – where Farrell plays a London hitman hiding out in Belgium – so revelatory. The movie transformed Farrell from an overexposed movie star to a prestige artist whose involvement suggests quality. While Farrell still had a few studio comedies and mid-budget thrillers under his belt, In Bruges set Farrel on a path to lead exceptionally interesting projects as varied as The Lobster (2015), The Beguiled (2017), Widows (2018), and After Yang (2021). It’s why when Colin Farrell eventually became The Penguin for both The Batman and the HBO series, few blinked.
21. Hollywoodland, with Ben Affleck
Year: 2006
Director: Allen Coulter
Ben Affleck’s career is dotted by superheroes. Around the time he suited up as Marvel’s Daredevil, Affleck saw a career downturn where his magazine looks, and shark-like aura were misaligned with the scripts and projects that came his way. On top of the pressures of being a tabloid fixture, Affleck stepped back from acting for a time until he came roaring back as a true artist in his portrayal of actor George Reeves in Hollywoodland. Affleck was lauded for his performance – one that happened to place him in a Superman costume – which gave him the clout to direct his own movies, which also drew acclaim. These days, it feels like Affleck is bulletproof, whether he’s playing caped crusaders or not.
20. Iron Man, with Robert Downey, Jr.
Year: 2008
Director: Jon Favreau
Robert Downey Jr.’s epic career comeback actually predates Iron Man, the Marvel movie that rocketed Marvel Studios to historic heights. In 2005, the actor starred in Shane Black’s crime caper Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, in a role that many in Hollywood saw as a comeback for RDJ after years of legal issues, arrests, rehab, and jail. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang bombed at the box office, but RDJ’s focused performance got him the attention of director Jon Favreau, who saw superheroic potential in the reborn Downey Jr. Suffice to say, that potential was there and then some, as RDJ is irreplaceable as a comic book superhero that went from C-list benchwarmer to A-list Avenger.
19. True Detective, with Matthew McConaughey
Year: 2014
Creator: Nic Pizzolatto
From chasing high school girls in Dazed and Confused to leading romantic comedies with Kate Hudson and Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew McConaughey was for so long a Hollywood sex symbol who couldn’t figure out how to shed that image. It wasn’t until he co-starred with Woody Harrelson in the acclaimed crime thriller True Detective did McConaughey show he was more than “Alright (alright, alright).” As haunted Louisiana detective Rust Cohle, McConaughey – who earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor – mesmerized critics and audiences with a disturbing portrait of a man covered in cigarette ashes with literally nothing to lose except his soul.
18. Halloween, with Jamie Lee Curtis
Year: 2018
Director: David Gordon Green
The “Scream Queen,” Jamie Lee Curtis, never really suffered a career downturn, per se, having always enjoyed respect and reverence among her peers. But after years in the industry, Curtis stepped away from Hollywood circa 2004 to be with her family. While she later returned to work, her slow output of network TV gigs and voiceovers for Studio Ghibli movies was far from the relentless schedule she once had. Then came Halloween, the 2018 legacy sequel that saw Curtis reprise her Laurie Strode, now a hardened survivor determined to face Michael Myers one last time. The movie’s massive box office success and acclaim not only renewed the Halloween franchise but gave Curtis momentum to appear in 2022’s Everything Everywhere All at Once, a role that won her her first Oscar.
17. Everything Everywhere All at Once, with Ke Huy Quan
Year: 2022
Director: The Daniels
For a long time, it seemed as if “Short Round” was a forgotten memory. Ke Huy Quan was a child actor who walked away from Hollywood due to a lack of opportunities for Asian male actors. Inspired by Crazy Rich Asians around 2018, Ke Huy Quan returned to the industry, eventually landing the male lead of the Daniels’ mad cap sci-fi drama Everything Everywhere All at Once, which earned him his first-ever Oscar. Ke Huy Quan’s mesmerizing return was the Cinderella story of that year’s Oscars ceremony, proof that it’s never, ever too late to chase your dreams.
16. Stranger Things, with Winona Ryder
Year: 2016
Creator(s): Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer
Winona Ryder was arguably the Hollywood It Girl of the early 1990s, enjoying a career working with auteurs like Jim Jarmusch, Francis Ford Coppola, and Martin Scorsese; her role in James Mangold’s Girl, Interrupted in 1999 won her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. But as soon as the new millennium came, Ryder’s career stalled amid legal issues (including charges of shoplifting) and a bout of depression made worse by bad prescriptions. While Ryder slowly made her comeback, including a noteworthy part in Black Swan, it was the massive success of the Netflix series Stranger Things that restored Ryder’s old glory.
15. Yellowstone, with Kevin Costner
Year: 2018
Creator(s): Taylor Sheridan, John Linson
The rocky waters of Waterworld was the beginning of a long struggle for Kevin Costner, whose many film projects could never bring him back to the heights he saw with movies like The Untouchables (1988), Dances With Wolves (1990), and The Bodyguard (1991). But it wasn’t until Costner made the pivot from movies to TV and starred in Taylor Sheridan’s epic neo-Western series Yellowstone, where Costner took center stage as the patriarch of a ranch. Though Costner later left the show due to creative differences, the show recemented Costner’s standing as a Hollywood outlaw figure and not just a has-been from the late ’80s.
14. Birdman, with Michael Keaton
Year: 2014
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
After ruling the ’80s and ’90s, a period that included not one but two outings as the iconic Batman, Michael Keaton saw a career come down in the new millennium. Forays into voice-acting aside, few movies of Keaton’s during the 2000s and 2010s made waves. But in 2014, Mexican auteur Alejandro González Iñárritu sought Keaton for the lead role of his experimental drama Birdman, a movie about a has-been actor remembered for an old superhero franchise who stages his comeback in an off-Broadway play. The movie, which earned him an Oscar nomination, reignited momentum for Keaton, who went back to acclaimed dramas (like 2015’s Spotlight) and big-budget blockbusters (like 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming).
13. Santa Clarita Diet, with Drew Barrymore
Year: 2017
Creator: Victor Fresco
After a long career in movies, Drew Barrymore made the leap to streaming TV in 2017, starring in Netflix’s horror sitcom Santa Clarita Diet. At the time, Barrymore’s career hadn’t necessarily slowed or become washed up, but it was definitely in need of some zest. Turns out, Barrymore playing a California real estate agent who slowly morphs into a flesh-eating zombie was exactly what the doctor ordered, as the success of the show gave Barrymore renewed relevancy. After the show was canceled in 2019, Barrymore starred in the talk show The Drew Barrymore Show, which won acclaim for Barrymore’s earnest subversion of sedated talk show conventions.
12. John Wick, with Keanu Reeves
Year: 2014
Director: Chad Stahelski
It had been a long time since Keanu Reeves was “The One.” After The Matrix, which already rebooted Reeves’ career once, the actor again languished in projects that failed to excite audiences. He also spent time working on documentaries and made his directorial debut in the criminally overlooked martial arts movie The Man of Tai Chi. But in 2014, Reeves came roaring back to birth a new era-defining action franchise. 2014’s John Wick gave Reeves his action-hero chops back. The years since have seen Reeves star in both low budget auteur pictures and sequels to his own past hits like The Matrix and Bill & Ted.
11. How I Met Your Mother, with Neil Patrick Harris
Year: 2005
Creator(s): Carter Bays, Craig Thomas
This one is legend–wait for it–dary. Even when laugh track sitcoms had become passe, former ’80s teen star Neil Patrick Harris found renewed relevance when he played philandering monster Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother. (His image as one of few out gay men in Hollywood at the time did nothing to muddy his role.) Harris’ time on the series put him back to regular work, including major hosting gigs for the Tonys, Emmys, and Oscars for several years. The actor even had his own short-lived live variety show, Best Time Ever with Neil Patrick Harris, in 2015.
10. Good Time, with Robert Pattinson
Year: 2017
Director(s): The Sadie Brothers
The Twilight series made Robert Pattinson a star as much as they boxed him in, with the actor struggling to break free from glittering vampires and teen romances for years after. Although Pattinson’s peers and film critics knew that Pattinson had range, such as in the polarizing 2012 drama Cosmopolis by David Cronenberg, the mainstream didn’t pay him mind until Good Time, directed by the Safdie Brothers in 2017. Pattinson’s manic performance of a street thief trying to break his brother out of jail found a cult audience online, allowing Pattinson to be more than “Edward Cullen” in the eyes of online film buffs. By 2022, Pattinson was the new Bruce Wayne in Matt Reeves’ revered standalone superhero movie, The Batman.
9. The Mandalorian, with Carl Weathers
Year: 2019
Creator: Jon Favreau
With his days boxing Rocky Balboa behind him, the late Carl Weathers was simply a working actor with bit roles in movies and network TV guest appearances throughout the 2000s and 2010s. But when the Disney Plus platform launched with the hit Star Wars show The Mandalorian, who else was there but Carl Weathers playing a key role as bounty broker Greef Karga, a part that earned him an Emmy nomination and a new generation of fans who’ve since rediscovered his roles in the Rocky and Predator movies. It’s a testament to Weathers’ talent that the role, slated for just three episodes in the beginning, expanded to feature in multiple seasons.
8. Fargo, with Kirsten Dunst
Year: 2014
Creator: Noah Hawley
Kirsten Dunst was by no means old news at any point in her career. After holding her own against Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise in Interview with the Vampire at only age 11, Dunst went on to become a ’90s teen queen before working with auteurs like Sofia Coppola, Michel Gondry, and Lars von Trier. But Dunst’s leading role in Season 2 of the acclaimed anthology series Fargo was a reinvention for Dunst, with the actress demonstrating depth and range not yet seen by many in her long career. The role elevated Dunst’s standing to become an artiste, with further projects like On Becoming a God in Central Florida and the 2021 film The Power of the Dog cementing her as an actress of note.
7. The Good Place, with Ted Danson
Year: 2016
Creator: Michael Schur
Cheers had long closed up for business when Ted Danson appeared as the seemingly inviting “angel” Michael in the NBC sitcom The Good Place. Though Danson had relevancy thanks to shows like CSI and Fargo, the mind-blowing Season 1 finale allowed Danson to show greater range beyond his gee-shucks Michael. With a bone-chilling demonic giggle and a red-hot sneer, The Good Place earned massive acclaim, with particular praise directed towards Danson to be an actor with far more in his toolbox than anyone knew. After The Good Place, Danson kept starring in more TV comedies like Mr. Mayor and A Man on the Inside.
6. Crazy Rich Asians, with Michelle Yeoh
Year: 2018
Director: Jon M. Chu
Michelle Yeoh had already retired from acting once when she took over Hong Kong in the ’90s as one of the industry’s leading action heroines. After taking her career to Hollywood in the new millennium, Yeoh saw ebbs and flows in the industry, with few movies of note. A leading role in the series Star Trek Discovery gave Yeoh momentum before her major role in the wildly successful 2018 rom-com Crazy Rich Asians. The success of the movie brought renewed attention to Yeoh, which saw the actress play a tough but fair affluent mother with suspicions against the middle-class Chinese-American woman dating her Malaysian prince of a son. A few years later, Yeoh starred in the acclaimed hit Everything Everywhere All at Once, which earned her her first Oscar for Best Actress.
5. Westworld, with Thandiwe Newton
Year: 2016
Creator(s): Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy
Violent delights have violent ends, but not for Thandiwe Newton. While the actress starred in many major Hollywood movies throughout the new millennium, Newton saw a whole new level of attention and acclaim from her leading performance as Maeve in the buzzy HBO series Westworld. The series elevated Newton’s profile, earning her three consecutive Emmy nominations during the show’s run and reinventing her image from Hollywood supporting player to acting artiste. Prior to the series, Newton contemplated retirement from acting.
4. Breaking Bad, with Bryan Cranston
Year: 2008
Creator: Vince Gilligan
Once a voiceover actor whose monsters were slayed by the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Bryan Cranston found footing as a wholesome TV dad in the sitcom Malcolm in the Middle. That wholesome image was clay in the hands of producer Vince Gilligan, whose hit crime drama Breaking Bad sees Cranston’s Walter White evolve from cancer-stricken chemistry teacher to drug kingpin. The monster popularity of Breaking Bad won Cranston Emmys for his work, and respect that persists to this day as Cranston has taken on new projects, both big and small. In 2017, Cranston’s career came full circle when he starred in the big-budget reboot movie Power Rangers.
3. Silver Linings Playbook, with Robert De Niro
Year: 2012
Director: David O. Russell
Robert De Niro hardly ever vanished from screens, but his output of mediocre movies in the 2000s was a far cry from the heights he stood on before. In 2012, De Niro came roaring back in Silver Linings Playbook, a romantic comedy that sees De Niro play the Philadelphia Eagles-obsessed father of Bradley Cooper. The movie rebuilt De Niro’s reputation as one of the greatest actors of all time, with Russell allowing De Niro to show weary masculinity and vulnerability in a way he hadn’t in years. The movie earned De Niro a nomination for Best Supporting Actor at that year’s Academy Awards. After Silver Linings Playbook, the actor returned to leading man parts, including Martin Scorsese’s gangster epic The Irishman.
2. The West Wing, with Martin Sheen
Year: 1999
Creator: Aaron Sorkin
When The West Wing was originally conceived, the show’s in-universe President of the United States was never meant to be seen. The focus was originally only on his staffers. But in came Martin Sheen, imbuing the role with the dignity of a gentleman and the eloquence of a scholar. Sheen’s “President Bartlett” not only became an attraction for the show, but allowed Martin Sheen’s career to bounce back into the realm of prestige. Though Sheen’s star never really fell, the ’90s saw the actor in unremarkable thrillers and long-forgotten made-for-TV movies. It took his time in the Oval Office to make Sheen great again.
1. The Godfather, with Marlon Brando
Year: 1972
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
It’s hard to imagine a world where Don Corleone was played by anyone other than Marlon Brando. While The Godfather author Mario Puzo advocated for Brando, studio executives at Paramount balked. (They wanted Orson Welles.) Brando was all but retired from acting and no longer the bankable star he used to be, on top of a reputation for being a short fuse and hard to work with. After a screen test where Brando stuck cotton balls in his mouth, Brando was cast, and the rest is history. You might say: He made them an offer they couldn’t refuse.
