“Call Me Crazy, But Ryan Reynolds”: Users Online Name 30 Actors Who Managed To Revive Their Career With A Single Role

Well it's not a lock yet but I'm hoping Brendan Fraser's career resurgence continues. I'm going to see The Whale when it hits the theaters, if we go out in force to support him the dumbasses in Hollywood will see that he's still a big box office draw and continue to cast him.

RDJ talkers in here haven't seen Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. That's what saved him. It got him Iron Man.

Sean Connery's career in the early 1980s had just completely fallen off the rails. He was in some bad non A-list films throughout the '70s. Couldn't shake the shadow of James Bond.

Then Brian DePalma cast him in The Untouchables. He got nominated for his amazing role and his career was back on track doing films like Indiana Jones, The Hunt for Red October, and The Rock. Great Hollywood comeback.

Yeah, John Travolta has a f**king airport at his house because of Pulp Fiction.

Incidentally, I remember listening to an interview after Christoph Waltz had been nominated for a second time for a Quentin movie, and he gracefully expressed his appreciation for Tarantino having found him and gotten him better opportunities, but also said, "He gave me my break, but he didn't give me my craft," and I thought that was a great way of making that point.

Troy McClure

He went from such schlock as ‘The Muppets Go Medieval’ and ‘The President’s Neck Is Missing’ to the latest McBain movie and legitimate theatre like ‘Stop The Planet Of The Apes, I Want To Get Off’

Bryan Cranston - Walter White. No role could have offered such a perfect platform to show his range and make him employable for the rest of his life.

with Malcolm having ended, it would have been easy for Cranston to slip into obscurity until retirement, which isn’t exactly the end of a career but likely a steady pay decrease going forward. One thing is for sure, without breaking bad we’d be wondering “whatever happened to Hal, he was great”

Call me crazy but Ryan Reynolds wasn't looking too good after Green Lantern hit. I was honestly worried about him since I'm a huge fan of the comedic style he has and used on Van Wilder.

I think if he hadn't made Deadpool, he may have been in trouble.

Winona Ryder with Stranger Things.

Matthew McConaughey. He was doing all rom coms and b movies. Then he came out with Dallas Buyers Club, True Detective, and Interstellar.

He had an interview on Stern where he said how he decided to reinvent himself or kill his career trying. So he turned down the easy money rom coms he was getting offered. He didn't get a single movie offer for 14 months before he started getting more "real" roles.

Paul Bettany had just walked out of a meeting where he was told he'd never work again in Hollywood. He went outside, sat on a park bench, and got a phone call offering him Jarvis.

Jessica Lange, American Horror Story. Definitely brought her back into much relevancy to a new generation.

Jason Bateman. Before he did Arrested Development he pretty much was relegated to bit parts in movies and TV. Afterwards he was getting leading roles again.

Michael Keaton had a renaissance after Birdman. Such a good actor, weird that he kind of vanished having been an A-lister in the late '80s, early '90s.

James Cromwell career took off after he got the Oscar nod for Babe.(I thought he deserved it btw)

Pierce Brosnan was Remington Steele and then a whole lot of nothing aside from the guy who got drilled in the head with some fruit in Mrs. Doubtfire. Then he became many peoples favorite Bond.

Drew Barrymore & Scream. Her teenage years were a little rocky & it wasn't really clear if she'd carry her childhood success into adulthood or not. After Scream, people started to pay more attention to her and good roles started coming in again.

Neil Patrick Harris. Though I wouldn’t say “Harold and kumar go to White Castle” was a great role. But, it definitely put him back on the Hollywood radar, and landed “how I met your mother”.

Wasn’t it the situation with Leslie Nielsen in Airplane? His serious acting career was basically over but the movie kick started his comedy acting career.

And didn’t Taken revive Liam Neeson’s career as he was “too old” at that point to get leading roles, especially in action movies?

Ingrid Bergman in 'Anastasia'

Persona non grata in the US, over her affair with Roberto Rossellini, and even denounced on the US Senate floor in 1950.

Won the Oscar in that movie.

Kurt Russell had a couple.

He was a Disney kid actor whose career was finished until he did the 1-2 punch of Used Cars and Escape From New York. Though it could also be kickstarted by his Emmy winning performance in “Elvis”

He then became an action and comedy star for the next 25 years until Death Proof, then he went radio silent until Furious 7 brought him back into the limelight. Then he did Bone Tomahawk, Hateful Eight, Guardians vol 2, and so on