For every celebrity out there with a long and successful career, there are probably a dozen who experience some success, only to fade away just as quickly as they came. Fame is a fickle mistress, after all.
But even more rare is the celebrity who sees success, is somehow moved out of the spotlight, only to battle back to center stage. This is a list of celebrities who overcame the odds to have a second act in their careers…
Carlos Santana
Santana was introduced to many by his legendary performance at the Woodstock festival in 1969. He released several acclaimed albums in the years that followed but as musical tastes drifted away from his brand of blues, rock, and jazz, he faded into obscurity by the early ‘90s. In 1999, he exploded back onto the scene with the single Smooth, which dominated charts for weeks. The subsequent album Supernatural won 8 Grammys and was Santana’s most successful.
Matthew McConaughey
After a breakout role in the 1993 film Dazed And Confused, McConaughey became known for doing romantic comedies like The Wedding Planner and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. But as the rom-coms he was in dropped off in quality, so did his career. Things turned around for him beginning in 2014 with a string of critically acclaimed roles in Magic Mike, The Wolf of Wall Street, True Detective, and Dallas Buyers Club, which earned him an Oscar.
Leah Remini
For nine seasons, America watched Remini star alongside Kevin James in the sitcom The King of Queens. After the show ended, she had less success, working on a few short-lived shows. She then had a very public falling out with the church of Scientology and became a vocal opponent of them. She wrote a bestselling memoir on the subject and earned an Emmy for a documentary about Scientology. She even went back to TV stardom opposite Kevin James in a new show called Kevin Can Wait.
Neil Patrick Harris
Harris began his career as a child actor and it appeared that his career peaked in his teens when he starred as the kid doctor in Doogie Howser, M.D. After its conclusion, he didn’t have too many notable roles until he played an over the top, raucous version of himself in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle in 2004, then was cast in 2005 as Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother.
Missy Elliott
Though she had previously written, produced, and performed backup for artists like Jodeci, Aaliyah, and Destiny’s Child, “Misdemeanor” wasn’t well known to the public until her 1997 debut album Supa Dupa Fly and it’s hit single The Rain. Known for her iconic music videos, she released several more albums before she largely disappeared from the spotlight in the 2000s. Elliott went back to writing and producing for others before coming back into the public eye with a Super Bowl performance in 2015.
Mayim Bialik
Beginning her career as a child actress in the late ‘80s, Bialik’s biggest role was starring in the title character in the NBC sitcom Blossom. She largely stepped away from acting after the series to pursue her education, eventually earning her Ph.D. as a neuroscientist. She returned her focus to TV acting after graduating and starred as Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler on The Big Bang Theory.
Martha Stewart
Stewart built up business empire off of the success of her books on cooking, hosting, and arts and crafts. That blossomed into her own magazine and TV show, culminating in her business, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, that ultimately made her the first female, self-made billionaire in the US. But in 2004, she stumbled when she was convicted of insider stock trading and spent a year in prison for it. Once she got out of prison, her she hit the ground running and has had even more success than before she went in.
Nicole Richie
The adopted daughter of Lionel Richie first came to prominence as she starred alongside Paris Hilton on the reality TV show The Simple Life in 2003. But her career hit a roadblock as e result of drug and DUI charges. She bounced back and entered the world of fashion, earning Glamour’s Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2010 for her House of Harlow fashion line.
Chris Brown
Brown was just a teenager when his self-titled debut album sold millions in 2005. He quickly became one of the most popular musicians in the world but in 2009, he had an argument with fellow superstar and then-girlfriend Rihanna that escalated into violence, resulting in his music being pulled from radio and TV. After extensive public relations damage control, he regained his stardom and some of his fans when his fourth studio album released in 2011.
Eminem
Considered to be one of the greatest rappers of all time, Eminem experienced massive success beginning with the Slim Shady LP in 1999, even starring in 8 Mile, a movie based loosely on his upbringing, in 2002. His success would continue for years after that but during the 16-hours-a-day filming schedule, of the film, Eminem developed in insomnia and consequently struggled with drugs after he started taking Ambien to sleep. Things came to a head when he nearly overdosed on methadone in December of 2007. He got a handle on his addiction with the help of a rehabilitation counselor and some mentorship from Elton John and as of 2018, was 10 years sober.
Natasha Lyonne
Best known for her role as Jessica in the American Pie movie series, Lyonne became a tabloid regular in the 2000s as a result of various legal and personal struggles. Rock bottom for her came in 2005 when her drug use led to a collapsed lung and hepatitis C. That negative publicity kept her from working as an actor for years but once clean and sober, she returned to the spotlight with her role as Nicky on Netflix’s Orange Is The New Black.
Dr. Dre
As part of N. W. A. and then with his 1992 solo album The Chronic, Dre had great success. But when he decided to start his own record label, Aftermath Entertainment, his first release met mixed reviews and left critics questioning his move. All the questioning came to an end after he’d launched the careers of superstars Eminem and 50 cent, then released another classic album of his own in 2001. He also pocketed a cool $3 billion in 2014 when he sold his Beats by Dre brand to Apple in 2014.
LL Cool J
Ladies Love Cool James (yes, that’s what it stands for) started rapping when he was just nine years old, and in 1985, the teenager released his first album Radio. It was a big hit and his second album Bigger and Deffer was even more successful. But in 1989, his third album Walking with a Panther was derided by some fans for “selling-out” with a focus on ballads and a more mainstream appeal. Some of his fans began to abandon him but LL heard the criticisms and in 1990, he released Mama Said Knock You Out, an extremely hard-hitting album that featured the appropriate line “don’t call it a comeback, I’ve been here for years.”
Demi Lovato
One of many stars who got their start as a kid on the Disney Channel, Lovato had released two solo albums by 2009, before her 18th birthday. But in 2010, she abruptly left a world tour she was on with the Jonas Brothers to deal with demons she was struggling with. She entered rehab to address drug problems, an eating disorder, and self-harm. Less than a year later, she was back with the powerful single Skyscraper.
Mariah Carey
After a decade of hits like Always Be My Baby and All I Want For Christmas Is You throughout the ‘90, her career nosedived in the early 2000s. Her 2001 movie Glitter was a flop and her 2002 album Charmbracelet failed to produce a hit. She came back with a strong effort in 2005 with The Emancipation of Mimi, which gave us the hit We Belong Together.
Betty White
White is older than sliced bread (literally) and her acting career began before WWII, and was best known as Blanche from the Golden Girls in the 80s. When that show ended, she was in her 70s, a natural time for an actor’s career to wane. But in 2010, the near-90-year-old had a resurgence out of nowhere, starting with a Snicker’s commercial, a fan-petitioned hosting of SNL, then stared in 6 seasons of a sitcom called Hot In Cleveland.
Ellen Degeneres
In 1998, DeGeneres’ 5 season sitcom Ellen was canceled after a huge backlash about both her and her show’s character coming out as gay. She was the center of intense tabloid scrutiny and her second attempt at a sitcom, The Ellen Show was quickly canceled. Things turned around for her in 2003 when she voiced Dory in Finding Nemo then began her daytime talk show The Ellen DeGeneres show, one of the most popular of all time.
D’Angelo
The R&B singer had two critically acclaimed and wildly successful albums in 1995 and 2000 that left fans hungry for more. But for more than a decade, D’Angelo was nowhere to be found. Personal struggles and substance abuse kept him completely out of the spotlight until 2014, when he released his third album, Black Messiah. The album showed the time away hadn’t dulled his talents in the slightest, earning him two Grammys.
Green Day
The band’s major label debut Dookie came out in 1994 and met with the kind of success that’s often difficult to sustain. THeir next three albums failed to come close to the same heights. But in 2004, Green Day released American Idiot, which went on to be a crossover success with hits like “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” and “Holiday.”
Adele
Adele brought the kind of vocal power and soulful lyrics that had been missing from music for so long with her first two albums 19 and 21. She earned a pile of Grammys and was catapulted to international fame but it all became too much for her. In 2012, she revealed plans to take four or five years off because she “if I am constantly working, my relationships fail.” Lucky for her fans, they would only have to wait three years until she came back with her hit “Hello” in 2015.
Ed O’Neill
For 11 seasons in the ‘80s and ‘90s, O’Neill starred as Al Bundy in Married … with Children, a raunchy, blue-collar show that turned the wholesome family sitcom on its head. After the show ended in 1997, he had a number of small roles, most notably two seasons as Joe Friday in an installment of the Dragnet franchise. But he wouldn’t have big success again until 2009 when he began starring in the hit series Modern Family.
Paula Abdul
She burst onto the music scene in the late ‘80s with chart-topping hits like Straight Up and Opposites Attract. But by the mid-nineties, it seemed like audiences had moved on and her time at the top was over. Then in 2002, she signed on to be a judge on American Idol, which went on to be a cultural phenomenon and making Abdul a household name once again.
Paul Reubens
The comedian best known for his character Pee-wee Herman was a cult sensation in the ‘80s, reaching widespread fame after the 1985 film Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, directed by the then-unknown Tim Burton. He would go on to star in another movie and have his own Saturday morning children’s show until 1990. Then in 1991, Reubens was arrested for indecent exposure in an adult movie theater, completely changing the public’s opinion of him and putting a stop to his career. It wouldn’t be until 1999 that he would make a comeback with roles in Mystery Men and Blow.
Shania Twain
Twain was the undisputed queen of country-pop in the ‘90s and early ‘00s with hits like “Man! I Feel Like a Woman” and “That Don’t Impress Me Much.” But after her producer and husband left her for her best friend, and a battle with Lyme disease played hell on her voice, her career was put on hold. There would be a 15-year break between albums before she released the highly successful Now.
Britney Spears
After immense success in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, the former Mickey Mouse Club member had a year so bad, it became its own meme. Beginning in late 2006, she was going through a divorce, had a close relative die of cancer, spent some time in rehab, had a head-shaving meltdown, was sued by Louis Vuitton, and lost custody of her children. Amazingly, she was still able to release a chart-topping album by the end of 2007
JoJo
In the mid-‘00s, Jojo suddenly became a star with her chart-topping debut hit Leave (Get Out). Her first two albums sold incredibly well and she also starred in a couple of movies, including the Robin Williams comedy RV. But after her second album was released in 2006, a dispute with her record label would prevent her from putting out another album for years to come. She eventually settled the dispute, moved to another record label, and released her long-awaited third studio album Mad Love in 2016.
Michael Keaton
The peak of Keaton’s fame was when he starred as Batman in two popular films from 1989 and 1992. Afterward, his draw as a star seemed to gradually fade to nothingness toward the end of the ‘90s. Then in 2014, he took a very meta role of a faded actor who once played a superhero in the trippy movie Birdman. The role got him an Oscar nomination and reminded people of why he was considered such a great actor in the first place.
Cher
As one half of the duo Sonny and Cher in the ‘60s, and then as a solo act in the ‘70s and ‘80s, it seemed Cher would take the route of most star performers of past eras, performing older hits in front of appreciative, if not dwindling audiences. But in 1998, she released the dance-pop classic “Believe,” which hit number one on the charts, helped usher in the era of auto-tune, and proved that she could do a lot more than just trot out the old musical catalog.
Dave Chappelle
In 2005, Chappelle was undeniably the king of the comedy world. You couldn’t go a day without hearing someone repeat one of the eminently quotable lines from Chappelle’s Show. But at the height of his popularity, he walked away from the fame and a $50 million contract. His reasons were a mystery at the time but he would later reveal that he simply wasn’t enjoying the show and the effect it was having on his life and no amount of money could fix that. Chappelle performed sporadically until 2013 when he started doing stand up regularly again. By 2016, he was popular again, hosting SNL and doing a number of Netflix specials.
Mandy Moore
Beginning her career as a teen in the late ‘90s, Moore started off with saccharine pop songs like Candy and I Wanna Be With you. She started acting and voice acting as well, voicing Rapunzel in Disney’s 2010 film Tangled. She mostly faded from the spotlight until 2016 when she landed a role on the TV drama This Is Us, a show that became one of the biggest hits in Television, earning her a Golden Globe nomination.
Patrick Dempsey
Dempsey was a heartthrob movie star in the ‘80s, starring in films like Can’t Buy Me Love and Loverboy. But as his 20’s passed, he went from roles as a leading man to small supporting roles. But in the ‘00s, things started to pick up for him again, especially when he played McDreamy on Grey’s Anatomy. That led to bigger film roles again, such as in Enchanted and Made of Honor.
Cuba Gooding Jr.
Gooding earned an Oscar in 1997 for his role in Jerry Maguire and was consequently one of the biggest stars in the country for a while. After that, his career was very hit or miss with winners like Men of Honor and flops like Daddy Day Camp. In recent years, he’s had more consistently successful roles in films such as Selma and an Emmy-nominated role as O. J. Simpson in American Crime Story.
Winona Ryder
Starring in films like Edward Scissorhands, Reality Bites, and Girl Interrupted, Ryder was a huge star in the ‘90s But she seemingly threw a promising career away when she was arrested for shoplifting in 2001. After taking a break from Hollywood to get herself together, she was ready to return to work but Hollywood was no longer interested, for the most part anyway. It wasn’t until Stranger Things in 2016 that her career kicked off a true second act.
Drew Barrymore
After appearing in films like ET and Firestarter, Barrymore became the quintessential child star gone bad, ending up in rehab at just 14 years old for drug and alcohol abuse. She would be in her mid-20s in 1990 when she detailed her struggles in the autobiography Little Girl Lost. That would prove a turning point for her, going on to a successful return in acting with roles in Scream, Charlie’s Angels, and now starring in Netflix’s Santa Clarita Diet.
Robert Downey Jr.
After coming on the scene with a one-season stint on Saturday Night Live, Downey became a big hit in films like Less Than Zero and earned his first Oscar nomination in 1993 for Chaplin. But he struggled with addiction and a string of arrests torpedoed his career in the late ‘90s. But after slowly rebuilding his life, he was cast as Tony Stark in Iron Man in 2007, a franchise role that made him the highest paid actor in Hollywood.
Janet Jackson
After starting off as “Michael’s sister” Jackson forged her own career throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, becoming a pop superstar in her own right. But after a controversy surrounding the 2004 “wardrobe malfunction” at the Super Bowl, her spotlight began to fade. She continued to release music to less and less fanfare until stepping away from the mic in 2010. Then in 2015, she made a triumphant return to music, releasing Unbreakable and returning to touring.
Rob Lowe
Lowe was a teen idol in the early ‘80s for roles in films like The Outsiders and About Last Night… but his career hit a major stumbling block with a sex tape scandal in 1988. That significantly dimmed his star power until the early ‘00s when he proved to still be a viable TV actor with a role on The West Wing and then later Parks and Rec.
Justin Bieber
Like many people who rise to fame as kids, Bieber had his share of problems when he reached young adulthood. Starting in 2013, there was the video where he peed in a bucket and cursed out Bill Clinton, the time he egged someone’s house, and his DUI arrest. But by 2015, America seemed to have forgiven the singer as he got his career back on track with Purpose, which had hit songs like What Do You Mean and Sorry.
Robin Wright
Known for Iconic roles in 1987’s The Princess Bride and 1994’s Forrest Gump, Wright seemed to be a promising star. But for the next two decades, she struggled to find roles in anything that truly made waves. Then came the Netflix hit House of Cards which earned her multiple Emmy nominations, and a supporting role in the DC Movie franchise in Wonder Woman and Justice League.
Joan Rivers
One of the greatest female comedians of all time, Rivers got her start on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. She had a falling out with him after getting her own show in 1986, then a second series The Joan Rivers Show from ‘89 to ‘93. She was mostly absent from the minds of the public until the 2000s when she reinvented herself as a red carpet host and the star of Fashion Police.
Nick Jonas
The Jonas brothers were like the second coming of Hanson, a pop trio of adorable young brothers. And as the years went by, it seemed as if success would fade for Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas just as it had for the Hansons. But Nick had other ideas in mind, pulling a Justin Timberlake after the group disbanded, successfully going solo with chart-topping songs like Chains and Jealous.
Christian Slater
Slater had early success in ‘80s movies like The Legend of Billie Jean and Heathers and was a huge box office draw in the ‘90s in films like Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. But starting his appeal largely faded by the turn of the century and he was relegated to smaller roles until 2016 when his role in Mr. Robot brought him back into the spotlight and won him a Golden Globe.
Kesha
Kesha was all over the charts in 2009 with hits like Timber and Tik Tok. But her hard-partying lyrics were covering up a lot of problems in her life. In 2014, she checked into rehab, then later revealed that her producer had sexually assaulted her. The legal battle against him kept her away from making music until she returned in 2017 with a much more mature attitude with Rainbow, including it’s hit single Praying.
A Tribe Called Quest
The pioneering rap group was all over the radio in the ‘90s, releasing five albums before calling it quits in 1998. Its members would go on to do solo projects that met with varying success but nearly 20 years after they disbanded, the group would come back together (without the late founding member Phife Dawg) to release a critically acclaimed and highly successful comeback album in 2016.
Tina Turner
She began in the duo Ike & Tina Turner review and produced hits like A Fool In Love and Proud Mary but her relationship with her musical partner and husband was emotionally and physically abusive. After they split and Tina went solo in the ‘70s, she didn’t meet the same kind of success. That all turned around with the 1984 album Private Dancer, which included What’s Love Got To Do With It. It earned her a heap of Grammys and gave new life to her solo career.
Gloria Estefan
Responsible for a slew of hits in the ‘70s and ‘80s, including her signature song Conga, Estefan nearly lost her career — and her life — in 1990 when a semi-truck hit her tour bus and she suffered broken vertebrae. But she would need less than a year to recover and received a standing ovation at her comeback performance at the American Music Awards and the song Coming Out of the Dark hit number one on the charts.
Mike Tyson
He was just 20 years old when an undefeated Tyson defeated Trevor Berbick to become the youngest heavyweight boxing champ in history in 1986. He was arguably the most popular athlete in the world at the time, but just a few years later in 1992, he was convicted of rape and spent three years in prison for his crime. Then in 1997, he was disqualified in a match against Evander Holyfield for biting a chunk out of his opponent’s ear. His boxing ability faded and by the mid-‘00s he was retired from boxing and bankrupt. His comeback would come in the acting world, with a role in The Hangover, a one-man Broadway show, several documentaries and even an Animal Planet show chronicling his entry into competitive pigeon racing.
Nas
Nas made a huge impact on the rap world with his 1994 debut album Illmatic and at one point, he was regarded as one of the best rappers of all time. But by the late ‘90s, his popularity and influence had waned significantly. Ironically, it was a diss track from Jay-Z that jump-started his career. In 2001, he released the devastating song Ether in response, putting him back on the map.
Remy Ma
She came to national attention as part of Fat Joe’s Terror Squad on the 2004 hit Lean Back. Afterward, her solo career was just picking up steam when in 2007, she shot and wounded a woman in lane night confrontation on the streets of Manhattan. She spent six years in prison before re-entering the rap scene in 2017 with a vicious diss track about Nicki Minaj entitled Shether. She would further triumph over Minaj by capturing the BET Award’s Best Female Hip-Hop Artist for that year.
Taraji P. Henson
The powerful actress first came to the attention of critics with her performance in 2005’s Hustle & Flow. When she followed that up with an Oscar-nominated performance in The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button in 2008, it looked like her career was headed nowhere but up. But her star slowed its rise as she was tied up in Person of Interest and she slipped out of mainstream consciousness. That all changed in 2015 when she took on the role of Cookie in the phenomenally successful Empire. Her A-list power would be reaffirmed with another Oscar-nominated performance in Hidden Figures.
Ryan Reynolds
After building a good resume as a leading man with movies like Van Wilder and The Proposal, Reynold’s made the mistake of accepting the lead role in the 2011 film Green Lantern, which was a career-busting bomb. Ironically, it would be putting on a different super suit in 2016 that would revive his career. The blockbuster Deadpool franchise would once again make him an actor in demand.
Raven-Symoné
She started her career as the adorable child Olivia on The Cosby Show, then became a lead actor in her own right as the star of That’s So Raven. But after that show ended in 2007, her resume wasn’t the strongest. She became a household name again when she joined the cast of The View in 2015. That exposure helped get another show of her own, Raven’s Home.
Matthew Fox
Party of Five was one of the most popular shows of the ‘90s and Fox was the dreamy oldest brother of the family. But when the show ended in 2000, he all but disappeared, aside from a stint on the short-lived Haunted. Then in 2004, he became the leading man of the cult classic Lost.
Alexis Bledel
She became a fan favorite in 2000 as she starred on Gilmore Girls, then became a part of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. After the show wrapped in 2007, she went mostly under the radar aside from a small part on Mad Men. In 2016, the return of Gilmore Girls thrust her back into the spotlight, which she followed up with an Emmy-winning role in the Handmaid’s Tale.
Vanessa Williams
Williams became known for being the first black woman to win the Miss America crown in 1983, a crown she lost the following year after Penthouse magazine published nude photos of her without her permission. That could well have been the end of her career but in 1988, she entered the world of music and would eventually make hits like Save the Best For last and Colors of the Wind from Pocahontas. Acting roles in projects like Soul Food, Ugly Betty, and Desperate Housewives would follow.
