Jake Lloyd

Jake Lloyd is a former child star best known for his role as the young Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.  Star Wars fans generally disliked The Phantom Menace and cast much of the blame on Lloyd, effectively killing Lloyd's acting career and causing him to grow up to become incredibility bitter young man.

Lloyd was born March 5, 1989 in Fort Collins, Colorado and broke into acting in 1996, when he had a recurring role on the TV show ER and appeared in the TV movie Apollo 11 and the motion picture Unhook the Stars. Although most people know Lloyd as "the kid who ruined Star Wars," more astute movie buffs may also remember Lloyd as "the kid who ruined Jingle All The Way." In Jingle All The Way, Lloyd played Jamie Langston, the incredibly bratty son of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Howard Langston character. Perhaps Lloyd was instructed to be a little brat in the movie, although even if he was following directions, his character was nevertheless very grating and annoying and generally detracted from the overall movie experience of the casual viewer.

Notwithstanding his performance in Jingle All The Way, Lloyd continued to receive choice role and appeared to be heading for stardom.  Lloyd appeared in several episodes of the moderately successful NBC drama, The Pretender, between 1996 and 1998.  In 1999, Lloyd really hit the big time when he was cast as the young Anakin Skywalker in the first movie of the long-awaited Star Wars prequels, entitled Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

Lloyd played the young boy who would become the Jedi knight who turned to the Dark Side of the Force and later became the evil Darth Vader.  Lloyd seems to have been horribly miscast as Anakin Skywalker in large part because he seemed to be far too young for the role.  The start of a romance with the much older Padmé Amidala (played by Natalie Portman) was difficult to believe, as Lloyd was only 10 years old when the movie was released, whereas Portman was 18 years old.  Fans also complained about Lloyd's inability to deliver his lines in a believable manner and with realistic emotions.

Lloyd also had to give up to 60 interviews a day, which is a lot of ask of a 10-year-old boy.  Lloyd quickly grew to resent Hollywood in general and blamed George Lucas for putting him through the ordeal.  Lloyd effectively stopped acting after The Phantom Menace, although he did lend his voice to several Star Wars video games.

Lloyd claims that all of the criticism from his appearance in The Phantom Menace made his life a living hell.  He says that his classmates would tease him by making light saber sounds whenever they would see him.  Here is an itnerview where Lloyd complains about treatment by his former high school and college classmates:



Lloyd became so angry and bitter that eventually destroyed all of his Star Wars memorabilia. I bet that Lloyd is also angry because he appears to have stopped growing at age 10. Lloyd looks pretty shrimpy in this photo:

Even though more than 10 years have passed since The Phantom Menace was released, Lloyd is still very angry, as is evident in this 2009 interview at the Supanova Pop Culture Expo held in Perth, Australia. Lloyd apparently traveled to Australia to meet Star Wars fans, yet he came across as a complete jerk in this interview:



Despite having little apparent acting talent and ability, Jake Lloyd was a successful young actor who received choice roles. However, fairly or unfairly, Lloyd received much of the criticism from fans unhappy with The Phantom Menace. Lloyd has grown up to become a very unhappy and bitter young man who is still hung up a role he had when he was 10 years old. He still goes to conventions because he presumably is paid to do so and needs money, yet he seems angry when asked about his experience in The Phantom Menace. For this and the other reasons discussed above, Jake Lloyd is one washed-up celebrity!

*** Update - June 21, 2015 ***

Jake Lloyd was arrested on South Carolina police on a 25-mile high-speed chase at speeds up to 100 mph on Saturday, June 20, 2015. Lloyd reportedly crashed through a fence while attempting to evade police. Lloyd told the police that his name was "Jake Broadbent." He has a $10,700 bond and is being held on charges of resisting arrest, reckless driving, driving without a license and failure to stop.

Devon Sawa

Devon Sawa is a former child star best known for his movie roles in the movies Casper and Final Destination. Sawa was born on September 7, 1978 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Sawa began his career acting on stage when he was eleven. Three years later he became an advertising spokeschild for Kenner's Nerf Toys.

In 1992 he began appearing in a small role in The Odyssey, a Canadian fantasy series. Sawa subsequently had a larger role in KidZone, a Canadian docudrama about high school. Sawa began acting in movies as the quarterback in Little Giants (1994). In 1995, he appeared in two major motion pictures, Casper (Sawa played a living boy who became the ghost character) and Now and Then. Casper was a major success at the box office, earning $100 million in the U.S. and another $187 million internationally.

Sawa's mid-1990s movie roles made him a heartthrob and one of the most popular child actors of the time. Sawa appeared on the covers of many magazines aimed at pre-teens. According to these magazine covers, Sawa may also have had a gay relationship with fellow washed-up celebrity Jonathan Taylor Thomas:

Sawa's movie success continued through the late 1990s and into 2000. In 1999, he starred in Idle Hands, a horror movie about a boy whose right hand has a mind of its own and goes on a killing spree. Sawa followed up with a starring role in Final Destination in 2000, playing a boy who cheats death when he has a clairvoyant vision that an airplane on which he was to fly was going to explode. I personally liked Final Destination and thought that Sawa was a very good actor in it.





Sawa must have felt like he was on top of the world in 2000. At the young age of 22 he already had an impressive resume of movie roles and must have earned millions of dollars from his roles. He also appeared in the music video for Eminem's Stan in 2000. However, Sawa's star quickly faded after 2000 as he got in trouble with the law and stopped getting decent acting roles.

Sawa's legal troubles began in 2000 when he was arrested for public intoxication and disturbing the peace. In 2003, Sawa was convicted of driving with a blood alcohol level above California's legal limit of .08. In 2005, the police were called to Sawa's apartment when he was allegedly beating up his girlfriend. Apparently things got so dicey that a SWAT team broke into his apartment to rescue his girlfriend from him! Sawa was arrested for either resisting arrest or obstructing the duties of a police officer. (I heard a rumor that Sawa may have served a prison sentence for his crime, but I cannot confirm this information.)

Sawa also supposedly developed a nasty drug addiction that fueled his erratic behavior. His odd behavior and apparent anger management issues scared away movie producers. Sawa's only decent role since 2000 was in 2002's Extreme Ops, a poorly received action adventure flick. Sawa's youthful boyish look that helped him gain movie roles in his youth faded as he got older - now, he's nothing more than a 29-year-old man with a baby face, acne, and a very wide nose as shown in this recent photo:

As if his washed-up career and problems with the law weren't bad enough, Sawa may have also contracted herpes, as shown in the picture below:

For the reasons discussed above, there can be no doubt that Devon Sawa is one washed up celebrity!

Ralph Macchio

Ralph George Macchio is a former child star best known for his role as "Danny LaRusso" in The Karate Kid.

Macchio was born on November 4, 1961 in Huntington, New York. He began his acting career during the mid 1970s, as star of television commercials for products such as Bubble Yum and Dr. Pepper. Macchio's first big acting role was playing "Jeremy" on the television series Eight Is Enough. In 1983, he appeared in the major motion picture, The Outsiders, as Johnny Cade, a greaser living in Nebraska in the 1950s. Macchio's role was a major one in the hit movie and he received generally positive reviews for his performance.


Macchio's next acting role was the defining one of his career, as Danny LaRusso in The Karate Kid in 1984. Although Macchio was 23 when The Karate Kid came out, he was scrawny and looked like he was about 12 years old at the time. In The Karate Kid, Macchio's character Danny LaRusso was a wimpy kid who moved with his mother to Reseda, California after his father passed away. After LaRusso began dating Ali Mills, the ex-girlfriend (played by Elisabeth Shue) of a local karate champion, Johnny Lawrence (played by perpetual 1980s movie bully, William Zabka), LaRusso is routinely picked on and beaten up by Lawrence and his karate buddies.



Macchio eventually discovers that Mr. Miyagi, the handyman at his apartment building (played by Pat Morita), is a karate expert. Mr. Miyagi took Danny under his wing and taught him karate. By the end of the movie, Miyagi's coaching led LaRusso to win a local karate championship, defeating Johnny Lawrence and his cronies in a tournament. The heart of the story revolved around the close relationship between Miyagi and LaRusso - they were close in a father/son type of way.


After The Karate Kid, Macchio became somewhat of a teen idol of the mid-1980s, despite the fact that he was in his mid-20s at the time. Macchio appeared on the cover of many teen "bubble gum" magazines such as Tiger Beat, 16, and Teen Beat.
Although Macchio received rave reviews for The Karate Kid, he experienced difficulties obtaining meaningful roles afterward. Although he reprised the Danny LaRusso role for The Karate Kid, Parts II and III, his only other decent role in the past 20 years was as "Billy Gambini" in My Cousin Vinny in 1992. However, since 1992, Macchio has been relegated to acting in minor roles in crappy movies and TV shows such as Chicken Soup For The Soul and Popcorn Shrimp.

Although Macchio achieved tremendous success early in his career, his career quickly swirled down the toilet. The likely reason is that Macchio's child-like boyish looks made it far too difficult for people to view him in adult roles. He still looks like a kid, albeit a balding kid, as shown in the photos above. Despite his early success, Macchio couldn't purchase a decent role to save his life now. Accordingly, there can be no doubt that Ralph Macchio is one washed up celebrity!

Jared Rushton

Jared Rushton is a former child star best known for his acting roles in the movies Big and Honey, I Shrunk The Kids.

Rushton was born on March 3, 1974 in Provo, Utah. He broke into mainstream acting as an adolescent, appearing in episodes of the popular TV shows Tales from the Darkside and Cagney & Lacey in 1986. One year later, in 1987, he appeared in the major motion picture, Overboard, as one of the sons of Kurt Russell's star character.

Rushton apparently received decent praise for his young acting roles and was subsequently cast as the childhood friend of the young Tom Hanks character in the hit movie, Big.

Rushton's role in Big was decent-sized and led to a much-larger role in the 1989 Disney flick, Honey, I Shrunk The Kids. Rushton played Ron Thompson, the bratty next-door neighbor of Wayne Szalinski (played by Rick Moranis), an eccentric inventor of a secret machine that physically shrinks objects. During the film, Szalinki's children and Rushton's character were accidentally shrunk and battled against all odds until Szalinski could return Thompson and Szalinki's children back to normal size.


Rushton's next major role was in the horribly received Pet Sematary II. The film was a major bomb and has been universally derided as being pure crap.

After Pet Sematary II, Rushton's acting career hit the skids and never recovered. Rushton was relegated to non-recurring bit parts in TV series such as Life Goes On and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, until he apparently gave up acting in 2000. When his acting roles completely dried up, Rushton turned to music to pass the time. Rushton is currently in two bands, Goodbye Effect (formerly Withdrawal) and Deal By Dusk.

As a youth, Rushton was known for his realistic youthful portrayals. Although never a "face guy," Rushton was a fairly normal-looking kid. Unfortunately, Rushton's post-pubescent years have not been kind to him, as Rushton has morphed into a total fat-ass and is practically unrecognizable to fans of Big and Honey, I Shrunk The Kids. He apparently developed an addiction to greasy fast food and Hostess Twinkies and Ding-Dongs, as shown in the pictures below:


Despite his successful pubescent acting career, the portly Rushton couldn't buy a role to save his life right now. Accordingly, there can be no doubt that Jared Rushton is one washed-up celebrity!

Macaulay Culkin

Macaulay Carson Culkin is a former child star best known for his role as Kevin McCallister in Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.

Culkin was born on August 26, 1980 in New York City to Patricia Brentrup and Christopher 'Kit' Culkin. Culkin has six siblings, of which brothers Rory and Kieran are also actors. Culkin is the nephew of actress Bonnie Bedelia, his father's sister.

Culkin started his acting at the age of four when he appeared in a stage production of Bach Babies at the New York Philharmonic. He followed up with a small role in the 1985 TV movie, The Midnight Hour. In 1988, he appeared in as a kidnap victim in an episode of the popular action TV series, The Equalizer. In 1989, he appeared in his first big role, as a precocious young boy in film director John Hughes' Uncle Buck, a comedy starring John Candy. His memorable role included a scene in which he grilled John Candy's character with questions and said that he did so because "I'm a kid - that's my job."

John Hughes was so impressed with Culkin's performance in Uncle Buck that he later wrote Home Alone with Culkin in mind. Culkin appeared in Home Alone in 1990 as Kevin McCallister, a boy accidentally left at home by himself during his family's Christmas vacation. Culkin's Home Alone role made him an internationally known box office movie star. After Home Alone became a major box office hit, Culkin's became the highest-paid child actor in movie history, reportedly commanding up to $10 million per movie.

Culkin formed a friendship with singer Michael Jackson around the time that Home Alone hit the theaters. Culkin reportedly stayed over at Jackson's weirdo Neverland Ranch and later appeared in Jackson's video for the hit song Black or White. There were also rumors that Jackson, an accused pedophile, molested Culkin around this time. Culkin, however, later publicly denied these rumors when he testified at Jackson's child molestation trial in 2005.
In 1992, Culkin again struck box office gold when he reprised the Kevin McAllister role in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. However, Culkin was unable to carry success from the Home Alone movies into other roles. During the mid-1990s, Culkin appeared in moderately successful flicks, such as The Good Son, My Girl and appeared in the flops Getting Even with Dad, Richie Rich, and The Pagemaster. In 1994, Culkin mysteriously stopped acting.

Culkin's home life also experienced some major turmoil when his parents divorced and had a custody battle over him when he was a mere 15 years of age. His family life spilled over into the tabloids, which generally portrayed his father, his manager at the time, as being some kind of nut or psychopath.

Culkin got married at the young age of 18 in 1998 to actress Rachel Miner. It's unclear as to whether Culkin married at such a young age to get away from his parents or to remove the psychological stains inflicted by possibly having been molested by Michael Jackson. Regardless of the reason, the marriage was not meant to last and Culkin divorced two years later, in 2000.

Culkin has recently attempted to return to acting, but has been unable to come even close to his previous level of success. He has appeared in the crappy movies Party Monster (2003) and Saved! (2004). He is scheduled to appear in the 2008 film, Sex and Breakfast, which was actually filmed in 2006 but the release of which has already been pushed back for two years, presumably because it is so bad.

Part of the reason for lack of recent success is probably because Culkin, like many former child stars, was a cute kid who grew into a not-so-cute adult. He has morphed into a somewhat goofy-looking and androgynous young man and often has a brooding look on his face.

Despite his current appearance, he has somehow managed to attract women. I assumed that Culkin was gay until I discovered that he is apparently dating Mila Kunis, an actress from That 70s Show. They have supposedly been dating since 2002. It's unclear whether she's a beard or if the relationship is legit.

Culkin's lack of recent success may have led him to turn to drugs to find solace. In 2004, Culkin was arrested for possession of marijuana and two dangerous controlled substances (Xanax and sleeping pills). Here is his mugshot:

Macaulay Culkin, once the brightest child star in Hollywood, has seen his career blow in flames and apparently occasionally turns to drugs to escape reality. For this and the other reasons discussed above, Macaulay Culkin is one washed up celebrity!

C. Thomas Howell

C. Thomas Howell (the "C." is an abbreviation of Christopher) is a former child star best known for his lead role as a young white man pretending to be black to get a minority scholarship to Harvard Law school in the 1986 comedy, Soul Man.




Howell was born in Los Angeles, California on December 7, 1966. He is son of a stuntman and rodeo rider. As a child, he was more interested in pursuing the rodeo circuit than in having an acting career. Howell traveled quite a bit with the rodeo and was named the California Junior Rodeo Association’s All Around Junior Boy’s Champion for 1980 and 1981.

His acting career began in television at the age of four, when he was a regular on the TV series Little People. In 1977 he had a minor role in the TV movie, It Happened One Christmas, a remake of the Christmas classic It's A Wonderful Life. Howell's next role was a minor one in E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, one of the biggest box office hits of all time. After E.T., Howell landed choice roles in the hit movies The Outsiders and Red Dawn.

By the mid-1980s Howell must have felt like he was on Cloud 9. He had already appeared in several huge hit movies and was being offered many more top roles. He was also a teenage heartthrob, the object of affection of many young girls. In 1986 he acted in The Hitcher, a horror cult classic where a psychopathic hitchhiker antagonizes Howell while going on a killing spree along a highway in the southwest. Howell also landed his career-defining role as Mark Watson in the smash hit comedy, Soul Man.

In Soul Man, Howell played a young white male who was accepted into Harvard Law School, but had to pay his own way because his parents cut him off financially. When he was unable to secure private loans on his own, he decided to load up on tanning pills to fool everyone into thinking he was black so that he could secure a minority scholarship. I personally thought that Soul Man was very funny. It basically gave an over-the-top view of the black-white stereotypes. However, the black community did not take kindly to the humor, given that Howell wore black face make-up throughout the film.



Although Soul Man was a hit, garnering $27 million at the U.S. box office, it was Howell's last major role. His career quickly hit the skids and has yet to recover. Has appeared in many productions over the past 20 years, but none of them are choice roles. For example, he appeared in a War of the Worlds movie in 2005, but it wasn't the big hit in which Tom Cruise starred. He also appeared in a remake of The Poseidon Adventure in 2005. Again, it was not the big remake that hit theatres in 2006. Instead, it was a crappy made-for-TV movie that hardly anyone watched.

On the personal side, Howell married his Soul Man co-star, Rae Dawn Chong, in 1986. In 1990 they divorced. He later remarried his current wife, Sylvie Anderson, and now has three kids.

C. Thomas Howell was a big star in the mid-1980s and was very bankable at the time. Unfortunately, after Soul Man, his career went down the toilet and has yet to recover. It's a shame because I always thought that he was a good actor. He is now relegated to acting in made-for-TV and straight-to-video flicks. Accordingly, there is no doubt that C. Thomas Howell is one washed-up celebrity!


*** Update - May 1, 2008 ***

C. Thomas Howell is currently appearing on the VH1 reality show, Celebracadabra. He is competing with other washed-up stars to be the best magician in a contest for cash and prizes. I watched a portion of the first episode last week. Howell impressively made a dollar bill appear to float while out on the street performing magic. After pulling off his trick, he raised his hands in the air and shouted, "Wolverines!," a line from his 1984 movie, Red Dawn.

 
*** Update - July 28, 2012 ***

C. Thomas Howell  recently appeared in the 2012 hit Spider-Man reboot, The Amazing Spider-Man, where he plays Ray.  It remains to be seen whether this role will springboard Howell back into choice roles in the future.