Former heartthrobs find Hollywood heartless
By Alyson Ward
Knight Ridder News Service
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Will Ashton Kutcher last? It's hard to tell. Plenty of hot young actors appear on the scene, make hearts melt, then disappear just as quickly. For every Tom Cruise, there's a Ryan Phillippe. Here's a look at a few former heartthrobs who have fallen to obscurity.
One-time heartthrob Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the "Star Wars" trilogy, all but disappeared afterward while co-stars Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford continued with big movie careers.
• Shaun Cassidy: The son of Shirley Jones and the half-brother of David Cassidy, Shaun Cassidy was destined to be on TV. His big break came when he played Joe Hardy on the '70s TV series "The Hardy Boys Mysteries." (Parker Stevenson, another faded heartthrob, played Frank Hardy, the other half of the sleuthing duo.) No mere actor, Cassidy was also a singer, and his self-titled debut album went platinum in 1977. It's a quick ride downhill from idol status, though, and Cassidy had fallen out of favor by the '80s. He fiddled with acting and music, then, in the mid-1990s, turned to writing and producing for television.
• Mark Hamill: Hamill was vaulted to fame when he played Luke Skywalker in the "Star Wars" trilogy. After 1983's "Return of the Jedi," Hamill's co-stars, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford, continued with big movie careers. And Hamill ... well, Hamill dropped off the radar. Actually, he was hard at work — just not in the blockbuster spotlight. He continues to work pretty regularly, popping up on television, doing voice-over work for video games and cartoons (he's the voice of the Joker on "Batman: The Animated Series)," and appearing on Broadway (he'll star in "Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks" opening in October).
• Michael Schoeffling: Schoeffling gained heartthrob status when he played Jake Ryan — opposite Molly Ringwald — in the 1984 film "Sixteen Candles." His next big moment was in 1990's "Mermaids," where he played backup to Cher and Winona Ryder. But Schoeffling hasn't appeared on the big screen (or the small screen) since "Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken," a movie that came out 13 years ago. Where did he go? Away from showbiz. Schoeffling has a family and a furniture-making business in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Not the sort of future we would have imagined for cool Jake Ryan.
• Fred Savage: He grew up before our eyes as Kevin Arnold on "The Wonder Years." When the show ended in 1993, Savage, then 17, should have emerged as a hot teen actor. Instead, he dropped out of sight — while younger brother Ben got his own sitcom, "Boy Meets World." Fred's next attempt at TV, 1997's "Working," didn't last past the second season. And where is he now? Playing small roles in movies you've never heard of. Kevin Arnold deserves better than that.
• Kirk Cameron: Cameron was a part of the Seaver family in the '80s sitcom "Growing Pains." When that gig ended in '92, he virtually disappeared for the next eight years. In 2000, Cameron was back on the scene — sort of. He starred in the "Left Behind" series, a string of box-office failures based on the series of Christian end-times books.
• Luke Perry: As Dylan on the vapid teen drama "Beverly Hills, 90210," Perry set teen hearts aflutter all over America. In 1991, his heartthrob status reached fever pitch; when 10,000 fans stampeded toward Perry at a Florida mall, 20 of them ended up in the hospital. Perry left "90210" in 1995, and returned in '98; since then, he's done a string of little-seen movies and TV appearances. Perry hasn't disappeared entirely, but his mall-stampede days are way over.
