It’s always exciting to see Hollywood actors make major comebacks after a long time away from the spotlight. In some cases, actors have taken a step back intentionally, and in other instances, it’s forced upon them due to a string of commercial failures, but no matter the circumstances, a career comeback reminds viewers what was great about the performer in the first place. Whether it’s silent-era starlets reviving their careers in the age of sound or modern movie stars overcoming personal problems to lead multi-billion dollar franchises, a Hollywood comeback represents the very best of Tinseltown.
Some of the best actors working today had major career setbacks that led to them shying away from the spotlight only to make a grand return several years later. Occasionally, these comebacks were so impressive that the actors gained widespread accolades and Academy Awards for their achievements. Witnessing a movie star reclaim their past glory like a phoenix rising from the ashes and coming back anew always feels like the culmination of an extraordinary underdog story.
10 Mickey Rourke
Comeback film: The Wrestler (2008)
Mickey Rourke began his acting career during the 1970s in lesser-known television films before gaining a small role in Steven Spielberg’s 1941 in 1979. Following this early big break, he worked with acclaimed directors throughout the 1980s, such as Francis Ford Coppola in Rumble Fish, and had an acclaimed performance in the Charles Bukowski biopic Barfly in 1987. However, a string of commercial failures led him to give up acting to become a professional boxer, and, despite some small supporting roles after he retired from the sport in 1994, he remained outside of mainstream cinema.
Rourke then gained recognition in 2005 for his role as Marv in Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City, but it was not until 2008 that he had a major comeback with The Wrestler. The role of the washed-up wrestler Randy ‘The Ram’ Robinson felt like the part Rourke was born to play, and he gained widespread acclaim and even an Oscar nomination for his performance. As an inspirational sports drama, The Wrestler opened Rourke up to more dramatic roles as a leading man, and he’s continued to work consistently to this day.
9 Michael Keaton
Comeback film: Birdman (2014)
As one of the biggest stars working today, it’s surprising to think just how much Michael Keaton had fallen out of the spotlight before he made a big comeback in 2014 with his Oscar-winning performance in Birdman. Although Keaton got his start in the 1980s with comedies like Mr. Mom and Beetlejuice, and by the 1990s, he had become a household name for playing Batman, his star truly began to fade through the 2000s. While Keaton never stopped acting, his roles became much less relevant as movies like Quicksand and Post Grad failed to make much of an impact.
This all changed with the release of Birdman, a dark comedy about a washed-up Hollywood actor best known for playing a superhero trying to stage a comeback on Broadway. This role was perfect for Keaton, as it truly mimicked his own career and was a powerful showcase of everything that was great and underappreciated about his talents. Following the success of Birdman, Keaton was back on top in Hollywood and has maintained his appeal ever since with films like Spotlight and the recent sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
8 Ke Huy Quan
Comeback film: Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
Known for his work as a child in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies, Ke Huy Quan was considered a figure of the 1980s for the longest time. Quan became a child actor at just 13 years old when he portrayed Short Round, the young sidekick of Indiana Jones, and was the insightful inventor Richard “Data” Wang of the Goonie gang who, along with his friends, pursued the long-lost fortune of One-Eyed Willy. While Quan had some small roles in the 1990s, his American film career ended in 1992 with Encino Man.
Quan then went on an extended acting hiatus and worked as a stunt choreographer and assistant director until he returned for a role in the family adventure Finding ʻOhana in 2021. However, Quan’s real comeback came the following year with the release of the critically acclaimed Everything Everywhere All at Once. Not only did this incredible performance get Quan back into the public consciousness, but it also won him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
7 John Travolta
Comeback film: Pulp Fiction (1994)
With roles in Carrie, Grease, and Saturday Night Fever, John Travolta was truly an icon of the 1970s and one of the decade’s biggest stars. Although he achieved major success early in his career, Travolta’s star began to falter throughout the 1980s as he suffered box office disappointments such as Brian de Palma’s Blow Out and his Olivia Newton-John reunion rom-com Two of a Kind was a disappointment. By the 1990s, Travolta felt like a relic of the past, doomed to a career categorized by increasingly lackluster roles.
This gangster role cast Travolta against type and was truly a move of genius that showcased his untapped talents.
That was until Quentin Tarantino cast Travolta as Vincent Vega in his megahit and cinematic classic Pulp Fiction. This gangster role cast Travolta against type and was truly a move of genius that showcased his untapped talents. With this late-career success, Travolta got a second wind as he starred in action movies like Face/Off and has remained an important figure in Hollywood.
6 Joe Pesci
Comeback film: The Irishman (2019)
The Academy Award-winning actor Joe Pesci has had an extraordinary career and, in recent years, has embraced being out of the spotlight entirely. With acclaimed collaborations with Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro in movies like Raging Bull, Casino, and Goodfellas, these performances alone were enough to make him a true icon of modern cinema. Adding the first two Home Alone movies to his impressive resume, Pesci stood as an actor beloved across all ages and generations for his impressive screen charisma and powerful comedic timing.
Joe Pesci was offered his role a reported 50 times before agreeing to take part, at first saying he did not want to do ”
the gangster thing again
,” while Scorsese tried to persuade him The Irishman would be ”
different
,” (via
The Director’s Cut
.)
Pesci decided to retire from acting in 1999, and despite some small performances, he has enjoyed a life away from the camera. That was until he made a grand return in 2019 in Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman. This Netflix movie was an extraordinary achievement, as it not only featured Scorsese and De Niro collaborating with Al Pacino for the first time but also signaled Pesci’s long-awaited return to the screen. Pesci was nominated for an Oscar for his role as the mobster Russell Bufalino, a part that proved his time away had not diminished his talents one bit.
5 Gloria Swanson
Comeback film: Sunset Boulevard (1950)
The three-time Academy Award nominee Gloria Swanson was a Hollywood starlet during the silent era in the 1920s. With roles in six films by directing legend Cecil B. DeMille in movies like Male and Female as well as romantic classics such as Zaza from 1923, Swanson was one of the biggest stars of her era. Swanson’s role in Sadie Thompson from 1928 as a fallen woman who moved to Pago Pago to start a new life was a trailblazing representation of female autonomy made right as Hollywood transitioned into the brave new work of sound pictures.
Sunset Boulevard
captured the sad lost potential of Swanson’s career as she imbued her character with all the highs and lows of her professional life.
Swanson’s career began to falter as sound movies became more common, and the 1930s and 1940s were not very prolific for her. However, this would all change when Swanson’s career was revived after her role in Billy Wilder’s classic Sunset Boulevard, where she played Norma Desmond, a deluded former silent movie star. Sunset Boulevard captured the sad lost potential of Swanson’s career as she imbued her character with all the highs and lows of her professional life into a truly powerful, memorable, and now iconic comeback.
4 Renée Zellweger
Comeback film: Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016)
With an extraordinary career beginning with several iconic 1990s movies, some viewers may have even forgotten that Renée Zellweger was even in Dazed and Confused. From cult classics like Empire Records to beloved favorites such as Jerry Maguire, Zellweger really became a household name following the release of Bridget Jones’s Diary, where she proved her comedic talents and her impeccable British accent despite hailing from Texas. While Zellweger even gained an Academy Award in 2003 for her role in Cold Mountain, a career turndown led to her taking an extended hiatus from acting in 2010.
Zellweger later said she needed to take this time off “to grow” (via Hollywood Reporter) because she was fatigued from consistently taking up new projects with no time in between. The break did Zellweger good, as her career came back with a bang and reprised her most famous role in Bridget Jones’s Baby in 2016 to great acclaim. Zellweger would solidify her comeback with an Oscar-winning performance as Judy Garland in the 2019 biopic Judy, making her a two-time Oscar-winning performer.
3 Brendan Fraser
Comeback film: The Whale (2022)
Following his breakout performance in Encino Man, Brendan Fraser quickly became a mainstay of Hollywood in the 1990s and soon earned a reputation as a charming and bankable leading man. With beloved roles in George of the Jungle and The Mummy series, it seemed Fraser could do no wrong, and he stood toe-to-toe with 1990s stars like Leonardo DiCaprio and Will Smith. However, unlike those other performers, Fraser’s star began to fade as poor box office numbers, health issues, and personal problems led to a major career downturn.
For many years, Fraser’s story was a cautionary tale about Hollywood’s heartless ability to cast talented performers aside as he became increasingly irrelevant during the 2000s and 2010s. Despite these challenges, his fans never forgot about him, and Fraser’s transformative comeback in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, where he played a morbidly obese man, was an extraordinary revival. Not only did Fraser prove himself an engaging leading man once again with The Whale, but he also gained an Oscar for Best Actor, signaling he’s well and truly back.
2 Robert Downey Jr.
Comeback film: Iron Man (2008)
The career comeback of Robert Downey Jr. may just be one of the most impressive Hollywood stories out there. While Downey gained recognition throughout the 1980s as a member of the Brat Pack in films like Weird Science and Less Than Zero and even gained an Academy Award nomination for the biopic Chaplin in 1992, drug and alcohol problems led to serious career troubles in the late 1990s. These issues reached a head when Downey was sentenced to the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison (via Hollywood Reporter) and spent six months in jail due to cocaine-related charges.
With a notorious reputation, it seemed like Downey’s career was dead in the water, but over the next few years, he maintained his sobriety, and it seemed Hollywood was ready to take a chance on him once again. This led to two acclaimed performances in 2008 in Iron Man and Tropic Thunder, the latter of which earned him an Academy Award nomination. Not only did Iron Man revive Downey’s career, but it also kick-started the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a multi-billion dollar franchise and one of the most successful series of all time.
1 Cameron Diaz
Comeback film: Back in Action (2025)
Cameron Diaz made an extraordinary movie debut in 1994 opposite Jim Carrey in The Mask and quickly became one of the decade’s biggest movie stars. With roles in rom-coms like There’s Something About Mary, beloved animated franchises like Shrek, and more offbeat movies such as Being John Malkovich, Diaz’s career was packed with acclaimed and interesting parts. By the 2010s, Diaz had also become prominent in the health industry and took a step back from acting as she focused on health books and launched her organic wine brand Avaline.
While Diaz’s most recent role was in the 2014 remake of Annie, she’s set to make her return to feature films with the appropriately titled comeback movie Back in Action in 2025, an action-comedy opposite Jamie Foxx. This exciting return will also include Jonah Hill’s upcoming black comedy Outcome, opposite Keanu Reeves, and her much-anticipated reprisal of Princess Fiona in Shrek 5, which is set for release in 2026. After such a long time away from the big screen, the return of Diaz is yet another exciting example of stars returning after long absences.
Sources: The Director’s Cut, Hollywood Reporter, Hollywood Reporter
