Top 30 Stars Who SAVED Their Careers

and now for the moment I've all been waiting for welcome to watch Mojo and today we're counting down our picks for the most amazing celebrity comeback stories even if those Stars later faced further controversy or had setbacks well you got to have an opinion number 30 Elton John it seemed there was no stopping Elton John in the 1970s with massive sellers like Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Captain fantastic he was the coolest dude on [Music] [Applause] Earth biscuit but by the late '70s the pressures of worldwide Fame had gotten to him and he was dealing with substance use disorder as well as an eating disorder according to him his General lifestyle was over the top in a way that was unsustainable I didn't confront the the real problem in my life is that I was a drug addict um I thought getting married would change all the unhappiness the drug addiction uh important it though he didn't ever completely fade problems in his personal life seemingly affected his musical career and Jon didn't have a single Billboard top 10 album in the 1980s luckily he stopped using substances at the turn of the90s and enjoyed a prosperous comeback which was surely helped by The Lion King can You Feel the tonight number 29 Shania Twain you may be asking yourself whatever happened to Shania Twain let's go girls this Canadian singer was everywhere in the mid90s capturing hearts and ears with her distinct blend of country and pop the woman in me was a huge hit and 1997's come on over is the highest selling album ever by a female solo artist kiss legit it's in the Guinness World Records but she completely disappeared in the mid 2000s having entered an indefinite Hiatus it wasn't until much later that Twain revealed she had Lyme disease and that it had left her voice hoarse she underwent vocal Rehabilitation and returned to mainstream prominence in 2012 with a Vegas residency she has continued to build her career through things like albums more residencies and tours about Joy about pain it's all about number 28 Robin Wright the come back of Robin Wright was so extensive and successful that some people may not know about her earlier accomplishments Wright was a fairly big star in the ' 80s and early '90s starring on the soap opera Santa Barbara and appearing in alltime movies like The Princess Bride and Forest Gump I can't help it I love you Forest you don't know what love is but then her career sort of just stalled and most of the public attention centered around her Rocky marriage to Shawn Penn luckily she eventually bounced back and became arguably even more successful than before Wright notably earned massive Acclaim as CLA Underwood on House of Cards earning six acting Emmy nominations and becoming one of the highest paid actresses on TV Francis I'm done with you number 27 Eddie Murphy it doesn't get much bigger than Eddie Murphy an undeniable Legend Murphy enjoyed enormous success throughout the 80s and 90s being one of the biggest stars on the planet thank you look at this it's great now thank you guys but that all collapsed in the late '90s and early 2000s when he made a number of curious career decisions there were certainly some gold nuggets in the mud hello Shrek movies and dream girls but he wasn't the box office draw he once was with many of his films underperforming or even outright bombing luckily Murphy eventually rebounded with the critically acclaimed Dolomite is my name I just want to say to all you Bahari brothers that I am ecstatic and anything y'all want me to do man whatever it takes to make this record go up to chop I'm ready to do it and his hosting of SNL in 2019 Drew its biggest TV crowd in over 10 years and won him an Emmy we don't think he'll fall off anyone's radar again number 26 Martha Stewart for many celebrities it's almost impossible to come back from a jail stint back in 2004 businesswoman Martha Stewart was convicted in an insider trading case and spent 5 months in prison Stuart will have to steal herself for a life of bunk beds shared showers and toilet a rigid 6 a.m. wakeup Bell a daily prison job and no privacy but it didn't take long for the comeback to begin Stuart basically got back to work the second her feet touched the parking lot and her company was again profitable by 2006 just 2 years after her initial conviction one good thing about me Dave is that I don't have a long memory for bad things she also started the Martha Stewart show the same year she was released and it was nominated for six Daytime Emmy Awards including Best Host the strong work has only continued and stewards Resurgence will be taught in comeback school that's a thing right I want other women especially women to feel that they could also be on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the issue number 25 Ryan Reynolds you wouldn't know it now but Ryan Reynolds was struggling for a while there and we had some good times good times that I'll never forget and his career throughout the 2000s and early 201 tens wasn't all bad but it was still plagued by arguably mediocre romcoms and box office bombs welcome to the honeycomb hideout how do you bankroll this operation I date a lot of older men by now it's been well established that his attempt at the Green Lantern was the stuff of Infamous movie Legend not pay attention green it wasn't until 2016 that Reynolds really turned his career around and and it was thanks to a little superhero flick called Deadpool this role was basically tailor made for the comedic actor and his performance was widely acclaimed fourth wall break inside a fourth wall break that's like 16 walls grossing nearly 800 million dollar it made Reynolds a Bonafide movie star and he has never looked back hey it's me don't scratch just cleaning up the timelines number 24 robow the80s below beled to Robo the actor earned Renown as a member of the brat pack with roles in The Outsiders and St Elmo's Fire among others she SOA why do he always got to be like that he's just got more worries than he used to but his career took a hit in 1988 when footage leaked showing him being intimate with two people one of them was a teen though she was above the age of consent in Georgia where the event took place it's like I have nobody to blame but myself you know I really don't it tarnished loe's reputation and and it would be a while before he regained true cultural prominence but it was a factor in his choice to get started on the path towards recovery his comeback truly began in 1999 with an Emmy nominated stint on The West Wing he'd later go on to star in Beloved projects like Parks and Recreation auditing bro number 23 Mandy Moore you couldn't escape Moore in the late '90s early 2000s and why would you have wanted to she was a successful singer with hit singles like candy and the Platinum selling album so real she also made a splash on the big screen notably appearing as L Thomas in The Princess Diaries before landing the starring role in A Walk to Remember it's a a to-do list I have except for my life what like getting a new personality spend a year in the Peace Corp make a medical Discovery that's ambitious then she kind of disappeared most of her music wasn't hitting and the movies grew increasingly obscure I am filled with love God you are just jealous of My Success in the Lord but then Disney made the inspired choice to cast more as Rapunzel and the rest is history what do you want with my hair to cut it what sell it no listen the only thing I want to do with your hair is to get out of it literally Tangled revived her career and Moore did more voice acting work before killing it as Rebecca Pearson on the massive NBC drama This Is Us she's also been releasing music number 22 Mickey roor few actors come back from retirement with such Pizzazz but then Mickey roor isn't just any actor after a string of successful 80s films Ro fell upon hard times I often think of the nights that we spend together I mean and that was a long time ago his movies were bombing and earning harsh reviews directors were publicly calling him quote a nightmare to work with and he earned a Razzy nomination for desperate hours and Wild Orchid the Relentless disappointment caused R to essentially retire and he briefly pursued a career in professional boxing he'd come back to the Silver Screen in the 9s but it wasn't until 2005 that he returned to widespread prominence as Marv in Sin City I haven't seen you like this in a while had a fight with some cops didn't happen to kill any of them did you I mean not that I know of but they know they've been in a fight that's for damn sure he used this acclaimed role as a springboard into mainstream fair and earned his first Oscar nomination for 2008 the wrestler I'm the one who was supposed to make everything okay for everybody it just didn't work out like that number 21 Christian Slater appearing in the likes of Heathers and Robin Hood prince of Thieves Christian Slater was a huge heartthrob in the late ' 80s into the '90s I'm basically a pretty resourceful guy if I didn't really need it I wouldn't ask like I mean if you want to say no I'm fine however a string of personal problems put his career on hold Slater dealt with various substance use and legal issues for instance he was arrested in 1994 for attempting to bring a weapon onto a plane and he later spent time in jail for assaulting his then girlfriend and a responding police officer the work continued but it was nothing to the caliber of his early '90s output that is until he landed the role of Mr Robot on the acclaimed Thriller of the same name the role earned Slater much Renown and even his first Golden Globe you think people out there are getting exactly what they deserve no they're getting paid over or under but someone in the chain always gets Bamboozled number 20 Dave Chappelle in the early mids this comedian's career couldn't have been any bigger he was one of the most recognizable names in standup and his Comedy Central series Chappelle Show was a massive success if you're just joining us black people got their reparations checks today and in short all hell is broken loose he'd reportedly been offered a $50 million contract to keep the series going but the fame seemingly got to Chappelle specifically the cultural impact of his show so at the height of his popularity he abandoned production of season 3 and went to South Africa between 2005 and 2013 his public appearances were sporadic at best you know when you're a guy that generates money yeah people have a vested interest in controlling yeah his long awaited return could have been a disaster but he pulled it off with style winning an Emmy for an SNL hosting gig and signing a massive deal with Netflix however Chappelle would go on to make several transphobic remarks that soured his comeback for some fans the article goes on to say I was booed off stage which is also incorrect I was booed I did not leave number 19 Betty White what other late star who reached her age can claim comparable popularity with younger demographics what a day one sad person after another Rose you work at grief counseling what do you expect comedians betting White had a successful career spanning decades including roles in popular television series such as the Mary Tyler Moore Show and Golden Girls with time her roles became not only less high-profile but also fewer and farther between when most actors would have been happy to retire however Betty White began a whole new phase of her career in the late a oh come on man you've been riding me all day you're playing like Betty White out there that's not what your girlfriend said baby she appeared in sketches for Craig Ferguson and Jay Leno but it was a 2009 Snickers campaign that really connected white to a whole new generation when I was younger I was so concerned with how my muffin looked but as I got older I started to think the heck with it this is my muffin and I don't care how it looks white hosted SNL at the record-breaking age of 88 establishing herself as a beloved comedic figure a new number 18 D'Angelo young listeners might not recognize the name but in the mid99s D'Angelo was widely considered the gold standard of R&B and he's been a major influence on countless musicians in the years since with his 1995 debut album brown sugar he not only rocked the charts but instantly became a sex symbol his 2,000 follow-up Voodoo seemingly solidified this reputation then he just disappeared D'Angelo retreated from the public eye to deal with personal issues including alcohol use disorder few artists can return after nearly a decade and a half and still feel relevant but in 2014 he reclaimed his crown with black Messiah which was released to Universal Acclaim and earned him the Grammy for Best R&B album number 17 Kesha after being robbed of her voice as both a woman and an artist Kesha revealed an entirely different side to herself she exploded onto the pop music scene with a feature on Flow Rider's right round before landing hits of her own including Tik Tok however her career was brought to a screeching halt in 2014 by a legal battle with producer Dr Luke whom she accused of abuse among other things many artists would have given up but Kesha found alternative ways to perform and eventually returned in 2017 with the widely celebrated rainbow a deeply personal album about empowerment she since continued to release albums settled the suit with Dr Luke and is working on new music after leaving his label and changing her Management number 16 Eminem there are few musicians who've had a bigger impact on popular music than Eminem his lyrics terrified parents his person style inspired countless imitators and many credit him with having made hip-hop more mainstream in Middle America come on man you got to battle see I'm not you dog look at me oh and he starred in a critically acclaimed semi-autobiographical film because you know why not but in the mids he was dealing with substance use depression and the death of his best friend proof his comeback album relapse was met with mixed reviews but he's just kept marching forward repeatedly reasserting his dominance as both a hitmaker and one of the Great greatest rappers to ever pick up a mic he's continued to take home Grammys produce hit singles and divide critics and fans alike number 15 Jason baitman would you care to accompany me on an inspection tour of Old Faithful this weekend I'd very much enjoy visiting a Scenic Wonder with the scenic Wonder a former adolescent star that earned roles in shows like Silver Spoons Jason baitman went on to star in films like Teen Wolf 2 oh my God oh my God but as the '90s progressed the former teen Idol's career stalled big time I would like to call to the stand Franklin Delano Blu getting cast in the acclaimed sitcom Arrested Development in the 21st century changed all that baitman demonstrated that his talent had very definitely matured and he capitalized on the critical attention the show received by going on to Garner laughs in huge comedies like Horrible Bosses and lending his voice to Nick wild in 2016 zootopia hey carrot you're going to wake the baby I got to get to work this is important sir he's also given his fair share of solid dramatic performances like his work on the Netflix series Ozark number 14 John Travolta Quinton Tarantino sure knows how to revive careers or start them John Travolta was a huge star in the 1970s with the likes of Greece and Saturday Night Fever bringing him both Acclaim and [Music] popularity but the 80s were a tough time time for the actor and while Look Who's Talking was a big hit in 1989 this was more of an outlier than an example of continued dominance by 1994 he was regarded as a once cool relic of the 70s man is an endangered species but then he and Tarantino reestablished what cool was with Pulp Fiction the role earned Travolta his second Oscar nomination and put him back on the A-list now if you excuse me I'm going to go home and have a heart attack number 13 Demi levado with their performances in the Camp Rock films and the Disney Channel series Sunny With a Chance Demi Lavado became a teen icon you going to press play oh right sorry but what few people knew was that they'd been struggling with mental health issues and substance use disorder for years following an altercation with a dancer on tour levado went to rehab and nobody was sure if their career would recover Demi walks up onto the plane and I turned around and Demi had punched her backup dancer in the face but they not only returned with new music they also addressed their struggles publicly becoming a role model they've continued to have ups and downs with substance use and mental health over the years but in speaking frankly about their Journey they've established themselves as an important and hugely influential [Music] Voice number 12 Winona Ryder in the late ' 80s and throughout the '90s Winona Ryder was everywhere you looked a woman so lovely and intelligent should not be walking the streets of blond out CH know you sir are you acquainted with my husband Beetle Juice Bram Stoker's Dracula and Girl Interrupted are just a handful of the high-profile movies in which she starred following a shoplifting arrest in 2001 however she stopped acting rumors of substance use circulated seemingly overnight she went from one of the biggest pop culture icons of her generation to a distant memory what you do to get this role he always said you were such a frigid little girl it turns out she was clinically depressed at the time and after taking a few years to focus on her personal life she slowly returned to work riters started small with Indie movies but they steadily got bigger I got off early and ta bouldergeist I thought I wasn't allowed to see him I changed my mind with her Golden Globe nominated role in stranger things she solidified her status as a comeback Queen number 11 berrymore when she appeared in ET the Extraterrestrial which held the record for highest grossing film of all time for 11 years Drew Barrymore absolutely stole the show I taught him how to talk now he can talk now the adorable young actress went on to star in several other films until adolescence and substance use disorder sidelined her career in the early '90s she reminded the world how talented she was when she earned her second Golden Globe nomination for gun crazy and followed that up as mistress Fisher you want me to blow on you too that make you happy new opportunities then opened up for her with her scream Cameo leading the way what do you want to see what your insides look like with hits like The Wedding Singer and Charlie's Angels and that's kicking your ass Barrymore became a huge star again and followed these up with more roles as well as her own daytime talk show number 10 Ellen degenerous it's a good job I like being a comedian and the only bad thing about the job is that I have to fly everywhere I go uh because because you won't come to me actually that's why in the '90s stand-up comedian Ellen degenerous tried her hand as the lead in a sitcom and found herself in a big hit look if you could just tell me if it's going to be a while I could wait right over there there next she achieved even greater Fame when both she and the character she played came out as gay for God's sake Yen tell him you're gay but a backlash soon developed and her popularity faded in 2003 though she had a double whammy she delighted audiences as the voice of Dory and the huge hit Finding Nemo I forget things almost instantly it runs in my family well I mean at least I think it does and simultaneously earned a devoted following as the host of her own talk show I'm so pleased and so personally privileged to be able to officially dedicate stage one which forever more will be now known as The Ellen stage having hosted the Oscars served as a cover girl and contributed to numerous causes Ellen became a bigger star than ever however it is worth noting that in 2020 she came under Fire for a quote toxic work environment on her show which subsequently ended number nine Natasha Leon during its Heyday American pie made huge stars of its ensemble cast don't worry you'll get her back soon enough you think so sure she likes you soon therea Natasha Leon was appearing in everything from K and Leopold to Blade Trinity we need a new tactic like what a biological weapon however substance use disorder led to difficulties in 2005 after a series of legal issues she was hospitalized with a collapsed lung a heart infection and more few actors ever come back from such an extreme low but Leon not only got healthy and returned to acting she has since delivered her best work to date you know what I I don't believe in dictating the boundaries of a cent and beings existence for you it's safety for me and oatmeal it's a prison she was an absolute scene stealer as Nicki nickels and Orange is the New Black but Russian doll which she co-created co-wrote and stars in Remains the crowning Jewel of her comeback to dat I I can't remember the last time I ate but then other things are just so clear you know like they already happen and I'm doing them again I think I'm dead number eight waen Phoenix only someone with the last name Phoenix can Rise From the Ashes not once but twice well I was just thinking maybe I could stay with Dad for a while in 1989 waing Phoenix then credited as Leaf retired from acting despite his success as a child star then in 1995 2 years after the death of his brother River Phoenix Wen finally returned to the screen by the early 2000s he was a massive star ambition that can be a virtue when it drives us to excel the second half half of the decade however saw his behavior become increasingly erratic and in 2008 he announced his retirement from acting turns out it was all for a mockumentary I'm still here but the damage he did was real do your past failures bother you no do your past failures bother you no thankfully filmmakers recognized his enduring talent and his post Hiatus career has been defined almost exclusively by critically acclaimed performances and an Oscar number seven Michael Keaton he was Beetlejuice he was Batman but by the early 2000s he was essentially nowhere to be seen hold [Music] on Michael Keaton never technically stopped working it just seemed like no one was offering him big roles anymore the critics continued to commend his performances but nothing he did generated much interest at the box office How Could You Lie to Me Maggie dad I can explain okay your word used to means something it's like Hollywood didn't know what to do with middle-aged Michael Keaton until he aged into a more believably World weary age bracket with 2014's Birdman a film that was appropriately about an actor looking to make a comeback he returned with a Vengeance you know my lines too huh can can we not get hung up on knowing lines can we just work on this tear it apart their performance earned him an Oscar nomination and roles in Spotlight the founder Spider-Man homecoming and more soon followed number six Keanu Reeves nothing says my career just got a new leas on life like having your name combined with the term Renaissance LAPD there's a bomb on your butt in the '90s Keana Reeves proved himself an unlikely action star Who understated acting style aside is surprisingly versatile Point Break and speed made him successful before the Matrix launched him into the stratosphere more is fighting Neo unfortunately there's only one place to go from there and the 2000s saw his star dulled by forgettable films but he always remained likable relatable and down to earth and in the 2010s he finally started getting the Adoration he always [Music] deserved the John Wick franchise a fourth Matrix movie his epic role and always be my maybe the list goes on wherever you look there's Keanu giving us a reason to smile good seeing you again John number five Mariah Carey every year new artists make their presence known with hugely successful debut albums but how many artists can you name who can make waves this big with their 10th studio album the world is quick to get bored with the same old pop stars by the mids Mariah Care's Heyday felt like it was squarely in the rearview mirror yeah but you know what I'm having a good time so h no with her 2005 album The imens PA of Mimi however she made herself feel relevant and in a way that would carry her forward for years to come the beginning of the decade saw the singer songwriter struggling on all fronts professionally personally financially and with her health glitter could have been the end but she persevered and pulled off one of the most massive comebacks in music history number four Britney Spears one of the biggest pop stars of the late '90s Britney Spears was Unstoppable in fact her first single is is one of the bestselling tunes of all time she even dominated the Super Bowl halftime show in 2001 then about halfway through the naughties things started to go arai when dealing with her mental health she became fodder for the tabloids you have to realize that we're people and that we need we just need privacy and we need our respect and and those are things that you have to have as a human she made a small comeback in 2007 with blackout but personal issues troubled her until 20 8's womanizer in Circus by 2012 she had again taken the World by storm with Forbes naming her the year's highest paid female musician still she was under a harmful conservatorship it was terminated in 2021 Paving the way for her to live her life on her terms number three Neil Patrick Harris excuse me excuse me I Ted Mosby am a jerk to women for many years most people didn't know the name Neil Patrick Harris if he popped up on our screens The Only Name we thought of was Doogie Hower the teenage Doctor Harris played early in his career you're going to kill him and you don't give a crap doct Hower you will behave don't talk to me like you're my father you're not Harris seemed to fade away after the show came to an end that is until he appeared in the haral and Kumar series as a self-aware version of himself so uh so I got to ask you Neil uh did you ever get it on with wandoo off the set dude I humped every piece of ass ever on sure taking that momentum to move on and star and How I Met Your Mother Harris became the show's breakout star you're the one he since kept the momentum going with award show hosting gigs high-profile movie roles a Netflix series and his critically acclaimed stage work and as anyone in the theat knows after a grand entrance the audience is supposed to applaud number two Matthew we love the Keanu sauce but the makc sauce happened first and was arguably even bigger Looking Back Now it's almost hard to remember what mcc's career used to look like what if I take it to a restaurant are you going to pretend to own it no all the restaurants owner in Europe for those of you who need a refresher it was almost exclusively romcoms and that's a genre you sadly tend to age out of eventually by the 2000s they all just started to blur together then suddenly MC just stopped saying yes to the romcoms look at me what do you see huh the goddamn Rodeo is what you see playing the groundwork with The Lincoln Lawyer and mud MCC blew audiences away in 2013 with Dallas Buyers Club earning himself an Academy Award in the process stop it no no m is a 50/50 change you're going to kill yourself those are the best odds I've had in years he followed it up with True Detective and Interstellar among other notable roles and in doing so fundamentally altered and saved his career before we continue be sure to subscribe to our Channel and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos you have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them if you're on your phone make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications number one Robert Downey Jr today I'm going to jump H and down for you like nothing about you've ever seen before but devot in the chicken K when he started out Robert Downey Jr was heralded as one of the best actors of his generation his Oscar nominated role in Chaplan and arresting performance in natural-born Killers demonstrated his impressive range you know we l low we jump up we bu and weave we get rid of him we come in we do OA we do Don who I mean do you have any idea how huge we could be but the actor's publicized substance use problems made him too risky for producers and his star Faded in the '90s drugs land the troubled actor in prison eventually Downey pulled off a historic comeback in the 2000s reminding everyone of his versatility and skill with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang zodiac and more and let's bring it up to 2.5 3 2 1 his performance as Tony Stark and Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has solidified him as an icon of the big screen that saying nothing of his Oscar winning work in Oppenheimer needless to say he is once again regarded as one of the greats I can't put agree my mind re stagnation give me problems give me work the sooner the better which story did you find the most uplifting let us know in the comments below did you enjoy this video check out these other clips from watch Mojo and be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos [Music]

Channel: WatchMojo.com

Views: 188,349

Keywords: Britney Spears, Celebrity, Hollywood, Mariah Carey, Matthew McConaughey, Neil Patrick Harris, celeb, celebrities, celebrities who saved their careers, celebrity comeback, celebrity comebacks of 2023, celebrity comebacks of 2024, celebrity scandals, celebs, comeback, comebacks, controversial celebrities, famous, keanu reeves, list, michael keaton, redeemed, robert downey jr., scandals, stars, stars who saved their careers, top 10, watchmojo

Id: 4SZwBkti1lQ

Length: 31min 31sec (1891 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 19 2024