10 Great Comeback Performances

A career slump is often impossible to escape from but sometimes, just sometimes, a performer gets a shot and delivers a comeback performance that puts them back in the spotlight…

Hollywood is a fickle place. One minute you can be hot and the next not. Whether it’s a run-of-flops or the wrong kind of infamy, an actor who once held the spotlight upon them may find themselves a long way from the mainstream. They might still work prolifically but perhaps in movies that are often straight to video. 

Hollywood also likes a good comeback story, and whether an actor gets the chance to remind the world how great they were, or completely surprise audiences with a range no one thought possible, the right film and role can reinvigorate a career. Pamela Anderson has been making waves for her upcoming film The Last Showgirl, astounding critics with a transformative performance most would barely have thought her capable of as the star of Baywatch (not known for its imperious acting), Barb Wire and a string of straight-to-video potboilers in the mid-90s. 

Frankly, I’m totally down for that kind of rug pull and can’t wait for the film to hit the UK. Until then, let’s take a look at 10 performers who surprised everyone with incredible comeback performances. 

Adam Sandler – Uncut Gems

The Sandman was hardly struggling back in 2019 but his days as a box office behemoth on the big screen were long gone, the films had become half-cocked and a little lazy and a multi-picture deal with Netflix only seemed to yield unfunny comedies. Almost two decades previously, Sandler surprised everyone when he popped up in a surprisingly lithe, Paul Thomas Anderson film (Punch Drunk Love) and delivered a film that harnessed his comical capabilities but added complexity and emotional heft. The question was, could he do that again?

A few teases aside, it took the Safdie brothers and their brand of intense thriller to draw a real performance out of Sandler again and arguably a career-best. A film that ramps up anxiety to almost unbearable levels and throws Sandler into a perpetual onslaught of obstacles (most of which he blunders through with the wrong decision). It’s an incredible performance from Sandler that shook him from his slightly apathetic approach to making movies. So much so he was talked about seriously as an Oscar contender and frankly criminally overlooked for a nomination. 

Pam Grier – Jackie Brown

Some directors love to pull actors out of the wilderness and Quentin Tarantino is perhaps the most prolific in doing so. In 1997, his Elmore Leonard adaptation, Jackie Brown was atypically star-studded but he surprised many by casting former Blaxploitation, B-movie icon, Pam Grier in the lead. A more than capable performer, few would have pinned her down in her late 40s as being a leading lady in an A-list movie but there she was, front and centre. 

Grier is incredible as most who perform for Tarantino are. She delivered a career-best performance that was widely acclaimed and should have garnered more award recognition for her. It’s also arguably Tarantino’s most underrated, unshowy (but disciplined) film.

Robert Forster – Jackie Brown

Speaking of Jackie Brown, Grier wasn’t the only person to have a comeback in the film. Robert Forster was never particularly the main man, even in his pomp, often playing villains or supporting roles but in Jackie Brown, he gets a key role bringing one of the most quietly understated and compelling performances in Tarantino’s canon where most characters are often larger than life. It got him an Oscar nomination.

Much like Grier, Forster’s big comeback didn’t create as much momentum as his talents deserved but he was still an intermittent big-screen and mainstream TV presence. He also snagged a part in Mulholland Drive, one of a number of esteemed cast members in the modern masterpiece. 

John Travolta – Pulp Fiction

Whilst for Sam Jackson, Pulp Fiction was a career-transforming breakout to leading man status, for John Travolta it was a redemptive movie coming at a low point in his career. His more successful recent films involved a talking baby/kids and were lambasted by critics and most of the rest barely registered. However, when Michael Madsen couldn’t take on the role of Vincent Vega, Tarantino called upon John Travolta. It wasn’t a popular choice for the studio but they had Hollywood’s hot property in the director’s chair, so who could argue?

Travolta paid that faith back with one of his best performances which signalled a new era in his career where he was a popular leading man once again. We promise this list isn’t all about Tarantino. 

Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler

Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler was a dark, uncompromising look at a fallen idol from the complex world of professional wrestling. Once worshipped star, now confined to low-level shows, small turn-out convention appearances and struggling with dependencies on drugs and alcohol.

Rourke’s own career was well past a peak era in the 80s when he was viewed as an heir apparent to the likes of De Niro and Pacino. A run of critically acclaimed and genuinely exciting performances was ended by poor choices, on and off-set issues as his career hit free fall. Rourke remained busy but in either small walk-on roles (occasionally given with a degree of pity), or straight-to-DVD pictures. As a leading man, he was often deemed too risky for an array of reasons. Aronofsky saw in Rourke the perfect vessel to portray his broken protagonist and Rourke dived into it with total commitment. The result is a complex, raw and powerful performance and the film perfectly captures the often tragic post-prime days of wrestlers. 

Paulie Shore – The Court Jester

Sure, you’re probably thinking that Pauly Shore is still at the top of the mountain but it might surprise you to know that the juice wheezin, weasel has been out of the picture for almost 30 years, aside from a few cameos playing himself here and there, or movies no one saw. However, to the surprise of many the prospect of Shore playing the late fitness guru, Richard Simmons hit news outlets earlier this year. 

A short film written and directed by Jake Lewis, featured Shore looking pitch-perfect as the inimitable Simmons in a brief, nostalgic and uplifting film. The sincerity that Shore injects into the role is beyond what many might have imagined having watched Encino Man or Bio Dome where beyond goofball, there weren’t too many requirements. Rumours of a feature version persisted, though Simmons himself wasn’t keen prior to his death. Were it to happen though, Hollywood not only loves comeback movies, they also love inspiring bio-pics. Could we be that close to Shore popping up at the Award circuits? If so, I’ll be wheezin the juice in celebration. 

Demi Moore – The Substance

Demi Moore broke big as a member of the brat pack in the 80s, became one of the A-list starlets of the 90s, before a lull that has lasted the most part of the 20th century. Awards recognition isn’t alien to Moore as a two-time Golden Globe nominee but she was a more regular fixture in the MTV movie award nominations in her peak years as well as a Razzie favourite. To say critics rarely recognised her as a good actress would be an understatement. 

Step forward to 2024 and Coralie Fargeat delivers The Substance, injecting it straight into the synapses of Letterboxd audiences who lapped it up. An incredible artistic achievement proudly wearing an array of influences over a well-covered parable. Moore as an ageing and fallen star who is getting pushed out in favour of a younger replacement feels like great casting, and under Fargeat’s direction, stripping any ego away, Moore digs deep to deliver a stunning, career best performance that’s gained plenty of Oscar buzz (and hopefully they’ll be brave enough to nominate a type of film that’s ordinarily Oscar kryptonite).

Sylvester Stallone – Rocky Balboa

A once great champ pushing 60 fights a young upstart who no one rates as a great boxer because he’s only fought bums. A morally questionable, but big money and high-interest fight gets set. Sound familiar? No, we’re not talking Mike Tyson’s perpetually buffering asshole after facing that YouTube fella, it’s Rocky Balboa, the film that resurrected Sylvester Stallone’s career from the pits of despair. 

Sly Stallone was one of the box office behemoths of the early to mid 80s but a slow decline into the early 90s began to dive into freefall by the turn of the century. Long rumoured returns to playing his iconic brand characters, Rocky and Rambo persistently crumbled due to his waning box office appeal and rapidly increasing age. Eventually, Stallone got a sixth Rocky film off the ground by returning to more modestly budgeted roots. It had to be good. He had to be good and thankfully, the film delivered a nostalgic and sincere return to form for both actor and character. Stallone was excellent, the film did well enough to remind mainstream audiences that Stallone could still deliver a winner and it also facilitated a return for Rambo (John.J?). 

The success paved the way for a new successful Expendables franchise as well as enough interest in the Rocky canon that Creed could be greenlit and with Rocky returning as a mentor, it earned Stallone his second Oscar nomination as an actor. 

Robert Downey Jr. – Iron Man

Say what you will about the dramatic weight of the MCU, but before oversaturating themselves and becoming a somewhat dreary production line, they were actually making some decent films and it all began with Iron Man. Having risen as one of the most promising actors of the early 90s (after popping up in a slew of teen comedies in the 80s), Robert Downey Jr. had one of Hollywood’s most notorious career implosions. 

To all intents and purposes he was blackballed, making only the odd fleeting appearance in smaller movies when a producer gave him a shot or an actor vouched for him. It was a long way from the heady days of Oscar attention with Chaplin. In 2005 he had a semi-comeback with the superb, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. A great film and, a great performance (which really was a benchmark in a wry, sardonic persona he’d soon use repeatedly to good effect). Just one problem… No one saw it. However, he then got a shot at a film that was never going to go unnoticed with the rise in popularity of comic book pictures. It was Iron Man. Not only did Downey Jr. bring a wit, irreverence and snarkiness that felt new for the genre, he effectively created an archetypal character that the majority of fellow MCU characters henceforth copied. Everyone was a wry, sardonic Tony Stark type to varying degrees but RDJ did it best. He repeated the role a number of times and became one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood to boot. 

Ke Huy Quan – Everything, Everywhere, All At Once

You could certainly make the same case for Michelle Yeoh, although she’s consistently popped up in big movies over the years since breaking into Hollywood as a Bond girl and then in Crouching Tiger, but as far as Everything, Everywhere All At Once, Ke Huy Quan made a triumphant film comeback after decades out of the limelight. Best known as a child actor in The Goonies and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Quan was popular, if never deemed an actor who might one day win an Oscar. 

All it takes is a creatively ambitious indie film that strikes gold with critics and commercially to gain the gaze of the Academy. It’s the kind of odds that winning the lottery might have but the team did it and Ke Huy Quan, effectively brought out of semi-retirement delivered a revelatory performance full of affable charm, sincerity and melancholy. As a kid, he was much loved by young fans, and returning in his 50s just felt like a beautifully Hollywood comeback that was richly deserved. 

Honourable Mentions:

Brendan Fraser – The Whale, Nicolas Cage – Mandy, Matthew McConaughey – Mud, Ellen Burstyn – Requiem For a Dream, Al Pacino – Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Jean-Claude Van Damme – JCVD, Ingrid Bergman – Autumn Sonata.

What’s your favourite comeback performance? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth..

Tom Jolliffe