5. Kim Basinger
Kim Basinger won an Oscar for her role as a sleazy femme fatale with a heart of gold in the wonderful
L.A. Confidential, though I'm still not sure that she deserved to win, given how little screen time she had, and... meh, it's Kim Basinger. Still, the win should have locked in an era of great Kim Basinger movies - Hollywood had bestowed her with its greatest honor, and we were eager to see more. Instead, Basinger decided to take a bizarre three-year break from making movies, presumably still shocked that she'd even been given an Oscar in the first place. When she finally came back to work in 2000, everybody was totally over Kim Basinger, and it didn't help that her comeback vehicle was a misguided, box office flop, and that she was plainly terrible in it (
I Dreamed Of Africa - don't watch it). So I guess she took an extended hiatus from acting given that she'd, like, received the highest honor available or something - what's the point in more acting, right? But there'a a reason you
keep acting, Kim, because audiences will move on otherwise. When was the last time you heard someone mention Kim Basinger? Exactly.