10 Actors Who Ruined Their Careers By Starring In Horror Movies

10. John Saxon

An Italian American actor whose career started in the 1950s, John Saxon starred in more than 200 TV and Film projects before his unfortunate death in July 2020. He became a teen idol in the 1950s by starring in films such as Rock, Pretty Baby and Summer Love where he became so popular it was reported that he received around 3,000 fan letters a week. With this fame came interest from bigger and bigger production companies. In 1958, Universal gave Saxon a role in This Happy Feeling alongside Debbie Reynolds and Curt Jurgens, and his career skyrocketed from there

In 1973, Saxon was handpicked for the Martial Arts masterpiece Enter The Dragon where he starred alongside Bruce Lee as Karate master Roper. However, despite this major success, Saxon made the strange decision to star in Bob Clarke’s Black Christmas a year afterwards. This decision severely halted Saxon’s career. Afterwards, Saxon started working in low budget Italian action films and controversial horror movies such as Tenebrae, Cannibal Apocalypse, and A Nightmare On Elm Street all throughout the 80s.

Unfortunately, these latter roles are the ones he would be remembered most for, and his career declined pretty quickly until his death. As time went on, he starred in more and more obscure projects, with his last roles being short films in the late 2010s.