10 Actors Who Blew Their Big Chance Before They Got Going

6. Linda Blair

After an Oscar-nominated performance in The Exorcist in 1973, 15-year-old Linda Blair unsurprisingly didn't seem quite sure how to follow such critical acclaim. At director William Friedkin's insistence, she was kept away from the more gruesome effects in the horror (including the most famous of all, the spinning head, accomplished with a dummy) and her luck began to turn as soon as this was leaked, diminishing her claim to the Oscar. Blair starred in a few underwhelming films and reprised her role as Regan in the sequel to her big hit in 1977, before succumbing to a drug addiction which left her unpopular in Hollywood. Since getting clean, she has combined nostalgic interviews and documentaries about The Exorcist with steady work in TV. Blair seems to have made peace with her status as the equivalent of a one-hit wonder, and in the meantime has founded a successful animal welfare charity.