10 Actors Who Blew Their Big Chance Before They Got Going

5. C. Thomas Howell

The core Brat Pack members, from Judd Nelson to Molly Ringwald, are probably used to the phrase '80s heyday'. C. Thomas Howell of The Outsiders fame is no exception, and although he's forged a decent career as an adult actor, he never made it big after his turn as Ponyboy. With some of the entries on this list, it's difficult to pinpoint when exactly their time in the spotlight had passed, but Howell's can be traced quite convincingly to a 1986 film called Soul Man. Want to kill your career, teen heartthrobs? Do a film in blackface. Howell still stands by Soul Man, which has a 14% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and says it isn't offensive in tone, although the synopsis isn't promising: a white student pretends to be black to get a scholarship and is shocked to learn that racism exists. Needless to say Soul Man wasn't well received by audiences or critics and two years later Howell was working on direct-to-video projects. As career-destroying moves go, blackface is up there with the best €“ or the worst, if you're Howell, I guess.