4. Robin Williams
Robin Williams is a god. He is comedy royalty. He changed the face of comedy into something more than just pie-in the-face, although he was still good for a pie-in-the face laugh. Robin Williams, the comedian, is an icon. He also seems to have created the "comedy actors career trajectory path." This path leads from struggling stand-up comedian to TV success to movie success to curious movie choices (usually heavy dramatic fare) to attempts to reclaim the funny but never rising again to the top, leaving said actor stuck in a purgatory of sorts between past comedy fame and drama. He suffered from audience and bipolar. He wanted to make movies that touched upon the human soul and condition and succeeded in tugging at the heartstrings in Mrs. Doubtfire, Awakenings and Patch Adams. Williams won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in Good Will Hunting. However, we also wanted the explosive verbal diarrhea Robin Williams, as in Aladdin or Good Morning Vietnam. So he decided to provide us neither ever again.
So what happened? The 2002 'Stalker Trilogy'. Although he received critic points for again stepping out of his acting zone, audiences were luke-warm to the lone killer in Insomnia, the weird Photo booth guy in One Hour Photo and murderous kid's show host in Death to Smoochy. After 9/11, America needed a good laugh and their once go-to guy for laughter was coming off as a bit of a creepy perv. After that, nobody has ever looked at Robin Williams as the guy who once played a grown-up Peter Pan or shook the foundations of prep school establishment in Dead Poet's Society. Now, he's just the guy who plays an animated yet subdued Teddy Roosevelt in Night at The Museum and according to your parents was quite funny at one time.