8 Actors Whose Careers Flopped After Leaving The MCU

Here's an interesting fact about John Slattery, the man who plays Howard Stark - Tony's father. He's just three years older than Robert Downey Jr in real life, despite the two men supposedly having a 20-plus year age gap onscreen.

It's a testament to Slattery's skill then, that he's able to convincingly play the father of a man who is basically the same age as him. Old Howard Stark has popped up in a few MCU movies, from Iron Man 2 to Civil War, and while his work here is strong, Slattery hasn't been able to find major success in Hollywood outside of these minor cameos.

He's had small roles in movies like The Adjustment Bureau, Ted 2 and Spotlight, but since 2016's Civil War - the last time we saw him as Howard Stark - his only movie role was a side part in 2017's lesser Churchill movie, the aptly-titled Churchill.

It's a shame he can't find more prominent movie work, because he definitely has the chops and the gravitas to lead (or co-lead) a big movie of his own. Granted, Slattery is perhaps more known for his TV work, with roles on Mad Men, Veep and Desperate Housewives, but even that has dried up recently, with Mad Men ending and his Veep run being limited to six episodes.

Slattery doesn't currently have any movies - MCU or otherwise - on the horizon, though amusingly, he'll soon be appearing in a TV series called The Romanoffs, which shares a name with Black Widow herself, Natasha Romanoff.