10 Movie Stars From 00s That Fell Off The Radar

Swept to fame like that plastic bag in ‘American Beauty’, star Thora Birch shook off the disappointment of 'Dungeons & Dungeons’ to play the lead in 'Ghost World’, one of the best teen movies ever. However, after a string of low-budget flops that followed, Birch put her acting career on hold in 2012. Now 34, she’s making somewhat of a comeback in next year’s 'Above Suspicion’.

Despite being the lead actor of the most successful movie of all time, Worthington’s post-Avatar career did not piggyback him into stardom. 'Clash’ and 'Wrath Of The Titans’ notwithstanding, Worthington hasn’t bothered the box-office since and he now acts only occasionally, comfortable in the knowledge that the next three 'Avatar’ sequels will set him up for life.

The California-born actress went super-stellar in 2005 when she was cast as Sue Storm in 2005’s 'Fantastic Four’ movie, then spent the next 10 years doing a pretty decent impression of the Invisible Woman off set. That’s not to say she hasn’t been busy – Alba has two daughters and started her own business, The Honest Company, in 2012 – but high-profile movie roles have been hard to come by.

The elfin star of 2001’s 'Amelie’ charmed her way to a mainstream crossover, appearing in Ron Howard’s 2005 adaptation of 'The Da Vinci Code’. Unsurprisingly, jogging to libraries with a mullet-sporting Tom Hanks wasn’t exactly the Hollywood career Tautou was hoping for, and she retreaded back to her native France almost immediately to make creatively fulfilling movies that don’t have a hope in hell of ever being seen in cinemas over here.

As perennial hostage Kim Bauer in '24’, Elisha Cuthbert spent more time kidnapped than she did at school. Perhaps all that time spent kidnapped in basements affected her career choices: after playing the damsel in distress in 2005’s 'House Of Wax’ and 2007’s 'Captivity’, Cuthers hasn’t popped her head above ground for a while now, although she did sterling work in TV comedy 'Happy Endings’.

The Precocious Fanning was the go-to girl for kids who could read dialogue written by adults in the 00s: she worked opposite Sean Penn in 'I Am Sam’, Denzel Washington in 'Man On Fire’ and Tom Cruise in 'War Of The Worlds’. Then? PUBERTY. Deemed too indie to take lead roles in high-profile Young Adult movies (although she did have a bit-part in 'Twilight’), Fanning concentrated on low-profile roles like 'The Runaways’ and 'Effie Gray’. She was also usurped by her own insanely talented younger sister Elle.

Spider-man star Maguire has appeared in just five movies since hanging up his web-shooters in 2007: granted, he starred in 'The Great Gatsby’, but former friend Leonardo DiCaprio was likely to have had a huge part in his casting, and he was replaced in the bookends opening and closing 'Life Of Pi’ by actor Rafe Spall. However, when you learn that Tobey has made upwards of £10 million playing POKER on tour, his absence from Hollywood’s call sheets makes much more sense.

Don’t bite the hand that feeds you: that’s the #1 rule in Hollywood. Rom-com queen Katherine Heigl found out the hard way, first when she questioned 'Knocked Up’ director Judd Apatow’s way of writing women (she called her character “a little shrewish”), then when she shunned an Emmy nomination (“I did not feel that I was given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination”). Hollywood’s response was to go cold: so many doors closed on Heigl she might as well have become a Jehova’s Witness.

Hirsch sprung to fame in the mid-00s, first alongside Cuthbert in 'The Girl Next Door’, then in the peerless indie trio of 'Lords Of Dogtown’, 'Alpha Dog’ and 'Into The Wild’. His last big year was 2008 with roles in 'Milk’ and 'Speed Racer’. Hirsch played second fiddle to Mark Wahlberg in ’Lone Survivor’ but it’s been all quiet since then. Perhaps legal issues are to blame: in 2012 he was found guilty of aggravated assault after choking a woman in a nightclub. Rehab followed; movie roles, not so much.

The man who put the mannequin in Anakin Skywalker vanished no sooner than he’d clad himself in Darth Vader’s breathing apparatus. Christensen claims he took a break after 'Revenge Of The Sith’ because he felt like his success was handed to him. “I didn’t want to go through life feeling like I was just riding a wave,” he said in 2015. He retreated to his farm in Ontario, Canada with his partner, actress Rachel Bilson, and learned about agriculture instead.