Amanda Bynes
Amanda Bynes was a tremendous sketch comic from a young age. She’d wow audiences with her rapid-fire impressions on both All That and on her own program The Amanda Show. She eventually graduated to those rom-com roles you’d see famous teenagers take. At the very worst, you could’ve envisioned Bynes following in the footsteps of Kenan Thompson as a Saturday Night Live cast member.
However, it wasn’t meant to be. In her early 20s, she was reportedly involved in a number of high-profile incidents which included substance abuse issues. Though her acting career hasn’t been overly active, Bynes did graduate from college (FIDM) in 2019. Reportedly, she now seems to be on the right track.
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Ben Savage
Ben Savage wasn’t a flop in the traditional sense. On the contrary — he actually is a great example of a child actor who turned away all of the negative influences of the business. Following in the footsteps of his brother Fred, Ben was a fixture on the silver screen from a young age. Of course, most know him from Boy Meets World as the neurotic yet warm Cory Matthews. After graduating from Stanford, his acting career hit a bit of a dead-end. He was essentially typecast as the child sitcom star, and as such didn’t garner a ton of roles. After the short-lived reboot Girl Meets World, we really haven’t seen Savage involved in a ton of projects.
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Brian Bonsall
Brian Bonsall was the cute little kid in Family Ties. Among his other projects, Disney pegged him to be the lead in Blank Check. You remember — the movie where the 12-year-old cashed a blank check for $1 million and lived out the fantasies of every kid that age. At only 14, Bonsall retired from acting. However, the following years were volatile — and included multiple reported arrests. Now a musician, Bonsall is said to have put the past behind him. Based in Colorado, he’s reportedly a member of the punk rock band Sunset Silhouette.
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Orlando Brown
LA native Orlando Brown started acting as a very young kid. He featured in Family Matters, Major Payne, Moesha, The Jamie Foxx Show, and other popular projects. Brown’s biggest hit came as a co-star to Raven-Symone in That’s So Raven. For nearly 100 episodes, Brown was an integral member of the show. Later in life, it was reported that Brown was involved in a number of dust-ups with the police. He also is said to have reported issues with substance abuse. The scariest recent update involved Brown on the Dr. Phil show — demonstrating what appeared to be erratic behavior (with strange eye contact lenses). Most recently, Brown is reportedly said to have cleaned up his act. He’s focusing on music, his marriage, and his son.
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Dustin Diamond
Dustin Diamond’s most notable role — by far — was on Saved By The Bell as the nerdy character Screech Powers. He was the comedic foil for the cast, often using clever one-liners and physical humor to get over with the audience. To be fair, Diamond was quite good with his timing (and facial expressions). Sadly, when everyone views you as Screech and only Screech, it’s nearly impossible to land roles in other projects.
Diamond’s career came to a turtle-like halt. He began appearing on reality television shows, and even published a book trying to detail some juicy gossip from the show’s run (which invariably alienated himself from the rest of the cast). After a volatile last few years, Diamond sadly passed away in 2021 at the age of 44.
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Tracey Gold
Tracey Gold was a child actor — participating constantly in hit commercials. However, most know her as the wisecracking sister of Kirk Cameron in the family show Growing Pains. Though she was a bit sitcom star, much of Gold’s acting post-show revolved around TV movies. She never fully emerged as a prominent star in film or television. Over the years, it’s been chronicled that Gold suffered from an eating disorder as a young girl. Gold’s last film role came in 2016. A mother of four, she most recently appeared on the Food Network reality show Worst Cooks in America: Celebrity Edition.
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Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Lohan was a massive star for a spell. Truthfully, she’s still a massive name based upon the work she completed as a young actress. The Parent Trap was a megahit — and it propelled Lohan into some serious rarified air. Mean Girls was also critically acclaimed (with Lohan being a teen at the time). It appeared as if she was destined to become an A-Lister as an adult. However, things quickly fell off the proverbial wagon.
Reported substance abuse issues — along with her parents publicly feuding — took a toll on her. The press unfairly seemed to have a field day at Lohan’s expense, and often chronicled her struggles for all to see. As time went on, she did rebound and appear in some projects. As of 2022, she’s currently engaged and living in Dubai.
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Mara Wilson
Mara Wilson’s career essentially peaked by the time she was nine years of age. A veteran on the silver screen by that point, the California native is predominantly known for three roles: Miracle on 34th Street, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Matilda. Essentially, Wilson got to a point where she stopped acting and just existed as a normal kid. She did have involvement in some web series projects. However, she attended college in New York and reportedly still lives there to this day (while acting and participating in various podcasts). Most recently, Wilson has also been involved in voice acting (including on BoJack Horseman).
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Danny Bonaduce
The Partridge Family gave the then-little Danny Bonaduce a real platform to showcase his talents. The show was a massive hit, and everyone got to know the affable Danny Partridge. For 96 episodes, the Pennsylvania native crushed the role. He went on to work pretty steadily on television, normally in guest spots. However, Bonaduce never quite was able to recapture the popularity he had. As he got older, Bonaduce hosted a few talk shows, appeared on some ridiculous reality television shows, and ultimately moved to Seattle — where he’s since become a radio host.
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Willie Aames
Aames was considered to be a major teen heartthrob during the 1970s and 80s. Of course, Aames’ most famous roles come from Eight is Enough and the 1982 film Paradise. After a lengthy run as a cast member of Charles in Charge, Aames’ career took a major nosedive. He starred in many television films. After getting two divorces, Aames changed his career path completely and became a worker on a cruise ship line. Eventually, he married a third time — and returned to acting over the last five-to-six years. Most recently, he’s been featured in Hallmark movies.
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Jake Lloyd
The story of Jake Lloyd is a sad one. After auditioning upwards of 3,000 kids, George Lucas selected Lloyd to be Anakin Skywalker (aka Darth Vader) as a child. You’d think the film would’ve been a great experience for Lloyd. In some aspects it was — but in others it was horrible. He was reportedly bullied at school constantly, and also received harsh criticism for his portrayal on-screen. Even after a run alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in Jingle All The Way, Lloyd’s career effectively ended based upon the harsh aftermath of his Star Wars performance.
Since leaving acting, Lloyd has reportedly been involved in some legal issues (which included getting in a high-speed chase). He spent 10 months at a correctional facility back in 2016. Sadly, reports indicate that Lloyd had been suffering from schizophrenia. He has not acted since 2001.
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Taylor Momsen
Taylor Momsen has had a rather interesting journey as a child actor. Thrust into modeling by her parents as a baby, she eventually made big appearances in How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Gossip Girl, Spy Kids 2, and We Were Soldiers. However, beneath the surface, all Momsen wanted to do was play music. As such, she quit acting and went full bore into becoming a successful rockstar. For over a decade, she’s been the face of The Pretty Reckless.
The group has released four albums to date, and Momsen even penned a track which landed No. 1 on Billboard’s mainstream rock songs chart. In fact, Momsen’s group has over 1.8 million monthly visitors on Spotify — and a track (“Heaven Knows”) with more than 87 million listens.
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Drake Bell
At one time, Drake Bell was a dual-threat — functioning as both an actor and a musician. When Drake & Josh blew up on Nickelodeon, Bell was among the most popular figures on the entire network. He also had a burgeoning music career which was gaining traction. When the show ended, Bell kept doing music — and worked primarily in guests spots on Nickelodeon shows (both in-person and voice-overs).
In later years, Bell has had run-ins with the law as his career slowed. He had a DUI in 2015, and in 2021 was accused of reportedly sending inappropriate text messages to a minor. He was charged with two years of probation and 200 hours of community service. Reportedly, he’s now married with a son. Bell last did some voice-over work on Robot Chicken this past year. He’s also active as a musician — especially in Mexico where he’s got a sizable fan base.
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Haley Joel Osment
The Sixth Sense was a pop culture phenomenon. Haley Joel Osment was right in the middle of it. After his appearance in Forest Gump, he followed it up with this stunning performance. Until the end of time, Osment will forever be linked to the film alongside Bruce Willis. The innocence, fear, maturity…it was all there. It was hard for Osment to live up to the hype after that career role. Pay It Forward and A.I. : Artificial Intelligence were solid performances. From there, Osment didn’t really transition into becoming an adult actor.
He instead did heavy voice-over work for a video game series. Osment attended high school like a regular kid, and played various sports. It wasn’t until after college when he ended up getting back in the proverbial game. He’s since been a steady working actor — featuring in Silicon Valley, Goliath, and The Kominsky Method (among other projects).
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Jonathan Taylor Thomas
After voicing Simba in The Lion King, JTT was an icon during his run on Home Improvement. Young people everywhere were in love with him, and the media world ate it up. You’d see Thomas on magazine covers, on television, and in film (Man of the House, Tom and Huck, I’ll Be Home For Christmas). Though he was a massive star, he decided to step away from acting and instead enjoy a quiet life. He attended college at both Harvard and Columbia. His appearances in public and on television have been quite sporadic. Notorious for keeping his life private, we can only assume that JTT is loving life living off the residuals from The Lion King and Home Improvement.
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Macaulay Culkin
Home Alone. Macaulay Culkin. Those two go together like peanut butter and jelly. He was the biggest child star during his heyday…and it wasn’t close. He had his fair share of hits (Uncle Buck, My Girl) and flops (Richie Rich, Getting Even With Dad). Still, Culkin is child actor royalty based upon the Home Alone series. As a young teen, he quit acting to pursue music and other opportunities. We’ve since seen him enter a bit of a renaissance. While not the star adult actor that his brother Kieran is, Mac has his own website/podcast he operates. He also was in American Horror Story: Double Feature (in 2021). Most recently, Culkin had a child with his longtime partner (and fellow child actor) Brenda Song.
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Leif Garrett
Leif Garrett started off as an actor, though really made his mark as a musical star. He was the ‘it’ kid during the late 70s in an era where he faced plenty of competition from iconic musical acts. Garrett had a couple of tracks which made the top-10 charts both domestically and across the pond in the U.K. However, at the height of his music, he decided to go back into acting. Garrett didn’t enjoy much success there. He appeared in a number of reality television shows over the last few decades. Duly, Garrett has struggled with substance abuse problems dating back to when he was a teenager. Now 60 years of age, Garrett is said to be sober.
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Brad Renfro
Renfro is a cautionary tale of someone growing up very fast. He wasn’t polished like most kid actors. He was almost akin to a wild mustang — growing up in a poor Southern environment raised by his grandmother. Yet, Renfro had undeniable talent. He was wonderfully natural and acted much older than his age would indicate. This became a part of his unfortunate downfall. Renfro became famous really quickly, yet also became immersed in drug use. He hung out with older people, and sadly his acting career cratered. Renfro passed away in 2008 at the age of 25 due to a reported drug overdose. He left behind a son who is said to have been raised in Japan.
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Corey Feldman
Corey Feldman enjoyed a very prolific career from when he was a young child until his late teen years. He had a laundry list of hits — starting with The Fox and the Hound, Gremlins, Cheers, Family Ties, Stand By Me, The Goonies, The Lost Boys — and eventually with License to Drive, Dream a Little Dream, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Once the 90s hit, roles dried up. Feldman sustained a longstanding interest in music (which still consists today in the pseudo-form of Michael Jackson). Most recently, he’s been very vocal over allegations of child abuse in Hollywood. Now on his third marriage, he has one son — and continues to perform musically with his band.
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Corey Haim
Canadian actor Corey Haim was a part of the ‘Two Corey’s’ duo which was highly popular in the 80s. Like Feldman, Haim was a star child actor. He demonstrated terrific range, and truly evoked large quantities of emotion when on screen as a young performer. Lucas was among his most prolific roles. Haim also starred in Murphy’s Romance, License to Drive, Dream a Little Dream, The Lost Boys, and Silver Bullet. Haim’s inability to garner big-time roles coincided with his drug abuse issues. It followed him much of his adult life. After participating in a reality show featuring Feldman, Haim attempted to get back into acting full-time. Things appeared to be looking up for Haim (who was once homeless). However, he passed in 2010 at the age of 38.
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