20 Stars Who Rebuilt Their Careers After Public Collapse

There’s something deeply satisfying about watching a star fall from grace and then claw their way back. Whether it’s a scandal, a personal crisis, a decade of forgettable straight-to-video films, or simply the cruel indifference of a fickle industry, Hollywood and the music world have a long track record of discarding its own. Yet some of them refuse to stay down. These are not whispered rumors of maybe-someday returns. These are documented, verified, award-winning, chart-topping, box-office-confirmed stories of professional resurrection. Some of them will surprise you. A few will genuinely move you. Let’s dive in.

1. Brendan Fraser – The Brenaissance That Took Over the Oscars

Brendan Fraser was the defining leading man of the late 1990s and early 2000s, starring in blockbusters like The Mummy and comedies such as George of the Jungle. After a hiatus during most of the 2010s, Fraser made the ultimate comeback with his dramatic performance in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale. After speaking out about being sexually assaulted by the former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Fraser claimed he experienced industry blacklisting and deep depression, and numerous traumatic injuries from stunt work kept him from the mainstream, relegating him to overlooked side roles.

With The Whale, Fraser’s return to the silver screen led to an inspiring comeback narrative and, ultimately, awards glory as the Best Actor Oscar winner in 2023. The acclaimed actor earned strong reviews for the November 2025 film Rental Family, and is set to play Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 2026 movie Pressure, which started filming in the United Kingdom in the fall of 2024.

2. Ke Huy Quan – From Child Star to Oscar Winner, Decades Later

Ke Huy Quan was previously known as a child actor who starred in two of the biggest films of the 1980s, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies. Despite his early success, Quan struggled to secure work afterward and quit acting. He eventually returned with his acclaimed performance in Everything Everywhere All At Once, which saw him back at the forefront of Hollywood and secured his 2023 Oscar win for Best Supporting Actor.

His first-ever lead role in the movie Love Hurts came to theaters on February 7, 2025, and he was also recently cast in Lionsgate’s new action thriller Fairytale in New York. Honestly, this one hits differently. Decades of silence, then a complete and total triumph. It’s the kind of arc that feels almost too cinematic to be real.

3. Demi Moore – The Substance and a Long-Overdue Reckoning

Once the highest-paid star in Hollywood during her 1990s run of box-office success, Moore sat in prime position to receive her first-ever Oscar nomination after her role in The Substance. For her role in The Substance (2024), Moore won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, the Critics’ Choice Award for Best Actress, and an SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

When Moore accepted her Golden Globe award, she said she had been “doing this a long time, like, over 45 years,” noting it was the first time she had ever won anything as an actor, and that she was at a “low point” when the script for The Substance came across her desk. Per Variety, at 62, her nomination marked a moment that felt both unexpected and long overdue for a woman who had been dismissed for decades.

4. Robert Downey Jr. – From Uninsurable to Unstoppable

Robert Downey Jr.’s story is perhaps the most celebrated example of redemption in Hollywood. Once deemed uninsurable, his commitment to sobriety and a pivotal role in Iron Man not only resurrected his career but transformed him into one of the highest-paid actors in the world. His tumultuous personal life had made him effectively blacklisted in Hollywood, with Mel Gibson fighting to get him cast in The Singing Detective.

After spending time in prison and rehab, RDJ didn’t just make a comeback – he redefined what it means to come back. After Iron Man, he starred as the title character in Sherlock Holmes, co-starred in the comedy classic Tropic Thunder, and won an Oscar for Oppenheimer. Few careers in Hollywood history have swung so dramatically from rock bottom to the very top of the industry.

5. Nicolas Cage – From Internet Meme to Legitimate Scream King

By 2009, Cage was one of the biggest action stars in Hollywood and one of the highest-paid actors in the business, but he couldn’t curb his spending and ended up in debt to the IRS and other creditors. As a result, Cage seemingly took every job offered to him, putting out an immense catalog of straight-to-video movies that few people have ever watched.

Finally, in 2022, Cage revealed he was finally debt-free and started being more selective with his roles, which led to acclaimed work in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and 2023’s Dream Scenario. He made a name for himself as something of a scream king in recent years, starring in 2024’s Longlegs and the 2025 Biblical horror film The Carpenter’s Son, before taking on the titular role in David O. Russell’s biopic Madden, due out November 2026.

6. Winona Ryder – Arrested, Forgotten, Then Stranger Things Changed Everything

Winona Ryder defined the term “movie star” for late Gen Xers in the 1990s, but after her infamous arrest for shoplifting in 2001, her career nosedived and she didn’t appear in a movie for about three years after. For the next decade or so, she worked steadily but didn’t regain her star power. That changed when she starred in Stranger Things, starting in 2016, and she once again became a huge star.

Her role in the critically acclaimed Netflix series Stranger Things marked a significant turning point in her career. Ryder’s portrayal of Joyce Byers, a determined mother searching for her missing son, earned her widespread praise and reintroduced her to a new generation of fans. The success of Stranger Things helped rehabilitate Ryder’s public image and showcased her enduring talent as an actress.

7. Michael Keaton – From Birdman to Batman and Back Again

Though some may know him best from Beetlejuice, Michael Keaton cemented himself as a Hollywood great by taking on the role of Batman in Tim Burton’s 1989 and 1992 DC Comics-based films. Keaton continued working on other films during the 1990s, but was never able to reach the highs of the Batman films, and his career took a downturn during the 2000s, with consistently mixed results.

It wasn’t until 2014, when Keaton took on the lead role of a washed-up superhero movie star in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, that he finally made his grand Hollywood comeback. Officially declared back with Birdman, the next year he was a major part of Oscar heavyweight Spotlight, then played Ray Kroc in The Founder in 2016, and got the role of Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming.

8. Jennifer Coolidge – A Lifetime of Waiting, Two Seasons of Glory

Jennifer Coolidge first garnered attention for her comedic turn as Stifler’s Mom in American Pie and had given many other iconic performances since. However, Coolidge wasn’t being offered major roles that allowed her to showcase her range for a while – until The White Lotus. Starring in two seasons of HBO’s hit show, Coolidge’s multifaceted and hilariously entertaining performance won her both a Golden Globe and an Emmy, finally garnering her the recognition she deserves.

Most recently, Coolidge appeared in A Minecraft Movie, the highest-grossing film of the year as of early October 2025. This is a woman who spent years being criminally underused. The White Lotus didn’t just give her a comeback – it fundamentally rewrote her legacy.

9. Lily Gladstone – A Zoom Call With Scorsese That Changed Everything

In August 2020, Martin Scorsese requested a Zoom call with Gladstone for a lead role in his upcoming film Killers of the Flower Moon. The rest is history – Gladstone is firmly back in the business and landed a 2024 Academy Award nomination for her performance in the critically acclaimed blockbuster.

She went on to star in the June 2024 Apple TV+ film Fancy Dance and in Andrew Ahn’s remake of The Wedding Banquet, which debuted in April 2025. In July, Gladstone boarded the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair, scheduled for a March 2027 release. A single phone call – or in this case, a Zoom – can genuinely reset an entire career trajectory. That’s a remarkable thing.

10. Miley Cyrus – Billboard Named Her Comeback Artist of the Year for a Reason

Billboard named Miley Cyrus the most impressive comeback artist of 2023, finding herself back atop the Top 40 world for the first time in a decade. The single “Flowers” loomed so large throughout the year that it threatened to overshadow the rest of her 2023, during which she released her eighth studio album Endless Summer Vacation in March to a number three debut – her biggest sales week since the Billboard 200 switched to equivalent album units in 2014.

The song became a hit on TikTok, marking the first time in a decade that Miley was at the top of the Billboard Top 40. It went on to become the biggest Hot 100 hit of her career, and she followed it up with “Used To Be Young,” which shot up the charts shortly after. Per Billboard, awards editor Paul Grein called the album era “one of the year’s finest pop comebacks.” Hard to argue with that.

11. Lindsay Lohan – Netflix Gave Her a Second Chance Hollywood Refused To

Lindsay Lohan’s legal battles and struggles with mental health all threatened to permanently derail her career. At her lowest point, she was one of Hollywood’s most discussed cautionary tales, rarely mentioned without a long list of offscreen troubles attached to her name. Yet the story didn’t end there.

Lindsay Lohan had a major comeback year in 2024. After a successful return to acting with Falling for Christmas in 2022, she followed up with a starring role in a new romantic comedy, making her first big film comeback in years. Fans were thrilled to see her back in a leading role, proving she still had the star power that made her famous in the early 2000s. With her newfound balance in her personal life, Lohan embraced her return to Hollywood.

12. Jennifer Lawrence – A Calculated, Quiet, and Deliberate Reentry

Public scrutiny did a real number on Jennifer Lawrence, whose initial mega-success with The Hunger Games was eventually met with backlash, leading her to take a break from acting. But she returned to movies with Don’t Look Up in 2021 and has been working steadily since, with a more low-key, less public life.

I think this one is underrated as a comeback story precisely because it was so intentional and quiet. There was no dramatic awards campaign, no viral speech. She simply stepped back, recalibrated, and re-entered the industry on her own terms. Sometimes the most powerful comeback is the one that refuses to announce itself.

13. Pamela Anderson – The Last Showgirl and a Total Reinvention

Pamela Anderson’s comeback role in The Last Showgirl earned her nominations from the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Awards, firmly putting her back in the awards conversation. For someone whose public image had been shaped almost entirely by tabloid culture for decades, this was a seismic shift.

This wasn’t the Baywatch star from the 1990s. This was a confident, makeup-free Pamela fully leaning into her age, and she had never looked better. Fans responded enthusiastically, and Hollywood took notice too. As reported by Variety, Anderson proved that stripping away the persona audiences thought they knew could be the most radical – and effective – career move of all.

14. Marlon Brando – The Godfather Erased a Career Near Collapse

It’s hard to imagine that a Hollywood icon like Marlon Brando could have ever experienced a career slump, but it happened to the star as he hit middle age. Prior to his career-energizing role of Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, Brando was something of a persona non grata in Tinsel Town.

The Godfather didn’t just save Brando’s career. It arguably produced one of the greatest performances in the history of cinema from an actor who was largely considered finished. It’s a reminder that the industry’s judgment is not always final – and that one right role at the right moment can rewrite everything. There’s a lesson in there somewhere for every struggling star.

15. Mandy Moore – A Decade of Slow Fade, Then This Is Us

Mandy Moore’s career started like a comet as a singer in the late 1990s, which she parlayed into an acting career. That career slowed way down in the early 2010s, only to be revived in a massive way with her starring role on the NBC hit This Is Us.

Moore gave a lot in the late 1990s and early 2000s, from an incredible earworm in the song “Candy” to a breakout acting role in A Walk to Remember. Starring as the voice of Rapunzel in Tangled in 2010 and the show This Is Us from 2016 to 2022 reminded audiences how much they appreciated her. Per Forbes, Moore reflected in a 2023 interview that patience is an important virtue in the industry, and that the ebb and flow of a creative career is something every artist should expect.

16. Lady Gaga – MAYHEM Brought Her Back to Her Roots and to the Top of the Charts

2025 was a landmark year for Lady Gaga. Trailed in 2024 by lead single “Disease,” the Mayhem era kicked off in earnest with the release of “Abracadabra” in February, charging to number three on the Official Singles Chart. The album followed in March, becoming Gaga’s sixth chart-topping album.

MAYHEM saw Gaga return to the dance-pop styling of her debut album The Fame, mixed with the dark, chaotic nature of The Fame Monster. Combining those sounds with a new industrial edge led to a return to form, resulting in an album era up for eight Grammys – her most ever for a single campaign. As reported by the Official Charts, it was described as one of the biggest songs of the year globally, and her subsequent Mayhem Ball tour was the most successful of her career.

17. G-Dragon – Seven Years of Silence, Then a Global Domination

G-Dragon is back. In October 2024, he resumed his solo career after seven years with the single “PO₩ER.” In February, he dropped his third full-length album Übermensch and immediately kicked off his tour. His comeback dominated both global and Korean charts, proving that fans around the world had been eagerly awaiting his music.

G-Dragon is also set to perform with his fellow BIGBANG members at Coachella 2026. Per Billboard’s 2025 K-Pop Artist 100 report, his return was one of the defining chart stories of the year. Seven years is a long silence for any artist. For a K-pop artist, it might as well be a lifetime. His fans clearly had not moved on.

18. Jennifer Coolidge’s Fellow White Lotus Co-Star – Meg Ryan’s Quiet Director Comeback

Meg Ryan took a step back from the spotlight after the release of her 2015 film Ithaca. During her time away from acting, Ryan focused on family and other parts of her personal experience as a human being she wanted to develop. Then, during the COVID lockdown, she had the idea for a new romantic comedy. In 2023, Meg made her big return with the release of What Happens Later, which she directed, co-wrote and starred in.

There’s something quietly bold about a star who was famous for being in front of the camera choosing to step behind it to find her footing again. Directing your own comeback film is not the easy route – but for Ryan, it appeared to be the authentic one. Sometimes the comeback isn’t about recapturing what was, but building something entirely new.

19. Angelina Jolie – Maria and a Return to the Awards Conversation

After Eternals fizzled in 2021, Angelina Jolie seemed content staying off the radar, focusing on parenting and making the occasional red carpet appearance. But 2024’s Maria flipped the script. Her performance landed her a Best Actress nomination at the 82nd Golden Globes, and just like that, Jolie was back on every studio’s call sheet.

It’s hard to say for sure what motivates a star of Jolie’s stature to step back – but the silence made her return feel genuinely surprising and, by most industry accounts, earned. As reported by multiple outlets covering the Golden Globes cycle, her portrayal of opera legend Maria Callas was widely considered the most ambitious dramatic work of her career in years.

20. Ariana Grande – Wicked Was the Film Career Reset She Needed

It’s wild to think Ariana Grande hadn’t starred in a film since Don’t Look Up in 2021. While fans were busy streaming her albums, she was quietly lining up a massive screen comeback. Wicked turned out to be the rocket fuel. With Wicked: For Good landing in 2025 and Focker In-Law coming in 2026, she fully re-entered the Hollywood conversation.

Per official box office records, Wicked was among the highest-grossing musical films in recent memory, putting Grande back in the center of a cultural moment that reminded Hollywood she wasn’t simply a pop star making a cameo – she was a performer with genuine range and serious box-office pull.