Actors become overnight celebrities when they land the perfect role on a hit show or movie. But things move fast in Hollywood, and they’re often fired just as quickly! It’s time to discuss some of the most famous celebrities who got fired from Hollywood!
Have you ever wondered which actors were fired from TV shows? Does getting fired from a movie affect an actor’s career? Has an actor ever been fired while on set? You won’t want to miss the shocking answers to those questions and many more, so come find out which celebrities suddenly found themselves on the unemployment line.
Sylvester Stallone
In Beverly Hills Cop, Eddie Murphy plays a wisecracking detective whose murder investigation takes him from The Motor City to the mean streets of 90210. But the iconic role of Axel Foley first went to Sylvester Stallone.
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Stallone is an accomplished screenwriter, and he had plenty of notes on the script once he was cast. He wanted to rename the leading character Axel Cobretti and transform the movie into an action thriller. But the cost of his ideas exceeded the film’s budget, and Sly was sacked two weeks before production started.
Beverly Hills Cop was the top-grossing movie of 1984, making Eddie Murphy one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. Axel Cobretti eventually became Lieutenant Marion Cobretti for the 1986 film Cobra co-starring wife #2 Brigitte Nielsen.
Roseanne Barr
Comedienne and self-proclaimed “domestic goddess” Roseanne Barr became an unlikely role model for working-class housewives throughout the USA; during its nine-year run on ABC, Roseanne won an Emmy, a Golden Globe, a Kids’ Choice Award, and three American Comedy Awards.
Barr got herself in trouble in 1990 after performing an off-key rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Jack Murphy Stadium, then grabbing her crotch and spitting. She claimed the Padres asked her to “bring humor to the song,” but America wasn’t amused. President George H. W. Bush called her actions “disgraceful.”
Roseanne returned to the airwaves in 2018 for a 10th season, and it was such a hit that ABC greenlit another season a few days later. But that all changed after Roseanne made a racist tweet about President Barack Obama’s senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and the show was abruptly canceled a few hours later.
Barr apologized, but the damage was already done. ABC president Channing Dungey called the tweet “abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values.” Barr later made an agreement with Tom Werner to relinquish her producer’s stake in The Conners, which is currently in its fifth season on ABC.
Jean-Claude Van Damme
7′ 3″ stuntman Kevin Peter Hall donned the alien suit in the 1987 action hit Predator but was cast as a last-minute replacement for martial arts superstar Jean-Claude Van Damme.
Van Damme was told he’d be wearing special effects makeup and a form-fitting leotard and was surprised to learn that the costume was a full-body rubber suit on stilts. Van Damme said it was difficult to see or breathe in the costume and that he’d likely break his arms if he fell and had to brace himself for impact.
In a 1989 interview with Starlog, Van Damme claimed the final straw happened when he refused to make a big jump. He also claimed that something bad happened to the stuntman they hired to do the jump. According to The Hollywood Reporter, there are up to six conflicting reports about why Van Damme got the axe, but both the stunt coordinator and first assistant director deny that anyone was injured onset.
Lisa Bonet
The free-spirited Denise Huxtable frequently clashed with her on-screen dad on The Cosby Show, and Lisa Bonet’s personal life created friction with Cosby behind the scenes. Bonet became one of the original leading characters in the spin-off A Different World, but Denise was written off the show after she announced her pregnancy.
Bill Cosby was critical of Bonet’s involvement in the erotic thriller Angel Heart and believed her decision to pose topless for Interview magazine damaged The Cosby Show’s wholesome reputation. Producer Debbie Allen suggested writing the pregnancy into A Different World, and Cosby replied, “Lisa Bonet is pregnant, but Denise Huxtable is not.”
Bonet didn’t rush to Cosby’s defense when sexual assault allegations began surfacing in 2000. When asked for comment about her former boss, Bonet said, “There was no knowledge on my part about his specific actions, but … there was just energy. And that type of sinister, shadow energy cannot be concealed.”
Jay Thomas
Radio personality Jay Thomas was a recurring character on Cheers, portraying Boston Bruins goalie Eddie Lebec. Eddie became Carla’s on-screen love interest, and playing the role apparently tested the limits of Thomas’ acting abilities. When a listener called into his radio show and asked what it was like to be on Cheers, he responded, “It’s brutal. I have to kiss Rhea Perlman.”
Cheers co-creator James Burrows did more than just fire the radio host; he killed off Eddie’s character in an off-screen Zamboni accident. Burrows said, “He insulted Rhea, which meant he insulted all of us,” and “In our world, you don’t wind up sleeping with the fishes; you die a violent yet comedic death.”
Judy Garland
Jacqueline Susann’s 1966 novel Valley of the Dolls is considered a Roman à clef based on the lives of Judy Garland, Carole Landis, Dean Martin, and Ethel Merman. Judy Garland inspired the pill-popping ingenue Neely O’Hara, but she was already too old for the role. Garland was instead cast as Helen Lawson to add some star power to the film adaptation.
Patty Duke played Neely and recalled that Garland was “charming and funny” on set. But Duke claimed that director Mark Robson often kept her waiting to film, and she “couldn’t function very well” after spending all day in her dressing room, presumably being plied with pills and cocktails.
After a month of filming, 20th Century Fox president Richard Zanuck told Garland, “It’s better that we just call it a day,” and replaced her with Susan Hayward. Judy’s fans believe she got a raw deal and the film was beneath her talents, but she received half of her promised paycheck and wore the beaded pantsuit from her wardrobe test at concerts for years!
Chevy Chase
When Chevy Chase was cast as the tycoon Pierce Hawthorne in Community, it was considered a comeback; Chevy Chase’s most successful projects were decades behind him, and he earned a reputation for being difficult to work with over the years. During one return to Saturday Night Live, Will Ferrell claimed Chase was insulting to the cast and crew and sexually harassed a female writer.
Community creator Dan Harmon also found Chase difficult to work with and said he frequently left the set or refused to shoot scenes if he didn’t like the material. While filming the season four episode “Advanced Documentary Filmmaking,” Chase became angry about the direction of the scene and uttered a racial slur before storming off-set. Chase and Harmon also had a heated argument during the episode’s wrap party, and an angry voicemail message Chase left for Harmon was leaked online.
Chase and NBC agreed it was best for him to leave the series, but the actor has yet to show any remorse for his actions. He told one interviewer. “I don’t give a crap. I am who I am. And I like who I am.”
Charlie Sheen
Charlie Sheen’s struggles with drugs and alcohol have been tabloid fodder for decades, and one particular bender in 2011 got him fired from two shows at the height of his popularity. Sheen was the highest-paid actor on television, making $1.8 million per episode of Two and a Half Men and $2 million per episode of Anger Management.
According to Warner Bros, Sheen routinely forgot lines, showed up late, and missed rehearsals. In multiple online and network television interviews, he openly criticized series creator Chuck Lorre. He called Lorre a “clown” and a “stupid, stupid little man” and then had a highly publicized social media meltdown. He told interviewers he had “tiger blood” and “Adonis DNA” and created the #WINNING hashtag to proclaim his superiority.
After Sheen was officially fired, he released a statement expressing relief: “I never have to put on those silly shirts for as long as this warlock exists in the terrestrial dimension.”
Kevin Spacey
Academy-Award-Winner Kevin Spacey was fired from the Netflix series House of Cards in 2020 after numerous sexual misconduct allegations surfaced. The RENT star Anthony Rapp claimed that then-26-year-old Spacey made an unwanted advance at a 1986 party when he was only 14. Rapp sued the actor for sexual assault, and 15 other individuals soon came forward with similar allegations, including eight who worked on House of Cards.
Spacey apologized to Rapp on Twitter, saying, “I choose now to live as a gay man.” Members of the LGBTQ community, including George Takei, Lance Bass, and Wanda Sykes, didn’t appreciate the way Spacey came out or the implication that his homosexuality was an excuse for sexual contact with minors.
Filming was immediately suspended on the sixth and final season of House of Cards, which was shortened from 13 episodes to eight. Spacey was removed from the cast and his executive producer role, and Netflix severed all ties. Spacey had already shot his scenes as industrialist J. Paul Getty for the film All the Money in the World, but he was replaced with Christopher Plummer, and the scenes were reshot.
Life in the spotlight isn’t for the faint of heart, and even the biggest stars in Hollywood find themselves out of work and fired at the drop of a hat. We all enjoy watching the rise of our favorite actors’ careers, but maybe not as much as we like watching them fall.
Whose fall devastated you the most? Get in the comments and share your thoughts!
