It’s always sad when a beloved movie star retires or passes away, drawing their glittering careers to a close. But it’s even more upsetting when their last ever appearance on the big screen was in an awful film. After all, these people have entertained us for decades — surely the least they deserve is to go out on a high?
However, life (unlike the movies) is much less reliable when it comes to happy endings, and many of the best actors the world has ever seen have finished up not with a bang, but a whimper. From James Bond himself, Sean Conner,y to comedy legend Robin Williams and beyond, here’s a round-up of exceptionally talented actors whose final movies were terrible.
Sean Connery – The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)
Sir Sean Connery is a living legend thanks to his much-admired (and parodied) voice and iconic performances in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Dragonheart, The Untouchables and the early James Bond outings. Sadly, Connery’s final live-action flick The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen doesn’t reflect the Scottish thespian’s admirable cinematic legacy.
Worse still, Connery’s time on the set of this excruciatingly ill-conceived comic book adaptation was an unhappy one. He regularly clashed with director Stephen Norrington during principal photography. Connery entered retirement immediately after LXG hit theaters declining to return for the fourth Indiana Jones installment, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull — although he did lend his vocals to low budget animated feature Sir Billi (itself something of a misfire).
Gene Hackman – Welcome To Mooseport (2004)
Over the course of his 43 years in show business, Gene Hackman nabbed two Academy Awards — Best Actor in The French Connection and Best Supporting Actor in Unforgiven — and was nominated a further three times, as well. Aside from his scene-stealing turns in those Best Picture winners, Hackman also starred in bonafide classics like Superman: The Movie, Bonnie and Clyde, and The Poseidon Adventure.
So why, oh why, did he cap off such a stellar run with Welcome to Mooseport? An unfunny Ray Romano comedy vehicle from 2004, this toothless satire of small-town politics sees Hackman do everything he can to elevate the limp material written for him. Alas, it turns out there are limits to even Hackman’s prodigious talents, and his final performance prior to giving the acting game away is attached to his least satisfying film.
Joan Crawford – Trog (1970)
It’s been suggested that Joan Crawford joined the cast of Trog because she enjoyed working with producer Herman Cohen on Berserk. That may very well be true — but we can’t escape the feeling that her true motivation was a dearth of other opportunities, given how her career had slowed by the late 1960s.
To be honest, it’s the only plausible explanation for Crawford’s otherwise incomprehensible decision to take part in this goofy 1970s sci-fi horror effort. To her credit, Crawford plays her part — a celebrated anthropologist fighting to protect her caveman pal — totally straight, but this whole low budget enterprise is so inherently silly that it’s impossible to take it seriously.
John Candy – Canadian Bacon (1995)
Many cinema buffs cite Wagons East! as funnyman John Candy’s final film before his untimely demise in 1994. However, that dubious honor actually belongs to Canadian Bacon. Released in 1995 (a year after Wagon’s East!), this political farce marks the only time that firebrand documentary filmmaker Michael Moore has tried his hand at fiction.
It turns out there’s a reason for that: formidable iconoclast though he may be, Moore lacks the storytelling discipline and narrative know-how to pull off a traditional three-act motion picture. So although the cast (especially Candy) illicit more than a few strong laughs early on, by the time Canadian Bacon’s third act rolls around, proceedings have devolved into a mirthless mess.
Elizabeth Taylor – These Old Broads (2001)
Okay, we’ll admit it: These Old Broads is technically a TV movie, which means we’re kinda fudging our own rules a bit here. But c’mon – this marked the last time Elizabeth freakin’ Taylor would headline a film, so we couldn’t not include it.
It’s actually quite remarkable that These Old Broads is such a trainwreck, given the pedigree of its cast. Indeed, Taylor is joined by an insanely talented trio of fellow Hollywood icons: Debbie Reynolds, Shirley MacLaine, and Joan Collins. Yet despite their involvement — and a script co-written by Carrie Fisher — Matthew Diamond’s 2001 comedy sinks under the weight of awkward slapstick and tired gags recycled from other, better movies.
Robin Williams – Absolutely Anything (2015)
On paper, Absolutely Anything should have been the perfect send-off for Robin Williams. A high-concept sci-fi comedy directed by Terry Jones and featuring his fellow surviving Monty Python comrades, it’s hard to imagine a better showcase for Williams' trademark madcap antics.
Except…it isn’t. Essentially an uninspired rip-off of Douglas Adam’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, Absolutely Anything squanders its top-notch acting roster. Simon Pegg, Eddie Izzard, Joanna Lumley, and Kate Beckinsale appear opposite Williams' talking dog, Dennis, with a dishearteningly laugh-free screenplay and visual effects that looked dated even by 2015 standards.
Raul Julia – Street Fighter (1994)
A well-regarded character actor with an accomplished career on Broadway to his name, Raul Julia signed on for Street Fighter to make a film his children might enjoy. But like almost every other video game adaptation before or since, Steven E. de Souza’s 1994 live-action take on this best-selling franchise was objectively terrible.
In fairness, Julia’s deliciously OTT turn as megalomaniacal baddie General M. Bison is one of Street Fighter’s few unqualified highlights; his on-screen energy and magnetism are frankly astonishing, considering he was suffering from terminal cancer at the time. Even so, Julia’s memorable performance can’t fully paper over the film’s many cracks, and while Street Fighter earned a modest profit, it was savaged by fans and critics alike.
Bob Hoskins – Snow White And The Huntsman (2012)
Bob Hoskins' filmography is characterized by extreme shifts in quality. For every gem like The Long Good Friday, Brazil or Who Framed Roger Rabbit that raises the standard, there’s a lemon like Super Mario Bros. or Spice World dragging it right back down again.
Regrettably, the late English actor’s last movie before retiring due to Parkinson’s disease, Snow White and the Huntsman, fell firmly in the latter camp. True, Hoskins himself was dependably solid as blind dwarf Muir, but director Rupert Sanders’ preoccupation with visual spectacle over coherent plotting resulted in a stylish yet ultimately hollow flick.
Gene Kelly – Xanadu (1980)
Outside of maybe Fred Astaire, there was no greater pioneer when it comes to capturing the magic of dance on the big screen than Gene Kelly. Timeless masterpieces like An American in Paris and Singin’ in the Rain more than attest to this, but the same can’t be said for Kelly’s final bow, Xanadu — a musical so flat-out dreadful it helped pave the way for the Razzies.
Sure, the soundtrack by Olivia Newton-John and ELO is a cracker, and in retrospect, there’s a certain degree of campy charm to the whole affair. Nevertheless, Xanadu suffers from a bonkers plot, rickety special effects and (somewhat surprisingly) lackluster dance choreography and camerawork.
Bela Lugosi – Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959)
Bela Lugosi’s advanced age — and known addiction to methadone and morphine — finally caught up with the Hungarian-American actor shortly before cameras rolled on notorious sci-fi horror turkey Plan 9 from Outer Space. Ordinarily, this would have precluded Lugosi from appearing in the film, but director Ed Wood wasn’t about to recast his biggest star.
Instead, Wood repurposed material taken from other, incomplete projects he and Lugosi had been collaborating on prior to Lugosi’s death to resurrect him on the big screen. The only snag? There weren’t enough cutting room floor clippings available to craft a full performance. So the ever-inventive Wood’s solution was to intercut existing scenes featuring Lugosi with new footage of his wife’s chiropractor serving as a stand-in. Needless to say, the finished product was hardly a fitting tribute to the greatest Dracula in cinema history.