When an actor embarks on their career they are filled with potential and promise. And while some live up to expectations others fail to fulfil their potential.
We take a look at some of the stars who haven't quite had the acting career that many expected them to have.
- Lindsay Lohan
When you are talking about those who have under-achieved then you don't have to look any further than Lindsay Lohan who is now more well know for her tabloid antics that her work.
With roles in TV series Another World and movie The Parent Trap a young Lohan was the child star that everyone was excited about.
Freak Friday, Mean Girls and Bobby were other some of the other roles that really help put her on the map and her future looked very bright in deed.
But in recent years she has become more well known for her partying and run ins with the law that the movies that she is starring in.
I Know Who Killed Me and Labour Pains have all been box office disasters and she is struggling to get her career back on track.
- Christian Slater
Christian Slater is an actor who has enjoyed a career that has spanned over thirty years in a wide variety of roles.
Early roles of note were The Legend of Billie Jean and The Name of the Rose but it was Heathers that was his major breakthrough.
Throughout the nineties Slater was a big name in Hollywood with roles in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles but he never really made it on to the A-list.
By the end of the decade his star had started to fade somewhat as it were his brushes with the law that were making all of the headlines.
Slater has continued to work steadily over the years but that major role seems to have eluded him.
- Edward Furlong
Edward Furlong was another child star who everyone was excited about as he kicked off his career in Terminator 2: Judgement Day.
The movie saw him take on the role of John Connor alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger and the film was a box office smash.
Off the back of this success he was able to take on some roles in smaller movies such as Before And After as he began to show his versatility as an actor.
But the excitement around Furlong began to die as we headed into the noughties as he starred in some unsuccessful picture as well as facing problems off screen.
While Furlong landed a role in CSI: New York his career has never got back on track and he has never recaptured the dizzy heights of the early nineties.
- Ethan Hawke
Ethan Hawke has enjoyed a career that has spanned nearly thirty years staring off as a child star before making the successful transition into more grown up movies.
The likes of Reality Bites and Before Sunrise brought Hawke critical success and really put him on the map.
But the movie that really did grab everyone's attention came in 2002 when he teamed up with Denzel Washington for Training Day.
The role of Jake Hoyt gave Hawke a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination and he looked to be on the cusp of huge things.
While he has had success at the box office since Training Day he has never made the huge impact that was expected - however he did pick up a second Oscar nomination behind the camera for his work on the Before Sunset screenplay.
- Josh Hartnett
Josh Hartnett was tipped for great things at the beginning of his career as he appeared in teen movies such as The Faculty and The Virgin Suicides and there was even more excitement when he moved into more ‘grown up roles’.
He starred in the likes of Pearl Harbour and Black Hawk Down and his dashing good looks meant he was the next Hollywood leading man in waiting.
But the dizzy heights have never really followed for the actor as he turned down the role of Superman - a role that would no doubt have sent his star rocketing even further.
The last couple of years we have seen very little of him on the big screen as he has done producing work as well as theatre projects - the movie that hr has done have struggled to catch people’s attention.
But at thirty four Hartnett still has time on his side to get his career back to where it was as he has completed work on Parts Per Billion and Singularity.
- Joseph Fiennes
Joseph Fiennes is an English actor who has already enjoyed a career that has spanned twenty years and brought some great projects.
He starred in the likes of Shakespeare in Love, Enemy at Gates and Elizabeth and was an actor that everyone was excited about at the end of the nineties and early noughties - there was just something about him in those major movies that really was exciting.
But more recently we have seen his star dip a little as he has turned his attention to TV work in recent years with FlashForward, Camelot and American Horror Story: Asylum - we haven’t seen him on the big screen since 2009.
Fiennes does have a trio of movie projects in the pipeline - including Hercules with Dwaye Johnson - and as a talented actor he can get his star back where it should be.
- Alicia Silverstone
Alicia Silverstone was the name on everyone’s lips in the mid nineties when she made her breakthrough with The Crush and then Clueless - the movie that she will forever be synonymous with.
She was tipped to be Hollywood’s next big leading lady but her acting career really hasn’t panned out that way.
Batman & Robin saw her take on the role of Batgirl and that movie was a disaster for all involved and Silverstone picked up a Razzie for Best Supporting Actress - not to mention it was not a critical success.
While she has continued to work throughout the noughties there have been no high profile movie or TV roles that have got her career back on track.
Silverstone is now perhaps better known for her strong and outspoken beliefs on animal rights and the environment.
Tagged in Christian Slater Lindsay Lohan Ethan Hawke