15 Actors You Never Hear About Anymore ~ NEWSOLOGIES

It's well known that Hollywood careers eventually falter by the wayside, and even icons of the industry eventually work less and less. However, there are others who rode a wave of success for a certain period and then completely disappeared.

Yes, these mysterious disappearances are commonplace in La La Land because for every George Clooney and Brad Pitt, there are a million Nicholas Cages and Brendan Frasers who were A-list stars before casting directors either tired of them, or the actors themselves decided that enough was enough.

Here are 15 examples.

1. Cameron Diaz

Cameron Diaz was one of the most in-demand actresses of the early noughties, and her stock only ever seemed to be on the rise until the subsequent decade saw Diaz go in a completely different direction.

Now happily married to Good Charlotte Rocker Benji Madden, Diaz has gradually drawn herself away from the public eye in recent years, and her friend and The Sweetest Thing co-star Selma Blair recently suggested that Diaz had given up acting when speaking to a reporter at an Oscars pre-party. "I had lunch with Cameron the other day, we were reminiscing about the film," Blair said. "I would have liked to do a sequel but Cameron's retired from acting, she's like 'I'm done'."

2. Tobey Maguire

Tobey Maguire made friends with Leonardo DiCaprio when they were child actors auditioning in Hollywood, and while both would go on to have movie careers, Tobey's soon faltered after the Spiderman franchise. On the other hand, Leo's career skyrocketed the moment he got his big break in This Boy's Life.

The last serious role Tobey Maguire had was in the Baz Lurhman movie, The Great Gatsby, where best friend Leo played the lead role. Maguire also starred alongside Michael Caine in the Cider House Rules, but it appears parts such as those are now a distant memory for an actor many have forgotten.

3. Mo'Nique

Mo'Nique was all the rage in 2009 when took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in Precious, and she seemed destined to have more roles come her way following a successful awards season. Instead, the actress and comedian went onto appear in only four more movies, and one was a TV movie!

According to inside sources, Mo'Nique refused "to play the game," during the awards season, which may have been why her career soon came crashing.

4. Jack Nicholson

Jack Nicholson is a bonafide Hollywood legend and boasts more Oscar nominations than any other male actor in history, but he hasn't actually graced his talents in a movie since 2010's long-forgotten flick, How Do You Know? But why?

While reports have persisted that Nicholson is suffering from memory loss, he has disputed this numerous times and looks more than happy to live out his days sitting courtside watching his beloved La Lakers.

5. Meg Ryan

Meg Ryan was in every romcom throughout the '90s but after the success of Sleepless in Seattle and When Harry Met Sally, Ryan's career was never the same.

Ryan tried to overcome being typecast by starring in 2003's In the Cut and 2004's Against the Ropes. However, both were critical and commercial disappointments, and today Ryan is attempting to get into directing after starring in a few indie productions to put her career back on track.

6. Taylor Lautner

After Twilight fever swept the world, photos of Taylor Lautner's tanned torso became a mainstay fixture on the walls of every teenage girl, and his heartthrob status appeared to guarantee him a successful transition from Twilight hunk to a bonafide leading man.

Yet unlike co-stars Robert Pattinson and Kirstin Stewart, Lautner hasn't had the same cinematic success post-Twilight, and though he initially got away with asking for a cool $5m upfront for his first leading role in the popcorn flick Abduction, Lautner's career soon tanked after the film took a measly $28m from a $35m budget.

His last notable role in Hollywood came in the critically-bashed Adam Sandler frat movie, Grown Ups 2 and he went as far as to film a BBC show in England due to having so few offers.

7. Brendan Fraser

Whatever you say about the washed-up film career of Brendan Fraser, there's no doubting that The Mummy was an excellent film. Yes, we said it. Excellent. Anyway, without displaying too much of a soft spot for the star, Fraser is very much a second-rate actor nowadays and mostly makes a living from B-movies.

That being said, Fraser recently won rave reviews as an unscrupulous correctional officer in the much-praised Showtime series The Affair, but his once-stellar movie career has all but ran its course, which Fraser revealed was because of a harrowing incident at the height of his movie fame. Describing the incident in lurid detail to GQ, Fraser revealed he was groped by Philip Berk, the-then president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and believed it was after he wrote to Berk demanding an apology that he was blacklisted from movies

8. Nicholas Cage

Where do we start with this man? He's been around the block for years, and despite winning two Oscars, Cage's films have long been hit and miss, and he's almost made a career by accepting anything that came his way so long as he continued banking those millions.

Sadly for Cage, even someone who reached the level of fame he once did isn't averse to falling out of favor with studio executives, and after starring in turkeys like Bangkok Dangerous and Ghost Rider, he's pretty much ruined his box office appeal as well as his artistic integrity.

9. Lindsay Lohan

Know for her child roles in 'The Parent Trap' and 'Freaky Friday' before being one of the stars of Mean Girls, Lindsay Lohan turned a once blossoming career into a calamity of mistakes.

Starting out as a child actress, Lohan was earning millions before she had even turned 18 and after her first serious leading lady role in the box office smash Mean Girls, a film which also starred Rachel McAdams and Amanda Seyfried, her career soon faltered while her co-stars' rocketed.

But it wasn't down to her abilities as an actress. Lohan had talent, but she also had a crippling addiction to partying and hardcore drugs, which sadly spelt the beginning of the end. And after stints in prison for driving under the influence, Lohan has been ordered on more than one occasion to attend rehab, and asides from roles in B-movies like The Canyons, her career has been all but dead for a long time.

10. Eddie Murphy

In the late 80s and 90s, Eddie Murphy was arguably the biggest movie star on the planet and one of the first African-American actors to reach the A-list, with roles in films like Dr. Doolittle, The Nutty Professor and Coming to America proving hits with fans across the world.

In recent years, however, Murphy has been in the news for reasons away from acting, and aside from the 2011 action-comedy Tower Heist, Murphy has been an enigma for some time, though rumors that a Coming to America sequel is in the works may just change that.

11. Mira Sorvino

Unless you were born before 1980, you probably wouldn't be aware of Mira Sorvino unless you've seen her films, which garnered her both an Oscar and a Golden Globe. With such accolades, you'd think Sorvino would be able to pick whatever projects she wanted, but aside from the odd film, Sorvino hasn't had much of a look-in with casting directors, and the reason why is incredibly sad.

According to intel from the acclaimed Kiwi director Peter Jackson, Sorvino was blacklisted from motion pictures by Harvey Weinstein after Sorvino was brave enough to file a harassment lawsuit against him.

12. Ashley Judd

Another actress to come undone by the disgraced movie mogul's sexual deviancy was Ashley Judd. While her career didn't have the critical kudos of Sorvino's, Judd was nonetheless a promising actress, who sadly faded into obscurity once she came into contact with the former Miramax executive.

Refusing to accompany Weinstein to his hotel room, the arriviste producer didn't waste time in blacklisting her from Hollywood.

13. Alyson Hannigan

How I Met Your Mother made its lead stars incredibly rich, and Alyson Hannigan, whose previous credits included lead roles in the Scary Movie franchise and Buffy tv series, probably never has to work again after the show's worldwide success. Since the show wrapped, Hannigan has only appeared in guest roles and a TV movie.

But when you're married to Buffy co-star Alexis Denisof and happen to be filthy rich, finding work as an actress probably isn't the most important thing in the world to Hannigan anymore.

14. Mischa Barton

Mischa Barton was one of the most recognizable faces on television when she burst onto the scene as the misunderstood rich girl Marisa Cooper in the Josh Schwartz coming-of-age drama, The O.C.

Unfortunately, Barton couldn't quite grapple with the complexities that came with the show's success, and she has since been hospitalized, had a string of ill-fated relationships and is currently in the process of suing her mother for lost earnings.

15. Jack Gleeson

Everyone's favorite tv villain was so convincing in his role that he was despised by hardcore Game of Thrones fans who were probably so caught up in the escapist elements of the show that they actually believed an affable, young Irish actor was the living embodiment of King Joffrey!

The hate got so intense that Gleeson reportedly retired from acting after GoT fans continuously took to social media to call him out! The price you pay for being a good actor nowadays.