The Best of the One Hit Wonders

These stars themselves probably resent their short-lived fame and the bad hand Hollywood dealt them. Often times we enjoy a joke or two over these stars whose once shining careers came to a screeching halt. But there are a few that fit this category whose one role was enough to earn them a spot forever in our hearts.

1. Peter Billingsley (A Christmas Story) No matter how old you are, you’ve probably seen this 1983, holiday favorite about a dysfunctional, blue-collar, American family. It’s hard to miss when TBS plays it for 24 hours straight over Christmas. But, you’ve also probably not seen Billingsley in anything since. This may be one of the most popular Christmas movies ever made, but it was the first and last hit for this child star.
2. Thomas Wilson (Back to the Future): Technically, you could categorize Wilson as a 3-hit wonder since he played the role of Biff Tannen in all 3 of these movies, which became one of the most memorable trilogies of the decade. His resume may include a page full of other roles, but most of them we’ve never even heard of.
3. Don Johnson (Miami Vice): The 80s crime drama made this star one of the biggest names of the day. Though he went on to play in another series in the same genre, Nash Bridges, Johnson has little more to show other than that one major series.
4. Cheryl Ladd: Filling some of the biggest shoes in Hollywood, Ladd replaced Farrah Fawcett as Kris Munroe in the popular 70s hit Charlie’s Angels. Though fame and stardom surrounded her for a few years, little more has been made out of her career since.
5. Anson Williams (Happy Days): The long-running American sitcom on which he played the awkward, somewhat nerdy member of the group, earned him a big name during the 70s and 80s. Unfortunately, not much else followed for the star, whose name doesn’t even register with most people without mentioning his Happy Days character.