New Hollywoodwas among the most illuminating epochs of cinematic brilliance in American history, and its brightest stars shone like few others in the movie business ever have. Meanwhile, theNew Hollywood era’s most important movieshave gone on to define everything that’s come since. Yet, just as quickly as it arose, the age of auteur directors being written blank checks by major studios was extinguished in a flash. It was over within 15 years of its inception, and some of its most prominent actors seemingly vanished with it.
The New Hollywood era roughly spanned a decade and a half between 1967 – the year ofThe GraduateandBonnie and Clyde– and 1982, whenFrancis Ford Coppola’s lowest-grossing movieOne from the Heartbombed at the box office. Within this period, a generation of groundbreaking young filmmakers and actors virtually dismantled the pre-existing order of Hollywood cinema. When the movement subsided, many of its pioneers were already established and continued to thrive. But others went away with it, as their careers either stalled or changed direction. In fact,some of New Hollywood’s biggest names simply disappeared from our screens.
10Warren Beatty
Active 1957–2023
Warren Beatty’s importance to New Hollywood can’t be overstated. It was Beatty who got Arthur Penn’sBonnie and Clyde– believed by many to be the movement’s opening act – greenlit, putting up much of the funding himself. What’s more, Beatty’sRedswas among the last major success stories of New Hollywood. Thisunderrated historical epicis a sprawling three-hour, 15-minute politically-tinged movie about the Russian Revolution and communism in the United States, that cost $32 million and experimented with a blend of documentary interviews and immersive narrative drama. It would be very unlikely to be made today.
More than perhaps any other figure,Warren Beatty is emblematic of the DIY-style approach to getting productions off the ground that defined New Hollywood, by circumnavigating the old studio system. He starred in and produced four highly acclaimed and commercially successful movies in the era, and acted in several more, including works by seminal New Hollywood directors Robert Altman, Alan J. Paluka, and Mike Nichols.
AfterReds, however, Beatty’s star began to fall.He’s only been involved in two movies of note since then,Dick TracyandBugsy, both of which he starred in and produced (he also directedDick Tracy). Released within two years of each other in 1990 and 1991, this pair of films is a huge anomaly in the overall stark picture of critical and commercial failures that’s characterized Beatty’s career since the dramatic highs of New Hollywood.
9Karen Black
Active 1960–2013 (Her Death)
For around two years at the turn of the 1970s, Karen Black was arguably the most sought-after new female lead actor in Hollywood, following her performances in Dennis Hopper’s prototypicalroad trip movieEasy Riderand Bob Rafelson’sFive Easy Piecesalongside Jack Nicholson. Her performance as Rayette Dipesto in the latter film earned Black an Oscar nomination. She already had New Hollywood credentials even before these roles, after she starred in Francis Ford Coppola’s debut Hollywood productionYou’re a Big Boy Nowin 1966.
In the final three decades of her life, Black’s principal acting output was in B-movies that never really made it either to theaters or the small screen.
Unfortunately for Black,her career never quite caught fire in the way it promised to afterEasy Rider. She still played significant roles in New Hollywood movies like John Flynn’s neo-noir thrillerThe Outfitalongside Robert Duvall, and Robert Altman’stimeless 1975 musicalNashville. Even at that early stage, though, Karen Black was moving into the world of low-budget TV movies, which was the mainstay of her career into the mid-1980s. In the final three decades of her life, Black’s principal acting output was in B-movies that never really made it either to theaters or the small screen.
8Faye Dunaway
Active 1965–Present
The roll call ofcharacters played by Faye Dunaway in the 1960s and 1970s reads like a who’s who of New Hollywood icons, beginning with Bonnie Parker in 1967’sBonnie and Clyde. At her peak in the mid-1970s, Dunaway played the female lead inChinatown,Three Days of the Condor,Voyage of the Damned, andNetworkwithin the space of two years. Only Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, and their fellowGodfatheractor John Cazale achieved comparable streaks of movie masterpiecesduring the New Hollywood era.
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Yet machiavellian TV executive Diana Christensen in Sidney Lumet’s classic satireNetworkwas probably the last big-screen part of any repute that Dunaway has played. At the actor’s height,her star shone more brightly than anyone else on this list. But a succession of poorly-reviewed, low-grossing movies in the late 1970s and early 1980s set her up for a career out of the limelight that’s still yet to feature a big comeback moment.
7Jane Fonda
Active 1960–1990, 2005–Present
Given the family she came from,Jane Fonda always seemed destined to be a star of the screenand began an acting career in earnest at the age of 22. After starring in an intriguing mix of throwaway comedies, thought-provoking dramas, and exploitation films throughout the 1960s, Fonda became a leading light of New Hollywood when she starred in Sydney Pollack’s movie about the Great Depression,They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?.
Her output became even more experimental in the 1970s, before the biggest commercial success of her career came in one of the lead roles of9 to 5, alongside Dolly Parton and Lily Tomlin. She then starred inOn Golden Pondwith her father, Henry Fonda, who won a record-breaking Best Actor Oscarfor his performance in the final part he played before he died.
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Since 1981, Fonda has been acting sporadically buttook a 15-year hiatus from all screen performances in 1990. “I don’t know how much longer I could have continued acting,” she later explained, “without feeling like I was losing myself.” (viaActing Magazine) By then, Fonda had already developed a successful side hustle making workout videos and was effectively a full-time social and political activist on various issues.
Although she returned to the screen in 2005, Fonda’s never really gone back to being a major movie star.She’s still had some big successes, though, primarily in the shape of the hit 2018 comedy filmBook Club. At the same time, Fonda forged a whole new career path on the small screen, after reuniting with Tomlin for the excellent Netflix sitcomGrace and Frankie.
6Ron Howard
Active 1956–Present
Ron Howard might now be one of the biggest movie directors in Hollywood, butthere was a time when he was just Richie fromHappy Days. He earned this central acting role in the ‘50s throwback sitcom thanks to his performance in one of New Hollywood’s most commercially successful releases,George Lucas’ coming-of-age movieAmerican Graffiti.
Lucas’ second feature film as director,American Graffititapped into the nostalgia for a simpler time in the post-war United States of the early 1970s like few other movies could. It was Lucas’ personal love letter to his high school years in small-town California, on the eve of Beatlemania, Vietnam, and the rest of the 1960s.In Howard, Lucas found the perfect actor for gawky teen Steve Bolander. This generation-defining megahit turned Howard into a massive star, enabling him to appear alongside John Wayne in the 1976 WesternThe Shootist.
Ron Howard has played numerous cameo and bit-part screen roles since he quit acting in 1984, most notably the narrator and a version of himself in the sitcomArrested Development.
By the end of his historic run onHappy Days, however, Howard was done with acting.He quit the profession for good in 1984and instead turned his attention to directing, and in the process launching the career of a youngTom Hanks by casting him inSplash, Howard’s first movie as a full-time director.
5Kris Kristofferson
Active 1971–2018
Despitestarting his career in the entertainment business as a country singer-songwriter, the late Kris Kristofferson soon found himself acting on the big screen in Dennis Hopper’s New Hollywood cult classicThe Last Movie. He went on to star in Sam Peckinpah’sPat Garrett and Billy the Kidand Martin Scorsese’sAlice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, before getting namechecked inTaxi Driverand playing the lead in the hit romantic musicalA Star Is Born.
Kristofferson was then unlucky to have his reputation as an actor tarnished by New Hollywood’sbiggest box-office bomb, Michael Cimino’s 1980 Western epicHeaven’s Gate. Over the next decade and a half, his screen career meandered towards oblivion, along with his dwindling musical output. It was then suddenly resurrected in the most unlikely of ways in 1998, thanks to his starring role as Abraham Whistler in Wesley Snipes’ superhero franchiseBlade. His reinvention as a blockbuster star didn’t last, though, and Kristofferson is still best remembered for his acting out in the early-to-mid-1970s.
4Cybill Shepherd
Active 1971–2023
Perhaps the archetypal female actor to have broken through on the crest of New Hollywood’s wave, Cybill Shepherd made her name inPeter Bogdanovich’s landmark movieThe Last Picture Show. After starring in Bogdanovich’s less successful follow-ups, she landed the role that would define her movie career. In Martin Scorsese’sTaxi Driver, Shepherd plays Travis Bickle’s love interest, Betsy, with whom he develops a dangerous obsession.
Martin Scorsese cast Cybill Shepherd in the role ofTaxi Driver’s Betsy after he was impressed with her performance as Jacy Farrow inThe Last Picture Show.
Despite her brilliant performance opposite Robert De Niro,Shepherd’s movie career never hit the same heights again afterTaxi Driver. She starred in a series of box-office failures, while at the same time transitioning into TV comedy with the 1980s showMoonlighting, followed by her own sitcom,Cybill. Since the cancelation of Cybill in 1998, no one will have seen much of Shepherd barring the occasional guest appearance on their favorite show, except for fans of the Lifetime seriesThe Client List.
3Talia Shire
Active 1968–Present
Talia Shire issynonymous with two of the most celebrated movie sagas of the 1970s– indeed, of all time. She famously plays Corleone family member Connie in theGodfathertrilogy, and Rocky Balboa’s wifeAdrian Pennino in Sylvester Stallone’sRockyfranchise. It has to be said that Shire’s résumé is otherwise strangely unremarkable for such a great actor, both on the big and the small screen.
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For an actor with such a high profile, who played a starring role in arguably the greatest multi-film saga in cinema history, and another in one of the most successful movie franchises of all time,it seems strange that Shire wasn’t cast in other significant roles. Her performances as Adrian in the earlyRockymovies, in particular, demonstrate that she has some serious acting chops.
Nevertheless, it could be that she was mostly content with her lot anddid not need to branch out much beyondThe GodfatherandRocky. After all, she’s the only person in cinema history who can claim to have both of those movie series on their CV.
2Gene Wilder
Active 1961–2005
When it comes to New Hollywood icons, they don’t come much bigger than Gene Wilder. As if to prove his suitability for the era of movie history that would follow,Wilder’s first film role was as Eugene Gizzard inBonnie and Clyde. He then made his name in a succession of historic comedy performances directed by Mel Brooks, from Leo Bloom inThe Producersto The Waco Kid inBlazing Saddles, and the titular character inYoung Frankenstein.
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Wilder played a major hand in changing the game of cinematic comedy, first with Brooks, and then again with Richard Pryor from the mid-1970s onwards. He also endeared himself to an entire generation of children, as surely thebest big-screen Willy Wonka in movie history. In 1991, at the age of 58, he retired from film acting and devoted his time to painting and writing. His onscreen performances will forever be associated with a revolution in the comedy movie genre.
1Cindy Williams
Active 1969–2020
Between 1973 and 1974,26-year-old Cindy Williams’ career exploded into the big time. First, she starred alongside Ron Howard inAmerican Graffiti, which would be instrumental in securing her a recurring spot on the sitcomHappy Days. Then, she appeared with Gene Hackman andThe Godfather’s John Cazalein Francis Ford Coppola’s Cannes Palme d’Or winnerThe Conversation. Her star had taken off and would surely keep rising throughout the 1970s.
Cindy Williams starred as Shirley Feeney in five episodes ofHappy Daysbetween 1975 and 1979 and then went on pto lay the same character inLaverne & Shirleyacross the show’s eight seasons.
Instead, however, Williams only had one more noteworthy role for the rest of her career following her last appearance on Happy Days. She played the lead role of Shirley Feeney in the hugely successful sitcomLaverne & Shirleyspinoff ofHappy Days, but when it ended in 1982 she disappeared from view.
New Hollywooddidn’t have to define her career, but in retrospect, the zenith of the movement coincided with her career peak on the big screen. As with the other seven actors on this list, once New Hollywood was over, the movie business would never be the same again for Cindy Williams.
