There are certain stars who burst into the limelight at a young age, become excessively famous, worshiped and paid more than most of could dream to make in a lifetime. They usually wind up as idols for teens and pre-teens across the globe, who likely grow up along with them, watching intently along the way. Some of these stars fade into the background of Hollywood noise, and some manage to last through it all, well into adulthood. Some even manage a comeback — though whether it’s a good thing or not is always up in the air. For many, it’s just plain bad, while others pull it off with style. These are 15 of America’s teen idols of the past, and where they are now.
Mario Lopez
Mario Lopez has plagued television since 1989, when he played his only fitting role as AC Slater in Saved By the Bell. After the show finally ended sometime in the mid-nineties, he floundered around Hollywood while trying to somewhat successfully play the stud card his character was known for in the show. For years, he was commonly found hosting the worst shows on TV — the stuff nobody would ever watch to begin with. Only recently, after enough largely shirtless publicity (like getting on Dancing With the Stars), has he begun to get back into the mainstream again. It’s unfortunate, but at least he doesn’t completely ruin every episode of Nip/Tuck that he’s in.
Britney Spears
We all witnessed the phenomenon known as Britney Spears when she first exploded onto the music scene, and then proceeded to ooze her way into every walk of life. Then we all watched her change, at an alarming pace, into the extremely potent sex symbol she became once she was legal enough. Then she became a train-wreck. Looking back, it feels like it all happened much more quickly than it really did — and her “comeback” has been one of the most pathetic, jarring experiences in the music industry that any of us has ever seen.
Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise, now one of Hollywood’s most “powerful” celebrities, first started showing up in movies back in 1981, but at the time he wasn’t yet pegged as a rising star. That changed very quickly, and it wasn’t long before Risky Business helped him make it big. Somehow, after he was already quite famous, the universe saw fit to provide us with the amazing, jaw-dropping, unibrow-laden wilderness experience we lovingly remember as Legend. He may like to pretend it didn’t happen, but it’s a classic, and he did get to spend some quality time with Mia Sara.
Hanson
The world was caught wholly unaware when it was assaulted by Hanson in 1997, and it didn’t know what to do with itself. The “band” actually got three Grammy nominations for their debut album, though how that happened is not easy to understand. Hordes of female fans followed the boys — even though most of them thought they were girls, and Tulsa even named a “Hanson Day.” Seriously. Amazingly, even though they grew up, the boys are still performing and attempting to make music on a regular basis. They’ve even started their own record label now, which doesn’t say much for record label requirements.
Shannen Doherty
TV bad girl Shannen Doherty entered the field with an advantage, starting off as a child actor, then scoring a big-screen hit with Heathers. She didn’t truly hit it big until Beverly Hills, 90210 in 1990, where she found her niche. Sadly, that was more or less the end of it, with the exception of a short-lived role in Charmed a decade later. Luckily, despite her inability to get along with cast-mates, she’s done three spreads in Playboy magazine, and she still looks good.
Mark-Paul Gosselaar
With a name that nobody ever remembers after the first time they hear it, Mark-Paul Gosselaar has had a bit of a rocky career after his claim to fame, Saved By the Bell ended back in the nineties. After that, it looked to most of us like he up and vanished, once he grew up and developed a severe douchebag look that killed his fanbase of teenage girls. As it turned out, he was acting small-time roles in crappy TV movies. At one point he took a role in a Lifetime movie in which he played a guy who had to turn to male prostitution to get by while living on the streets. Recently he’s been doing much better though, first with a steady gig in NYPD Blue, and more recently in Raising the Bar.
Sarah Michelle Gellar
She started off hot and only got hotter as time wore on. Sarah Michelle Gellar, poster girl for teenage boys everywhere during the late nineties, hit it big when she scored the role of Buffy in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Her time on the show helped pave the way for a string of movies, which while not always box office successes all managed to grab our collective attention. She’s a somewhat rare commodity since she’s managed to stick around and stay relevant for this long without a huge blockbuster to back her up, hasn’t lost any of her looks, and hasn’t taken to doing TV movies.
Corey Feldman
Nobody can figure out just what Corey Feldman had that allowed him to become the star he became back in the eighties. It’s a mystery to this day, but it’s a fact that he was huge. The Goonies, Stand By Me and The Lost Boys were just three of a seriously long list of movies he played a major role in during his hay day. Today, while he’s usually the butt of many jokes, he’s much-loved for nostalgia’s sake, and stays relevant through unorthodox methods — like voicing for Robot Chicken.
Tiffani Thiessen
She started off a beauty queen and model, then hit the big time as the hottest girl on the cast of Saved By the Bell, which took her well into the nineties. Instead of fading into obscurity there, she hopped shows and almost immediately picked up a role in Beverly Hills, 90210 as Valerie, but after that show ended she really did fade away for a while. Lately she’s been making a comeback, and can be seen looking as good as ever on White Collar.
Christina Aguilera
One of several stars of the time who got their start in Disney’s The New Mickey Mouse Club, Christina Aguilera’s approach was a bit more straightforward than those of some of her peers. When she entered the scene, her competition was the likes of Britney Spears, so she jumped straight to dirty and skipped flirty all together. Over the years she’s marked herself as being different from the rest by getting slightly more tame, mature and refined as time goes on, instead of the other way around.
Will Smith
It’s rare to meet somebody today who doesn’t know at least a couple of lines from theme song to The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. That is Will Smith’s truest legacy, regardless of how many millions he’s made at the box office since. The guy’s a lot older than most people realize, and he was already in his twenties when he began the show, but he was seen largely as a teenager and played the part well. Today he’s probably the most successful star on this list, barring Tom Cruise — because there aren’t any stories of Will Smith going nuts on national TV.
Phoebe Cates
Who could ever forget Phoebe Cates? Fast Times at Ridgemont High will forever be remembered as the movie that gave us Phoebe in the classic bikini drop scene — and that’s just one of several memorable movies she played a role in. Unfortunately, unlike most stars on this list, she’s gone dormant for the past decade. She married Kevin Kline (you know, think Desperado) and went into mommy-mode.
Luke Perry
For a guy whose claim to fame was being the oldest actor in a show about High School back in the nineties, Luke Perry was pretty damn famous in his peak. After 90210, however, he pretty much fell off the map — except for a few random roles and guest spots here and there. He’s done a pretty decent job of it though; it may have been short lived but Jeremiah was well-liked by viewers, and everybody noticed the insignificant but memorable role he played in The Fifth Element before that. Strangely enough, he doesn’t appear to be in any danger of being forgotten any time soon.
Mia Sara
Mia Sara isn’t known for many films, but the few that she is known for are enough to ensure that she’s never forgotten. She started it all off with Tom Cruise in Legend back in 1985, and from there she leapt directly into the roll of Sloane in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off with Matthew Broderick. That role alone gave her a degree of immortality, but nearly a whole decade passed before she’d be in another movie audiences would remember: Timecop. She fell off the radar again after that, which is very unfortunate for all of us.
The Backstreet Boys
1993 will forever be remembered as a terrible, horrifying year. It will be remembered this way because it was the year the Backstreet Boys formed as a group, as though NKOTB wasn’t bad enough. As boy bands go — and they’re all wholly bad — the Backstreet Boys were (and are) especially terrible. Despite their obvious lack of any talent, the group continues, relentlessly, to remain in the limelight, and though they’re down a member since 2007, there are still four of them out there, performing to this day.
