Why did Billy Zane's career go straight down the shitter?

He was having a moment there for awhile!

He looks like a completely different person.

He was early nineties studliness

He's starting to look like a happy, golden Buddha.

Because he was so hammy and incapable of nuance.

He might have had a better time in the 1930s and 1940s.

He doing fine, and he's happy.

William George Zane (Zanetakos) Jr.. 55, born in Chicago; married 1989-95, two kids. He's been partnered since 2010 to the same woman and is currently engaged to her.

His parents are both of Greek descent (from Chios through his mother and Mani through his father), and his family's original surname, "Zanetakos", was anglicized to "Zane" by his parents, who also raised him in the Greek Orthodox faith. He has an older sister, Lisa Zane, who is an actress and singer.

According to Wiki, Zane has worked steadily from 1985 through 2021.

He's still handsome. Those bedrooms probably still get him into a lot of different beds.

R1 He wore a wig for his most famous role though!

He's great in Demon Knight.

I had a crush on him in Titanic. Them I forgot about him

He's an arrogant asshole.

It was the 1-2 punch of his star turn as "The Phantom" being a huge flop, and then his role in "Titanic" forever cementing him in the frau filmgoers' minds as a smarmy, cowardly weenie.

As "The Bachelor" has subsequently proven, most stupid fraus can't tell reality from fiction, and will never, ever let go of their deep hatred of an on-screen villain.

..and, he's an arrogant asshole on set.

I remember renting Dead Calm on VHS & Jerry rigging two VCRs together to copy any shirtless scenes of him. Those were the days…

Meanwhile, his fellow "Titanic" featured player, Danny Nucci, has aged like a fine wine.

Danny Nucci was hotter than Billy and Leo DiCaprio

He was excellent in "Orlando."

Is he worse on set than Jason Patric?

Robert Sean Leonard turned down the Billy Zane role in TITANIC.

Billy Zane was fucking hot in Dead Calm. Still a great thriller.

It's very odd. He was in such a huge film but it didn't seem to do much for his career. I guess he got bad reviews (?)

I did hear James Cameron discussing (sort of apologizing to him in a way) that the final edit made him seem like a "mustache twirler" which I guess is a way to say that he was a hammy villian.

It is really odd. I checked his filmography and he really got nothing that great in the years right after Titanic.

Plent of people are in big movies.

[quote]Why did Billy Zane's career go straight down the shitter?

I can't be certain, but I suspect it had something to do with the loss of his youthful good looks...

but it happened so fast Jessica Fletcher.

Titanic was a huge hit in 1997. Then in 98,99,2000 he never really got a followup up film.

His looks didn't fade that fast.

(BTW it's so odd that Kate Winslet was called fat in Titanic. She's not fat. Hard to imagine that she got flack for her weight in this film as she has said.)

He was wearing a wig as far back as Twin Peaks?

The eyebrows ruined his career.

At least he has the memory of having been outrageously beautiful for a few decades.

It was a combo platter of things:

Not a great actor.

And, seen as a "pretty actor" relying solely on his looks.

A reputation of being an asshole within the industry apparently...that can be a career killer, real fast. Producers/executives will just hire someone else easier to work with. They'll put up with some assholery from already established superstars but even then...only for awhile. Zane was never that big.

He had a terrible role in a huge hit movie. Maybe if he had been a stronger actor he could have overcame it but the role was written and filmed to be a "moustache twirling villain" and completely unlikable.

Might have played the diva game after Titanic: "I was in the biggest hit ever so I'm waiting for great roles to come to ME!" or "I'm turning down everything until something better comes along!"

Apparently he's not, but he really reads as "closeted gay".

Getting Marlon Brando vibes.

Did he have an accident when he was young that caused him to have the eyebrows of an 18th century dandy?

I always assumed he made a bundle off of "Titanic" and didn't have to work much thereafter....maybe I was wrong.

Off the top of my head I can only name 3 of his films - the two boat ones and a film set on an island with his then girlfriend Kelly Brook and the guy from the Call On Me video who fucked Colin Firth in Mamma Mia.

I have no recollection of The Phantom, starring an up and coming Catherine Douglas Spartacus Zeta Jones.

Stunning man though.

What does Rose McGowan have to say?

I keep thinking Billy Zane was in the Shadow, but that was Tim Curry.

The Phantom, as I recall, was terrible.

I would so spread for him.

H'wood don't take kindly to the expanding waistline. Leo got a pass though.

He might get nice residual checks for Titanic here and there but he certainly wouldn't have a piece of gross/net.

The only person who got very rich with Titanic was James Cameron.

Well, and Leo indirectly just because the film made him a huge star but I don't think Leo or Kate have a piece of the film.

Because he let himself go to shit.

Thread closed.

By the first picture it appears he is living a non-binary lifestyle.

He hit the wall Greek style

[quote]a smarmy, cowardly weenie

Oddly enough, I find I like that in a weenie.

He had a few too many slices of pastitsio.

Bill Campbell was better.

Hardly. Zane was distinctive.

He could never shake off the b-list thing.

He's in forced retirement on that desert island, alongside Rene Russo and Tate Donovan.

Robert Sean Leonard would have been a horrible villain in Titanic.

I met him in person (along with Darryl Hannah) at the TIFF premiere of "Silver City", in 2004, I think. I've never felt so attracted to and creeped out by the same person at once.

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