Probably you’ve never heard of him, Michael Beck. Beck was a former college quarterback turned minor stage actor before landing his breakthrough film role as a tough, profane, street-fighting gang leader in The Warriors (1979). Although it received very mixed reviews at the time, mostly due to its heavily violent content, The Warriors is something of a cult flick today. Beck was propelled into instant prominence as a young, powerful, leading man type. His prospects after The Warriors were looking good.
But then….
Michael Beck accepted the leading role of Sonny Malone, a struggling artist, in Xanadu just the following year, playing opposite Olivia Newton-John. Xanadu was supposed to be a whimsical, almost Shakespearean fantasy musical film. It was a box office failure and universally panned as one of the worst films of the year. In fact it inspired the establishment of the Razzie Awards. Personally, I have sat through this movie exactly once and that will never be repeated. It’s an awful, clunky, bizarre, cringey, flaming bag of nonsensical dog crap. Although it did fart out a couple of musical hits that made the charts in the U.S. Beck looked completely out of his element in this film and it showed. Not that he didn’t try, but he was definitely miscast.
After the disaster that was Xanadu he would never again get offered another leading role. Not to say his career was over, far from it. But for its remainder he played only supporting characters in both film and TV. Most people don’t even know his name. If not for Xanadu, that may not have been the case.
In his own words: “The Warriors opened up many doors for me in film which Xanadu then slammed.”
EDIT: Ok, I rarely add addendums to my posts but I think this time one is needed. Lots of comments about Xanadu, obviously that film has a devoted fan base. To be clear, I was not trying to insult anyone over it. I mean there are many films I love that others think are terrible, I get it. My feelings about Xanadu are really not that important, as stated I’ve seen it once and I didn’t get it and didn’t like anything about it. My interest in it for the purposes of this answer was Michael Beck’s participation in it which I think was a galactic mistake for his career. Otherwise I’m not interested in any further critique about it and, again, not trying to make anyone feel bad for being a fan. That’s all.