Only a small number of famous child/teen actors have been able to transition to similar or greater fame as adult actors. A few include Jodie Foster, Christian Bale, Leonardo de Caprio and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. A much larger group of famous child/teen actors are able to continue to work in the industry albeit in less high-profile acting roles as adults. A good number transition to directing, screen/script writing and other work behind the camera. Many child actors make this transition smoothly and for a number, whilst it’s tough to leave the fame and attention behind, they are able to make a living and enjoy a relatively stable and happy life after their famous childhood years on film.

Sadly, there is a group of actors whose post child/adolescent acting careers are fraught with frustrations as they are unable to find high profile adult roles and they fall from fame and favor. Accompanying this fall frequently they are dogged by depression, drug/alcohol abuse, poor relationship choices, brushes with the law and, in the saddest cases, early death due to suicide or drug overdoses.

The pattern for almost all is familiar. All are excellent actors who marry their instinctive excellent acting skills with striking good looks of the type Hollywood tends to favor. This ‘look’ is enhanced as they grew into their teens, and they are as much sought after by young fans for their photogenic good looks as their acting skills. Many cut their teeth in a good number of mostly TV, but some minor movie, roles as children, some for many years, where they gain skills in front of the camera, and a good reputation amongst casting directors. Many of these children are charismatic as well as good looking. Hollywood’s gold standard for boys is usually: blond hair that styles easily, blue eyes, smooth unblemished skin (not easy for many teens), boyish good looks, invariably a slender model-style frame, a readily photogenic smile, a calm and easy demeanor on set (often from years in the industry) and excellent verbal skills making for ease of expression on camera (deemed a “natural”) and attractive media subjects for interviews and promos. Often these precocious child actors came from either industry experienced families or families happy to put their child through various pressures necessary to get them to the top.

After slowly building popularity in the eyes of the public and profile amongst Hollywood decision makers, usually in late childhood/early adolescence the actor lands a breakthrough role that elevates him or her to the upper echelons of the teen actor pecking order. With this comes an explosion of fame, media interest and interviews, often additional high profile roles (although many sign up for a TV series or a bracket of movies that come to dominate their mid teen acting life), a proliferation of front page pictures and articles in the popular teen magazines, large crowds of mostly tween and teen girls wherever they go, boatloads of fan mail, a new entourage of managers, publicists and hangers-on and celebratory star treatment wherever they go and of course the new wealthy lifestyle of fashionable clothes, fine cars, boats, first class travel, 5 star hotels and fancy restaurants that they, their family, friends and entourage enjoy. Many begin to party when their fame grows rapidly and some begin to pick up excessive drinking and drug use habits that are masked initially by their minders and their talent.

Then in the late teens, adolescence begins to give way to full physical adulthood. Pleasant cute baritone mid teen voices become deep gravelly bass voices signaling a full boy-to-man transition, blond hair darkens – with a few, signs of baldness emerge, smooth skin gives way to a craggy more manly beard pattern, slender model builds fill out for many to a true grown adult male bulk or adult woman curves – others less fortunate swap a formally taut physique for the less attractive flabbiness that sometimes comes after the transition to adulthood. The once attractive perfect teen look is gone and, despite having developed excellent acting skills, casting directors turn their attention to the rising new younger child/teen actors who still have ‘the look’ directors and script writers crave. Often in the midst of the frenzy of good times, scant attention is paid to career planning. Young adult roles, less reliant on the classic teen gold standard look, are overlooked and so the actor becomes typecast in teen roles, and they reprise a number of roles of the teen genre and can’t breakout. The late developers or the most young looking or slender framed can cling to teen roles sometimes into their mid-20’s but inevitability, time and the maturing process catches up and they fall off a casting cliff from popular teen roles to either no adult roles or minor parts in B grade movies with a fraction of the remuneration and the attention. Often the partying begun in the teens has taken a toll on reliability on-set and has eaten into their onscreen innocent look, a reputation for being difficult to manage due to substance abuse again becomes a reason for not being cast.

Then a vicious spiral accelerates. Depressed by the fall from grace, reduced income and no longer being in the limelight, refuge is sought in chemical oblivion and in the company of similar distressed peers who lead each other into darker and darker places. Poor decisions are made that further reduce their attractiveness to casting directors and, added to the inexorable onslaught of full adulthood and with little or no quality adult work in their resume, they are literally cast aside and thrown on the scrap heap. A media and fan darling at 16 but by 25, a hollowed out unattractive addicted shell of their former self. A good number meet a tragic end as this negative spiral shuts out any hope of a comeback and maybe second chances granted them by a kind insider and their pain is ended either by suicide or drug overdose. 

The first 10 examined (the most glaring examples amongst boys) have amongst the list some superb and talented actors who put in some top quality work in front of the camera and/or microphone. Many were exploited by unscrupulous managers who pocketed portions of their brief period of wealth with little or no career planning for the post-teen life of their protégé. Families of the famous often think the financial party will never end and similarly make insufficient careful planning to put aside and invest some of the funds earned in the big earning years meaning many of these teen actors carried the pressure of sustaining the lifestyle not just for themselves but for their extended family. Most on this list rose to the very top of the fame tree and crashed to the very bottom, no longer loved by Hollywood moguls, management and media. Most were left to digest their reversal of fortune whilst still grappling with the growing pains of adolescence. Hollywood has scant regard for the future of very famous child actors preferring to enjoy the money and industry kudos for nurturing such amazing talent while the fame lasts and they simply switch to the next young girl or boy with the package of golden attributes knowing that every casting agency has thousands of wannabes yearning to be next year’s teen idol on their books chomping at the bit to replace the fallen star’s place. Whilst the working conditions for minors in Hollywood have improved over time, this tendency to discard teen stars in the manner detailed is still a very real and present danger for any aspiring child actor or actress.

Top 10 Great Teen Actors Hollywood Discarded

This list takes into consideration three main data points: 1 - Popularity of the movie as ranked in IMDB, almost all are ranked 7 or above, many above 7.5.  2 - Number and quality of awards won/nominations. Any teen actor winning or being nominated for an Oscar is at the top of the list as an achievement like this is rare for non-adult actors. Next in the list are movies that won or were nominated for Oscars even if the child actor didn't win one.   3 - Ranking of the actor in IMDB - this is of less relevance as some actors' performances as teens were many years ago and adult performances may not have kept pace. Some actors giving a stellar performance are relatively new and still establishing themselves.

Top 20 Movie performances by male teen actors

Since the age of British television began in the early 1950's and the popularity of the first major UK TV police drama (Dixon of Dock Green 1955 – 1978), there have been upwards of 100 British crime drama shows such is the popularity of this genre. This list seeks to nominate the top 10. To do so, I have set some criteria: •	The show had/has to be a police drama (and not a comedy) with actual police officers not crime solving sleuths who assist the police in tracking criminals nor a court room drama comprising lawyers and judges although there are many excellent dramas of both types.  •	The show had to extend for 2 or more seasons. There have been a number of excellent police shows that lasted but one season or straddled maybe only 3 or 4 episodes. •	The show had/has to be set somewhere in Great Britain. There are a number of excellent British made police dramas set in other European countries (the subject soon of a separate list). •	The show has to rate at least 8.0 on IMDB

Police dramas are a staple in almost all countries that produce local TV content and they are particularly popular in the UK. In fact, British television studios produce popular police dramas that are set in other countries outside Great Britain but with the lead characters all being British and the show is shot in English but in a foreign location with many supporting actors from the local country. This enables shows to be set in completely different even exotic locations where local architecture, scenery and customs can be showcased but the plots are easier to follow as the leads are familiar British actors and there is no need for sub titles. In these dramas, the local supporting actors also usually speak English but there is plenty of informal dialogue in the local language. It is a hybrid that is copied by other countries such as Midnight Sun set in Sweden but starring a French federal police officer investigating the murder of a French national in Sweden. These shows are ranked only by their IMDB aggregate rating. There are three shows of this genre that straddle different versions decades apart and another being a spinoff of the first.

There are 6 criteria used to qualify actors for this list: 1 - They had to have been a lead (or co-lead) actor in at least 25% of the movies/TV Series they starred in (and be the lead in at least one movie). 2 - They have to rank in the Top 5,000 on IMDB. 3 - They had to have been nominated for multiple awards and to have won at least 20% of the nominations. 4 - They had to have been cast in new productions in the pipeline (or starring in a series that is continuing) as at 31 December, 2021. 5 - They had to have at least 100,000 Instagram Followers. 6 - They had to be over 12 and under 20 as at 31 December, 2021 - their age in the description is as of that date. The rare exceptions to these rules are detailed.

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