Steve Guttenberg rode high at one point. But then he seemed to completely disappear off the face of the earth.
Some say that he died and was replaced by his brother, an actor with poor comic timing. Others that he simply had enough money and that his hunger for 80s comedy dimmed.
Whatever. Did it allow the unfortunate rise of Tom Hanks?
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How is it "unfortunate"? Tom Hanks is a GENIUS compared to this idiot.
I love Gutenberg but this dude is pure 80s. I'm surprised he edged out as much of a career as he did. But was Tom Hanks intercepting scripts that would have fallen into Gutenberg's lap? Yeah. I could totally see Steve having made Splash or Turner and Hooch. Bosum Buddies and other early Hanks work was just as crass and tasteless as any Police Academy movie. I also think Keaton might have been stepping on those toes.
shareIn just a nudge into another reality you'll find Guttenberg in Splash/Dragnet/Big/Burbs/Hooch leading to Philadelphia/Gump/Apollo 13/Private Ryan/Castaway etc
share^ This was exactly what I was thinking!
If Guttenberg stayed active, there's no doubt he'd have inevitably segued into getting some of these serious acting roles.
For some reason his main stream seemed to capsize after Three Men and Little Lady. Those were big movies. Pretty much when Ted Danson and Tom Selleck's movie careers dried up too. Those guys all got exiled to low budget video movies and tv shows.
shareI think his appeal was his boyish smile in his 20s, and once he stopped looking young, nobody liked him anymore.
shareAfter 3 Men And A Baby he had a few flops like High Spirits, Cocoon: The Return and Don't Tell Her It's Me, he did a sequel to 3 Men which although made a profit wasn't as liked as the first film and then apart from one TV episode he disappeared for five years until The Big Green. Although looking at his mini bio on IMDB it says he did some stage work around his time, so it's possible he felt his talents weren't being used in the best possible way in Hollywood and so took a few years off. He also got divorced around this time, so that may have motivated him to stay out the public eye for a while so the press wouldn't report it every five minutes.
As for why did him staying away for a few years allow the rise of Hanks, I kind of doubt it because Hanks was having some success in the late 80's where as the last few movies of Guttenberg's were flops. So I'd bet Hanks was going to the top regardless of what Guttenberg did.
Explain your disappointment in Tom Hanks please
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