Part of Pulp Fiction featuring Samuel L. Jackson and Uma Thurman, and The Comeback with Robert Downey Jr. and Mickey Rourke.
Rise to Fame
He got famous twice, and the second act required more ingenuity. Saturday Night Fever (1977) made him a disco-era idol at 23 and earned his first Oscar nomination for Best Actor. Then the '80s happened: Blow Out bombed, Two of a Kind bombed, Perfect bombed. He spent the early '90s doing Look Who's Talking sequels. Quentin Tarantino tracked him down specifically for Pulp Fiction, cast him as hitman Vincent Vega, and got him his second Oscar nomination. The comeback became the story.
In the Spotlight
Post-Pulp Fiction he moved fast: Get Shorty, Face/Off, Michael, all within three years. Then Battlefield Earth (2000), a Scientology passion project he championed for years, bombed with critics and audiences alike. The career never fully found that height again. Now he's in the direct-to-streaming circuit, with High Rollers (2025) pulling a 3.9 on IMDB. Wife Kelly Preston died from breast cancer in 2020, close friend Kirstie Alley died in 2022, and by most accounts his connection to Scientology has cooled since.
Side Notes
He's a licensed commercial pilot who owns multiple aircraft and has logged serious hours without turning it into a press hobby. He joined Scientology in 1975 after actress Joan Prather handed him a copy of Dianetics on set. His son Jett, who had autism and regular seizures, died in the Bahamas in January 2009 at 16. For someone who spent 50 years inside Scientology, the faith didn't deliver much protection against the losses.