The Tragedy of the ‘John Connor Curse’
Curses abound in Hollywood. From haunted movie sets and mansions, to notorious tales of murder, to the infamous “Oscar jinx” — where highly touted winners move on to less-than-notable careers — one doesn’t have to look far to find the story of a curse. One rather curious Hollywood curse has generated headlines in recent days, and the headlines speak of a potential tragedy.
It’s a jinx called the “John Connor Curse.” The story goes something like this: unfortunate things happen to the young men who have played the role of John Connor in the Terminator franchise. Before you dismiss the jinx as some crazy conspiracy theory (like one of those you might see on History these days), consider what has befallen the stars of the films and television series.
Edward Furlong originated the role of John Connor in Terminator 2: Judgment Day in 1991.
Furlong earned critical acclaim for T2 and has gone on to star in 38 other films, along with a handful of television appearances and roles in videos by Aerosmith and Metallica. He may have originated the curse because of his notorious troubles with alcohol and drugs, including heroin and cocaine. He caused plenty of trouble in his marriage as well, including violating a restraining order. In 2011, he admitted he was “completely broke,” but a judge ordered him to pay $15,000 in back child support. Today, Furlong is an example of what could have been.
Thomas Dekker portrayed John Connor in the Fox television series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which lasted for a season-and-a-half in 2008 and 2009.
He has gone on to star in the recently cancelled CW series The Secret Circle. In October 2009, Dekker hit a 17-year-old cyclist with his car. Police initially charged him with two counts of DUI, but Dekker pleaded no contest to a single misdemeanor charge of reckless driving.
“…troubles with alcohol and drugs, including heroin and cocaine.”
Look no further for the curse. Poison as entertainment is a curse on the world.
I have to say this “curse” reads more like the Daily News in Tinseltown. Momma’s don’t let your babies grow up to be actors.
Drugs, stupidity, arrogance, destruction of self, destruction of others, gratuitous cruelty — it all looks pretty run-of-the-mill Hollywood to me.
Is there any role that’s *not* cursed?
It sounds more like drugs, alcohol, and a bad behavior caused the curse not the other way around.
But in the bigger scheme of things… perhaps Hollywood is the true curse, either attracting or causing those to have inner demons.
The details revealed here are very similar to the “garden variety” substance abuser. There is nothing here to tell, other than the snake oil theme.
Having done theater myself (I played- surprise!- a psychiatrist on stage), I’m well aware of theatrical superstitions. Most of which started out with some basis in fact.
The old tradition of saying “break a leg” to an actor before they go on stage rather than “good luck” dates to Shakespeare’s time. Back then, the stage was slanted toward the audience, to give the “groundlings” a better view. Actors had to remember to “break” the knee on their upstage leg when crossing, to remain upright (and sometimes to avoid taking a tumble off the front of the stage).
When a production ends, and the stage is cleared, four items always remain on the stage; a chair, a copy of the play you were doing, a light, and a broom. Why? To provide someone coming in later with the four essentials of theater; somewhere to sit, something to read, a light to read by, and something to sweep up with.
As for curses, the major one in theater outside of Hollywood is related to Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”. It is considered bad luck to refer to it by name. In traditional theater, it is always referred to as “the Scottish play”, i.e. “I’m doing the Scottish play next”. (For the record, I have never played the sinister Scot or the unhappy Dane, but I did do Banquo a couple of times.)
What this proves I don’t know, except perhaps that Hollywood types are no more, or less, superstitious than any other theatrical performers. They just have a bigger stage to perform on, if you’ll pardon the expression. After all, only in Hollywood does the media, and thereby the public, become obsessed with what actors, directors, etc., do when NOT in front of an audience.
Nobody worries much about what off-Broadway, or indeed on-Broadway, casts and crews do after the last show each night.
cheers
eon
Interesting stuff, eon, thanks.
Especially about the Scottish Play – I was wondering why a young actor called it that in THE KING’S SPEECH.
Fame and wealth too early in life warps people. But who wants to see a cast of over-fifties?
No Connor curse – just the standard Hollywood curse. Hundreds of young actors have succumbed to it without playing John Connor.
Christian Bale’s father is married to Gloria Steinem. You don’t have to look any farther than that for a curse.
Spoiled brats.
Their ‘art’ is supposed to have us look at life with peculiar focus which will improve our appreciation of it. Say, at the trials of a plumber, his clients, his friends, his lovers, his family and the network of both triumphs and tragedies that define his actuality. But no, the play’s the thing. Most theater is about theater, not plumbers.
Stage, film, TV, even PJ Media see the theater as a microscope through which they focus on themselves. How pathetic they are, and how uninteresting compared to a plumber.
Idolizing children who play “Let’s Pretend” while paying them fortunes to do so doesn’t get us art. It gets us depraved degenerates who MUST have tragically cursed ends before they further pervert the populace.
Spoiled brats.
Seems like everybody in Hollywood is struggling with drugs and alcohol. Sorry if you don’t get too much sympathy from me about this. These have to be the most pampered, the most spoiled, and the most overpaid group of childish and immature adults ever to walk the face of this planet, yet we are to feel sorry for them because THEY decided to abuse drugs and alcohol. Well, after seeing a lot of people laid off because of a lousy economy and wondering how they’re going to make the next mortgage payment, I can’t seem to feel a lot of sympathy for a bunch of morons like this. Instead of getting down on their knees and thanking God every day of the year that they’re getting paid an obscene amount of money for play acting on film or TV, they decide to act like college frat house inhabitants and blow everything they have on drugs and alcohol. And if some of them should die because of their drug or alcohol problems, like Whitney Houston, well then that’s just thinning the herd to me. One thing about Hollywood, my friends. There is always somebody ready, willing, and more than able to take your place.
Sounds more like Hollywood is the gateway drug…
How about the curse on actors who have never played John Connors? Like those who are waitering for their John Connors break?
Are you sure this isn’t a “working in an industry permeated by a sea of drug purveyors” curse?
What about the playing Charlie Sheen curse?
IMHO, that pales in comparison to the “being Tom Cruise” curse. Which also proves that nor all Hollywood types’ tendency to “go bizarre” comes from drug use.
Some achieve bizarreness quite naturally, without chemical assistance.
cheers
eon
How about the Hollywood curse on America? Can Hollywood’s disdain for all things American be seen as a factor in our cultural decline?
You bet. Now we’re talking curses…
Actors skew to the sensative side ot the ledger.
Sensative guys are more like to to become either gay or have addiction problems, depending how they relate to their father.
For those of you who cannot aford Rehab, AA is free. For those who can afford it, they request a small donation
Meh. This one’s a bit of a stretch. It’s hard to look at Christian Bale’s life and career of the past ten years and call that a “curse”. Would that I were “cursed” enough to look like that and take his paycheck. Fighting with a crew member? Pfff. Yeah, it was fun audio, and maybe he is kind of a jerk, but, please, like that really mattered to anyone in the end? B ale’s clipping along just fine, it seems to me. And Edward Fulong’s life/career seems to match a vast number of Hollywood ‘one-off’ performers. Actors who get a big role, don’t really follow up, and go on to live happy and fulfilling lives elsewhere, THAT’s the real anomaly.
Now the “Poltergeist Curse”, that was damn real. (And whatever happened to JoBeth Williams? Milfus Majorus, that one.)
Hollywood stars are the most insecure people you will ever see in your life. Worse, their insecurity is completely valid. There is nothing special about any of them, even the good looks are 95% makeup.
Check out a tabloid of “stars without makeup” https://www.google.com/search?q=stars+without+makeup&hl=en
They’re not especially smart. Sometimes very much the opposite. They know this.
Their job is to play dress-up make believe. That’s it.
Otherwise, their job is to go along with everybody else and pray that the decision makers will like them enough to be cast into the next movie. They’re mostly left wing libs because they have to be liked by a left wing lib society, as their jobs depend entirely upon being liked TODAY.
They know this.
They also know it will all go away in an instant. They live constantly in fear of becoming ‘yesterday’s thing’ and of gaining 10 lbs, or tripping face first into a cinderblock wall. Sooner or later, it will all go away.
The drugs are a terrible self fulfilling prophecy. Unfortunately, drugs are illegal, and while attending ‘face exposure’ parties, they have to join in, or else they’re looked at suspiciously. The peer pressure is horrible.
Drugs and alcohol are easily available, and are used to forget about the fears for a while. And, worst of all, the drugs, by reliving stress, actually help.
That, in a nutshell, is the horror of being a Hollywood star.
Unfortunately, drugs are illegal…
Drugs and alcohol are easily available…
Yeah. Make them legal. That’ll make them really tough to get.
And your premise of “…while attending ‘face exposure’ parties, they have to join in…” is utter nonsense – “nonsense” being the nice word. It’s actually an outright lie.
I’ve been an actor and writer my whole life and I have always – ALWAYS! – said no to drugs. It’s never stopped me from getting work. I was just doing a read-through of a new script with someone who is easily the most sought-after actress in Seattle, and I found out that she’s also clean as a whistle.
Anyone who feels the peer pressure is just weak. They’re giving into the big lie – a lie perpetuated by people like you with your melodramatically tragic tales of how they “have to.” Nothing bad happens when you say no. Absolutely nothing.
“”Unfortunately, drugs are illegal…
Drugs and alcohol are easily available…”
Yeah. Make them legal. That’ll make them really tough to get.”
Well actually…
If you want to get rid of some of the bad results of drugs being illegal but you don’t really want drugs to be real easy to get, allow drugs to be sold only in government stores by government employees. You want to buy drugs? Sorry we’re closed for Earth Day.
When they are open, you can wait in a long line for the one open window while the government employees sit around chatting with each other. When you finally get to the front of the line you will find that they do not take credit cards and/or that you filled out the wrong purchase form and you will have to start all over again.
Oh, yes. The penalties for selling drugs in competition with the government can all be doubled.
There’s already a black market for prescription drugs.
Your proposal changes nothing… except for making drug use even more acceptable.
Oh. Doubled fines. Color me unconvinced.
There is a cost to keeping drugs illegal. Not just the cost of enforcement but the corruption of our legal and law enforcement system. Not to mention the problem of delivering large amounts of money and the power that brings into the hands of very bad people.
Yes people ruin their lives with drugs and damage the lives of everybody they come in contact with.
It is a matter of picking the best of the bad options and trying to come up with the one that does the least damage.
Selling drugs at a moderate price in an inconvenient setting is not going to eliminate drug addiction. It will probably cause it to increase somewhat. It will, however, take the profit out of illicit drug sales.
Making drugs completely illegal does not seem to have eliminated their use. The only policy that seems to accomplish that is the approach used in Taiwan and Singapore of a firing squad for people in possession of drugs. I’d vote for that if you can get it on the ballot. Otherwise government drug stores seem like another approach to reduce the damage.
You guys are really stretching it with Bale turning one minor thing into a major career damaging thing that really wasn’t that big. The only real curse is the Superman one. Anyone that has played him has been screwed in some way. Bale is making millions and starring in great movies like the Batman franchise and he was amazing in the Prestige. He is a good actor and just demands perfection while he is at work. Don’t think that’s a big deal, we all demand the same thing at our jobs.
See also: Grateful Dead keyboardists.
The difference being that all four of the band’s full-time keyboardists died untimely deaths.
Spinal Tap drummers
Want to talk about curses, how about the Hope Diamond Curse?
Stolen from the regiment of Indian Gods 300 years ago, it has left a bloody trail of owners whose lives were cut short prematurely. Ya gotta watch out for those P-O ed Indian Gods. It is said the curse is passed on along with ownership, and guess who is the current owner? In 1958 Harry Winston, the jeweler, gifted it to the U S Government and look at the state of the State now. We should give it back to India before it kills the country literally.
Now this is a real curse, lasting centuries not a mere decade, and stars royalty, the ultra wealthy, and the most successful sovereign nation in this world.
I agree with those saying there is no curse due to this role. It’s the type that fits the role. Which was really set in stone by James Cameron, who cast Michael Biehn as John Conner’s father. He did not really become a name actor either. An actor in either part is likely to be cast as looking like a “John Conner type.” Which is non-nondescript. Just another medium build, lean or thin, blandly attractive, athletic type. The star of these movies is the terminator himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Everyone remembers him, because there is no one else like him. The next actor cast as John Conner, should take it as a heads-up they better develop a stronger look, or presence, or persona.
A curse is a long string of unusual, or early deaths, which are not the victim’s fault.