During this season of award ceremonies, you might’ve heard some familiar names such as Brendan Fraser or Ke Huy Quan, but why are these names so familiar? For most college-aged students, there is a strong chance you grew up with these names in childhood movies.

Brendan Fraser, in particular, since he was in movies such as “The Mummy,”  “George of the Jungle” and “Journey to the Center of the Earth,.” Ke Huy Quan was also a child star in a number of movies including “Goonies” and the “Indiana Jones” franchise.

With these actors having been such a staple, why have we stopped hearing these names and why are they just now resurfacing? A big reason why we stopped seeing Fraser was a mix of his personal life and the way that Hollywood was treating him.

The revenue that they were getting from each of his movies was starting to decline. After having such a successful run with “The Mummy” and “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” there are just as many failed attempts such as “Monkeybone” and “Dudley Do Right” causing him to stop getting new and exciting  roles.

Fraser also had some underlying health issues because of the stunts he was performing in many of his movies, especially “The Mummy,” which required him to have multiple different surgeries after filming.

Fraser stated in an interview, “I was put together with tape and ice. I needed a laminectomy and the lumbar didn’t take, so they had to do it again a year later. There was a partial knee replacement. Some more work on my back, bolting various compressed spinal pads together.”

With all of this, along with the very public divorce of his wife in 2009 and the death of his mother in 2016, Fraser needed a break from acting. Until recently, that is, with his performance in “The Whale” leading to multiple awards for best leading actor and an outstanding amount of support from fans claiming we are entering the “brenaissance.”.

Ke Huy Quan had a similar story when it comes to mistreatment in Hollywood. While he was a successful child star, he didn’t have much meaning to the executives once he started to try to gain new roles as he was getting older.

He wasn’t being cast as often, so he decided the acting was over for him, until he decided to start trying again, landing a star role in “Everything Everywhere All At Once” and winning an Oscar for best supporting actor.

It is obvious to see these actors are getting a very warm welcome back into the spotlight, and I don’t know about you, but I’m excited to see what comes next for them.

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