Oscar talk puts Zellweger into Hollywood’s elite comeback club

We all love a comeback and now it’s Renée Zellweger getting a second turn in the spotlight. Her career was looking tired but thanks to her knockout turn in new movie Judy, she’s the talk of the town. Here are 10 of the best career comebacks.

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We all love a comeback — and now it’s Renée Zellweger getting a second turn in the spotlight. Her career was looking as tired as an old pair of Bridget Jones’s big pants, but thanks to her knockout turn in new movie Judy, out this week, everyone is talking about a ‘Reneessance’ and Oscar nomination.

Here are 10 of the best career comebacks:

RENEE ZELLWEGER

She was everyone’s favourite actor 20 years ago — famously telling Tom Cruise “You had me at hello” in Jerry Maguire, becoming Bridget Jones and winning an Oscar for Cold Mountain. But in 2010 she vanished for about six years, telling Vogue: “I got sick of the sound of my own voice: it was time to go way and grow up a bit.”

When she did re-emerge, it was with a different face and while critics pondered it might spell the end of her career, she proved them wrong with what’s touted her best turn ever as Judy Garland.

Renée Zellweger in a scene from Judy. Picture: Universal Pictures

JUDY GARLAND

While Renee wins plaudits for playing her, The Wizard of Oz star was the original comeback queen. The UK Guardian described Judy Garland’s London concert series shortly before her death in 1969, depicted in the biopic, as her “93rd comeback”.

Broke, with no other option than to perform, she opened triumphantly, but as the weeks went on was heckled by the crowd, who even threw rubbish at her. The former child star who battled drink and drug addiction throughout her life, literally sang to the end.

Judy Garland was the original comeback queen.

MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY

Perhaps Renee got inspiration from Matthew McConaughey, who performed the all-time career about-turn when he went from a somewhat cheesy leading man to one of the most accomplished actors of his generation, thanks to his Oscar-winning performance in 2013’s Dallas Buyers Club and True Detective the following year.

He later put his success down to him saying, “F … the bucks — I’m going for the experience in the things I was choosing”.

Matthew McConaughey won acclaim and an Oscar for his performance in Dallas Buyers Club.

ROBIN WRIGHT

She started strong in The Princess Bride and Forrest Gump, then took time out to raise her kids.

“You don’t hold the value you would have held if you had done four movies a year like Nicole Kidman and Cate Blanchett did during the time I was raising my kids. Now I’m kind of on a comeback at 50 years old,” she said.

At least when Robin did come back in 2013 in House of Cards everyone immediately remembered what a great actor she is and she won a Golden Globe.

Robin Wright as Claire Underwood in House Of Cards.

JOHN TRAVOLTA

If you are going to make a comeback, do it in style. When Quentin Tarantino offered John Travolta a role in 1994’s Pulp Fiction, even the actor himself thought his best days were behind him.

But ponytailed Vincent Vega got John an Oscar nomination and made him cool again.

“I never imagined that one project could give me that kind of second career, where I was offered the A scripts again,” he later said. “There weren’t many examples of that in the history of cinema.”

s John Travolta and Uma Thurman in scene from Pulp Fiction.

WINONA RYDER

She was the teen darling of the 1980s and ’90s — starring in hits Beetlejuice, Heathers, Edward Scissorhands and Mermaids and earning Oscar nominations for The Age of Innocence and Little Women, but like former fiance Johnny Depp’s tattoo, studios didn’t want “Winona forever” and the roles dried up.

Ironically, it would be another teen drama, 2016’s Stranger Things that would bring her back.

Winona Ryder’s performance in Stranger Things put her back on top.

MICHAEL KEATON

His career went from flying in Batman to bottoming out thanks to what the actor puts down to a mixture of bad choices, turning down the wrong roles and not being offered the right ones. “I went through a lazy period. And (then) a hardworking, dedicated period,” he told Deadline.

But then he got the call for 2014’s Birdman, which won an Oscar, followed by the next year’s Oscar-winning movie Spotlight and just like that Batman returned.

Michael Keaton in a scene from acclaimed film Spotlight.

MARTHA STEWART

There’s nobody who knows how to make a comeback better than Martha Stewart, who has been a model, stockbroker, caterer, domestic goddess TV star and magazine mogul and … jailbird for insider trading.

But after she was released from prison she managed to reinvent herself again as cool, hosting a cooking show with Snoop Dogg.

Martha Stewart reinvented herself after leaving prison. Picture: Getty

ROBERT DOWNEY JR

When Robert Downey Jr was cast in Iron Man in 2008, the LA Times labelled him a “43-year-old ex-junkie, ex-con” and the “talent most likely to disappoint”.

That prediction didn’t age well. Instead, the heart-throb turned drug addict and convict made one of the most spectacular comebacks ever and has remained on top ever since.

“I think everybody winds up … getting the parts they are supposed to get. There is a bit of destiny involved,” he told Howard Stern.

Robert Downey Jr turned his career around when he landed the role of Tony Stark in Iron Man. .

KESHA

She was one of the biggest artists in the world, with hits like Tik Tok, Timber and Right Round, but her career went on hold when she went into rehab for eating disorders in 2014 and began a long legal battle with Dr Luke.

But she was not finished — in 2017 Kesha returned with album Rainbow and single Praying, which both went to No.1 in the US.

“After the storm comes a rainbow,” she said.

Kesha fought her wat back from health and legal problems. Picture: Getty

Originally published as Oscar talk puts Zellweger into Hollywood’s elite comeback club