Just two per cent of actors make a living from the profession, huge study shows

Olivia Colman with her Oscar for Best Actress - PA
Olivia Colman with her Oscar for Best Actress - PA

When Noel Coward cautioned ‘Don’t put your daughter on the stage Mrs Worthington’ in the 1930s song, he warned that the acting profession was ‘overcrowded’ and the ‘struggle, pretty tough.’

Now mathematicians at Queen Mary University of London have calculated just how tough.

In a huge study of nearly 2.5 million screen actors dating back to the 1880s, researchers discovered that just two per cent make a living from the profession and 90 per cent are unemployed at any one time.

The huge majority of actors peak early, the statistics showed, enjoying their most successful periods around two-and-half years into their careers, and then experiencing a steady decline.

The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, also found that the vast majority of actors - around 70 per cent-  have careers that only last for one year.

One-hit wonders are the norm rather than the exception as long careers with lots of jobs are rare, the team concludes. Examples of stars who did little after huge movies include Jennifer Grey in Dirty Dancing of Kelly McGillis star of Top Gun and Witness.

Study author Oliver Williams, said: “Only a select few will ever be awarded an Oscar or have their hands on the walk of fame, but this is not important to the majority of actors and actresses who simply want to make a living which is probably a better way of quantifying success in such a tough industry.

“Our results shed light on the underlying social dynamics taking place in show business and raise questions about the fairness of the system.

“Our predictive model for actors is also far from the randomness that is displayed for scientists and artists.”

Researchers used data from the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) which listed the careers of 1.5 million male actors, and 800,000 females, dating back to 1888 when the first silent film Roundhay Garden Scene was released.

They found that careers were a temperamental mix of ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ streaks with individuals rarely in constant work.

There was also  evidence of gender bias in the industry, with actors more likely to find work after a cold streak while actresses appeared to struggle a they aged. This result is not unexpected, after all, the more well-known an actor is, the more likely producers will want him or her in their next film, if only for commercial purposes.

However, the team also observed a phenomenon of ‘come-back actors’ who experienced a peak around year 10 before largely vanishing for a decade, then hitting their peak in later life.

 Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger in 9 1/2 weeks - Credit: MGM/Everett/REX
Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger in 9 1/2 weeks Credit: MGM/Everett/REX

For example Mickey Rourke left the profession after 9 ½ Weeks in 1980s, not returning until 2005 for Sin City and The Wrestler for which he won a Bafta and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.

Dr Lucas Lacasa, another author of the study from Queen Mary University of London, said: “We think the approach and methods developed in this paper could be of interest to the film industry: for example, they could provide complementary data analytics to IMDb.

“We are interested in finding out how an individual might best improve their chances of future success.”

Dr Lacasa added: “This research has sparked a lot of attention from unexpected places including from a screenwriter from the film industry who is now developing a movie script partly based on our findings.”