Celebs Whose Careers Were Never The Same After Plastic Surgery

Back in the day, plastic surgery was practically a dirty word. Celebrities would hide the fact they'd had work done, be it liposuction, a face lift, breast augmentation, or all of the above — but there are some stars who simply aren't able to deny it anymore. "Celebrities are becoming more transparent about plastic surgery because the cultural conversation around beauty has evolved," celebrity plastic surgeon Dr. Lara Devgan told People in 2025. "We've moved from secrecy and stigma to empowerment and ownership."

Taking pride in their choice of self-care might be the case for some, like the Kardashians. However, there have also been a number of face transformations that left celebrities completely unrecognizable, and the public simply refused to believe their new look was natural. This includes actors, models, and singers whose lives haven't been the same since they went under the knife. Whether it was the fear of public scrutiny that kept these stars out of the spotlight or Hollywood simply rejected their new appearance, here are the celebrities whose careers were damaged after undergoing plastic surgery.

The world was Jennifer Grey's oyster in the '80s. After starring in "Red Dawn," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," and "Dirty Dancing," it seemed like she was bound to become the next big thing. However, upon taking some poor advice from her mother and a few plastic surgeons, Jennifer Grey made the tragic decision to undergo a rhinoplasty in 1989 and subsequently lost her trademark look. "I went into the operating room a ­celebrity and came out anonymous," she told the Mirror in 2012. "It was the nose job from hell. I'll always be this once-famous actress nobody ­recognizes because of a nose job."

Sadly, Grey's filmography reflects the change. Following the incredible success of her romcom alongside Patrick Swayze, you would think casting directors would be chomping at the bit to cast her. However, following her plastic surgery, Grey instead went on to star in several made-for-TV movies and had a one-off appearance on "Friends." In her 2022 memoir "Out of the Corner," the actor wrote about how photographers no longer took her picture as she walked the red carpet. Grey was even told by an airline employee that she was not in fact the actor she claimed to be. "Overnight I lose my identity and my career," she wrote.

Back in the '80s and '90s, Melanie Griffith was the adorable leading lady of films like "Something Wild" and "The Bonfire of the Vanities." Unfortunately, because she is also the daughter of the glamorous actor Tippi Hedren and experienced fame from a young age, criticism has always come with the territory for her. 

In January 1999, Griffith was forced to confront rumors she had undergone plastic surgery. "I've had my t**s done," she told SFGate before adding, "That's all I've had done." The outlet went on to suggest that Griffith's career was suffering and she had become more famous for her relationship with Antonio Banderas than for any of her recent work.

Of course, we now know that the "Working Girl" star did go on to have more cosmetic work, as she later revealed in a 2017 interview with Porter magazine (via E! News) that she regretted her surgeries. "I didn't [realize] until people started saying, 'Oh my god, what has she done?!' I was so hurt," Griffith explained, noting that she had many of her fillers dissolved. Whether she received less acting work due to her performances, issues with drug addiction, or plastic surgery, her career sadly never fully recovered.

During the '80s and '90s, you couldn't turn on the TV, go to the movies, or visit your local video store without seeing Meg Ryan's face. Dubbed America's sweetheart, she was everywhere — until, all of a sudden, she wasn't. As to why Ryan disappeared from the limelight, you could probably point to her split from Dennis Quaid or the "You've Got Mail" star's decision to adopt a daughter in 2006. Others have theorized that Ryan's plastic surgery made her "unrecognizable" and played a pivotal role in her getting phased out of Hollywood.

"I can't pay attention to it. I just can't," she told Glamour in 2023 of the internet commentary. "It's not worth it. Of course that would hurt someone's feelings, but there are so many more interesting things to think about." Ryan has yet to confirm or deny having had work done, but the consensus online is pretty clear.

So what was the reason she gave for her premature departure from the spotlight? During an interview with People the same year, Ryan revealed, "I took a giant break because I felt like there's just so many other parts of my experience as a human being I wanted to develop." The famed romcom star has since made her comeback to the big screen, but her roles are now few and far between. There's also no denying that Ryan looks dramatically different from how many remember her.

Getting older can be hard for some, and it's easy to understand why actors with plenty of disposable income would resort to plastic surgery to quell their anxiety. This is exactly what Courteney Cox attempted to do over the years, until her face began looking so unnatural that her friends had to say something. A few years after "Friends" went off the air, Cox scored the starring role in "Cougar Town." She had a noteworthy on-screen appearances after that sitcom ended, and it just so happened to coincide with the time period Cox's fillers became extremely apparent.

"There was a time when you go, 'Oh, I'm changing. I'm looking older.' And I tried to chase that [youthfulness] for years," Cox remembered in an interview with The Times in 2022. "And I didn't realize that, 'Oh s***, I'm actually looking really strange with injections' and doing stuff to my face that I would never do now."

After using injections for years to hide her natural age, Cox ultimately decided to have all of her fillers dissolved in 2017. The "Friends" star warned that plastic surgery can be a "domino effect" during an episode of the "Gloss Angeles" podcast. "I think I messed up a lot and now luckily I ... was able to reverse most of that," Cox noted.

Given all the controversy that has surrounded Mickey Rourke over the years, it may not have been just his poorly executed plastic surgery that made him an undesirable hire in Hollywood. After breaking onto the scene in the '70s and becoming recognized for his role in "Angel Heart," he seemed to have a clear path to success. However, like Mickey Rourke's face before plastic surgery, everything changed drastically in a matter of years.

The actor set off on a path of self-destruction, turning down roles that could have been groundbreaking for him, including "The Untouchables," "The Silence of the Lambs," and "Pulp Fiction." Rourke told the Daily Mail in 2009, "I remember Dustin Hoffman calling me up and telling me he wanted me to do this movie, 'Rain Man,' and I didn't even return his call." In 1991, Rourke instead prioritized his boxing career, but fighting resulted in a lot of facial injuries.

"I had my nose broken twice. I had five operations on my nose and one on a smashed cheekbone," Rourke told the outlet. "I had to have cartilage taken from my ear to rebuild my nose." When asked whether his facial transformation was due to plastic surgery or his boxing injuries, the "Sin City" star replied, "Most of it was to mend the mess of my face because of the boxing, but I went to the wrong guy to put my face back together."

When a celebrity has botched facial surgery, it's pretty hard to hide it. However, Tara Reid's tragic experience with plastic surgery wasn't something she ever expected the public to bear witness to. The "American Pie" actor was still experiencing a career high when she attended one of Diddy's parties in 2004 and experienced a now-famous wardrobe malfunction. One of Reid's nipples was on display, and despite begging the photographers not to print the photos once she realized, it was already too late.

As the actor told Us Weekly (via CBS News) in 2006, she had undergone a breast augmentation that left her nipples oddly shaped. "After six months of 'It's going to get better,' it started to get worse and worse. I never thought I would have nipples that looked like this," Reid said. Being made fun of for having "the ugliest boobs in the world" left her devastated. The same surgeon who had bungled her breast augmentation also left Reid's abdomen botched after a contouring procedure.

"My stomach became the most ripply, bulgy thing," the "Sharknado" actor disclosed. "I had a hernia, this huge bump next to my belly button. As a result, I couldn't wear a bikini. I lost a lot of work." Although her failed plastic surgeries may have kept Reid from securing many gigs at the time, her brief stint as a reality star on "Taradise" may have impacted her reputation, too.

When it comes to some of the most dramatic plastic surgery transformations, rapper and singer Lil' Kim certainly comes to mind. Despite her rough upbringing, she hustled and managed to get discovered by Biggie Smalls. But even after Lil' Kim went solo and put out her own music, her insecurities ran so deep that she attempted to medicate them with plastic surgery. "It's always been men putting me down just like my dad. To this day when someone says I'm cute, I can't see it," the "Lady Marmalade" songstress told Newsweek in 2000.

Over the years, Lil' Kim's face has changed dramatically. While the "Go Awff" rapper has been open about her rhinoplasty, her skin tone seemed to become lighter, too. As plastic surgeon Dr. Jennifer Levine speculated to Us Weekly in 2016, "It's clear that there has been some skin bleaching. She's probably used chemicals, which contain very high doses of acids, on her face, combined with high-acid creams to lighten her skin." In addition, Dr. Levine noted that fillers are apparent in Lil' Kim's face too.

"I have low self-esteem and I always have," the songwriter told Newsweek. "Guys always cheated on me with women who were European-looking. ... Being a regular Black girl wasn't good enough." Lil' Kim's career decline can be traced back to more than her cosmetic procedures, though. A stint in prison and filing for bankruptcy may have played a part, too.

If your entire livelihood is dependent on your looks, it must be gut wrenching to experience an imperfect cosmetic procedure — let alone one that leaves you "permanently deformed," as model Linda Evangelista put it. She wasn't the first to try CoolSculpting, marketed as a needle-free alternative to liposuction. In fact, Evangelista had undergone seven sessions between August 2015 and February 2016 before realizing something was wrong.

As the model explained during a conversation with People in 2022, three months after her treatments she began noticing bulges in the areas she'd been targeting. These lumps grew, hardened, and became numb. "I tried to fix it myself, thinking I was doing something wrong," Evangelista said, noting that no amount of exercise or dieting made a difference. Eventually, her doctor diagnosed her with Paradoxical adipose hyperplasia (PAH), an unfortunate and rare side effect of CoolSculpting in which fatty tissue thickens and expands rather than shrinks.

"I loved being up on the catwalk," Evangelista said. "Now I dread running into someone I know." Sadly, she still struggles with PAH despite undergoing two liposuction treatments and wearing compression garments. Evangelista's career as a model is more or less over, as she divulged, showing her "disfigured" arm to the interviewer, "I don't think designers are going to want to dress me with that sticking out of my body."

Since her appearance on "Twin Peaks" as Donna Hayward, women and girls of the '90s wanted desperately to be as beautiful and captivating as Lara Flynn Boyle. Her career took off, she dated leading men, including Kyle MacLachlan, David Spade, and Jack Nicholson, and rocked her bad-girl persona. However, like many women in Hollywood, aging was a concern for Boyle. While she never admitted to getting work done, it reportedly became evident she had plastic surgery in the early 2000s.

"I know I may be running out of time," Boyle revealed around this time (via the Daily Mail). "There are just not that many roles for older women. On a vanity level, I am not looking forward to aging at all." It's a devastating remark, but to make it even sadder, the "Twin Peaks" star was just 32 at the time.

Dr. Paul S. Nassif, famous for the reality show "Botched," offered his insight to the Daily Mail in 2010. "Lara Flynn Boyle appears to have had rhinoplasty, lip augmentation, Botox, facial fillers, and possibly a browlift and facelift," he said, adding that she should abstain from any more procedures. Over the years, as the once-popular '90s actor became less and less recognizable, her career hit a downward spiral. Following a successful run on "The Practice," which lasted six years, Boyle took on more TV movies and smaller roles before taking a years-long hiatus from acting.

Priscilla Presley was devastatingly gorgeous when she met Elvis Presley at just 14 years old (the King of Rock and Roll was 24 — yikes). While they wed, had a daughter, and ultimately divorced in 1973, her relationship with the "Jailhouse Rock" singer was always what she was best-known. That said, Priscilla did enjoy a relatively successful career as an actor, with a long-standing role on "Dallas" and appearances in the original "Naked Gun" movies.

Priscilla Presley's life is fairly different today, starting with the fact she's practically unrecognizable — which may be why she hasn't worked consistently in front of the camera since the '90s. As TMZ reported in 2008, the actor was one of several celebrities who fell victim to a scam artist injecting non-FDA approved silicone into the faces of Hollywood's elite. Other victims of the unlicensed practitioner included Lionel Richie's and Larry King's wives. This was nearly two decades ago, though, and it can be assumed that Priscilla could go to another surgeon and undo the damage.

After an appearance on "Tamron Hall" in 2025, fans took to Instagram to voice their thoughts about Priscilla's plastic surgery. "She looks like a marionette puppet," one person wrote. Another noted, "The person who did her plastic surgery should be locked up." Perhaps people should cut her some slack, though — Presley's in her 80s after all.