The “Dark Knight” star was dealing with serious medical issues.

Eric Roberts thought his ‘days as an actor were probably over’ at age 27 — here’s what brought him back

The "Dark Knight" star was dealing with serious medical issues.

By Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt is a writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2024. Her work has previously appeared on Yahoo and in American *Journalism Review* and *The Shreveport Times*.

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April 15, 2026 11:04 p.m. ET

Eric Roberts in 'Star 80' (1983). Credit:

Warner Brothers/courtesy Everett Collection

- Actor Eric Roberts has recalled that he'd gone through a hard time in the ʼ80s, following a car crash.

- Lingering effects of the coma he had been in had him questioning whether he could go on acting.

- A movie role changed his fortunes.

Eric Roberts was struggling professionally at 27, around the time he was cast in the 1983 movie *Star 80*.

"It was a really odd, peculiar, hard time for me," Roberts, now 69, said on Tuesday's episode of the *It Happened in Hollywood* podcast. "Because the year before that, I had an automobile accident, and I was in a coma for a little bit."

Afterward, Roberts experienced trouble with his hand-eye coordination and short-term memory.

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"So I thought my days as an actor were probably over, if not very much numbered," Roberts said, "and was going through the deepest depression I've ever had in my life."

Just then a project from director Bob Fosse — the movie *Star 80* — surfaced. The script told the story of Playboy model Dorothy Stratten, who had been murdered by her estranged husband, Paul Snider, in 1980. She was 20.

Eric Roberts photographed in Universal City, Calif., on March 15.

Olivia Wong/Getty

The actor's manager obtained the script secretly and nudged him to try out for it, and he did five or six times before receiving the good news.

Roberts, who would play Snider, was drawn by Fosse's attachment. He didn't care for the script. He truly wanted to work with the dancing great behind films such as *All That Jazz*, *Lenny*, and *Cabaret *(for which he won the best director Oscar).

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Once he had the part, Roberts said he prepped with Fosse for three months to play Snider. The actor was later nominated for a Golden Globe, in the category of Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Drama, for his work.

*Star 80* ended up being the final film by Fosse, who died in 1987.

Roberts has, of course, gone on to work consistently. His hundreds of projects since the ʼ70s include *The Dark Knight*, *The Expendables*, *The Cable Guy*, and *Final Analysis*. On TV, he's appeared on *Less Than Perfect*, *The King of Queens*, and *The L Word*.

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