Watch Your Back, Robert Pattinson - Former Teen Idols That Toppled

Robert Pattinson of Twilight stars in this week's new romantic drama Remember Me, his most prominent attempt to prove his non-franchise star power. He knows he has only three more Twilight films to turn his pin-up status into a real career. And as a million teen idols before him can attest, it's quite shocking when the screams of teenage girls and boys suddenly stop and all you can hear is the sound of your own panic.

Here's a brief history of other teen idols who flamed out all too soon...or simply grew up. We'll concentrate on their heyday, rather than wondering "where are they now" because, frankly, that's more fun:





Jesse Metcalfe: The lawnboy of our dreams, Jesse exploded into our consciousness via the wacky soap Passions and then of course Desperate Housewives. The book isn't closed on him yet (John Tucker Must Die belonged to Brittany Snow, but at least it wasn't a total flop). But the shelf life of a teen idol is about two issues of Tiger Beat, and time is running out on his chance to parlay those crazily handsome features into a real career.




Christopher Atkins: Some of us (okay, me) realized something was up with our sexuality after seeing Atkins in The Blue Lagoon. (When our friends mentioned the girl, we said, "What? Someone else was on that island?") Brooke Shields parlayed her early success into a long-lasting career. Christopher is now reportedly building high-end swimming pools and still posing on his website with his shirt unbuttoned, bless him.





Jonathan Taylor Thomas: If you were really a big fan of JTT, you knew not to call him JTT because none of his real friends did. Like many good-looking teen idols, JTT got the "he's gay" wishful thinking rumor mill spinning. He handled the issue politely, not to mention playing gay and bisexual characters (something most closeted actors typically run screaming from) and making us all very happy in the process. Still, he'll always be remembered for Home Improvement because making the leap to adult work in the industry is notoriously hard. If Kirk Cameron was your type, doesn't it suck to have your teen idol turn against you as a creepy homophobic evangelical?





Hanson: All three brothers of Hanson were cool and talented but darn it if it wasn't "Mmmbop" and their awesome looks that got them attention. They continue to turn out very good music (and have the reviews to prove it) but weren't quite able to make the leap from one-hit wonders to career artists that the Jonas Brothers seem to be managing. This is one teen idol act that would almost certainly have a bigger, better career without the overwhelming success their debut enjoyed. Their new CD comes out in June, and they still look great. Will anyone realize they're better than Shaun Cassidy's "Da Doo Ron Ron"? Sometimes teen idols disappear because no one will take their genuine talent seriously after they've appeared on lunch boxes.






Brian Austin Green and Jamie Walters: Sure, we could have gone with their Beverly Hills 90210 co-stars Luke Perry or Jason Priestley, but let's face it, they never really went away and both are having pretty substantial careers. For real flameout status, you can turn to Austin Green and Walters. Both hoped to parlay their talents into music careers -- Walters via The Heights, and Austin Green via his collaborations with cool hip-hop artists. No dice.



Leif Garrett: Garrett started out with a music career, and then he proved to have rather...fallible instincts by trying to bed Kristy McNichol in the acclaimed TV drama Family. (Dude, we could have told you....) That didn't stop him from rivaling Andy Gibb and Peter Frampton in the '70s poster sales competition.





Jared Leto: The dreamy but illiterate Jordan Catalano on My So-Called Life was the perfect bad boy: a fixer-upper with a sensitive soul but a very naughty exterior. Leto is certainly working, whether it's in Oliver Stone's not-gay-enough swords-and-sandals epic Alexander or as Mark David Chapman in Chapter 27, one of two movies about the assassin of John Lennon that sort of came and went. (And unlike others on this list, he's managed to bridge the acting-to-music thing with his band 30 Seconds to Mars.) Real fans keep rooting for their teen idols to stay beautiful and cross over, but nothing will top the way Leto leaned against a locker in high school while Claire Danes swooned with budding sexual desire.



Kid 'N Play: You had to love Kid 'N Play (especially Kid and that crazy hair). This hip-hop duo had it all: hit movies with the House Party series, a string of rap albums, a Saturday morning cartoon (!), and the squeals of the girlz in the hood (not to mention the boyz on the down low and the kids in the suburbs to boot). Heck, they even had their own dance craze, the Funky Charleston. It was all over quickly, but does youth ever last? Of course not.





Brad Renfro: Like the recently-departed Corey Haim, Brad was taken from us way too soon. But all you need to know about his bad-boy persona was that when he starred in Tom & Huck with Jonathan Taylor Thomas (a two-fer!), JTT played Tom and Renfro played Huck. Duh. His early work in The Client and Apt Pupil was mature beyond his years and he hit a peak in 2001 with Ghost World and Bully. He was almost too dangerous to pin up on your wall.





Jason Behr: Behr was supremely believable as an alien on the TV show Roswell. Weren't his good looks out of this world? Why not make it official? Fans deluged the networks with pleas to renew the series, helping it scratch and claw its way to 61 episodes before it ended in 2002. Eight years and about eight movies later, Behr hopes another TV series will be his ticket back to the fame that seemed so permanent back in 1999.