Judge Reinhold: From '80s Movie Star to Executive Murder Plot Victim

Judge Reinhold's promising career in the '80s was derailed by an "executive murder plot" that killed his movie "Vice Versa" and nearly took his career with it.

In the 1980s, Judge Reinhold was on the cusp of becoming a massive movie star. He had starred alongside Eddie Murphy in the "Beverly Hills Cop" movies and made a memorable appearance in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." But everything changed in the blink of an eye when an "executive murder plot" killed his movie "Vice Versa" and nearly took his career out with it.

"Vice Versa" was a body-swap movie that starred Reinhold and Fred Savage playing the part of his son. Although Reinhold had appeared in a number of successful movies prior to this one, the movie did not perform well at the box office. According to Reinhold, that was because of several things that went down behind the scenes.

Judge Reinhold: From '80s Movie Star to Executive Murder Plot Victim

Reinhold explained that David Puttnam, a producer of "Chariots of Fire," became the CEO of Columbia Pictures in 1986. "He wanted to bring the price of lead actors down, but make the backend profits real," Reinhold said.

Reinhold believed in Puttnam's ideas, but "he wasn’t around long enough to prove that formula" because of what he called an "executive murder plot" by higher-ups in the industry. He said that Puttnam "went public with his disdain for how high the salaries were, and what he wanted to do, and he pissed a lot of people off."

Judge Reinhold: From '80s Movie Star to Executive Murder Plot Victim

"By the time we were ready to be released … He didn’t know, but the guillotine had been set," Reinhold continued. "People didn’t like him, so they wanted him out."

"Vice Versa" was released in 1988, but it was not given a fighting chance at the box office. Months before it came out, the Dudley Moore and Kirk Cameron-led movie "Like Father, Like Son" was released – a movie with a very similar plot to Reinhold's movie. As Reinhold explained, that film actually went into production after "Vice Versa," but was released first.

Judge Reinhold: From '80s Movie Star to Executive Murder Plot Victim

"That's why I talk about the film in a disappointing way," Reinhold said. "I'm proud of the film. It was my first time with my name above the title, and the studio just pulled it [from theaters] right before Easter break, when it would've had a chance to perform."

"As he told the Los Angeles Times in 1992, "That was really the end of my highfalutin Hollywood career. That’s when the phone stopped ringing."

Judge Reinhold: From '80s Movie Star to Executive Murder Plot Victim