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Washed Up Celebrities: Jennifer Lien

At the suggestion that was made in the forums before the KnownHost crash, I decided that for my first washed up celebrity article that details a female celebrity that I shall write about the truly incredible mess that is former actress Jennifer Lien, best known for playing the character of Kes on the show Star Trek: Voyager.

Back in the 90's Lien actually had steady and growing career until it mysteriously dried up by the early 2000's. Unlike most rising stars who lost their careers, Lien seemed to move on with her life and was actually seemingly living an ordinary, quiet life despite having her career end early.

However, the past few years has seen all of that thrown out the window, as Lien has now rapidly descended into a mentally unhinged, psychopathic criminal who has caused her life to spin completely out of control because of her own disturbing behavior.

I can't find much information on Lien's early life, just that she was born in the state of Illinois sometime in August of 1974 and claims that she grew up on the South Side of Chicago. Lien eventually moved to New York to begin her career as an actress in the early 1990's, where she started out with minor roles in the Oprah Winfrey show Brewster Place and the soap opera Another World. It wasn't until 1994 that Lien received her most famous role in the television series Star Trek: Voyager.

Voyager was the fourth Star Trek series to be produced (fifth if you count the animated series). Voyager was meant to be the flagship and launch show for the new television channel UPN, airing alongside Deep Space Nine and was hoped to be a major draw for the network.

Voyager is often looked at as being the most mediocre Star Trek series. It probably had one of the most interesting premises of all the Star Trek series: a Federation ship named Voyager is launched 77,000 light-years away from Federation space into the Delta Quadrant by a alien array. Stranded without Federation help in an unexplored part of their galaxy, Voyager's crew joins forces with a rebel group that's also stranded, setting off what's expected to be a 77 year long journey back home while facing never before encountered obstacles along the way.

While the show did last for several seasons, many view it as a weak show that didn't live up to it's well thought out premise, with many fans blaming weak characters and lazy writing on the show's mediocrity.

Lien played the character of Kes on the show during the its first few seasons. Kes was an alien called an Ocampa, a species of elf like aliens with a short lifespan but vast psychic abilities. She was rescued by Voyager in the pilot and later became part of Voyager's depleted medical staff. I can't really find much reception to her character, some consider her boring while others thought that her character centered episodes were interesting.

Lien was eventually cut from the show at the beginning of Voyager's fourth season. From what I read, it seems this was done to make room in the budget for a new character that was going to be replacing Lien's: the reverted Borg called Seven of Nine, who fans actually consider to be one of the best characters from the show.

Despite losing her most noteworthy role, Lien still found work throughout the 90's. She had her most famous film role in 1998 when she played Edward Norton's sister in the racial drama American History X. She also continued to work on television in voice roles such as being on the animated series Superman, Men in Black and HBO's Spawn.

By the early 2000's however Lien's career had completely evaporated. Her last official role as far as I can tell was in 2001, though she may have also been doing work as late as 2003 according to some rumors. I can't find much information on what happened to her career: one blog post said she retired after getting married in 2002, while another in an interview that was done with her in 2010 says she was focusing on her family and was going back to college.

Despite having lost a once promising career, Lien actually seemed to lead a normal life. Unlike most washed up celebrities, Lien seemed to adjust to normal life and didn't try to remain in the spotlight. She seemed to actually move on with her life.

Nearly ten years after her career died Lien decided to throw her life away and became an unhinged psychopath. Last time I did one of these articles I gave plenty of crap to Ryan Leaf for all the shocking sh*t and legal problems he has managed to congregate in such a short period of time, but Lien seems to be one-upping Leaf in every way possible.

In 2012 Lien had her first arrest for alleged domestic violence. Her mugshot shown above does not make her out to be a healthy woman. She looks like she's a heavy drinker and has stopped taking care of herself. That arrest alone probably would have officially marked her as a washed up celebrity, but Lien wasn't done just yet.

After taking a couple years off, Lien decided to take her unhinged behavior to new heights, going from a fallen actress to a literal complete psycho. In April of 2015 Lien was arrested after attacking a cop over a speeding offense. She allegedly rammed the officer's cruiser trying to escape and avoid arrest, turning a minor speeding offense into charges of evading arrest, resisting arrest, reckless endangerment and aggravated assault.

She was later arrested a second time in 2015 when she was charged with indecent exposure in September after getting into an argument with her neighbor. Her mugshot taken paints an even sadder picture: she looks completely unrecognizable and it looks like her mental state is completely gone. Lien managed to avoid arrest for several more months until once again in March of 2016 when she was arrested this time for a DUI.

There's a part of me that honestly feels bad for Lien. She seems to be suffering from some real and serious mental health problems, and her behavior honestly might not be completely her fault. However, until she gets help she is doing nothing more than endangering other people's lives with her out of control actions, making her one serious washed up celebrity!

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massreality Posted on Feb 10, 2017 at 01:03 PM

This is a real shame. She was quite cute as Kes, and was a very respectable actress.

Rick Ace Rhodes Posted on Jan 20, 2017 at 11:04 PM

@jkatz Oh he definitely will be getting an article done on him at some point.

jkatz Posted on Jan 20, 2017 at 06:16 AM

If you ever decide to continue this series, a good pick would be Jan Michael Vincent.

Vaporman87 Posted on Jan 19, 2017 at 08:21 AM

Oh yikes. What a mess she's become. It's a real shame too. She had a great deal going for her. Too bad things have taken such a turn for the worse.

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