The Most Tragic Celebrity Facelifts

In the 2020s, the preservation of celebrity faces by plastic surgery, facelifts, fillers, and other aesthetic machinations sits at the intersection of art, science, and vanity. Surgeons are constantly refining their techniques, developing new methods, and making veritable fortunes in the process. Because, in the era of social media and the 24/7 news cycle, a star's image is more important than ever before. 

Even with figures like Michael Jackson, Jocelyn Wildenstein, and Meg Ryan serving as a cosmetic cautionary tales, celebs, and people in general, have been flocking to clinics in recent years. In 2023, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons observed a 19% increase in cosmetic procedures since 2019. And multiple agencies are projecting continued growth for the multi-billion-dollar cosmetic surgery market heading into the next decade.

Nevertheless, much of the stigma about procedures like facelifts persists today, with a handful of celebrity faces receiving an especially poor reception. From transformations into an unrecognizable state to unnatural tightness and features that don't quite make sense, here are some of the most tragic celebrity facelifts.

In the 2020s, Melanie Griffith may be best known as Dakota Johnson's mother — and there are definitely far worse things to hang one's hat on. However, during the '80s and '90s, she was a veritable sex symbol and an A-list actress in Hollywood. For her efforts as Tess McGill in 1988's "Working Girl," she picked up an Academy Award nomination and won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical.

While her bombshell looks and innate sex appeal were well-documented during her big-screen heyday, much of the coverage surrounding her now on the dramatic facial metamorphosis that has polarized longtime fans and social media critics alike. In the 2010s, Griffith took note of the backlash to her evolving appearance, which was cultivated via facelifts and other forms of cosmetic enhancement. "I didn't [realize it had gone too far] until people started saying, 'Oh my god, what has she done?!'" Griffith told Porter magazine in 2017 (via USA Today). "I was so hurt I went to a different doctor and he started dissolving all of this [stuff] that this other woman doctor had put in. Hopefully, I look more normal now." 

In fairness to Griffith, though, not all of the work that has been done to her face was purely cosmetic, with some of it dating back to a lion attack on the set of the 1981 film "Roar" and, later, skin cancer treatment. Some have even labeled her a stunner after she dissolved her filler.

One of Hollywood's go-to tough guys of the 1980s and '90s, Sylvester Stallone has won multiple generations of fans through his work in "Rambo," Rocky," and "The Expendables" franchises. Through it all, fans have marveled at how the actor/writer/director has maintained his muscle-bound physique. However, that's not the only part of his look that Stallone has attempted to shape to his liking.

For his part, plastic surgeon Dr. Gary Linkov speculated in a YouTube video that as Stallone began his 50s, he underwent a facelift, in addition to fat transfer. According to Linkov, other possible procedures over the years include a brow lift and hair transplant. Some commenters made it clear they were taken aback by his shifting appearance. "Men need YEARS for a facelift to 'settle.' Stallone looked shocking after that first facelift," wrote one commenter. Meanwhile, his appearance while visiting Mar-a-Lago in 2024 was likened to that of a Madame Tussaud's wax sculpture.

Stallone's rumored plastic surgery isn't the only medical situation he's faced in recent years. While filming the first "Expendables" movie, he suffered multiple injuries while performing his own stunts, with a body slam at the hands of WWE legend Steve Austin proving particularly damaging. "I did stupid stuff. I was directing Expendables and, like an idiot, I'm doing take 10, take whatever, and I remember one slam and I could actually feel one bang," Stallone said on a 2024 episode of "The Family Stallone" (via People).

Once upon a time (in the '80s), Daryl Hannah turned heads as one of Hollywood's most vibrant faces. She won hearts with her almost-ethereal appearance in films like 1984's "Splash," 1987's "Roxanne," and 1989's "Steel Magnolias." Even into the 2000s, when she appeared as Elle Driver in Quentin Tarantino's martial arts masterpiece "Kill Bill," her striking features made it impossible to miss her on the screen.

In more recent years, though, her appearance has elicited the kind of commentary that no star wants to deal with, particularly as they age. In 2010, she made headlines with her appearance on the red carpet at the Prix Montblanc Gala in Berlin. The Daily Mail noted that she appeared "suspiciously younger" at the event. Earlier that year, Hannah said that speculation about her appearance, inspired by a taut-faced beach snap actually hurt her career. "There was a picture taken a while ago of me emerging from the ocean, with my hair slicked back and no make-up on. I looked as though I had puffy, squinty eyes and the rumor went round I'd had work done. I lost jobs because of it," she said (via The Daily Mail).

While Hannah denied having work done, plastic surgeons have offered up myriad theories about the procedures she may have undergone.

During the 2024 presidential election, Joe Biden's medical situation was a hot topic, as observers speculated about his endurance and overall well-being. And shortly after he left office, it was revealed that the former president had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that had spread to his bones. However, the chatter about medical procedures that he may have undergone dates back years, as Biden is believed to have turned to cosmetic enhancement to alter his face.

"Biden obviously has had every single thing you can do to your face," said "Botched" doctor Terry Dubrow on a 2024 episode of his wife, Heather Dubrow's podcast "Let's Talk" (via Reality Tea/Yahoo!). "He's had his uppers, lowers, hair, facelift, and it's okay — but should you be 78 and have no laxity in your skin, have no lines in your eyes, and have no upper or lower eyelid skin? I don't know. You don't wanna look that way."

Dubrow isn't the only one making these claims in recent years. For his part, plastic surgeon Gary Motykie told The U.S. Sun that Biden may have had two facelifts and hair transplants over the years.

Make no mistake about it — Joan Rivers is a fully fledged comedy icon. After serving as the regular guest host during Johnny Carson's run on "The Tonight Show," she became the first woman to regularly host a late-night talk show during the 1980s. And her standup stylings were the stuff of legend. For all that she accomplished as a comic and television personality, though, Rivers was similarly in a class all her own where plastic surgery and facelifts were concerned.

As noted by The New York Daily News in 2012, Rivers once joked during an interview with Anderson Cooper that she had undergone a stunning amount of plastic surgery — more than 700 cosmetic procedures to be exact — telling him, "Every weekend I just go in and I do something new. I get a tenth one free. It's a little like coffee, you just keep going." And while that was simply an example of her dark humor, Rivers long championed facelifts and other forms of cosmetic enhancement. That's not to say that the public at large has been on board with her constant tinkering.

"Many people are afraid of plastic surgery because of Joan Rivers," Canadian doctor Martin Braun reportedly said (via The Orange County Register). 

In some respects, comedian Kathy Griffin could be looked at as the next iteration of Joan Rivers. Not only does Griffin's irreverent style hearken back to Rivers' most biting verbal jabs, but her openness about undergoing cosmetic enhancement to achieve her desired look, and the perpetual fine-tuning of her face that has occurred over the years, have also been Rivers-esque.

When photos of Griffin looking noticeably taut in the face emerged online in 2025, the former "Suddenly Susan" and "Hollywood Squares" star copped to having undergone a facelift (the latest in a series of procedures) on her "Talk Your Head Off" YouTube show. "It's my third. I know that's so vain! I'm so vain for no reason. No one has ever gone to a Kathy Griffin show to see her beautiful, youthful face. You come to hear my jokes, which is what I want," she said. "I don't want you to come to care what I look like. I'm in Lululemon's today for God's sake. I'm in my fat pants. I don't have dysmorphia... I have a little."

Griffin has faced scrutiny throughout her career over her appearance, and while some observers applauded the new look, others opined that she may have one of the most unnatural-looking facelifts in Hollywood.

During the mid-to-late 1990s and into the 2000s, Denise Richards was one of Hollywood's it girls and a burgeoning sex symbol, thanks to a three-year run of pictures pre-Y2K that included "Starship Troopers," "Wild Things," and "Drop Dead Gorgeous." That run culminated with her becoming immortalized in the annals of James Bond lore as Dr. Christmas Jones in the Pierce Brosnan-led "The World Is Not Enough."

As the years passed and Richards aged, she became more associated with her marriage to Charlie Sheen, "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills," and the brutal commentary surrounding her evolving appearance. In 2026, Richards joined the likes of Kathy Griffin and other performers who have broken the standard celebrity protocol by pulling back the curtain on their cosmetic enhancements.

Sharing the results in a joint Instagram post with her doctor, Ben Talei, it was revealed that Richards had undergone a facelift, fat grafting, a lip lift, a temporal brow lift, and upper blepharoplasty. However, while Talei declared in the caption that "her golden face is hers again," and his office was reportedly flooded with requests for work afterward, many criticized the transformation. "Such a shame she couldn't be happy with her natural beauty," wrote one commenter. "A new image just came out of her and she looks nothing like this picture. So which one is real?" wrote another.

The Kardashian-Jenner clan has long been associated with cosmetic enhancement, and that starts at the top with the family's matriarch, Kris Jenner. However, while many celebs are criticized for getting facelifts, Jenner's 2025 facelift was widely lauded for giving her a fresh, striking look that fit nicely alongside those of her much-younger daughters.

As reported by Page Six, Jenner's 70th birthday glow-up came courtesy of plastic surgeon Dr. Steven Levine. The look went viral throughout the year whenever pictures of Jenner's shockingly smooth — and natural-looking — face made the rounds. "I had a facelift about 15 years ago, so it was time for a refresh," Jenner told Vogue Arabia about her headline-making mug. "I decided to do this facelift because I want to be the best version of myself, and that makes me happy. Just because you get older, it doesn't mean you should give up on yourself."

More recently, Jenner's viral facelift may have started to lose some of its magic, and people are noticing. "Wait is this the new face or the old one?" wrote one Instagram user in response to an Entertainment Tonight reel featuring Jenner at the 2026 Vanity Fair Oscars Party. "I just don't understand why she doesn't want to age gracefully," added another commenter.

Mickey Rourke's journey down the path of cosmetic enhancement goes back decades and was reportedly inspired, in part, by injuries he suffered during his days as a boxer. As chronicled by The U.S. Sun, multiple broken noses, a smashed cheekbone, and other facial damage saw him undergo several rhinoplasty procedures during the 1990s, while his former Debra Feuer claimed that he also received cheek implants.

In 2009, amid the continued scrutiny over his appearance, Rourke asserted that his look was largely the result of botched reconstructive procedures. "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," he told the Daily Mail at the time. That reportedly didn't stop him from pursuing additional cosmetic enhancement. According to The Sun, Rourke "underwent multiple facelifts to address sagging skin" and received additional cheek implants between 2010 and 2016.

Whether it's solely due to old boxing injuries or simply the desire to maintain a more youthful mug, fans can't help but bemoan the metamorphosis of an actor who once won hearts with his appearance in films like 1982's "Diner" and 1986's "9½ Weeks." Implored one Redditor: "For the love of God, stay away from the plastic surgeon, Mickey."

From 1996 to 2005, Lil' Kim' had three albums hit the Billboard 200's top 10 and was featured on highly successful singles, including the No. 1 hit "Lady Marmalade" in 2001. In the meantime, she elicited double-takes with her iconic style and striking appearance.

Fast-forward to the 2020s, and Kim looks like an entirely different person. "Personally, I think she should seek professional help," plastic surgeon Dr. Gary Breslow told Page Six in 2016. "Based on these pictures alone, she's going to end up destroying her face if she continues. ... Based on how much work it appears she's had done, and how drastically she continues to change her appearance, I would think she has a problem and needs to seek professional help." It's a sentiment that has been echoed by fans on social media.

Dr. Gary Linkov speculated in a 2024 YouTube video that, by age 40, Kim may have followed up years of filler, neuromodulation, and rhinoplasty with a facelift. In short, she may have spent a fortune to change her looks, and it all started quite tragically, as she was reportedly forced to get reconstructive surgery after being the victim of domestic violence.

Sharon Osbourne has faced scrutiny over her appearance since the early 2000's, dating back to her family's MTV reality series "The Osbournes." More recently, the focus has been on her forays into the world of GLP-1 medications and surgery to switch up her facial appearance, which even Osbourne herself has expressed a level of regret about. 

Discussing a 2021 facelift — which was reportedly the third such procedure she had undergone — the "Ozzfest" creator told The Times, "That was the worst thing that I ever did. I looked like Cyclops," adding, "I had one eye here and one eye there and my mouth was all skewwhiff, and then I had to wait for that to heal before I could go back and have it corrected."

Despite her own dissatisfaction with the procedure, she has continued to spark concern with her evolving appearance. Osbourne has lamented her extreme weight loss in recent years, as she has been unable to regain weight after dropping 42 pounds over a four-month stretch in 2023-24. She may be at the end of her rope where facial surgery is concerned, too, telling the Daily Mail in 2025, "I've had enough. I've given up on all interventions. I couldn't have much more facial surgery — there's not that much skin left to stretch, pull or cut. And I won't have any more fillers or Botox."

Once the poster child for facelifts and plastic surgery run amok during the 1990s, the late socialite Jocelyn Wildenstein may be better known as "Catwoman," owing to a look that increasingly resembled a feline as her years advanced. Shockingly, though, Wildenstein never confirmed having undergone cosmetic surgery, dismissing the notion outright during an interview with The Sun shortly before her 2024 death. "I haven't had plastic surgery," she told the outlet. "I am scared of what can happen."

She did cop to having used Botox, received skin treatments, and gotten a brow lift. As noted by the Daily Mail, though, aesthetic doctors have offered a different appraisal of the situation. For his part, plastic surgeon Dr. Jerry Chidester told the outlet that Wildenstein "may have received repeated facelifts," further warning that when patients undergo "multiple or excessive procedures, especially to the face, it can lead to complications that may have both physical and psychological impacts."

Said Wildenstein's ex, art dealer Alec Wildenstein, to Vanity Fair in 1998: "I would always find out last. She was thinking that she could fix her face like a piece of furniture. Skin does not work that way. But she wouldn't listen."

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