While it is common to witness actors’ careers gradually slip away, there’s something admirable about the performers who make the conscious choice to take a step back from Hollywood at the height of their popularity. This choice shows real integrity, as the actors know in their hearts that they are ready to call it quits despite viewers’ desire for more. This can be down to a child star wishing to experience a new life, longtime acting legends having nothing else to give, or performers taking a planned hiatus they enjoyed so much that it turned into a retirement.
Some of the greatest actors of all time have willingly cut their careers short and said goodbye when their popularity was at an all-time high. These decisions are nothing new in Hollywood, as everyone from icons of the silent era to 1990s child stars have felt the urge to explore life away from the world of celebrities and Hollywood. While many actors then decided to come back after a short break, all of these actors left Hollywood when they were still extremely popular.
10 Jonathan Taylor Thomas
Stepped back from Hollywood in 1998
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Jonathan Taylor Thomas had a fruitful career as a child star during the 1990s in series like The Bradys and the sketch show In Living Color. Thomas gained his big break in 1991 with a major role as Randy Taylor on Home Improvement, where he appeared in 179 episodes. However, this was only the beginning, as Thomas would truly leave his mark on Hollywood as the voice of Simba in The Lion King and Pinocchio in The Adventures of Pinocchio.
With such iconic roles under his belt, by the time Thomas was a teenager, he had already carved out a career most adult actors could only dream of. Yet following the conclusion of Home Improvement in 1998, when he was just 17, Thomas took a step back from acting. Although he’s occasionally made guest appearances and done sporadic voice work, Thomas never transitioned into a fully-fledged adult working actor and left Hollywood behind to pursue his studies right when he was most popular.
9 Jack Gleeson
Took a break from acting in 2014
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The Irish actor Jack Gleeson gained widespread notoriety for his role as Joffrey Baratheon on Game of Thrones. As a morally corrupt teenager with little sense of right or wrong, Gleeson played Joffrey to perfection, so much so that it was hard to imagine he was anything but cruel and insensitive. As perhaps the most hated character on Game of Thrones, Joffrey’s short temper was an overcompensation for his extreme cowardliness, and although the audience rooted against him, it was a testament to Gleeson’s talents that he was so memorable.
Following Joffrey’s exit from Game of Thrones in 2014 after being poisoned during his wedding feast, Gleeson took a hiatus from acting. Having become recognizable worldwide for playing such a detestable character, it made sense that Gleeson wanted to take some time off and focus on his studies. However, he’s slowly dipped his toes back into the world of movies and TV with several upcoming projects in the works, including a role on Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight’s Netflix historical drama House of Guinness.
8 Rick Moranis
Stepped back from Hollywood in 1997
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Rick Moranis was a household name during the 1980s, and he built up a reputation as one of Hollywood’s most sought-after comedians. Alongside Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, and all the other biggest comedians of that decade, Moranis’s career went from strength to strength with roles in Ghostbusters, Spaceballs, and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. This continued throughout the 1990s as he took on more iconic roles like Barney Gumble in the live-action Flintstones movie.
However, in 1997, Moranis took a step away from the industry. Moranis was a single father whose wife died of cancer in 1991, and he later explained he found it difficult to look after his children with the responsibility of juggling moviemaking (via USA Today.) Moranis has remained mostly retired since, although he had the occasional guest role or did sporadic voice work like in Brother Bear. Don’t count Moranis out entirely, as he was prepared to make a comeback with the legacy sequel Shrunk in 2020, but this has been delayed indefinitely since the pandemic.
7 Daniel Day-Lewis
Has retired twice, in 1997 and 2017
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As the only performer to win three Academy Awards for Best Actor, Daniel Day-Lewis has long been considered among the greatest actors of all time. As an intensely committed performer, Day-Lewis has taken method acting to the extreme, as he locked himself in solitary confinement for In the Name of the Father, lived in the woods for The Last of the Mohicans, and truly became the 16th American President for Lincoln. While Day-Lewis will never be short of acting opportunities, that did not stop him from twice leaving Hollywood behind.
Day-Lewis will come out of retirement
for a movie he co-wrote his upcoming movie
Anemone
with his son Ronan, which explores family bonds, specifically those involving fathers, sons and brothers.
Day-Lewis has always valued the privacy of his personal life, and after The Boxer was released in 1997, he took a five-year break and went into semi-retirement before returning for Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York. This semi-retirement turned into a full-blown plan to leave acting behind after Phantom Thread in 2017 when Day-Lewis officially announced his retirement. However, this may soon change as in 2024, it was announced that Day-Lewis was attached to star in Anemone, the directional debut from his son Ronan Day-Lewis, in a script they co-wrote together.
6 Shirley Temple
Left acting behind in 1947
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The child so famous they named a drink after her, Shirley Temple’s film career began when she was just three years old, and by the time she was six, she was a major star from her breakout performance in Bright Eyes. As a singing, dancing tot with iconic curly blonde hair, Temple was the epitome of child stardom and became a beloved worldwide phenomenon before she even lost her baby teeth. With ten movie roles in 1934 alone, Temple’s best movies have left a mark on popular culture and turned her into a timeless icon.
Although primarily known as a child star, Temple acted until her early 20s with memorable roles in rom-coms like The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer opposite Cary Grant and the John Wayne Western classic Fort Apache. But at just 21, Temple called it quits, said goodbye to Hollywood stardom, and traded it in for a new career. From there, Temple became a diplomatic ambassador and had a successful career with roles as United States Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia and Chief of Protocol of the United States.
5 Greta Garbo
Left acting behind in 1941
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As one of the greatest screen actresses of all time, Greta Garbo was an icon of the silent film era who successfully made the transition into sound. From her breakout American performance in Flesh and the Devil in 1926 to sound success like Anna Christie, Garbo quickly gained the stature and acclaim to become increasingly selective about the role she chose. From there, the 1930s were packed with extraordinary performances in Grand Hotel, Anna Karenina, and Marguerite Gautier in Camille, perhaps her finest achievement.
I was tired of Hollywood. I did not like my work.
Although a string of commercial failures led to Garbo being labeled box office poison, despite gaining her third Academy Award for Ninotchka in 1939, by 1941, she called it a day for good. Despite receiving countless opportunities to return to the screen, Garbo denied each and every one before passing away at age 84 in 1990. Garbo later told her her biographer, Sven Broman (via Daily Star): “I was tired of Hollywood. I did not like my work. There were many days when I had to force myself to go to the studio … I really wanted to live another life.”
4 Joe Pesci
Has been in semi-retirement since 1999
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Alongside Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, Joe Pesci excelled in the gangster crime genre, playing tough and uncompromising characters. With a longstanding partnership with director Martin Scorsese, Pesci’s credits for the iconic Italian-American filmmaker included Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and Casino. Pesci would also become a household name for viewers of all ages due to his villainous role as the hapless burglar Harry Lime in Home Alone.
While Pesci had nothing but opportunities ahead of him, he decided to step back from Hollywood in 1999 and has since been extremely picky about the roles he takes up outside of his semi-retirement. However, Pesci did not disappear entirely. In 2006, he had a cameo in De Niro’s The Good Shepard, and in 2019, he had a highly anticipated return in Scorsese’s The Irishman. Reportedly (via The Directors Cut), Pesci was offered the role 50 times before he agreed, at first saying he didn’t want to do “the gangster thing again,” but Scorsese convinced him it would be “different.”
3 Gene Hackman
Retired from acting in 2004
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While it’s true that Gene Hackman was well past retirement age when he decided to bid farewell to Hollywood at age 74 in 2004, viewers have still felt his absence over the past two decades. As a truly legendary actor with iconic roles in everything from The French Connection to Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven, Hackman was at the forefront of Hollywood for more than six decades. With consistent roles in major box office hits throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Hackman’s retirement was a disappointment, and he left audiences keen for more.
If I could do it in my own house, maybe, without them disturbing anything and just one or two people
,”
Instead, Hackman shifted his focus to writing novels, and he later explained that the stress of acting was not good for his health as he entered old age (via Far Out.) Since 2004, Hackman hasn’t done any acting, but he did narrate in the documentaries The Unknown Flag Raiser of Iwo Jima and We, the Marines. When asked by GQ 2011 if he’d ever consider coming back for one more film, Hackman said, “if I could do it in my own house, maybe, without them disturbing anything and just one or two people,”
2 Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen
Stepped away from Hollywood in the mid-2000s
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The twin sisters Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen made their debut as infants, taking turns playing Michelle Tanner on the ABC sitcom Full House. This role catapulted them to fame, and while they were still children, the Olsen Twins became preteen icons as an entire industry, complete with TV movies, books, and even an animated series was built around them. This could probably have continued to this day, but the Olsen Twins stepped away from acting in the mid-2000s and got involved in the fashion industry.
While Mary-Kate has had occasional acting roles in the years since, the Olsen Twins’ primary focus has been on their fashion label, The Row. As a producer of clothing, footwear, handbags, and accessories, The Row capitalized on the Olsen Twins’ reputation as pre-teen fashion icons as they successfully became major voices in the adult fashion industry. Today, when audiences think of the name Olsen in relation to acting, they’re now more likely to imagine the twins’ younger sister, Elizabeth, best known as Wanda Maximoff in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
1 Macaulay Culkin
Took an acting hiatus in 1995
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As one of the most famous names of the 1990s, Macaulay Culkin had already done most of his best-known work before he was even a teenager. As Kevin McCallister in Home Alone, Culkin became a worldwide child star and followed this up with other beloved performances in everything from My Girl to Richie Rich. However, by the age of 15 in 1995, Culkin grew tired of acting and took a hiatus to live a normal life (via CNN.)
While Culkin would return to the screen for independent movies like Saved! and Sex for Breakfast throughout the 2000s, he never returned to the major blockbuster success he had in the 1990s. Instead, Culkin focused on more idiosyncratic projects like comedy rock band The Pizza Underground and as the CEO of Bunny Ears, a satirical pop culture website. In more recent years, Culkin starred in the tenth series of American Horror Story and reprised his role as Kevin McCallister for a Google ad, but when comparing this to his heyday as a child, he’s kept a low profile.
Sources: USA Today, Daily Star, Far Out, GQ, CNN