Not that I know of. But he’s more famous now than he was when he was doing the show. You’re right that his marriage had a lot to do with that, but so did Punk’d.
I like him myself and I wasn’t criticizing him.
And Dead Like Me, which wasn’t highly successful, but popular enough that they made a movie a few years after the show ended, which Patinkin was not in, though the rest of the cast was.
But didn’t Grease come out before Taxi?
Surely the ultimate achiever in popular culture is Shaun Williamson who played Barry Evans in the British soap EastEnders for 10 years.
Later Williamson, sort of played himself in the Ricky Gervais BBC comedy Extras.
He is an unemployable actor perhaps due to the useless management provided by Andy’s agent, played by Stephen Merchant. However he is always referred to as “Barry from EastEnders”, and in one episode the agent tells the story of “Barry” leaving EastEnders to become a movie star and failing.
Steve McQueen left Wanted : Dead or Alive and had a nice movie career. This was before most of you whippersnappers were born.
George Clooney left TWO shows titled ER (well, one is E/R), but only one of the shows went on well without him.
Seth Green left his part as “Oz” on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and has done very well for himself, working steadily and co-creating “Robot Chicken.”
Good for him, but I loved Oz and the show missed him terribly. He had the best one-liners in the Buffy-verse.
William Petersen left CSI during the 9th season, CSI was still rated #4. He left to do theater work and I at least have not seen him since on TV or film. The show’s ratings seemed to have drop a bit since his departure. He arguably was the main character.
George Maharis contracted hepatitis and had to leave Route 66 in the middle of the third season. He continued to act in TV, films, and theater for many years after that.
James Garner left Maverick early and they replaced him with (among others) Roger Moore as cousin Beau Maverick which I always saw as weird casting. Garner did well on the big screen and with subsequent small screen appearances although a couple of other attempts at television Maverick remakes kind of missed the mark.
Harry Morgan left December Bride early for his own spinoff series **Pete and Gladys **(I think the first-ever television spinoff) and while it faired poorly, he didn’t. He was a regular fixture both on the big screen and in two more very successful series.
Wasn’t he fairly well known by that point? I remember him in Austin Powers, which came out about the same time Buffy started.
Thomas Haden Church left Wings for a crappy sitcom that quickly failed. He disappeared until they dragged him back for the movie Sideways.
Both Dennis Weaver and Burt Reynolds left Gunsmoke and both had successful careers after the Saturday western. Weaver eventually ended up with McCloud and Reynolds ended up with a number of different things. Come to think of it, didn’t Reynolds also leave Riverboat early?
Jim Nabors and Don Knotts both left the Andy Griffin Show early and both initially did well. Nabors with Gomer Pyle and Knotts with his Disney films and his teaming with Tim Conway.
That wasn’t her choice, though. The producers got rid of her in order to make room for Seven of Nine.
Regis Philbin left the Joey Bishop Show early. Actually Bishop fired him on air. It took awhile, but he has come back - arguably more successfully than the guy that fired him (at least in the medium from which he was fired).
That’s not quite how I thought it went down. I thought Regis quit on air, but was brought back by Bishop the following night.
Some people think it was possibly a ratings stunt.
It could be as you remember it. I was very young when I saw it. Besides the success of the program was questionable and this thread is “Actors who left successful series”. In addition virtually no one would call Regis an actor.
I thought she was pitching a fit over the ears (IIRC, her hairstyle was changed from the cute pixie to a longer version). Plus, her species is extremely short-lived, so I don’t know if she would have lasted out the series anyway.
Well, good! All I know is, I heard he’d had to leave Hamlet because he’d hurt his back or something. (I’m American; I don’t get every tidbit of info about UK actors.)
I don’t know if she counts in the spirit of the OP. She initially left for maternity leave, then came back long enough to wrap up her story line.