# Actors who suddenly stopped acting **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 10, 2008, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-suddenly-stopped-acting/455954 "2008-07-10T05:57:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2008, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-suddenly-stopped-acting/455954/61 "2008-07-11T02:26:40Z")
[QUOTE=Roderick Femm] (emphasis added) I’m so sorry to hear it! ☹ Roddy [/QUOTE] :smack: :smack: :smack: :smack: ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2008, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-suddenly-stopped-acting/455954/62 "2008-07-11T02:38:51Z")
Maria Falconetti’s performance in [The Passion of Joan of Arc](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0019254/) moved noted critic Pauline Kael to say it “may be the finest performance ever recorded on film.” Falconetti never made another film. ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2008, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-suddenly-stopped-acting/455954/63 "2008-07-11T05:43:45Z")
This must have happened with many a silent film star. **Theda Bara** was retired at age 41 and **Clara Bow** at 28, although with Clara Bow there was both illness and legal trouble. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2008, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-suddenly-stopped-acting/455954/64 "2008-07-11T13:27:17Z")
Did Carrie Fisher have too many tiny appearances/cameos to count? ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-suddenly-stopped-acting/455954/65 "2008-07-15T11:39:27Z")
Jo Ann Pflug would also qualify (original MASH movie) ---
**Author:** ![bauble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f6c823/32.png) [@bauble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bauble)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-suddenly-stopped-acting/455954/66 "2008-07-15T16:02:07Z")
What about Jan Smithers? I can’t remember the last time I saw her in anything. And, now that I think on it, I haven’t seen Harry Anderson in anything in a while, either. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-suddenly-stopped-acting/455954/67 "2008-07-15T16:17:00Z")
[QUOTE=bauble] And, now that I think on it, I haven’t seen Harry Anderson in anything in a while, either. [/QUOTE] He and his wife settled in New Orleans and opened a shop and a bar, although they moved to N. Carolina after Katrina. If he got residuals from “Night Court”, he’s pretty much set for life. Acting can be a stressful career, constantly worrying about when your next job is going to happen. I’d imagine that if you’ve had a success that ensured that you’d never have to worry about money again (assuming you managed things reasonably well), why bother? ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-suddenly-stopped-acting/455954/68 "2008-07-15T16:26:59Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] **Louise Brooks** was a big silent film star who pretty much left films in the 30s (she wasn’t getting good parts and didn’t like Hollywood) to become a writer. [/QUOTE] A writer?! Sure, she wrote later, but that wasn’t quite what she was doing shortly after exiting films. Michael Schoeffling: played Jake Ryan in 16 Candles, hasn’t worked since 1991. Frank Jasper: played Brian Shute in Vision Quest. Hasn’t worked since 1993. He’s some sort of New Age-y practitioner in California. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-suddenly-stopped-acting/455954/69 "2008-07-15T16:30:36Z")
[QUOTE=Illuminatiprimus] By the time Schwarzenegger left acting he already had enough money (and managed it intelligently enough) to not need movie pay cheques. [/QUOTE] I heard he married into a bit of money too. ---
**Author:** ![bauble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f6c823/32.png) [@bauble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bauble)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-suddenly-stopped-acting/455954/70 "2008-07-15T16:38:22Z")
[QUOTE=gaffa] He and his wife settled in New Orleans and opened a shop and a bar, although they moved to N. Carolina after Katrina. If he got residuals from “Night Court”, he’s pretty much set for life. Acting can be a stressful career, constantly worrying about when your next job is going to happen. I’d imagine that if you’ve had a success that ensured that you’d never have to worry about money again (assuming you managed things reasonably well), why bother? [/QUOTE] I’d heard he’d hung around after Katrina and tried to help the city get back on its feet, but the crime and local government’s corruption finally got to be too much. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-suddenly-stopped-acting/455954/71 "2008-07-15T17:01:20Z")
[QUOTE=SuperNelson] “Star” may be a bit of a stretch, but I recently saw on CNN that [Isaak Lidskey](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0509240/), of “Saved by the Bell 2” is now [clerking for Sandra Day O’Connor.](http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/06/20/blind.law.clerk/) Even more impressively, he’s the first legally blind law clerk in Supreme Court history. [/QUOTE] I went to middle school with Isaak! ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-suddenly-stopped-acting/455954/72 "2008-07-15T17:08:13Z")
**Wil Wheaton** , child star of _Stand by Me_ and _Star Trek: The Next Generation_, is now a husband, father, and author – and has an open, well-written blog ([WWdn: In Exile](http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/wwdnbackup/)). ---
**Author:** ![diggleblop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@diggleblop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diggleblop)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-suddenly-stopped-acting/455954/73 "2008-07-15T17:50:17Z")
Gene Hackman ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-suddenly-stopped-acting/455954/74 "2008-07-15T18:31:21Z")
[QUOTE=Misnomer] **Wil Wheaton** , child star of _Stand by Me_ and _Star Trek: The Next Generation_, is now a husband, father, and author – and has an open, well-written blog ([WWdn: In Exile](http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/wwdnbackup/)). [/QUOTE] He still acts, though. He was on **Numb3rs** last season, and while he seems to be more sanguine over whether or not he gets a part, he does still go to auditions and readings. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-suddenly-stopped-acting/455954/75 "2008-07-15T18:48:15Z")
[Michael St. Gerard](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0820544/) was a very hot young actor who was famous for two things: playing Link Larkin in the original John Waters _Hairspray_ movie and for playing Elvis in a dozen other projects (_Great Balls of Fire_, _Elvis: the Series_, _Quantum Leap_, others- in short, he looked a lot like a young Elvis. He gave up acting in his early 30s to concentrate on the ministry. Though white he’s now a youth minister at a black church in Harlem. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-suddenly-stopped-acting/455954/76 "2008-07-15T18:51:31Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] Though white [/QUOTE] He still _sounds_ black, though, right? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Interrobang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/interrobang/32/17463_2.png) [@Interrobang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Interrobang)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-suddenly-stopped-acting/455954/77 "2008-07-15T19:10:57Z")
Oh, another one: Liesel Matthews. Played the lead role in _The Little Princess_, Harrison Ford’s daughter in _Air Force One_, appeared a few years later in some movie I’ve never heard of, then poof! No more movies. Of course, she’s filthy stinking rich, so it’s not like she needs the gigs. And she’s in her early 20s, so she’s got time to resume her career. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-suddenly-stopped-acting/455954/78 "2008-07-15T19:15:17Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] I can’t believe that this is post 52 and nobody’s mentioned Joe Pesci. Basically decided while still getting big paychecks and big roles “I’m rich, I don’t wanna do this any more… so I won’t.” He made a short cameo as an aging mob boss/worry-wart grandpa in that Matt Damon/Martin Scorcese movie (whose name I can’t recall and don’t feel like googling), but otherwise that’s it for about the past 8 or 9 years. [/QUOTE] Damon has only made one movie with Scorsese (_The Departed_), which Pesci wasn’t in. You may be thinking of _The Good Shepherd_, directed by Scorsese-regular Robert DeNiro but which Marty himself had nothing to do with. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-suddenly-stopped-acting/455954/79 "2008-07-15T19:40:59Z")
[QUOTE=diggleblop] Gene Hackman [/QUOTE] > [@](#): > > On July 7, 2004, Hackman gave a rare interview to Larry King, in which he announced that he had no future film projects lined up, and believes his acting career is over. Source: [Gene Hackman - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Hackman) ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-suddenly-stopped-acting/455954/80 "2008-07-15T20:18:04Z")
[QUOTE=pepperlandgirl] He still acts, though. He was on **Numb3rs** last season, and while he seems to be more sanguine over whether or not he gets a part, he does still go to auditions and readings. [/QUOTE] My bad! I’m only a casual reader of his blog, and I wasn’t aware that he’s still taking parts. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-suddenly-stopped-acting/455954.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-suddenly-stopped-acting/455954.md?page=5)