# Celebrities who have completely vanished **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 18, 2015, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-completely-vanished/715272 "2015-03-18T09:27:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-completely-vanished/715272/41 "2015-03-18T22:09:53Z")
On a related note, last week I was at a meetup and some other people there were talking about a TV series featuring James Spader, and expressed surprise that a middle-aged man would suddenly rise to fame out of nowhere. I replied that he was a very popular actor in the late 1980s, and withdrew from public life when he had children. The money he made from his box office success enabled him to do local theater and other acting parts where he would not have to go on location, and decided to take bigger parts when his kids were grown. He did what was right for him. Gregg Rolie of Journey did a similar thing. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-completely-vanished/715272/42 "2015-03-18T23:14:33Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > I For example, Rick Moranis was once a big TV and movie star, but he’s been totally out of the public eye for ages. He’s not hiding in the woods like JD Salinger- he just left show biz and never felt an overwhelming urge to go back. He’s actually done some comedy recordings, and was up for the Grammy for Best Comedy Album back in 2006. He got out of movies (with the exception of some voice over work) because he found it hard to raise his kids and do films, as his wife had died, so he picked his kids. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-completely-vanished/715272/43 "2015-03-19T00:02:40Z")
There was a good baseball player in the 1960s named Tony Horton who had mental problems. He once struck out on Steve Hamilton’s “folly floater” and crawled back on his hands and knees to the dugout. People didn’t know of his inner turmoil and assumed he was joking. He left the game and disappeared. A couple decades later a writer tracked him down in Silicon Valley. The writer said from the brief glance he got Horton looked to be in shape, just gray hair. But he and his father refused to give an interview and slammed the door. In the 1890s there was a great base ball player named George Davis. In the 1950s a researcher named Lee Allen noticed Davis had disappeared from the baseball community around 1915 and no one knew what happened. After an extensive search, Allen found Davis had died in 1940. Davis was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1998. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-completely-vanished/715272/44 "2015-03-19T00:07:15Z")
The person I first thought of is Sarah Holcomb of _Animal House_ and _Caddyshack_ fame. Shortly after those she disappeared, supposedly due to drug addiction problems she picked up while doing _Animal House_. According to the comments on IMDB, it appears that her whereabouts are known to people who lived around her family, but she is gone from the public eye. I don’t think that fans could find her, and when she didn’t participate in the _Caddyshack_ reunion in 2013 I’d like to know if it’s because she refused to attend, or if they just couldn’t find her. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Mondegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/91b2a8/32.png) [@Lord\_Mondegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Mondegreen)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-completely-vanished/715272/45 "2015-03-19T02:32:00Z")
While he probably doesn’t completely fit in with the requirements of the OP, [Jimmie Nicol](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmie_Nicol) was a celebrity for a little while, having played drums for the Beatles during their Australian tour when Ringo was ill. Statements like: > [@](#): > > In 1988 it was rumoured that Nicol had died, but an article in 2005 by the Daily Mail confirmed that he was still alive and living in London as a recluse. satisfy the requirement (at least to me) of having “completely vanished.” That’s 17 years between a rumour that you’ve died and the confirmation that you haven’t, and even that event was 10 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Anesthesia\_Romanov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3ab097/32.png) [@Anesthesia\_Romanov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anesthesia_Romanov)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-completely-vanished/715272/46 "2015-03-19T03:43:25Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > J. D. Salinger and Thomas Pynchon Salinger died back in 2010. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus\_alba](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quercus_alba/32/4061_2.png) [@Quercus\_alba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus_alba)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-completely-vanished/715272/47 "2015-03-19T03:52:16Z")
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. Aw…crap, there they are again. I keep hoping…:smack: ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-completely-vanished/715272/48 "2015-03-19T04:15:29Z")
> [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](#): > > …well-known Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers … > [@silenus](#): > > Oxymoron. Hey! This band is responsible for me singing,\* “You picked the corn from my shiiiiiiit!” \*while driving around in city traffic. That has to count for something. ---
**Author:** ![Robert163](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4af34b/32.png) [@Robert163](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robert163)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-completely-vanished/715272/49 "2015-03-19T04:17:03Z")
Sixto Rodriguez, Otherwise know and Rodriguez. Musician form the 70’s that no one could find. They made a very interesting documentary on him. The Documentary was called Searching for Sugar Man. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-completely-vanished/715272/50 "2015-03-19T05:56:10Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Where are Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond, Barriemore Barlow or John Evan – prominent former members of the band? (Not to mention the Dee Palmer thing.) John Evan formed his own construction company, and later moved to Australia. Jeffrey Hammond became a painter, his primary passion. Barlow continued work as a session drummer and managed some indie rock bands, though he doesn’t seem to have done much lately. All of them have shown up in Jethro Tull retrospectives from time to time. And then there’s David Palmer… _“Er, [he’s gone for a piss](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWwIahbkxUY&t=712) but he’ll be right back…ah, David’s back! [Give it a good shake](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWwIahbkxUY&t=988), did you? Huh?? You did WHAT with it?!?!?”_ Anyway…in the era of 21st century globalization, it seems well nigh impossible for any ex-celebrity to remain completely incognito, as long as someone has the means and desire to track them down. Even the ur-example Rod Evans has remained enough in touch with his former colleagues to repeatedly refuse to participate in any reunion for Captain Beyond (his post-Purple band.) An example that didn’t turn out so well: [Philip Taylor Kramer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Taylor_Kramer), bass player for Iron Butterfly, mysteriously vanished in 1995. Four years later, his body was found inside his vehicle at the bottom of a deep canyon near L.A. The precise circumstances of his death were never determined, but it’s presumed to have been suicide. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-completely-vanished/715272/51 "2015-03-19T07:24:28Z")
[Betty Davis](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6OsV6HdDgo), She released 2 albums that were decades ahead of their time, the line up on her first is nuts (pointer sisters singing back up, Neil Schon and a handful of other outstanding performers) then she just vanished, Totally gone until the guys from Seattles Light in the Attic label picked up the rights to her first album. They managed to track her down so they could pay her Royalties for the first time on any of her music. That first album is one of my all time favorites. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-completely-vanished/715272/52 "2015-03-19T08:07:15Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > No one ever hears from [Jack Chick](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_T._Chick) until a new tract comes out. No one knows what he looks like, or he has only given one professional interview since 1975. Has there ever been any suggestion that he may not have been utterly sincere in his beliefs, and instead of living in his deranged world he just lucked into a sweet gig pretending his theses and using his evident artistic gifts to con the world, including fundie christians and outraged atheists, making money, as a grand _Épater la Bourgeoisie_ ? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-completely-vanished/715272/53 "2015-03-19T08:45:25Z")
How does Chick make money? ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-completely-vanished/715272/54 "2015-03-19T10:04:36Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > How does Chick make money? He sells tracts and other religious…literature. There’s even a special discount if you buy 10,000 or more of one title. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-completely-vanished/715272/55 "2015-03-19T10:39:32Z")
Anesthesia Romanov writes: \> Salinger died back in 2010. Yes, of course I knew that. Robert163 writes: \> Sixto Rodriguez, Otherwise know and Rodriguez. Musician form the 70’s that no \> one could find. They made a very interesting documentary on him. The \> Documentary was called Searching for Sugar Man. And there are certain ways in which that documentary wasn’t accurate: > **[Famous Documentaries That Were Shockingly Full of Crap](https://www.cracked.com/article_20585_6-famous-documentaries-that-were-shockingly-full-crap.html)** > > It turns out that some of the most acclaimed documentaries ever are about as real as 'Borat.' ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-completely-vanished/715272/56 "2015-03-19T11:27:16Z")
[Cat Stevens](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Stevens) doesn’t fit all OP criteria because he didn’t completely disappear, but I’m submitting him because he did disappear from the eyes of his once huge fan-base, and his is an interesting story worth learning for those (young whippersnappers) not familiar with his career. Cat abandoned his productive pop music career for a ~25 year hiatus, after converting to Islam in ’77, changing his name to Yusaf Islam and living primarily in the Muslim community, involving himself in philanthropy and creating some controversy. He did briefly pop up again into the pop music scene, but didn’t make much of a stir. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-completely-vanished/715272/57 "2015-03-19T11:43:30Z")
> [@Eliahna](#): > > Jason Mewes, who played Jay in the Clerks films and the lead in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, disappeared for two years in the early 2000s. I’m not sure if “on the lam” is the same as “vanished.” He was heavily using heroin and had warrants in New Jersey so he couldn’t return home. He was unemployable due to drug use and did not have stable living arrangements. But he did not disappear. ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-completely-vanished/715272/58 "2015-03-19T12:21:45Z")
> [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](#): > > Maybe not quite an ideal answer to the question, but there is the case of Richey Edwards, who was a popular member of the well-known Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers in the early 1990s. He suddenly vanished in 1995 on the eve of a promotional tour to the US and has never been located. His parents refused to declare him “legally dead” but he finally became officially “presumed dead” in 2008. > > Although what happened is still a mystery, it would probably be wrong to say he is “widely believed to be alive and well.” Just passed 20 years now: [Recent story in bristol post](http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/20-years-mystery-missing-star-unsolved/story-25926959-detail/story.html) I didn’t realise about him taking money out and getting passport at the time. I remember reading about his car being found near severn bridge, and people thinking that he had committed suicide, all from NME… ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-completely-vanished/715272/59 "2015-03-19T14:38:43Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > He’s actually done some comedy recordings, and was up for the Grammy for Best Comedy Album back in 2006. > > He got out of movies (with the exception of some voice over work) because he found it hard to raise his kids and do films, as his wife had died, so he picked his kids. I was aware of his family circumstances, but didn’t know about his recordings. I was just picking him as an example of a big star who seemed to “disappear” as far as the public was concerned, but who hadn’t really vanished. He was still alive and well and living an ordinary life. He wasn’t a recluse, after all- he just wasn’t in the spotlight any more. MANY celebs who “disappear” are in a similar boat. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-completely-vanished/715272/60 "2015-03-19T15:15:31Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](#): > > Ruth Anne Moorehouse, one of the Manson family members has still not been found. IIRC, she had a baby that was very likely Manson’s. If she’s trying to keep this fact from the kid, she really doesn’t want to be found. > [@Mr.Miskatonic](#): > > [Bobby Fischer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Fischer)would vanish for years at a time. He did pop back up, however, and say stupid shit. And all of America wished he’d shut up and go away again. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-completely-vanished/715272.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-completely-vanished/715272.md?page=4)