People who made a big splash, then either quit or died.

In My Humble Opinion
1

Let’s list people who, in any field, made a big impact or had big success, and then either quit or died relatively soon after as a (relatively) young man or woman. How young is young is up to you. People who suddenly became bad, but didn’t quit or die, don’t count. Athletes can count if they died or retired even younger than one naturally expects an athlete to retire.

If someone seems like a borderline case, just include them but explain what makes them one.

Also, say whether or not they quit or died.

My picks:

Died:

Sylvia Plath
Bix Beiderbecke
Hart Crane
Jimi Hendrix
Curt Cobain
Frank O’Hara

Quit:

Arthur Rimbaud (quit poetry REALLY young, died young)
Barry Sanders
Bobby Fischer

–

All right, you folks share some!

2

Harper Lee – Wrote one book while in her early 30’s. It’s rather well regarded.

3

Rudolph Valentino. Had everything going for him when he died abruptly.

4

Died young:
James Clark Maxwell
Heinrich Hertz
Henry Moseley
Rosalind Franklin
Hypatia

Died too young even in his 50s: Enrico Fermi

5

I don’t know if Rick Moranis counts as “making a big splash”, but he quit his acting career when his wife died of cancer, because he felt it was more important for his kids to have a full-time parent, which I think was a gutsy decision.

6

Pretty much all these people.

7

Jesus
I’m not a fan but I think you could say he made a big slash then died young.

8

Heath Ledger

9

Quit: Italian opera composer Rossini, who retired, famous and successful, at age 37.

Successful composers who died way too young include Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Gershwin.

10

Made a big splash (presumably literally): Amelia Earhart.

11

Évariste Galois: made some significant contributions to mathematics, then died after a duel at age 20.

12

Dave Chappelle - I guess he still does some stuff. But he definately walked away when very popular.

13

Two of my favorite singers of all time died young: Janis Joplin & Jim Croce.

14

The Big Bopper (28)
Buddy Holly (22)
Ritchie Valenz (17)

In comparison, Elvis (42) and Marilyn Monroe (36) were positively ancient.

Also:
Eddie Cochran (21, known for “Summertime Blues”)
Otis Redding (26)
Sid Vicious (21)

15

Milli Vanilli?

16

J. D. Salinger who wrote Catcher in the Rye in 1951 had his last work published in 1965 and then lived a rather reclusive life for 45 years until his death.

17

Gary Larson, creator of The Far Side. He wasn’t that “young” at 45, but he did quit while his comic was still very popular; IIRC, he mentioned that he didn’t want to end up one of those comic artists who keeps going until they burn out & bury their original reputation & work under garbage.

18

Same with Bill Watterson(Calvin and Hobbes). Age 37

Sandy Koufax.

19

Died too young:

Amy Winehouse - musician
Elliott Smith - musician
Thurmon Munson - baseball
Roberto Clemente - baseball

Quit

Michael Jordan - First retired from basketball at a fairly young age, though he came back and re-retired a few more times.
James K. Polk - Only served one term as president and didn’t run for re-election, having accomplished everything he’d wanted (my cite is the TMBG song).

20

I don’t recall SE Hinton writing novels beyond her teens and early 20s. Had she retired from writing?