Someone in a thread a while back noted that, as an actor, Kenneth Branagh is fairly successful at trying to be a latter-day Olivier – he’s Hamlet, he’s Henry V, he’s Iago; he was nominated for an Oscar for playing Olivier – but if you need a director for a comic-book movie he’s not going to act in, smash hit ensues. And, yes, we all loved Branagh as Benedick to Emma Thompson’s Beatrice; but he didn’t do any acting when directing that Disney movie that was up for those Teen Choice Awards.
Bijou Drains, the OP asked for two careers in show business, and being a stock market investor doesn’t count as show business. If we’re going to start naming people who left show business for something else, that’s going to be a long list. For instance, Pamela Stephenson, after a career in comedy in several countries (born in New Zealand, acted in shows in Australia and the U.K., became a cast member on Saturday Night Live in the U.S., appeared in a few movies), decided to give up that for becoming a clinical psychologist in the U.S. She still does a few show-business-related things like documentaries and such:
Actor Jenette Goldstein, probably best known for her role as Private Vasquez in Aliens, had a pretty solid acting career.
Now, she owns and runs a set of three boutiques in the Los Angeles area that sell bras for women with large cup sizes.
Jenette Bras: The Alphabet Starts at ‘D’
(Mildly NSFW picture includes a woman in a bra)
(Of course, i didn’t read the OP closely enough. Her second career isn’t in showbiz. Silly me!)
Cate Blanchett, in addition to being one of the world’s great actors, also worked as co-CEO (with her husband) and Artistic Director of the Sydney Theatre Company for a number of years.
Pia Zadora went from actress to singer - in fact, at the start of the first “Night of 100 Stars” show, the host (Steve Allen, I think) quipped that if anything were to happen to the theater that night, it would be a tremendous boost to Zadora’s career, only to have her be the opening act at the second show.
Stan Freberg was a writer/performer for the original Beany and Cecil children’s show. He started writing song parodies and embarked on a career as a satirist. The 50s were not a great time for satire, so he moved into advertising and built a career on funny commercials. Are those related or distinct? You could argue either side.
Steve Allen was the James Franco of his day. In addition to his talk show success and his PBS show Meeting of Minds, he recorded several acclaimed jazz albums (including one under a pseudonym to hide his identity); wrote short stories that got picked up by best of the year anthologies, and put out a series of best-selling nonfiction books on humorists. (His name was on a series of mysteries but he didn’t write any.)
Allen deserves special mention, though, because – well, yes, we know he can write and direct himself a comedic role that plays his own strengths as a performer; but he also writes and directs critically and commercially successful dramas he doesn’t act in, sure as he acts in comedies written and directed by someone else.
There is also the models turned actresses - Lauren Bacall started as a model.
Michael Crichton had two successful careers simultaneously, as a novelist and as a movie director.
Bob Fosse, from dancer/choreographer to filmmaker.
Lillian Gish was one of THE major stars of the silent screen, and successfully made the transition to talking films, but didn’t like the emerging studio system, so she took a break to do theater. After working in silents from 1912 to 1928, and making two talkies, she left for almost a decade, then came back, doing about one film a year, and jumping right into television in 1949. She got great reviews for Night of the Hunter in 1955, which was when a whole new generation of filmgoers sort of noticed her. She continued to get steady work in TV and film, barely slowing down until she was in her 80s, and even then, she still did something every few years. Her last film was made just six years before her death at age 99 (actually, 99 1/2).
She never seemed to mind not getting lead role, and playing character parts instead, and once commented that it was hard to make the “virgins” she played in the silents interesting. Characters roles were more fun.
She certainly did manage to make her little virgins interesting, though. Her performance as a teenager when she was in her late 20s in Broken Blossoms is both believable and brilliant. The director found a lot of very tall people to work as extras to make Gish seem younger.
George Burns actually started on stage in Vaudeville, then went on to radio, then to TV, and then to movies (although he did short comedy films in the 1930s); he also cut two LPs, so he’s been successful in five different genres.
The late Nicholas Colosanto (Coach Ernie Pantusso on Cheers) was both an actor and directed episodes of other series outside of Cheers
Norman Lloyd has acted, produced, and directed in a career spanning nine decades. He had worked in radio, television, theater, and film. He was a producer on Alfred Hitchcock Presents and had a lead role in St. Elsewhere.
Kristin Chenoweth, Tony and Emmy award-winning actress. She’s pretty much done it all and is still only 47.
Gates McFadden is an actress most famous for playing Dr Beverly Crusher in Star Trek: TNG; Cheryl McFadden is a choreographer who worked on Labyrinth.
A lot of actors become directors. Two actors who directed a number of episodes of the well-received Friends were former child/teen actor Robby Benson, and Michael Lembeck, who was Captain Kool (of Captain Kool and the Kongs) on the Kroft Superstar Hour, and then married Julie (Mackenzie Phillips) on One Day at a Time.
Speaking of One Day at a Time, not many people are aware that Bonnie Franklin was a child performer, because most of her work was on TV that doesn’t survive, or live theater, but she was one of those singing, tap-dancing kids. She did have a very small part in the Alfred Hitchcock film The Wrong Man when she was 11. She made a few TV appearances when she was still a brunette, and you can see her on Gidget and The Munsters, but as a young adult, she mainly did work on the stage, where among other things, she appeared in Applause, and was nominated for a Tony, bringing her to the attention of Norman Lear, which lead to One Day at a Time. After the TV show was over, she went back to the stage, then to directing. She directed many episodes of Charles in Charge.
There is Iain M Banks, (late) author of a number of well-regarded science fiction works. And then there is Iain Banks, author of a number of well-regarded literary works. Same person, obviously, but he might as well have been two different authors. Either one would have been a respectable career.
Frank Sinatra: singer and actor.
Maybe you misunderstood my point. Williams and Martin went from doing stand-up comedy to comedy acting before moving on to dramatic acting. Cher jumped immediately into dramatic acting.
I think Prince would fit into this category. A multitalented musician, he also acted in and directed several motion pictures.