In honor of Johnny Carson, who is the king of this category (I think everybody was stunned when after a few months of R&R he didn’t come back to the limelight- he really did walk away), who are some others who achieved this?
The only name that majorly comes to mind is Cary Grant, who retired to spend as much time as possible with his daughter (born when he was 62) and who turned down some of the most outrageously huge offers in Hollywood history to stay in retirement. Who are some others?
Greta Garbo, of course, retired early and stayed out of the limelight for the rest of her life. Dolores Hart left show business to become a nun, but I don’t think she counts as being “on the top”.
Deanna Durbin was one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood when she retired at age 27. She still lives in France (where she moved with her third husband). I’ve heard she goes by her real name and refuses all offers of interviews and such.
If sports celebs are counted, John Elway and Bill Russell always come to mind. They both ended their careers with back to back titles.
Jordan walked away TWICE after winning threepeats, but he ruined it with two less than legendary seasons in Washington.
I don’t know if he was retired so much as he was unofficially semi-retired, but George Harrison wasn’t all that active during the last ten years of his life. (Although he did record an album that was released posthumously.)
Are we limiting ourselves to show business? Because there are a number of athletes who retired at the top of their game rather than after their skills sharply declined. For me, the ones that immediately come to mind are Jim Brown, Sandy Koufax (although that was due to arthritis), Barry Sanders, and Gale Sayers.
James Cagney virtually retired in 1961.
And Gary Larson and Bill Watterson are two more examples.
On the writing front, there’s J. D. Salinger.
Juliana Margolies from ER must be more or less retired or semi-retired - she only does stuff once in a blue moon. I guess she realized that going on to other projects was quite risky - think of John Caruso from NYPD Blue, Trapper John from Mash, and what’s her name, the blonde from Cheers.
Curse you, Bill Watterson!
I miss that comic so much. It was the one thing I had in common with my father.
Ronnie Barker 
Tom Lehrer was arguably at his most popular when he retired from writing and performing in 1965.
I’m hoping that Dave Barry doesn’t extend his (1 year) hiatus and make it permanent .
A number of silent stars elected to walk away from their careers when talkies arrived; some never made a talkie, others made one or two and opted to leave at the top rather than flopping: Contance and Norma Talmadge; Dorothy Gish; Phyllis Haver . . . I’d think of more, but my brain is frozen.
Luise Rainer won back-to-back Academy Awards, then (basically) retired with only a few token appearances afterwards.
Peter Ostrum didn’t act again after playing “Charlie” in “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.”
Carrie Henn left acting after playing “Newt” in “Aliens.”
Lu Ann Haslam never acted again after playing Becky Thatcher in “The New Adventures of Huck Finn.” (OK, I was a kid and had a big crush on her.)