10 Actors You Didn't Know Were Retired
Jim Carrey, Cameron Diaz and those other A-listers you didn't know were retired!
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00:00In the acting world, like in so many professions, time eventually comes a-calling for even the greatest in the game.
00:05However, while it's not surprising to hear that iconic names in their 80s and 90s, like Gene Hackman and Jack Nicholson, are retired these days,
00:13there are those actors who retire way earlier than anyone ever expected.
00:16I'm Josh from WhatCulture.com, and these are 10 Actors You Didn't Know Were Retired.
00:21Number 10, Cameron Diaz.
00:22During the late 90s and into the 2000s, Cameron Diaz was one of the busiest actresses in Hollywood.
00:28Having made her debut in The Mask, a role she landed at a time when she had zero acting experience,
00:33the always bubbly Diaz went on to make memorable appearances in such heavy hitters such as
00:38There's Something About Mary, Gangs of New York, Any Given Sunday, Being John Malkovich, Vanilla Sky, and the two Charlie's Angels pictures.
00:45As it stands now though, the final role of the stellar career of Cameron Diaz is her turn as controlling drunk Colleen Hannigan in the 2014 take on Annie.
00:54In the immediate aftermath of Annie's release, Diaz opted to take a break from the industry,
00:59citing how she had become fed up with the extensive travel involved in the film business.
01:03That break from the industry though became a more permanent arrangement in March 2018,
01:08when the actress formally announced her retirement.
01:10Since her appearance in Annie, Cameron Diaz has penned her second health-based book,
01:15started her own organic wine brand, invested in health and biotech startups, and even married Good Charlotte's Benji Madden.
01:22Number 9, Joe Pesci.
01:23Due to his sheer presence alone, Joe Pesci is a hugely recognizable face and name amongst film fans.
01:29And so, many have wondered why Pesci has barely been seen on the silver screen for the past 20 years.
01:35For those who thought that maybe the powerhouse Italian-American actor's career had taken a nosedive,
01:40and that he'd been forced to star in low-budget bargain basement dross that flew under the radar,
01:45which is often the case in the movie industry, that's not actually why Joe Pesci has been out of the public eye.
01:50Instead, Pesci actually announced his retirement back in 1999 following Lethal Weapon 4.
01:55With two studio albums under his belt at that point in time, he decided to quit acting in order to focus on a music career
02:01singing about wise guys rather than playing them.
02:04In the years since then, the Academy Award winner has been coaxed out of retirement on a few sparse occasions,
02:10most notably for Martin Scorsese's The Irishman in 2019.
02:14But even then, it apparently took a lot of convincing from Scorsese himself to get the actor on set.
02:20Number 8, Mara Wilson.
02:21It's a little crazy to think that someone would retire from acting at the age of just 13,
02:25but that was indeed the case for Mara Wilson.
02:28Well, at least initially.
02:29Having famously appeared in Mrs. Doubtfire, Miracle on 34th Street, and then headlined 1996's Matilda,
02:35the young Mara announced her retirement in 2000.
02:38She reportedly got sent the script for Donnie Darko shortly after making this decision,
02:42but turned down the opportunity to audition for Richard Kelly's twisted sci-fi thriller masterpiece.
02:48Wilson would eventually return to acting in the 2012 web series Miss Connection,
02:52and she's since made sporadic appearances here and there,
02:55most notably voicing Jill Pill in Bojack Horseman,
02:58but the main focus of her career these days is in her writing work.
03:01On why she stepped away from acting in 2000, Wilson has openly discussed how the body image-obsessed world of Hollywood
03:08made her question her desire to remain in that particular bubble.
03:12Number 7, Jack Gleeson.
03:13Jack Gleeson got to hammered up as one of the most detestable TV characters in recent TV history,
03:18playing Geoffrey Baratheon in 26 episodes of Game of Thrones.
03:22Once the Irish actor's work was finished on Thrones though, he decided that the acting life wasn't for him,
03:27retiring from the industry in 2014 to instead focus on a career in academia.
03:32For one reason or another, that academic career didn't pan out,
03:35but Gleeson has spent his post-Thrones years working in theatre production.
03:40Back in 2010, he was one of the founders of the Collapsing Horse Theatre Company in Dublin,
03:44and it's with Collapsing Horse that a lot of his energy has been focused until the company was wrapped up in 2019.
03:50A few comedy festival appearances and even some conventions have followed for Gleeson since that date,
03:55but he still very much seems to be happy away from the spotlight of the acting industry,
03:59although a fleeting appearance in Out of Her Mind last year may mean that a full-on return to acting
04:04can't be ruled out for the now 28-year-old.
04:07Number 6, Bridget Fonda.
04:09First coming to prominence in the late 80s, well, unless you count an uncredited appearance from an infant Fonda in 1969's Easy Rider,
04:16Bridget Fonda became one of the most prolific stars of the 90s, and then, just like that, she disappeared.
04:22To be specific, Bridget was last seen on the silver screen in 2001 with The Horseship Bank,
04:27while she'd then appear in the made-for-TV Hallmark special Snow Queen the following year.
04:32Since then though, the Jackie Brown, single white female, and The Godfather Part III standout
04:36has steered clear of the entertainment industry.
04:39After marrying famed composer Danny Elfman in 2003, Fonda ultimately retired from the movie business
04:45in order to focus on starting a family.
04:47It's also worth adding that 2003 was also the year that Bridget Fonda had a nasty car accident
04:52that left her with a fractured vertebrae, and one could speculate that maybe that also influenced her decision to step away from acting.
04:59Number 5, Matthew Fox.
05:00While Lost was very much a major ensemble piece, Matthew Fox was unquestionably one of the true leads of the opinion-splitting show.
05:07Before Lost, of course, there was Party of Five, and the years after Fox landed the Jack Shepard role
05:12saw the actor star in offerings such as Speed Racer, Alex Cross, and briefly, World War Z,
05:17which the actor was, admittedly, mostly cut out of.
05:20Still, the last acting role in Matthew Fox's CV right now is 2015's utterly brutal Bone Tomahawk.
05:26Once Lost wrapped up in 2010, Fox moved out into the sticks of rural Oregon, away from the glamor of Hollywood.
05:33And to pour further fuel on Matthew Fox being completely done with acting,
05:36he's never been shy in admitting that he has, at times, absolutely hated the profession.
05:41Given the huge paydays that Lost offered up, you can maybe understand why the 54-year-old has had minimal interest in ever taking another acting gig.
05:49On top of this, however, controversy has also dogged Fox at times.
05:53The early 2010s saw him accused of violence against women, particularly in 2012,
05:57when Lost co-star Dominic Monaghan publicly accused him of beating women often.
06:04Since coming to the fore in 2011 with Martha Marcy May Marlene,
06:07Elizabeth Olsen has amassed quite the array of impressive credits,
06:10with roles in Silent House, Godzilla, the Oldboy remake, and of course, Wanda Maximoff in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
06:17Before Elizabeth came around, though, there were two other Olsens who were garnering all kinds of attention.
06:22Those, of course, being Mary-Kate and Ashley.
06:25Three years Elizabeth's seniors, these twins were everywhere at one point in time.
06:29The adventures of Mary-Kate and Ashley, Full House, So Little Time, Two of a Kind,
06:33and even The Simpsons were just some of the places where you could find this duo taking center stage.
06:382004 saw Mary-Kate and Ashley begin to delve into the fashion world,
06:42which was yet another bold venture for the two after setting up their own jewel star production company in the 90s.
06:47Subsequently, that year saw Ashley quietly retire from acting,
06:50although Mary-Kate would continue in the industry until a formal retirement announcement in 2012.
06:55Number three, Jim Carrey.
06:57Perhaps the most surprising name on this list, Jim Carrey announced that he was flirting with the idea of retirement
07:02while on the press tour for Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
07:05When asked about an unrelated film project and if he'd be interested in starring in it,
07:10Carrey left everyone's jaws on the floor with the response, quote,
07:13Well, I'm retiring. Yeah, probably. I'm being fairly serious, end quote.
07:18He went on to explain the classic actor conundrum,
07:21that right now he's not actively pursuing anything and is happy living a humble life away from the camera,
07:28but if a script came along that was too good to refuse, he'd of course not reject it off the bat.
07:34Still, though, don't expect Carrey to be back in the saddle anytime soon.
07:38At the very least, he's taking a big break, and at most, the funny man could be gone for good.
07:43As he himself said, quote,
07:45I have enough, I'm done enough, I am enough, end quote.
07:49Number two, Daniel Day-Lewis.
07:51Daniel Day-Lewis is one of the greatest actors of his generation
07:53and is generally viewed as one of the very best performers in the history of film, period.
07:59Known for his meticulous, methodical ways,
08:01Day-Lewis has a staggering three Academy Awards for best actor to his name.
08:05But for those wondering why one of the all-time greats hasn't been seen on our screens for a little while now,
08:10well, that's because the London-born actor actually called it quits in 2017.
08:14This is actually the second time that Day-Lewis has retired from acting,
08:18with him catching many off guard when he announced his exit from the industry in 1997
08:23to instead become a shoemaker in Italy.
08:26Yes, for real, I have not made that up.
08:28Martin Scorsese, with whom Day-Lewis had worked with on The Age of Innocence in 93,
08:33managed to coerce the actor back into the game in 2000 for his upcoming Gangs of New York,
08:37for which Day-Lewis received an Oscar nomination.
08:40Mesmerizing performances followed in There Will Be Blood, Nine, and Lincoln
08:43before Day-Lewis once again entered retirement after the release of Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread in 2017,
08:49citing to W Magazine how he no longer found value in his work and that he wanted to explore the world.
08:55Number one, Bruce Willis.
08:56Legendary acting giant Bruce Willis announced the tragic news that he was retiring from the profession recently.
09:02Following a diagnosis with aphasia, a brain disorder that impacts the way a person can communicate, speak, and understand language.
09:10The news was revealed by the performer's family on social media with a statement of fans which read,
09:15To Bruce's amazing supporters, as a family we wanted to share that our beloved Bruce has been experiencing some health issues
09:22and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive abilities.
09:27As a result of this, and with much consideration, Bruce is stepping away from the career
09:32that has meant so much to him."
09:34Since the news was revealed, there has been an outpouring of support from both fans and fellow actors alike.
09:40With Bruce stepping away from Hollywood, his family finished their statement by saying,
09:44As Bruce always says, live it up, and together we plan to do just that."
09:50So that's our list, want to know what you guys think down in the comments below,
09:52and while you're down there, could you give us a like, share, subscribe,
09:54and head over to whatculture.com for more lists and news like this every single day.
09:58Even if you don't know, I've been Josh, thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you soon.