Hollywood isn’t for everyone, these 20 stars proved it by leaving to chase their other dreams!
This Game of Thrones legend recently left his career to become a student. He started acting because he loved it whilst growing up, but once he realised how tough it was in business he decided it wasn’t for him. He is now finishing his graduate degree.
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Amanda Bynes hasn’t been in a movie or on a television show for many years. She is currently attending college to become a fashion designer and has come out publicly saying that she was quitting the Hollywood life.
After falling out with his fellow Keenan and Kel co-start, Kel Mitchell left Hollywood so quickly that many people even thought that he had died. Currently, Kel is focusing on raising his family and his Christianity.
In 2003, Sean Connery announced that he was retiring from acting. His last film as an actor was the 2003 movie The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
After his band, The Jonas Brothers split, Kevin Jonas got married. He traded his microphone for a hard hat and become a contractor.
Gene Hackman retired in 2004 after filming the movie Welcome to Mooseport. Since he retired, he has become an author and published lots of books.
Greta Garbo scored three Oscar nominations and mastered both silent and talkie films, sadly the actress retired at the age of 36 after taking a horrible review to heart.
Jonathan Taylor Thomas used to be every girl’s dream boyfriend during the 1980s and 1990s. He retired after the series Home Improvement wrapped up. He pursued degrees at both Harvard and Columbia.
Phoebe Cates was every boy’s dream girl in the 1980s after she wore her bikini in Fast Times. However, the actress retired and disappeared from Hollywood in 1994 to take care of her children with her husband.
Rick Stared in Honey I Shrunk the Kids and Little Shop of Horrors. The quirky comedian decided to retire in 1997 after his wife tragically passed. He retired in order to take care of his children.
Shirley Temple was a big child star in the 1930s, she never really managed to keep her name alive in Hollywood. She had a few unsuccessful movies as an adult, after that she retired. Shirley Temple came back in the news because recently in 2013 she joined Twitter.
In the early 2000s, The Chappelle show was highly popular. However, before the last season of his show was taped, he decided to pack up his bags and move to South Africa. The last season of the show was taped in South Africa and Chappelle still lives there today.
The Saved By the Bell actress Lark Voorhies shocked everyone just recently when she began showing up at Hollywood events. The actress decided to retire shortly after her hit teen show wrapped, and she changed professions to become an artist. Now, Lark paints and still can be found at a few key Hollywood events.
This Fresh Prince of Bel Air star rose to fame with her rich television family in the 1980s and 1990s. Today, she has almost completely disappeared from acting and hasn’t been seen on television for nearly 10 years. She’s focusing all of her energy on her non-profit Sweet Blackberry, which focuses on teaching children about unsung heroes in black history.
A long time ago, Geena Davis was a Hollywood A-lister who could be found in a variety of movies and television shows. Today, she focuses most of her time working as social activist for gender equality. She even founded the Geena Davis Instituted on Gender in the Media, but she still does occasionally work as a doctor on the show Grey’s Anatomy.
Mara Wilson will always be remembered for playing the role of a gifted young girl named ‘Matilda’. Although she had a pretty successful career at a very young age, Wilson chose to quit Hollywood and pursue life as a normal kid. She later explained that she never really liked film acting especially when directors tell her what to do and how to do it. It’s a curtailment of creative freedom, according to our former child star.
Few years after the success of ‘Home Alone’ franchise and ‘Richie Rich’, Macaulay Culkin’s career seemed to have plummeted to the depths. For nine years, he had no projects and went to retire from acting at the age of fourteen. Just recently, Culkin re-emerged from the scene and reportedly has handful of projects doing music, voiceovers and promoting his pizza-themed comedy rock band the ‘Pizza Underground’.
Renee definitely made it big in Hollywood starring in dozens of movies including ‘Bridget Jones’ Diary’ and ‘Chicago’. But since 2010, this girl has been missing in action and it looks like her career has been in hiatus since then. Well, according to some reports this 45-year-old actress is taking a break from acting to focus on her personal life. Let’s just hope we’ll see Bridget Jones again in the big screen.
Ariana Richards is known playing the role of “Lex Murphy” in the movie Jurassic Park. Richards also made her appearances in Tremors, Angus, and Boy Meets World which made her a star at a young age. However, Richards chose to leave Hollywood and take another form of art by becoming an award-winning impressionist painter. Well, not bad at all for our former star.
Blake has been in the industry since 1939 playing roles as a child actor in Our Gang (Little Rascals) and eventually emerged as a successful actor in other roles as an adult. However, Blake made a final farewell to Hollywood in 2001 when he was suspected as having murdered his wife, Bonnie Lee Bakley. Although he was acquitted in 2005, Blake never had a major comeback in the industry. In an interview, he said that he might return to acting for financial gain especially after leaving US$3,000,000 for unpaid legal fees.
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