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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00:00 In the acting world, like in so many professions, time eventually comes a calling for even the
00:04 greatest in the game. However, while it's not surprising to hear that iconic names in
00:08 their 80s and 90s, like Gene Hackman and Jack Nicholson, are retired these days, there are
00:13 those actors who retire way earlier than anyone ever expected. I'm Josh from WhatCulture.com,
00:18 and these are 10 Actors You Didn't Know Were Retired.
00:21 Number 10 - Cameron Diaz
00:22 During the late 90s and into the 2000s, Cameron Diaz was one of the busiest actresses in Hollywood.
00:28 Having made her debut in The Mask, a role she landed at a time when she had zero acting
00:32 experience, the always bubbly Diaz went on to make memorable appearances in such heavy
00:37 hitters such as There's Something About Mary, Gangs of New York, Any Given Sunday, Being
00:41 John Malkovich, Vanilla Sky and The Two Charlie's Angels Pictures.
00:45 As it stands now though, the final role of the stellar career of Cameron Diaz is her
00:49 turn as controlling drunk Colleen Hannigan in the 2014 take on Annie. In the immediate
00:55 aftermath of Annie's release, Diaz opted to take a break from the industry, citing
00:59 how she had become fed up with the extensive travel involved in the film business. That
01:03 break from the industry though became a more permanent arrangement in March 2018, when
01:08 the actress formally announced her retirement. Since her appearance in Annie, Cameron Diaz
01:12 has penned her second health-based book, started her own organic wine brand, invested in health
01:18 and biotech startups and even married Good Charlotte's Benji Madden.
01:22 Number 9 - Joe Pesci
01:23 Due to his sheer presence alone, Joe Pesci is a hugely recognisable face and name amongst
01:28 film fans. And so, many have wondered why Pesci has barely been seen on the silver screen
01:33 for the past 20 years. For those who thought that maybe the powerhouse Italian-American
01:38 actor's career had taken a nosedive and that he'd been forced to star in low-budget
01:42 bargain basement dross that flew under the radar, which is often the case in the movie
01:46 industry, that's not actually why Joe Pesci has been out of the public eye. Instead, Pesci
01:50 actually announced his retirement back in 1999 following Lethal Weapon 4. With two studio
01:56 albums under his belt at that point in time, he decided to quit acting in order to focus
02:00 on a music career singing about wise guys rather than playing them.
02:04 In the years since then, the Academy Award winner has been coaxed out of retirement on
02:08 a few sparse occasions, most notably for Martin Scorsese's The Irishman in 2019. But even
02:14 then, it apparently took a lot of convincing from Scorsese himself to get the actor on
02:19 set.
02:20 8. Mara Wilson
02:21 It's a little crazy to think that someone would retire from acting at the age of just
02:25 13, but that was indeed the case for Mara Wilson. Well, at least initially. Having famously
02:30 appeared in Mrs. Doubtfire, Miracle on 34th Street and then headlined 1996's Matilda,
02:35 the young Mara announced her retirement in 2000. She reportedly got sent the script for
02:39 Donnie Darko shortly after making this decision, but turned down the opportunity to audition
02:44 for Richard Kelly's twisted sci-fi thriller masterpiece.
02:48 Wilson would eventually return to acting in the 2012 web series Miss Connection, and she's
02:52 since made sporadic appearances here and there, most notably voicing Jill Pill in Bojack Horseman,
02:58 but the main focus of her career these days is in her writing work. On why she stepped
03:02 away from acting in 2000, Wilson has openly discussed how the body image obsessed world
03:07 of Hollywood made her question her desire to remain in that particular bubble.
03:11 7. Jack Gleeson
03:13 Jack Gleeson got to hammered up as one of the most detestable TV characters in recent
03:17 TV history, playing Geoffrey Baratheon in 26 episodes of Game of Thrones. Once the Irish
03:23 actor's work was finished on Thrones though, he decided that the acting life wasn't for
03:27 him, retiring from the industry in 2014 to instead focus on a career in academia. For
03:33 one reason or another, that academic career didn't pan out, but Gleeson has spent his
03:36 post-Thrones years working in theatre production. Back in 2010, he was one of the founders of
03:41 the Collapsing Horse Theatre Company in Dublin, and it's with Collapsing Horse that a lot
03:45 of his energy has been focused until the company was wrapped up in 2019. A few comedy festival
03:51 appearances and even some conventions have followed for Gleeson since that date, but
03:55 he still very much seems to be happy away from the spotlight of the acting industry,
03:59 although a fleeting appearance in Out of Her Mind last year may mean that a full-on return
04:04 to acting can't be ruled out for the now 28-year-old.
04:07 6. Bridget Fonda
04:09 First coming to prominence in the late 80s, well, unless you count an uncredited appearance
04:13 from an infant Fonda in 1969's Easy Rider, Bridget Fonda became one of the most prolific
04:18 stars of the 90s, and then, just like that, she disappeared. To be specific, Bridget was
04:23 last seen on the silver screen in 2001 with The Horseship Bank, while she'd then appear
04:28 in the made-for-TV Hallmark special Snow Queen the following year. Since then though, the
04:32 Jackie Brown, single white female and The Godfather Part 3 standout has steered clear
04:37 of the entertainment industry. After marrying famed composer Danny Elfman in 2003, Fonda
04:42 ultimately retired from the movie business in order to focus on starting a family. It's
04:47 also worth adding that 2003 was also the year that Bridget Fonda had a nasty car accident
04:52 that left her with a fractured vertebrae, and one could speculate that maybe that also
04:56 influenced her decision to step away from acting.
04:58 5. Matthew Fox
05:00 While Lost was very much a major ensemble piece, Matthew Fox was unquestionably one
05:04 of the true leads of the opinion-splitting show. Before Lost, of course, there was Party
05:09 of Five, and the years after Fox landed the Jack Shepard role saw the actor star in offerings
05:13 such as Speed Racer, Alex Cross and briefly World War Z, which the actor was admittedly
05:18 mostly cut out of. Still, the last acting role in Matthew Fox's CV right now is 2015's
05:24 utterly brutal Bone Tomahawk. Once Lost wrapped up in 2010, Fox moved out into the sticks
05:29 of rural Oregon, away from the glamour of Hollywood. And to pour further fuel on Matthew
05:34 Fox being completely done with acting, he's never been shy in admitting that he has at
05:38 times absolutely hated the profession. Given the huge paydays that Lost offered up, you
05:43 can maybe understand why the 54-year-old has had minimal interest in ever taking another
05:48 acting gig.
05:49 On top of this, however, controversy has also dogged Fox at times. The early 2010s saw him
05:54 accused of violence against women, particularly in 2012 when Lost co-star Dominic Monaghan
05:59 publicly accused him of beating women often.
06:04 Since coming to the fore in 2011 with Martha Marcy May Marlene, Elizabeth Olsen has amassed
06:08 quite the array of impressive credits with roles in Silent House, Godzilla, The Old Boy
06:13 Remake, and of course Wanda Maximoff in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Before Elizabeth
06:18 came around though, there were two other Olsens who were garnering all kinds of attention,
06:22 those of course being Mary-Kate and Ashley. Three years Elizabeth's seniors, these twins
06:27 were everywhere at one point in time. The adventures of Mary-Kate and Ashley, Full House,
06:32 So Little Time, Two of a Kind, and even The Simpsons were just some of the places where
06:36 you could find this duo taking centre stage.
06:38 2004 saw Mary-Kate and Ashley begin to delve into the fashion world, which was yet another
06:42 bold venture for the two after setting up their own, dual-star production company in
06:46 the 90s. Subsequently that year saw Ashley quietly retire from acting, although Mary-Kate
06:51 would continue in the industry until a formal retirement announcement in 2012.
06:55 3. Jim Carrey Perhaps the most surprising name on this list,
06:59 Jim Carrey announced that he was flirting with the idea of retirement while on the press
07:03 tour for Sonic the Hedgehog 2. When asked about an unrelated film project and if he'd
07:08 be interested in starring in it, Carrey left everyone's jaws on the floor with the response
07:13 quote, "Well, I'm retiring. Yeah, probably. I'm being fairly serious." He went on
07:18 to explain the classic actor conundrum, that right now he's not actively pursuing anything
07:25 and is happy living a humble life away from the camera, but if a script came along that
07:29 was too good to refuse, he'd of course not reject it off the bat. Still, though, don't
07:35 expect Carrey to be back in the saddle any time soon. At the very least he's taking
07:39 a big break and at most, the funnyman could be gone for good. As he himself said quote,
07:45 "I have enough. I'm done enough. I am enough."
07:49 2. Daniel Day-Lewis Daniel Day-Lewis is one of the greatest actors
07:52 of his generation and is generally viewed as one of the very best performers in the
07:57 history of film, period. Known for his meticulous methodical ways, Day-Lewis has a staggering
08:02 three Academy Awards for Best Actor to his name. But for those wondering why one of the
08:07 all-time greats hasn't been seen on our screens for a little while now, well that's
08:10 because the London-born actor actually called it quits in 2017. This is actually the second
08:15 time that Day-Lewis has retired from acting, with him catching many off guard when he announced
08:20 his exit from the industry in 1997 to instead become a shoemaker in Italy. Yes, for real,
08:27 I have not made that up. Martin Scorsese, with whom Day-Lewis had worked with on The
08:31 Age of Innocence in '93, managed to coerce the actor back into the game in 2000 for his
08:35 upcoming Gangs of New York, for which Day-Lewis received an Oscar nomination. Mesmerising
08:40 performances followed in There Will Be Blood, Nine and Lincoln, before Day-Lewis once again
08:44 entered retirement after the release of Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread in 2017.
08:49 Writing to W Magazine how he no longer found value in his work and that he wanted to explore
08:54 the world.
08:55 Number 1 - Bruce Willis
08:56 Legendary acting giant Bruce Willis announced the tragic news that he was retiring from
09:01 the profession recently, following a diagnosis with aphasia, a brain disorder that impacts
09:06 the way a person can communicate, speak and understand language. The news was revealed
09:11 by the performer's family on social media, with a statement of fans which read quote
09:15 "To Bruce's amazing supporters, as a family we wanted to share that our beloved Bruce
09:20 has been experiencing some health issues and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia,
09:25 which is impacting his cognitive abilities. As a result of this, and with much consideration,
09:30 Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him." Since the news
09:35 was revealed, there has been an outpouring of support from both fans and fellow actors
09:39 alike. With Bruce stepping away from Hollywood, his family finished their statement by saying
09:44 quote "As Bruce always says, live it up, and together we plan to do just that."
10:01 - Bruce Willis
10:02 #BruceWillisWorld
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