On the surface, making it big in Hollywood
is a dream come true.
There's fame, fortune, and all the perks of
being a somebody around town.
But being a successful Hollywood actor is
still a job that requires putting in a lot
of time and energy, and the business can be
unforgiving.
One wrong move and your career could be toast.
For these actors, even the glamour and glitz
of Tinseltown just wasn't enough to justify
sticking around for the long haul, so they
quit while they were ahead.
Here are some stars who have basically disappeared.
Joe Pesci
If you grew up in the '90s, then there's a
pretty good chance that you know Joe Pesci
from his role as one of the main villains
in the holiday classic Home Alone.
But if you're also a fan of great cinema,
then you'll also know that Pesci was a scene
stealer who collaborated with legendary director
Martin Scorsese on such classic films as Raging
Bull, Goodfellas, and Casino.
"I see you, you muddaf-----."
Pesci also proved himself as a strong leading
man with his command performance in My Cousin
Vinny.
His career was the kind most actors only get
to dream about, but Pesci couldn't have cared
less about the trappings of fame, and in 1999,
he walked away.
The reasons for Pesci's early retirement are
murky.
While it initially seemed like he decided
to pursue a career in music, a look back at
Pesci's interviews over the years show a man
who wasn't entirely feeling Hollywood and
seemed apathetic about his successful film
career.
Pesci has popped up in a small handful of
films over the past 20 years (and he made
an odd appearance in a Snickers commercial),
but the actor seems reluctant to relive his
glory days.
In fact, he's probably the only person alive
who has no problem telling off Martin Scorsese.
"So far all he keeps saying is 'go f--- yourself''
However, he and frequent co-star Robert DeNiro
will be re-teaming with Scorsese for another
round of nefarious fun in The Irishman, so
perhaps that will mark a new era in his career.
Meg Ryan
She became America's sweetheart and the "queen
of romantic comedies" with such hits such
as When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle,
and You've Got Mail.
She also proved her dramatic mettle in films
like Courage Under Fire and the smoldering
hit City of Angels.
But at the turn of the millennium, Ryan became
the focus of intense tabloid scrutiny when
reports began surfacing that she was having
an affair with her Proof of Life co-star Russell
Crowe.
While Ryan continued to work sporadically
in Hollywood, her roles were never the same
after the gossip, and even so, she waited
eight years to address the scandal in a 2008
interview with InStyle.
According to Ryan, the affair definitely happened,
and even though it affected her public image,
she described it as liberating after years
of allegedly being cheated on by her husband
at the time, Dennis Quaid.
With her side of the story finally out there,
Ryan attempted to bounce back with The Women,
a film about a cheated-on spouse, but audiences
and critics were lukewarm on the project.
Since then, Ryan has mostly ditched Hollywood
for New York, where she's focused on her children
and navigating the pitfalls of love with rocker
John Mellencamp.
However, she has appeared in a few scattered
small screen features since then, and she
may be staging a comeback soon with a new
comedy series on the rise, so stay tuned.
Mike Myers
For a while, it seemed like former Saturday
Night Live alum Mike Myers was the king of
the comedy world.
After the blockbuster success of the Wayne's
World movies and the Austin Powers franchise,
there was no way Myers' Hollywood star could
shine any brighter.
But then he became Shrek on top of everything
else.
Myers was unstoppable … until he wasn't.
In 2008, The Love Guru hit theaters, and it
was a huge misstep.
With terrible reviews and abysmal box office
receipts, it was the first sign that Myers
was no longer a sure-fire hitmaker.
Outside of a brief cameo in Inglourious Basterds
and 2010's Shrek Forever After, Myers has
seemingly vanished from Hollywood.
Was it all because of that one terrible movie?
In a 2014 interview with GQ Magazine, Myers
talked about his escape to New York, noting
that his absence had nothing do with The Love
Guru, which he's actually proud of.
Instead what happened was he remarried and
welcomed two children with his second wife
and began working on small passion projects
that he was in no rush to complete.
However, after reprising his career-making
character on SNL, things seem to be heating
back up.
He appeared as Tommy Maitland, host of The
Gong Show in 2017, and he's even expressed
an interest in appearing in Austin Powers
4.
"Yeah baby!"
Before that, though, he'll be returning to
the big screen to star in the upcoming noir
thriller Terminal.
Gene Hackman
Thanks to a career stretching all the way
back to the '60s, Gene Hackman has starred
in at least 79 movies, including Bonnie and
Clyde, The French Connection, Hoosiers, Unforgiven,
Crimson Tide, and a slew of others that have
stood the test of time.
Plus, who can forget Hackman's iconic role
as Lex Luthor matching wits with Christopher
Reeve's Superman.
In 2001, Hackman gave one of his most beloved
performances of all time in The Royal Tenenbaums,
so it came as a complete surprise when Hackman
starred in the 2004 lackluster comedy Welcome
to Mooseport and chose that to be his final
film.
While Hackman never officially announced his
retirement, he confirmed he was done with
acting in a 2008 interview with Reuters.
However, this fan favorite is not finished
with the creative world yet, as the former
actor is doing a formidable job trying to
"hack" it as a writer -- no pun intended.
Rick Moranis
After making a name for himself on SCTV, Canada's
answer to Saturday Night Live, Rick Moranis
became a staple of '80s comedy classics, starting
with a small little movie called Ghostbusters.
After that, Moranis had starring roles in
Little Shop of Horrors, Spaceballs!, and the
Disney franchise Honey, I Shrunk The Kids.
Moranis also continued to steadily work in
the '90s, which included landing the plum
role of Barney Rubble in the 1994 live-action
remake of The Flintstones.
And it seemed like this guy was going to be
a Hollywood mainstay for years to come … until
he was gone.
By 2015, Moranis had virtually vanished from
Hollywood for nearly 18 years, but when word
got out that he wouldn't reprise his role
as Lewis Tully in the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot,
he granted a rare interview to The Hollywood
Reporter to explain where he'd been.
As it turns out, in 1997, Moranis' wife, Anne,
died of breast cancer.
While he originally planned to take a small
break, Moranis ultimately devoted himself
to raising his two young children, and the
actor couldn't be happier be with the decision.
He explained:
"I was working with really interesting people,
wonderful people.
I went from that to being at home with a couple
of little kids, which is a very different
lifestyle.
But it was important to me.
I have absolutely no regrets whatsoever.
My life is wonderful."
Apart from a couple of voice-over roles in
kids movies along the way, Moranis' hiatus
appears to be permanent.
Bridget Fonda
Thanks to her famous dad, Bridget Fonda made
her first acting appearance at age 5 in the
1969 classic Easy Rider, but it would be a
few decades until the actress became a Hollywood
fixture.
In the early '90s, she made a big splash in
Single White Female, but despite working steadily
in notable '90s flicks such as Point of No
Return, Singles, and Jackie Brown, Fonda's
career didn't fare so well in the 2000s.
For starters, Fonda had made a name for herself
as a film actress, so when the lead role for
a television series came her way, she turned
it down.
That show ended up being the smash hit Ally
McBeal, which rocketed Calista Flockhart to
fame.
Fonda starred in the 2001 box-office bomb
Monkeybone, and a year later, she quit acting
altogether after starring in the forgettable
Hallmark channel movie Snow Queen.
But Fonda had a good reason to walk away from
Hollywood after a solid body of work.
She started a family with husband and famous
film composer Danny Elfman, and she hasn't
looked back.
Sean Connery
While Sean Connery rose to fame during the
'60s as the first James Bond, the prolific
Scottish actor continued to be a formidable
box office presence through much of the '80s
and '90s thanks to roles in Highlander, The
Untouchables, The Hunt for Red October, and
The Rock.
Being Indiana Jones' dad probably didn't hurt
his continued fame, either.
By the early 2000s, Connery was still white-hot
after the success of Entrapment, but behind-the-scenes,
a series of mistakes would lead him to walk
away from Hollywood.
While it's known that Connery retired after
filming the disastrous The League of Extraordinary
Gentlemen, it wasn't revealed until years
later why he starred in a movie he hated so
much that he literally got into a fist-fight
with the director.
According to Entertainment Weekly, Connery
had turned down roles in both Lord of the
Rings and The Matrix – both of which came
with sweet back-end deals that would have
made him a fortune.
When League came around, Connery thought he
had this one figured out, saying:
"I got offered The Lord of the Rings, and
I turned it down because I didn't understand
it.
I was offered The Matrix — twice — and
I turned it down because I didn't understand
it.
I don't understand this movie, but I'll be
damned if I'm going to turn it down."
Obviously, that didn't go as planned, but
hey, at least Connery doesn't have to make
these kinds of decisions in retirement.
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