“Completely Abandoned Acting”: 30 People Share Celebs That “Disappeared Out Of Nowhere”
While being in media, music or just on TV means that someone will be in the limelight by default, it doesn’t mean it will always stay like that. Fame can wax and wane, but there are also celebrities who really just don’t want to be celebrities. Indeed, a decent amount of folks just take their fortune and retire young.
People online share examples of celebrities that were household names at one point and suddenly just disappeared from the public eye. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to add your own thoughts in the comments below.
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Rick Morranis.... His wife got cancer at the hieght of his career and he stopped working to beat full time dad till his kids graduated. ❤️.
That's lovely and all, but this is from a Reddit post, so the author is never going to see your correction.
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Geena Davis.
Jetztinberlin: She's been running a non-profit org advocating for better representation for women in Hollywood on & off-camera since 2004.
Her career crashed after the box office atom bomb that was Cutthroat Island (1995). The movie bankrupted Carolco Pictures and blacklisted her and then husband, director Renny Harlin from Hollwood.
No she wasn't. She literally had her own show and worked steadily in films afterwards. Sure, maybe she was no longer allowed to be the main star and carry a film but that's far from being "blacklisted."
Load More Replies...She was also a olympic archey competitor for the usa in Sydney in 2000 and wasnt a great actor after the mid 90s
Last thing I saw her in was G.L.O.W, she also did voice work for She-Ra and the Princesses of Power.
Last I remember seeing her was almost 20 years ago for a one season show called Commander in Chief. Checked her IMDB she's been working nothing terrible high profile beyond a 13-episode arc on Gray's Anatomy.
Bridget Mendler…now she is a Ph.D. candidate at MIT!
Greta Garbo completely abandonned acting and led quite a reclusive life.
Isn't this a picture of Joan Crawford though? Here's Garbo: https://images.app.goo.gl/Vz4Kn6iq1ux6srtw6
Not pictured: Greta Garbo. Pictured: Joan Crawford. Joanie stuck with it until she could do no more.
David Caruso. Good riddance. He can't act. He always looks like he's trying to hold in a fart. His voice is fingernails on a blackboard.
I dont know much of this actor other than he looks familiar. I don’t think I ever watched anything he was in, but the OP sounds more like a roast than mentioning an actor who disappeared from the public eye
Agree 100%. I remember when he left his TV show to become a movie star. I can't recall the movie but he was HORRIBLE in it. His legacy is how he took his sunglasses off in the beginning of every show. It was such a joke.
Not him, but a farce of his character. The Supernatural episode "Changing Channels" where Sam and Dean are stuck going through TV shows via The Trickster. One of them had them doing David's character impressions. Making horrible puns/quips at a crime scene. Hilarious!
Load More Replies...He thought he was famous enough to quit tv and be a film star. Guess what?
Nah. Caruso is a great actor. He just settled into a really cheesy role on CSI miami and rode it all the way to retirement
The guy who sang Somebody That I Used To Know.
Now he IS somebody that we used to know.
Ever since that guy was around I was wondering why the word "GOTYE" looked familiar, and it's now just hit me: it's the initials used for "GAME OF THE YEAR EDITION" versions of games in the 90s and 00s. I have Unreal Tournament: Game of The Year Edition sitting around.
Load More Replies...Why doesn't this rumor die? Wouter André De Backer, formerly known as Gotye, is a founding member of the band, The Basics, which is still active. The Basics, with over 2,500 shows, retired from performing in 2021, but continue to record music.
This. He should get credit. He refused to sell out to stay with his band. They wanted him solo.
Load More Replies...He didn't disappear, he just isn't in the American spotlight.
I always think that's Sara Gilbert whenever I see a picture of him.
That song is now sampled on a hit doing the rounds so I guess PRS still know him.
Neither had I, but the song & video are great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY
Load More Replies...Or member of a band he didn't abandon in favour of a solo career.
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Danny Lloyd who played Danny Torrance in the Shining only acted in one other small role. He's a professor in Kentucky now.
Charlie Korsmo
Kid from Dick Tracy, Peter Pan's son in Hook, dude was everywhere in the 90s.
Last I know of him he did the smart thing and cashed out for a normal life.
Jon Heder
I thought he was going to be a huge star.
But I heard he sticks to smaller roles.
Y'all are entitled to your opinions but Napoleon Dynamite is cinematic GOLD !! I'm sorry you can't seen it.
A quick scan of Heder's IMDB page shows he was in 3 films released in 2024, one being the highly rated (8.6) Waltzing with Brando.
Bridget Fonda.
Sownd_Rum: A good chance Harvey Weinstein ruined her career.
I've seen recent pictures, and she looks nothing like her younger self. If she wants to avoid the public eye, I wish people would respect that and leave her alone.
I dont think you would recognise her anymore. Just saying. Not a bad thing
Bobbie Gentry.
She’s still alive, but she stepped out of the spotlight at the height of her career and after a couple of huge hit songs.
She sang Ode to Billy Joe and Fancy.
But she won’t interview. She won’t talk about her career.
They say Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchee Bridge...
Load More Replies...The flip side to Ode to BillyJoe was Mississippi Delta. That’s how I learned how to spell M I double s I double s I double p I
She ensures her private life is her own and not for public curiosity.
Steve Guttenberg.
Boraxo: This one bothers me. Police Academy 6 left me hanging and I might not ever see a 7
Well, it takes a lot of time & energy to hold back the electric car, ya know.
Load More Replies...He was highly visible recently, during the wildfires. https://people.com/steve-guttenberg-goes-unrecognized-comes-to-rescue-of-people-evacuating-pacific-palisades-fire-8770889
HEs been in the news fairly recently due to his work during the california wildfires
He was interviewed by a news channel during the L.A. wild fires. Seriously...Google it.
Lavalantula and Lavalantula 2 , about lava spiders in LA and the Everglades. SyFy movies. Pretty d**n funny.
Besides Bryan Cranston, like all the cast of Malcom in the Middle.
Frankie is constantly in the news he left acting for racecars and olive oil but is coming back for the revival
Frankie also had some health problems and had a few mini-strokes. He was in a really good "The Rookie" episode a few years ago
Poor kid had a stroke while still young! Came back from it and I have seen him in a role recently!
One who literally disappeared was Joe Pichler. He was in one of the Beethoven movies. Back in 2006 when he was 18, he disappeared after spending time at his friends house and his car was found the car park of a local restaurant. There was a note in the car, presumably written by him which stated how he wished he was a better brother. Police believe it to be a s*****e note. Despite this, they've never found a body nor any other trace of him. Most likely he's dead by now.
SUÌCIDE, BP. SUÌCIDE. Fúcking TALK about it instead of tabooing it.
I think it's supposed to say "Police believe it to be a sausage note."
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Leelee Sobieski. She was a bit of a celebrity crush for me back in the day. From the look of her IMDb she’s barely been in anything for the last decade or so. Her last credited movie was a Turkish made for TV movie in 2018.
i'm still mad they never had her play a young helen hunt in a movie flashback.
Phoebe Cates
I always thought she was so beautiful.
They've been married for 36 years; that's quite impressive given the age they were when they got married and for being a Hollywood couple. Good for them :)
Load More Replies...I watched Gremlins recently with my kids, I had forgotten she was in it.
For me its Martin Lawrence. I feel like I used to see him everywhere but I don't know what he's up to nowadays.
Just did a Bad Boys movie with Will Smith last year and still doing standup; albeit smaller venues
Yeah, good riddance. Equally annoying was his girlfriend on his show, Martin. The whole show was annoying. I never liked the guy, but what did it for me was when he hosted SNL, and he was talking about women's hygiene, how some women aren't douching right , because they smell. It wasn't funny, and just so offensive.
Load More Replies...Whenever I see "Bad Boys" on the channel guide, I think it's that old movie with Sean Penn, but it always turns out to be the dud with Martin Lawrence.
He's just sitting around waiting for Bad Boyz 9 or 10 or 11. Huge payday. Good for him.
Meg Ryan.
alexmo210: Sad that I think of her I remember When Harry Met Sally/breakup with Dennis Quaid/bad plastic surgery. She was It for a while.
Like many women over 40, Hollywood effectively abandoned her. She had some work done, but if you've seen her, she looks happy and healthy. It's just the old prejudice against middle-aged women
She was typecast into a never ending series of romantic comedies. That's basically all she was known for....for 16 years. It got a little stale, and she got tired of playing the same role. She opted to take a break from acting, which she herself has repeated, over and over again through multiple interviews. She didn't disappear, she's continued to work, to middling response from audiences. Her last film "what happens later" was in 2023, yet another rom com this time with david Duchovny. IMDB rates it at 4.8, RT critic score it at 55% while audiences rated it at 28%. Look at Helen Mirren, almost 80. Since 1967 the only year she doesn't have a film or TV credit was 1983....and that's because she was performing with the Royal Shakespeare company. Hmm....wonder what's different between the two.
Load More Replies...She recently did a Harry and Sally or...m scene re do for a commercial. Billy Chrystal is in it too
I hear what you are saying about women in Hollywood, completely valid. But honestly I think this is more of a Mickey Rourke situation, where she messed with her face and it now she doesn't look like a 'normal human".
Quaid has turned into a chud but Meg seems to have raised a good one in Jack Quaid.
I always thought Dennis Quaid was handsome but behind every good looking man, there’s a woman sick of his sh!t
I think the plastic surgery affected more than her looks. She did a commercial with Billy Crystal for the Super Bowl where they recreated the famous diner scene from WHEN HARRY MET SALLY. It wasn't funny and that had to hurt Billy Crystal.
Meg ryan was already in movies when I was born and I'm solidly in my middle years. She had like a 30+ years career and still shows up from time to time. These articles always blow me away with the what happened to random 60-80 year old actors? Some people get tired of working after making millions of dollars.
Bonnie Hunt.
Anonymous: She’s totally dropped off the map. Had a huge crush on her in the ‘90’s.
I wouldn't say "disappeared". Maybe more like slowing down / retiring. Between 1988 and 2024 she was in 32 movies plus a bunch of TV stuff. Most recent was as Mrs Clause in Red One (2024). She is 64 years old and reportedly worth about 12 million. She is basically the same age as me. I'm retired, but I'd feel better about it if I had $12 million. :)
Dolores Hart, she was on a movie with Elvis and in her way to the A list in Hollywood when she decided to join a monastic community an become a nun. There's an HBO documentary about it named "God is the bigger Elvis".
Sabrina Lloyd. I last saw her on Numbers and I know she was in a few things after that but, nothing in 10 years.
Action star Michael Dudikoff. Starred in the American Ninja movies in the 80's. Was on track to be as big as the other heros like Arnold, Van Damme and Stallone but faded away.
Um... no. Yes, he was in American Ninja, but that in no way was a track to celebrity. Those movies were bottom of the barrel trash.
I don't know is he considered disappeared. According to IMDB he had 8 acting roles in the last 10 years.
Looks like he was acting until 2004 when he got married and switched to real estate
The guy who played Mitch Kramer in Dazed in Confused.
Also the girl from Matilda and the Miracle on 34th Street remake.
Mara dropped out of acting because she didn't enjoy it that much. Got on with life out of the spotlight.
Read an interview with her many years ago. I think she was in San Francisco still. She complained that people would call after her and recognize her from her childhood roles. But the accompanying photo showed her with the same hair cut as she wore in her movies. So no attempt to go unnoticed.
god forbid women keep the same hairstyle that suits them.
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Joe Torres, the guy who played Danny on the old show "Hey Dude!" on Nickelodeon.
Literally no one can find him.
Not true. Posts about him on Twitter (10.2024) have present day photos of him.
Josh Hartnett. I think he decided to outright quit acting?
Brand new movie Fight or Flight, hilarious! Silly comedy, action movie. Really fun, stunning co-star. Highly recommend.
He was just shown filming one in a publicity shot...I think he's still around.
After that singer for black eyed peas sung the national anthem she went dark.
Jenna Elfman. Disappeared after Looney Tunes: Back in Action.
Just turned up as an FBI agent in the latest series of Dark Winds.
Brandy. I know she's made music and she's still alive, but I haven't heard anything from her even remotely news worthy since the 1997 Cinderella.
I love how they brought her as Cinderella back for that
Load More Replies...Well,if she's done with those professions. I bet she'd make a fine wife.
There was a movie called Amazing Grace & Chuck. The young man who starred in it as Chuck, a Little League whiz-kid pitcher who decides to stop playing baseball until there are no more nuclear weapons -- and then his quest goes "viral" and all the kids stop playing their sports, across the world, until no more nukes -- and then when that doesn't work, the kids all stop speaking. Just refuse to talk.
The kid that played Chuck has exactly one movie IMDB credit, that movie.
Eva Mendes.
TGrady902: Holy cow you’re right! She has barely been in anything going on almost a decade now. You could have told me she was still in every other movie made and I would have just assumed I hadn’t seen them. Super surprising honestly.
She decided to quit for a time being to raise her kids with Ryan Gossling.
In the world of entertainment, there are numerous stories about celebrities who, at the peak of their fame, chose to retreat from the public eye. This phenomenon often mirrors real-life situations where individuals go missing or choose a life of anonymity.
For example, some of the reasons people might disappear deliberately range from wanting more privacy to escaping personal challenges.
Andrew Lincoln.
dan0314: He went back home to spend time with his family, AFAIK he’s done some smaller stuff in the UK
this list is old he did the spin off walking dead series with Michonne
I read that a lot of horror movie directors reached out to him but he didn't want to get caught into all that type casting.
Micheal Jackson (not that one), the guy who played Trevor in Trailer Park Boys.
This one is because whenever he went out in public people would harass him and treat him just like Ricky and Julian did on the show and he got sick of it and quit the show.
I mean....no one involved in TPB really has an acting career outside of the bubble of that show and whatever adjacent projects that are related to that show outside of John dunsworth (who died a few years ago) and ellen page who played my lahey's daughter. BUT....trevor has been working as a Key grip and lighting assistant in a bunch of movies and shows....which he also did during production of the trailer park boys. He did do a couple episodes of Trailer Park boys : after dark in 2023, his first involvement with the boys in 9 years. There was some kind of drama regarding his salary, which led to him quitting. Glad they've patched things up, but now that john dunsworth is gone that show could never be the same. The animated series was pretty great though.
I didn't realize money was the issue as well. RIP john dunsworth. I still need to see the animated series. Not sure how I haven't. I've seen literally everything else they've done.
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Brittany Murphy. I loved her in Don’t Say a Word. Later found out that she’d passed away but the cause of death is so weird. Especially with her husband passing away half a year later.
Still not over it.
The Reddit post it's from is three years old.
Load More Replies... Sinbad.
I'd love to see him make a comeback though. It's hard not to like him.
He had a stroke in 2020 and is doing better but still recovering.
Hale and Pace. Pretty much everywhere during the late 80s/early 90s cusp, then disappeared.
I saw them in cocert once. Gareth Hale took the p*ss out of me as 'The Management'.
Brian Cant. Star of every 70s childhood. Just gone. Vanished. Like an old oak table.
Yeah in 2017. Could have done a lot until then. He didnt but thats not the point lol
Load More Replies...Well, I was born in '73 and he's wasn't part of my childhood at least. I've never heard of him. Googled him real quick and I've never even heard of any of the stuff he was in.
Jack Dee - He was really popular once and I love Lead Balloon but you don’t see much of him these days.
Gaz Top. Used to be on every kids TV show or so it seemed.
He told me to f**k off at some sort of roadshow (can't remember what it was for) when I asked him for his autograph when I was about 11 or 12. Happy days.
Seann Walsh.
He got caught cheating on his girlfriend with his Strictly partner in 2018 (it feels much longer ago than that jfc time flys) and I remember seeing an interview with him on Russell Howard’s Good News in 2020 and he *looked* f****d. The whole experience f****d his career and it’s really only last year that he has made any significant come back to TV. .
Johnny Vaughan. He was a loved host of the big breakfast and when he interviewed Madonna, he seemed to have a global appeal for a while.
I saw him on some random history channel program once but never again.
Geoffrey Durham aka "The Great Soprendo", a TV magician. He would also regular guest on Countdown in the Dictionary Corner, amongst other shows and was a very likeable chap I think.
I know his marriage broke down with Victoria Wood and after that he seems to have gotten very into Quakerism and shied away from the public light.
Well he didn't disappear without a trace but they f****d him up and blacklisted him Randy Quaid.
He went completely crazy. Was unhirable. Last I heard he and his wife were living in a barebones apartment above a garage in Montreal on the last of his National Lampoons money, then he got arrested for B&E and some other s**t. And yeah, his mental health has been very bad
I believe he owes the IRS a lot in back tax too.
Load More Replies...He and his wife are bat$hit crazy conspiracy nuts. Not mentally well. NOBODY blacklisted him FFS
You didn't see his wacky comments about Gene Hackman's death? (Yes, it's a conspiracy.)
Alister McGowen & Rory Bremner. The tv impersonator genre has totally dried up.
Alistair McGowan has turned into a right wing twathead who shouts at everyone.
Richard Blackwood was massive at one point.
as Karl Pilkington will tell you he had a colonic on TV and never seen again
Barry from EastEnders... Gone but not forgotten.
The awful Louie Spence- he was everywhere and then after his Celeb BB appearance he dropped off the face of a cliff thankfully.
The two blokes who weren't David Baddiel or Hugh Dennis from.The Mary Whitehouse Experience.
I know full well their names are Steve Punt and Rob Newman. All four of them were huge in the early 90d, but those two... Imagine Michael McIntyre just going out of all consciousness.
Steve Punt still works with Hugh Dennis but on Radio 4. Rob. Ewan retired from showbiz and is quietly living his life.
Donna Air. Although weirdly her daughter, who looks a lot like her, popped up on my Instagram hanging out with gorillas as her dad's side of the family are very involved in conservation and she was basically raised by some of them!
Mark Lamarr
I remember listening to what I think is the last ever God's Eternal Jukebox on Radio 2, then he just disappeared.
Paul McGann Haven't seen him in anything since Holby City.
He has been a recurring character on the TV show "Annika", which is shown on Public TV station here in america. I think it is a UK show.
Clive Anderson. Hosted Who's Line Is It Anyway, did talk shows for a while including the infamous one with The Bee Gees. Then disappeared.
Anne Heche. I havent heard anything about her since the 90s when she had that nervous breakdown... or whatever it was. Last I heard she was found wandering around in the desert or something. Ellen has a bad influence on people. I feel sorry for Portia de Rossi.
Those people saying "She died", yes she did, but this is from a three year old Reddit post, and at the time of posting she was still alive.
I was watching the same episodes of TOTP as you so (although not very UK!) I'm going to say PM Dawn, Kris Kross and Color Me Badd.
UK wise: Tasmin Archer, the dude from KWS and Mick Hucknall has been suspiciously quiet of late.
Sorry, but I have to ask....Is the groove in your heart? Since we're talking about old music groups. :D
Load More Replies...Clive Anderson was quite a big star in the mid 90s. He’s never seen nowadays but paradoxically has arguably the biggest gig of his career: a daytime weekend Radio 4 slot.
He's been on QI, Taskmaster, Would I lie to you and other panel shows, if he is who I'm thinking of
Dave Benson-Philips. Since gunging people has gone out of fashion he’s vanished. I know he turns up at unis occasionally.
Christian Hayden.. the one playing Anakin in star wars prequels... now hes gonna be in Kenobi show but after 2005 movie he just went to live off the money he made in his ranch or farm or whatever and just kinda tapped out of acting and public eye.
If OP looked him up, they'd see that Hayden was in quite a few movies post Star Wars. Most recent (2023) he appeared in the Ahsoka series as well.
I suspect this list was culled from a UK site or Reddit as a lot of the ones further down were British.
Load More Replies...John Wilkes Booth. One highly unpopular theater appearance, and career over.
Wow, this appeared on my feed with Anne Heche as the advertised "celebrity that disappeared" - which is appalling since she died due to a horrible accident a couple of years ago. Seriously BP - you go out of your way to censor the word "pàwn" in case delicate sensibilities are offended, but you let this through?
Please rename this into "Stars I didn't see in a while and I want to know where they are". Thank you.
No one is talking about Sally Field, here. She's an amazing actress, but just disappeared after th 90's. ....and K.D. Lang. Where did she go?
That's funny. You can 'appear' from nowhere, but you can't 'disappear' from nowhere.
To be fair, if I had a mega hit and made millions, you wouldn't see or hear about me again, I'd retire on investments to a ranch out in the country somewhere.
I suspect this list was culled from a UK site or Reddit as a lot of the ones further down were British.
Load More Replies...John Wilkes Booth. One highly unpopular theater appearance, and career over.
Wow, this appeared on my feed with Anne Heche as the advertised "celebrity that disappeared" - which is appalling since she died due to a horrible accident a couple of years ago. Seriously BP - you go out of your way to censor the word "pàwn" in case delicate sensibilities are offended, but you let this through?
Please rename this into "Stars I didn't see in a while and I want to know where they are". Thank you.
No one is talking about Sally Field, here. She's an amazing actress, but just disappeared after th 90's. ....and K.D. Lang. Where did she go?
That's funny. You can 'appear' from nowhere, but you can't 'disappear' from nowhere.
To be fair, if I had a mega hit and made millions, you wouldn't see or hear about me again, I'd retire on investments to a ranch out in the country somewhere.
