Mental health, physical conditions, and other personal struggles have caused some of our
favorite Hollywood stars to leave the industry. It’s always heartbreaking to see them go, but
sometimes they are happier for it. Keep watching to find out why these actors quit Hollywood.
Many '90s kids will remember Amanda Bynes' turn in Nickelodeon's "All That." Her zany,
attention-stealing energy was watchable enough to land her a sketch show of her own,
fittingly called "The Amanda Show," and a lead role on "What I Like About You."
From there, she transitioned to film, picking up lead roles in "What a Girl Wants" in 2003
and the teen Shakespeare flick "She's the Man" in 2006. She also appeared as part of
the ensemble cast of "Hairspray" in 2007, which made a tidy profit at the box office. In 2010,
she played the gossipy, moralizing mean girl in "Easy A" opposite Emma Stone — another
well-received teen literary adaptation. Despite these apparent successes, Bynes tweeted in 2010,
"If I don't love something anymore I stop doing it. I
don't love acting anymore so I've stopped doing it."
Just a month later, Bynes tweeted that she had, quote,
"unretired." She then deleted her Twitter account altogether, only to get a new one. These were the
early signs of what became a long and highly publicized series of mental health episodes,
including a string of DUIs, hit-and-runs, and an arrest.
She also accused her father of abuse only to recant this claim in a bizarre tweet. She wrote,
"My dad never did any of those things ... The microchip in my brain made me say those things
but he's the one that ordered them to microchip me."
She threatened a lot of people with a lot of lawsuits,
reserving particular fire for any tabloid that claimed she was misusing drugs.
Finally, in 2013, Bynes entered rehab. In 2014, she tweeted that she had been
diagnosed with bipolar disorder and manic depression and that she was in treatment.
These days, she seems to be on the mend.
Although "Easy A" remains her last role,
she revealed in a 2017 interview that she was three years sober and wanted to act again.
A hot commodity in the 1990s and 2000s, Cameron Diaz had a very successful career, earning enough
money to lead several lifetimes of luxury. From her first acting experience in 1994's "The Mask"
to her starring turn in "There's Something About Mary," and from Spike Jonze's "Being
John Malkovich" to Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York," her filmography shows considerable range.
Yet creative block happens to the best of us. This is why Diaz hasn't appeared in a film since the
2014 musical comedy remake of "Annie." Speaking at a summit hosted by Gwyneth Paltrow, Diaz said,
"I just went, 'I can't really say who I am to myself,'
which is a hard thing to face up to. I felt the need to make myself whole."
She has few regrets about retiring and has kept busy over the last seven years.
In 2015, Diaz married Good Charlotte lead guitarist
Benji Madden, and four years later, their daughter Raddix was born.
“I love him so much it hurts.”
Before that, in 2016, Diaz published her book, "The Longevity Book: The Science of Aging,
the Biology of Strength, and the Privilege of Time." It was followed by 2013's "The Body Book:
Feed, Move, Understand and Love Your Amazing Body."
Christopher Reeve had a thriving career. A graduate of Juilliard,
he had his breakout role in the original "Superman" movie from 1978 and continued
to work on several other projects, including "The Remains of the Day" in 1993 and many plays.
In 1995, Reeve attended a dressage and show jumping event in Culpepper, Virginia.
He'd learned to ride in 1985 for his performance as Count Vronsky in "Anna Karenina" and fell
in love with the sport, developing a close bond with Eastern Express, his American thoroughbred.
Tragically, Eastern Express suddenly balked on the third jump in the final competition,
sending Reeve over the saddle and on to his head, crushing his first and
second vertebrae. This devastating injury paralyzed the actor from the neck down,
causing him to use a wheelchair and ventilator for the rest of his life. According to one of
Reeve's physicians, the actor would have died instantly had he fallen 1 centimeter to the left
and experienced only a concussion had he fallen 1 centimeter to the right.
Reeve was not a quitter, though. He pulled through intense grief and suicidal thoughts
to lead a busy life. Reeve campaigned for research into spinal injuries and stem cell therapy,
raising some $138 million for researchers around the world.
He forayed into directing and had a few appearances in shows like the TV remake
of "Rear Window" and the CW's "Smallville," but his acting experience largely ended with
the accident. After a period of ill health, he died of heart failure in 2004 at age 52.
In 1985, Michael J. Fox became one of Hollywood's hottest young actors
with the role of Marty McFly in "Back to the Future" — a rip-roaring sci-fi
comedy that topped the box office and became a classic of American cinema.
Fox reprised McFly in two sequels while continuing his run on the hit NBC sitcom "Family Ties."
He also starred in "Teen Wolf," "Bright Lights, Big City," and "Casualties of War."
It was during the production of "Doc Hollywood" in 1991 that Fox noticed his finger was twitching
and that he had a creeping pain in his shoulder. These were symptoms of early-onset Parkinson's
disease — a shocking revelation, since most people who get the condition are over 60.
Doctors told the 29-year-old star that he would have to quit acting in just a few years,
but he proved them wrong with a busy career that included roles
in "Mars Attacks" and "Stuart Little." His biggest success was the Emmy-winning sitcom
"Spin City," which saw him play Deputy Mayor of New York City Mike Flaherty for 103 episodes.
“Oh, uh, I-I-I completely forgot. We-we’ll just wing it.”
Fox retired from the show in 2000 because of his worsening condition.
Regular TV work followed in the 2000s and 2010s, including turns in "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "The
Good Wife," and "The Michael J. Fox Show" — a sitcom inspired by the actor's life.
Sadly, he wrote in his 2020 memoir that he was entering a “second retirement”
because of new symptoms including delusions, memory loss, and dementia.
Shelley Duvall was once one of Hollywood's most recognizable faces. She rose to fame in the 1970s
for her collaborations with celebrated director Robert Altman, including "Brewster McCloud,"
"McCabe & Mrs. Miller," "Nashville," and "3 Women." Nearly all of these are now considered
must-watch classics. Her success continued into the ‘80s with such films as Stanley Kubrick's "The
Shining" in 1980, Robert Altman’s "Popeye" from the same year, and "Roxanne" in 1987.
After TV appearances and supporting roles in the 1990s, Duvall quit Hollywood in 2002,
leading a reclusive life with her husband in her home state of Texas.
In 2016, she gave an interview on "Dr. Phil" that raised serious questions about her mental
health. Disheveled and barely recognizable, Duvall made a series of bizarre claims,
like insisting Robin Williams was still alive and that he'd become a 'shapeshifter,' saying,
"He looks real good in some forms, in other forms he doesn't."
“Do you see him?”
“Have, yes.” Many commentators
derided the interview, calling it, quote, "craven" and "sensational." In January 2021,
Seth Abramovitch of The Hollywood Reporter managed to locate Duvall in Texas Hill Country
and interview her. Happily, Abramovitch found that Duvall possessed a sharp memory
full of engrossing stories. In the nuanced, reflective piece, he noted,
"[While she can be] gripped by anxiety attacks or meander into
unsettling descriptions of alien-surveillance programs, [she can also] converse for long,
coherent stretches and conjure up the slightest details about her life."
Abramovitch speculated that Duvall fled to Texas for both mental health and financial reasons.
Although it's sad that we won't see her considerable talents onscreen, it is reassuring
to know that the "Dr. Phil" interview was a tabloid misrepresentation of her mental health.
Mara Wilson became one of the biggest child stars in Hollywood after her performances in
"Mrs. Doubtfire" and "Matilda." However, when Wilson reached puberty in the early 2000s,
the roles suddenly dried up. When she did get auditions, she realized she was getting typecast
as a, quote, "fat girl" stock character. Speaking with People magazine, Wilson said,
"I realized, 'I don't fit their idea of what a Hollywood actress looks like,
so there's no room for me here.'"
She also said,
“[Sometimes I] wished to be in an accident where I’d injure my nose
and jaw so I could get reconstruction guilt-free."
Wilson decided to focus on schooling rather than her acting career,
eventually attending New York University. Sadly, the pressures of Hollywood stayed with her,
especially when she saw actresses her age like Scarlett Johansson and Kristen Stewart on magazine
covers. Fortunately, Wilson was able to manage these anxieties through writing. These days,
she lives in New York as a comedy writer, voice actress, and a notable Twitter persona.
Tim Curry has had a long and busy career, logging some 236 credits on IMDb. This eclectic body of
work includes "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," "IT," "The Hunt for Red October," "Clue," and
"Congo," as well as dozens of TV appearances and Broadway shows. The British actor was working on
around six projects a year when he suffered a debilitating stroke in 2012, which affected
his speech and caused him to use a wheelchair. Since then, Curry has only done voice acting. He
has credited his sense of humor as being, quote, "absolutely vital" to his recovery. He also said,
"It's not tough to maintain, it is just part of my DNA."
“Ah, you’re just in time for your party.”
He made one of his first public appearances since his stroke to accept a lifetime achievement award
at the 19th Actors Fund Tony Awards Viewing Party in 2015.
He was very grateful for the award, explaining,
"[It] solidifies the kind of work the American acting community has given me for years now...
I was thrilled when they told me and I am thrilled now."
Sometimes, the critics really do hurt. This was the case for Greta Garbo,
whose 1941 film "Two-Faced Woman" was so maligned that the iconic actress left Tinseltown.
She was 36 years old and had made 31 movies in just 20 years, which reflected not just
her work ethic but also her enormous popularity in both the U.S. and her native Europe. She had
even made the transition from silent films to talkies — a rare feat among her contemporaries.
Yet Garbo found little satisfaction in her career, preferring the solitude she pursued from 1941
until her death in 1990 at the age of 85. She was almost persuaded to return on two occasions:
first an offer to play French novelist George Sand, and then a lead role in Alfred Hitchcock's
"The Paradine Case." Ultimately, she decided to stick to her private, drifting lifestyle.
She wrote in a letter to her friend Martha Wachtmeister,
"I am almost always alone and talk to myself. I drive to the beach
and take walks and that's always marvelous. But that's it."
“I want to be alone.”
Frances Farmer had dreams of a theater career when she signed a seven-year contract with Paramount in
the mid-1930s. Under this contract, she performed with Bing Crosby in "Rhythm on the Range,"
Cary Grant in "The Toast of New York," and Walter Brennan in "Come and Get It."
Still craving success on the stage, Farmer joined big Broadway productions.
She was splitting her time between New York and Los Angeles when her mental health
collapsed in 1942 — a year that brought her divorce, drunken traffic violations,
and the cancellation of her contract. Farmer spent the rest of the 1940s in and out of hospitals and
sanitariums. She claimed she was abused at these institutions in her posthumous autobiography,
though there’s some speculation that the book may have been embellished.
After a comeback appearance on "This Is Your Life" in 1958,
Farmer had several television parts and a role in one film, "The Party Crashers." This would be
one of her last on-screen performances. Farmer died of esophageal cancer in 1970 at age 56.
Partly because of her radical-leaning politics in her youth and partly because of her tragic life,
Farmer became something of a cult figure. Even Kurt Cobain was a fan.
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text
Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline
at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.