Some of these stars ditched the limelight in favor of low-key lives doing everyday jobs.
Others didn't have a choice, because, well, Hollywood is a cruel and fickle place.
These are the celebs who ended up with totally regular jobs.
Michael Maronna Pete & Pete star Michael Maronna, who starred
on the beloved series as Big Pete, still works in TV, but not in the same capacity.
As he told The Washington Times in 2015: "I'm a best boy electrician on an NBC show
called Shades of Blue.
I do lighting."
Aside from Shades of Blue, which wrapped in August 2018, Maronna has also worked on Elementary,
Nurse Jackie, Men In Black 3, and other films and TV shows as an electrician.
Maronna and his pal Danny Tamberelli, who played little Pete, also lead a podcast called
The Adventures of Danny & Mike.
Of the project, Maronna told The Washington Times:
"The podcast got started at the end of one month when Danny couldn’t make rent.
On the 31st he said, 'We should do this podcast.'
Five days later we got Danny some rent money.
And a good couch, a fine, comfortable couch that he can clean every so often."
Clearly, these guys are still hilarious, and at least one of them is happy with their current
situation pursuing everyman endeavors.
Maronna continued: "But we're so damn busy.
I have a full-time job and Dan is busy trying to get that couch together."
Geoffrey Owens The Cosby Show had its reruns pulled from
airwaves in April 2018 in light of allegations against the titular character.
That meant all the actors on the series stopped receiving residuals, including Geoffrey Owens,
who played Bill Cosby's son-in-law, Elvin Tibideaux.
Then, photos of Owens working as a cashier in a Trader Joe's in New Jersey went viral
in September 2018.
"I took a regular job so I could support myself and my family and it all went crazy."
Owens told Good Morning America that while he wasn't ashamed of his job, he kept the
gig quiet because he didn't want the entertainment industry to think he'd quit, revealing:
"I've been teaching, acting, directing for 30-plus years, but it got to a point where
it just didn't add up enough and you gotta do what you gotta do."
And for Owens, taking the side job wasn't a way to step out of show business.
In fact, it was the opposite.
"I wanted a job that I could have some flexibility, try to stay in the business."
Owens received an outpouring of support after the images went viral, including a $25,000
donation from Nicki Minaj and a job offer from Tyler Perry, which Owens accepted.
Still, he wants the conversation about jobs to continue.
"There is no job that's better than another job."
Terry Crews After Geoffrey Owens was shamed by some for
working at Trader Joe's, athlete-turned-actor Terry Crews rushed to his defense on social
media, tweeting: "I swept floors AFTER the NFL.
If need be, I'd do it again.
Good honest work is nothing to be ashamed of."
Indeed, Crews has had other jobs in between his football career and his acting roles,
including co-founding a furniture design firm and a stint as a courtroom sketch artist covering
a high-profile murder case in Flint, Michigan.
Though he's wildly successful today, the entertainer has made it clear that side hustles have always
been a part of his equation, even doing portrait paintings for fellow football players.
"It would literally take me about two months to do a painting and they would give me like
5 grand and I would survive off that."
Nate Richert From 1996 to 2003, Nate Richert starred as
Harvey Kinkle, actress Melissa Joan Hart's love interest on Sabrina The Teenage Witch.
Since then, he's taken several decidedly un-Hollywood jobs to make ends meet.
In 2018 he tweeted: "I've been an actor for 32 yrs (since age 8).
I'm extremely lucky to have had any success at all, let alone solid work in film and TV
for 6yrs (20yrs ago).
I'm currently a maintenance man, a janitor, a carpenter, and do whatever random jobs I
can get to pay the bills."
Richert still performs and works as a songwriter, but further explained his predicament, noting:
"Actors so very rarely have job security or consistent work, quality healthcare, a reasonable
retirement.
We are actors anyway because it is who we are at the core, for the love and need to
bring the words on the page to life and to make you feel them."
Mike Vitar You probably remember Mike Vitar as "Benny
the Jet" Rodriguez in The Sandlot or Luis Mendoza in D2: The Mighty Ducks and its sequel,
D3: The Mighty Ducks.
He left Hollywood in 1997 when he was 19 years old and became a firefighter in Los Angeles.
The '90s movie star ran into legal trouble when he, another off-duty firefighter named
Eric Carpenter, and a third pal named Thomas Molnar were accused of beating Samuel Chang,
a college student who was handing out candy in Carpenter's neighborhood on Halloween in
2015.
After Chang wound up in the intensive care unit, Vitar and his buddies reached controversial
plea deals that kept them out of prison.
Vitar reportedly pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery and received three years of probation
and community service.
He was suspended for six months from the fire department, then returned to work.
Chris Rankin How do you move on after the magic of Hogwarts?
Ask Chris Rankin, who played Percy Weasley, Ron Weasley's equally ginger brother, in the
Harry Potter franchise of films.
While he's done some YouTube work since then, he told the BBC in 2008 that he planned to
quit acting because, well, the magic was gone.
He revealed: "I went for the West End audition for the
musical Wicked […] Usually when you go for TV and film auditions people are nice to you,
they tell you 'thank you very much' and say they'll get back to you in the next few days.
In the West End auditions, they just say 'next', and I thought, 'I don't enjoy this anymore.'"
Rankin left his job in front of the camera to pursue work behind it.
He reportedly went to college to study directing and media production, and served as an assistant
production coordinator on Downton Abbey in 2015 and as a production secretary on the
Atlantis TV series from 2014 to 2015.