27 Retired Actors And What They Do Now
Actors quit acting for a whole bunch of reasons. Childhood stars decide the life isn't for them, lifelong celebrities want to try their hand at something new, or people simply discover a new calling in life.
Whatever their reasons, these are some actors who left the biz and are working in entirely new fields.
1.Frankie Muniz is a racing driver, musician, and entrepreneur.
Fox / giphy.com
Most will remember him as Malcolm, but Frankie Muniz will forever be Agent Cody Banks to me. Muniz's acting career started in 1997, and he's had roles ever since. The bulk of his acting career, however, ended around 2006. This was when the landmark show Malcolm in the Middle ended, of which Frankie was the star. At the time, he said, "Growing up has never scared me until last year. I started thinking about getting older, being an adult, and it scared me. Hopefully things will work out in my career. If they don't, then it was never meant to be."
He's gone on to have a career in racing, music, and entrepreneurship. His most recent entrepreneurial endeavor was buying Outrageous Olive Oils & Vinegars with his wife, Paige Price. You also may have heard the rumor that the concussions he experienced from crashes during his racing career resulted in him forgetting his entire childhood stardom, but that's not the case. He revealed on Steve-O's Wild Ride! that this was a misquote and he was simply a crazy busy kid.
2.Peter Ostrum is a large-animal veterinarian.
Paramount Pictures / giphy.com
If you're wondering why you didn't see much of Peter Ostrum outside his role of Charlie Bucket in 1971's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, that's because it was the only movie he ever acted in.
He auditioned for a few productions after Wonka, but decided the acting life wasn't for him. He even lied to people about the role, telling people that it was his brother who starred in the movie. According to Ostrum, "I wanted people to judge me on who I was, not what I’d done." He now works as a large-animal veterinarian in New York.
3.Mara Wilson is a writer.
TriStar / giphy.com
Mara Wilson is most recognizable as magical Matilda. She became interested in acting at just 5 years old, but quickly transitioned from film to stage. Just four years after Matilda was released, she retired from the silver screen and had an illustrious career in several plays.
Around 2013, she turned her focus to writing, though she still appeared in shows like Broad City and BoJack Horseman. Her play Sheeple was produced in 2013, and her book, Where Am I Now?: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame, hit shelves in 2016.
4.Mike Vitar is a firefighter.
Fox / giphy.com
Mike Vitar was an actor for about six years, his debut being Diplomatic Immunity (1991) and his last work an episode of Chicago Hope (1997). But we all know him as Benny "The Jet" Rodriguez, the hero of The Sandlot. Fans of the Mighty Ducks series may also remember Vitar as Luis from D2 and D3.
Vitar went from playing a hero to actually being one. After his acting career, he was an EMT and later a firefighter. He currently lives in Los Angeles and fights fires for the LAFD.
5.Karyn Parsons is a philanthropist and writer.
NBC / giphy.com
When you play a snooty character, it doesn't hurt to do a 180 and create a nonprofit. You know, just to balance things out. That's what Karyn Parsons did, at least. After starring as Hilary Banks on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, she created Sweet Blackberry in 2005. The nonprofit organization brings "little-known stories of Black achievement to children everywhere, celebrating these unsung heroes and illustrating for children the obstacles that can be opportunities for greatness."
Sweet Blackberry has produced animated films and children's books about Black heroes. Parsons herself wrote two of the books, the most recent one published in 2020. She hasn't given up acting, but Sweet Blackberry has been her primary focus as of late.
6.Jeff Cohen is a lawyer.
Warner Bros / giphy.com
Jeff Cohen is best known for his role as Chunk in The Goonies, but his life in law also owes a lot to the film. Richard Donner, the director of Goonies, introduced Cohen to many of the business aspects of the entertainment industry.
After realizing that a lot of the higher-ups in Hollywood have law degrees, he decided to pursue a career in it. He went to Berkeley for Business, and Donner even offered to pay for his education. Cohen then graduated from the UCLA School of Law and co-founded the law firm Cohen Gardner.
7.Lark Voorhies is a novelist and singer.
NBC / giphy.com
After shooting to fame in 1989 with the role of Lisa Turtle on Saved by the Bell, Voorhies founded her own band, Third Degree, and was its lead singer. She then regularly appeared in film and TV until around 2012. This was because in the early 2010s she turned to writing, publishing three books. She returned to acting eight years after her previous acting gig for Saved by the Bell's reboot.
8.Angus T. Jones is the president of entertainment at a management company.
CBS / giphy.com
You probably know Angus T. Jones as Jake Harper from Two and a Half Men. He has retired from acting, feeling that Two and a Half Men's themes conflicted with his religious views. He has since partnered with Justin Combs (Diddy's son) for Tonite, a management company that organizes extravagant events.
"At its heart, Tonite is a movement, a feeling, a vibe, an energy. "It’s something that people have to attend to understand. This isn’t another party, event or concert. It’s an experience. The youth spirit is accessible for anyone regardless of age, race, gender, sexuality. It’s in a unique, culturally appealing venue with your favorite performers singing, rapping or mixing their heart out. And we’re going to be able to do a lot for kids in low socio-economic communities." —Justin Combs, co-founder of Tonite
9.Phoebe Cates is a boutique owner.
Warner Bros / giphy.com
Phoebe Cates is instantly recognizable in her role from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, but when I think of the '80s star I'll always be reminded of her incredibly dark monologue in Gremlins. She was drawn to stage acting in the late '80s because there were better roles for women, but still appeared in films throughout the '90s.
Cates' most recent film was The Anniversary Party, which she appeared in as a favor to her friend Jennifer Jason Leigh. Since then, she's focused on her boutique, Blue Tree, which she opened on Madison Avenue in 2005.
10.Sarah Michelle Gellar is now an entrepreneur.
Warner Bros / giphy.com
Starring in cult classics, becoming one of the most legendary scream queens in movie history, and being Daphne in Scooby-Doo might be good enough for some people, but Sarah Michelle Gellar has plenty more up her sleeve.
In 2015, she co-founded Foodstirs, an online bakery aiming to make sweets more healthy. Gellar and her two other co-founders are all parents, so they wanted to reinvent baked goods for "today's sweet tooth." They use plant-based, non-GMO, and regenerative ingredients.
11.Josh Saviano is a lawyer.
ABC / giphy.com
Playing Paul Pfieffer in The Wonder Years, Josh Saviano stayed true to his smart-guy role and went to Yale. After majoring in political science, he became a lawyer and actually played one on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. He's since founded JDS Legal and Act 3 Advisors, a consultancy group for celebrities.
12.Andrew Shue is an entrepreneur and soccer player.
Andrew Shue's biggest role was on Melrose Place, where he played Billy Campbell. He must've not felt life the acting life was for him, though, because his only other major role was in 1997's The Rainmaker. Since then, Shue has appeared in a few movies and TV shows as an extra, but he's turned his focus to soccer and entrepreneurship.
The brother of Karate Kid star Elisabeth Shue, Andrew played in the Zimbabwe Premier Soccer League and later for the Los Angeles Galaxy. He then co-founded DoSomething, a nonprofit that encourages young people to enact positive change in the world. He also co-founded CafeMom, which has been described as "MySpace for moms."
13.Danielle Fishel is a director and presenter.
ABC / giphy.com
You may recognize Fishel from small parts on Full House or Harry and the Hendersons, but odds are you know her as Topanga Lawrence-Matthews. The Boy Meets World star was on the cover of GQ's "Hottest Stars to Watch" in 1997 at just 16 years old. Her acting days aren't over (she reprised the role of Topanga in Girl Meets World), but she's been focusing more on directing and presenting in recent years. She's directed various television shows and worked with PopSugar to create the "Dear Danielle" series.
14.Gene Hackman is a novelist.
Touchstone / giphy.com
The original Lex Luthor, Gene Hackman had an incredible film career that spanned from the late 50s to 2004. After his retirement, Hackman started writing historical fiction novels with archaeologist Daniel Lenihan. They wrote three books before Hackman tried his hand at solo writing. He's since published two novels, his most recent being in 2013.
15.Ali MacGraw is an animal rights activist and yoga instructor.
Polaroid / giphy.com
Ali MacGraw was an actor from the late '60s through the late '90s. She became one of the biggest names in Hollywood when she starred in the 1970 movie Love Story. MacGraw received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, and had an incredible career before stepping out of the spotlight at the turn of the century. She's since focused on yoga and animal rights.
Saying MacGraw "focuses on yoga" may make you think, "Yeah, I know about a hundred people who do yoga, big deal." But MacGraw is actually one of the people responsible for yoga being so popular in America. She released a video called Ali MacGraw: Yoga Mind and Body with a yoga master. The video was largely responsible for yoga's recent popularity.
MacGraw is also an animal rights activist, serving as a US ambassador for the Animals Asia foundation. She has worked with PETA to spread messages about remembering animals during wildfires and other natural disasters.
16.Danny Lloyd is a biology professor.
Warner Bros / giphy.com
Most people aim to retire around 65, 66, but Danny Lloyd already had a timeless film performance under his belt by the age of 10, so he figured, why wait? Of course, while Lloyd retired from acting at the age of 10 (he only appeared in two films, The Shining and Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy), he was just getting started on his life.
He is now an associate professor of biology at Elizabethtown Community and Technical College in Kentucky. However, he stepped back onto the film set in 2019 for a cameo in Doctor Sleep, the sequel to The Shining.
17.Jennie Garth is an entrepreneur and philanthropist.
CBS / giphy.com
Jennie Garth played Kelly Taylor in Beverly Hills, 90210, and has since starred in many TV shows and TV movies. In 2017, she started MomGiftBox, a website that sends out subscription boxes filled with products geared toward mothers. She's also appeared on several game shows, donating her winnings to various charities. In 2018, she partnered with Dune Jewelry. They created the Traveling Heart Collection, a line of heart-shaped silver and gold jewelry.
18.Jonathan Taylor Thomas is a director.
Nineties star Jonathan Taylor Thomas always had a desire to live life like a normal kid. “I’d been going nonstop since I was 8 years old,” he said. “I never took the fame too seriously. It was a great period in my life, but it doesn’t define me. When I think back on the time, I look at it with a wink. I focus on the good moments I had, not that I was on a lot of magazine covers.”
While he was certainly thrilled to be the star of Home Improvement and the voice of young Simba in The Lion King, he wasn't crazy about the "teen heartthrob" aspect of his fame. When Conan O'Brien asked him about his nickname, "JTT," he said, "I'm over that. I've always been over that." He left Home Improvement to go back to school and enjoyed a more private life.
Thomas is currently focusing on directing. He rejoined former co-star Tim Allen to direct some episodes of Last Man Standing, and recently announced he was working on a project with Macaulay Culkin.
19.Taran Noah Smith is a disaster relief volunteer, restaurateur, and submarine instructor.
At the age of 17, Taran Noah Smith stated, "I started Home Improvement when I was seven, and the show ended when I was 16. I never had the chance to decide what I wanted to do with my life. When I was 16, I knew that I didn't want to act anymore." He appeared in one episode of Batman Beyond in 1999, but has since retired from acting.
Since then, he's gone into several different fields. He started a vegan cheese company with his wife at the time called Playfood. It's no longer in business, but Smith has also kept busy helping with disaster relief. He volunteered with Communitere, a Nepali nonprofit, helping people in the Philippines. He also worked on people's homes after Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Smith is also the technical manager for the Community Submersibles Project, teaching people how to pilot submarines.
20.Nikki Blonsky is a beautician.
New Line Cinema / giphy.com
Nikki Blonsky is another actress who hasn't retired; she's simply focusing on a different aspect of her life right now. As she's said: "Just 'cause I'm part time working doesn't mean I'm giving up on my dreams; don't give up on yours." With that in mind, the Hairspray star got her cosmetology license in 2011 and has worked as both a hairstylist and a clerk at a shoe stop. Most recently, she was in an episode of Life Unfiltered and will be the voice of Farful in The Adventures of Farful, an animated TV show coming soon.
21.Dylan Sprouse is a brewmaster.
After he and his brother Cole Sprouse wrapped up The Suite Life on Deck, Dylan went to college for video game design. He's appeared in movies and television since then (his most recent appearance was in several episodes of Saturday Morning All Star Hits! in 2021), but he's also opened up a bewery.
All-Wise Meadery is based in Brooklyn and named after Sprouse's Heathen religion, which he's practiced since he was 15. The meadery believes in using ancient techniques and "minimal intervention." Since mead is basically a form of honey, they infuse it with tasty things like teas, herbs, and vegetables.
22.Jack Gleeson is a student and theatrical actor.
HBO / giphy.com
"Everyone is mine to torment." That line pretty much sums up the truly terrible King Joffrey. Jack Gleeson did an incredible job of making us hate the character, though in 2012 he announced that he planned to retire from acting once Game of Thrones was finished (or at least, until the show was finished with King Joffrey).
Gleeson said he wanted to pursue a career in academia, but after graduating from Trinity College Dublin in 2015 he was drawn back to acting. He co-founded the Collapsing Horse Theatre Company, which ended in 2019. He stepped back onto TV screens in 2020, starring in the show Out of Her Mind.
23.Michael C. Maronna is an electrician.
Nickelodeon / giphy.com
Remember Kevin McCallister's older brother from Home Alone? Michael C. Maronna played his older brother, Jeff, but many people may know him better as Big Pete in The Adventures of Pete & Pete. If you're a fan of Pete, you can listen to Maronna's podcast about the show here. Since the late '90s, Maronna has been an electrician on movie and television sets. Seems like a great way to stay in the industry without all the hassle!
24.Kirk Cameron is an evangelical minister.
The star of Growing Pains, Kirk Cameron's mainstream film and television work was mostly in the '80s and '90s. After becoming a born-again Christian, he started devoting much of his time to evangelical ministry. These included televised debates and a show called The Way of the Master, which teaches evangelical philosophy. He's returned to some film roles as well, such as the Left Behind series and the 2014 film Saving Christmas.
25.Charlie Korsmo is a lawyer (and general all-around smart guy).
TriStar / giphy.com
Charlie Korsmo didn't act in many movies, but he definitely knew how to pick them (or, more likely, had a hell of an agent). He was in Dick Tracy in 1990 and both What About Bob? and Hook in 1991. Co-starring with Bill Murray and Robin Williams isn't too bad for a kid who was only ever in eight movies.
After the 1998 film Can't Hardly Wait, Korsmo went back to school. He was good at it. So good that he got a physics degree from MIT in 2000, a doctorate of law from Yale in 2006, and was nominated by Barack Obama to become a member of the Board of Trustees of the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation. He's worked for the Environmental Protection Agency, the Republican Party, and is currently a professor of corporate law and finance at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland.
All that AND he got to play Robin Williams' kid.
26.Doris Day became an animal rights activist.
Warner Bros / giphy.com
Doris Day is Hollywood royalty, appearing in countless films and dominating television screens in the '50s and '60s. She got her start as a singer and topped the charts with her music throughout her life. But the Academy Award–nominated star had an original passion that she eventually dedicated much of her life to: animal welfare.
Protective over animals since she was a teen, Day started refusing to work on film sets if the dogs, cats, horses, etc. were mistreated. While filming The Man Who Knew Too Much, she succeeded in getting the production company to set up feeding stations for the animals, refusing to work until they did so. She later co-founded Actors and Others for Animals in 1971, and the Doris Day Pet Foundation (now the Doris Day Animal Foundation) in 1978.
27.Kevin Jonas is a contractor, entrepreneur, and writer.
giphy.com / @jonasbrothers
Following his tour de force performances in cinema such as Camp Rock and Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam, Kevin Jonas was on top of the world. After the Jonas Brothers split up in 2013, Kevin founded JonasWerner, a construction company. He is also the co-CEO of a company that works with social media influencers, a partner with a video-sharing app, and has even created a food app called Yood.
Did you know Kevin Jonas is part of broadcast television history? If the date August 17, 2007 doesn't stand out to you, you're probably not a nerd about broadcast television history like me. It's the date that High School Musical 2, a sneak peak of Phineas and Ferb, and an episode of Hannah Montana called "Me and Mr. Jonas and Mr. Jonas and Mr. Jonas" was broadcasted on Disney Channel. This chunk of airtime became the most watched telecast ever, not just in Disney Channel's history, but all of broadcast TV's.
Making TV history is swell, but one of Kevin Jonas's coolest achievements is the book he wrote with his wife, Danielle. It's called There's a Rock Concert in My Bedroom, and it was inspired by their daughters. You can find it here.