Source link : https://las-vegas-news.com/7-actors-who-stepped-away-from-hollywood-at-the-height-of-their-careers/
Most actors fight for the next role. A few have walked off the set while the awards, the offers and the fame were all still coming in.
Their reasons differ. Some wanted a quieter life, some needed to grieve, and some were simply done. Here are seven who stepped back when they could have stayed on top.
Daniel Day-Lewis
Daniel Day-Lewis is the best known example of a star who chose to stop. He won three Best Actor Oscars, for My Left Foot, There Will Be Blood and Lincoln, and he was celebrated as one of the most committed performers of his generation. In 2017 he announced he would no longer act, following Phantom Thread.
He had stepped away before, too. In the late 1990s he spent time in Italy training as a shoemaker. His retirement didn’t last forever, since he returned for Anemone, a film directed by his son Ronan Day-Lewis that reached audiences in 2025.
Cameron Diaz
Cameron Diaz was one of the most bankable comedy and romance leads of the late 1990s and 2000s. Her hits included There’s Something About Mary, Charlie’s Angels and the Shrek films. Her last film for a long stretch was the 2014 remake of Annie.
She later said she had retired from acting to focus on her private life. She married musician Benji Madden in 2015, and the couple went on to have two children. In January 2025 she returned in the Netflix action comedy Back in Action, alongside Jamie Foxx.
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Author : Matthias Binder
Publish date : 2026-10-06 05:48:00
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