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Jim Carrey, Cameron Diaz and those other A-listers you didn't know were retired!
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00:00In the acting world, like in so many professions, time eventually comes a calling for even the greatest in the game.
00:06However, while it's not surprising to hear that iconic names in their 80s and 90s, like Gene Hackman and Jack Nicholson, are retired these days,
00:13there are those actors who retire way earlier than anyone ever expected.
00:17I'm Josh from WhatCulture.com, and these are 10 actors you didn't know were retired.
00:21Number 10, Cameron Diaz.
00:22During the late 90s and into the 2000s, Cameron Diaz was one of the busiest actresses in Hollywood.
00:28Having made her debut in The Mask, a role she landed at a time when she had zero acting experience,
00:33the always bubbly Diaz went on to make memorable appearances in such heavy hitters such as There's Something About Mary, Gangs of New York, Any Given Sunday, Being John Malkovic, Vanilla Sky, and the two Charlie's Angels pictures.
00:46As it stands now, though, the final role of the stellar career of Cameron Diaz is her turn as controlling drunk Colleen Hannigan in the 2014 take on Annie.
00:54In the immediate aftermath of Annie's release, Diaz opted to take a break from the industry, citing how she had become fed up with the extensive travel involved in the film business.
01:04That break from the industry, though, became a more permanent arrangement in March 2018, when the actress formally announced her retirement.
01:11Since her appearance in Annie, Cameron Diaz has penned her second health-based book, started her own organic wine brand, invested in health and biotech startups, and even married good Charlotte's Benji Madden.
01:22Number 9, Joe Pesci.
01:23Due to his sheer presence alone, Joe Pesci is a hugely recognisable face and name amongst film fans.
01:29And so, many have wondered why Pesci has barely been seen on the silver screen for the past 20 years.
01:35For those who thought that maybe the powerhouse Italian-American actor's career had taken a nosedive,
01:40and that he'd been forced to star in low-budget bargain-basement dross that flew under the radar, which is often the case in the movie industry,
01:47that's not actually why Joe Pesci has been out of the public eye.
01:50Instead, Pesci actually announced his retirement back in 1999, following Lethal Weapon 4.
01:55With two studio albums under his belt at that point in time, he decided to quit acting in order to focus on a music career singing about wise guys, rather than playing them.
02:04In the years since then, the Academy Award winner has been coaxed out of retirement on a few sparse occasions,
02:10most notably for Martin Scorsese's The Irishman in 2019.
02:13But even then, it apparently took a lot of convincing from Scorsese himself to get the actor on set.
02:20Number eight, Mara Wilson.
02:21It's a little crazy to think that someone would retire from acting at the age of just 13, but that was indeed the case for Mara Wilson.
02:28Well, at least initially.
02:29Having famously appeared in Mrs. Doubtfire, Miracle on 34th Street, and then headlined 1996's Matilda,
02:35the young Mara announced her retirement in 2000.
02:38She reportedly got sent the script for Donnie Darko shortly after making this decision,
02:42but turned down the opportunity to audition for Richard Kelly's twisted sci-fi thriller Masterpiece.
02:48Wilson would eventually return to acting in the 2012 web series Missed Connection,
02:52and she's since made sporadic appearances here and there, most notably voicing Jill Pill in Bojack Horseman,
02:58but the main focus of her career these days is in her writing work.
03:02On why she stepped away from acting in 2000,
03:04Wilson has openly discussed how the body-image-obsessed world of Hollywood made her question her desire to remain in that particular bubble.
03:12Number seven, Jack Gleeson.
03:13Jack Gleeson got to hammer it up as one of the most detestable TV characters in recent TV history,
03:19playing Joffrey Baratheon in 26 episodes of Game of Thrones.
03:22Once the Irish actor's work was finished on Thrones, though, he decided that the acting life wasn't for him,
03:28retiring from the industry in 2014 to instead focus on a career in academia.
03:32For one reason or another, that academic career didn't pan out,
03:36but Gleeson has spent his post-throwns years working in theatre production.
03:40Back in 2010, he was one of the founders of the Collapsing Horse Theatre Company in Dublin,
03:44and it's with Collapsing Horse that a lot of his energy has been focused until the company was wrapped up in 2019.
03:50A few comedy festival appearances and even some conventions have followed for Gleeson since that date,
03:55but he still very much seems to be happy away from the spotlight of the acting industry.
03:59Although, a fleeting appearance in Out of Her Mind last year may mean that a full-on return to acting can't be ruled out for the now 28-year-old.
04:07Number six, Bridget Fonda.
04:09First coming to prominence in the late 80s, well, unless you count an uncredited appearance from an infant Fonda in 1969's Easy Rider,
04:16Bridget Fonda became one of the most prolific stars of the 90s, and then, just like that, she disappeared.
04:22To be specific, Bridget was last seen on the silver screen in 2001 with the whole shebang,
04:27while she'd then appear in the made-for-TV Hallmark special Snow Queen the following year.
04:32Since then, though, the Jackie Brown single white female and The Godfather Part 3 standout has steered clear of the entertainment industry.
04:39After marrying famed composer Danny Elfman in 2003, Fonda ultimately retired from the movie business in order to focus on starting a family.
04:47It's also worth adding that 2003 was also the year that Bridget Fonda had a nasty car accident that left her with a fractured vertebrae,
04:54and one could speculate that maybe that also influenced her decision to step away from acting.
04:59Number five, Matthew Fox.
05:00While Lost was very much a major ensemble piece, Matthew Fox was unquestionably one of the true leads of the opinion-splitting show.
05:07Before Lost, of course, there was Party of Five, and the years after Fox landed the Jack Shepard role,
05:12saw the actor star in offerings such as Speed Racer, Alex Cross, and briefly, World War Z, which the actor was admittedly mostly cut out of.
05:20Still, the last acting role in Matthew Fox's CV right now is 2015's utterly brutal Bone Tomahawk.
05:26Once Lost wrapped up in 2010, Fox moved out into the sticks of rural Oregon, away from the glam of Hollywood.
05:32And to pour further fuel on Matthew Fox being completely done with acting, he's never been shy in admitting that he has at times absolutely hated the profession.
05:41Given the huge paydays that Lost offered up, you can maybe understand why the 54-year-old has had minimal interest in ever taking another acting gig.
05:49On top of this, however, controversy has also dogged Fox at times.
05:53The early 2010s saw him accused of violence against women, particularly in 2012,
05:57when Lost core star Dominic Monaghan publicly accused him of beating women often.
06:02Number 4, The Olsen Twins.
06:04Since coming to the fore in 2011 with Martha, Marcy, May, Marlene,
06:07Elizabeth Olsen has amassed quite the array of impressive credits,
06:11with roles in Silent House, Godzilla, The Old Boy Remake,
06:14and of course, Wanda Maximoff in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
06:17Before Elizabeth came around, though, there were two other Olsens who were garnering all kinds of attention,
06:22those of course being Mary-Kate and Ashley.
06:24Three years Elizabeth's seniors, these twins were everywhere at one point in time.
06:29The adventures of Mary-Kate and Ashley, Full House, So Little Time, Two of a Kind,
06:33and even The Simpsons were just some of the places where you could find this duo taking center stage.
06:382004 saw Mary-Kate and Ashley begin to delve into the fashion world,
06:42which was yet another bold venture for the two after setting up their own dual-star production company in the 90s.
06:47Subsequently, that year saw Ashley quietly retire from acting,
06:51although Mary-Kate would continue in the industry until a formal retirement announcement in 2012.
06:55Number 3, Jim Carrey.
06:57Perhaps the most surprising name on this list,
06:59Jim Carrey announced that he was flirting with the idea of retirement while on the press tour for Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
07:05When asked about an unrelated film project and if he'd be interested in starring in it,
07:10Carrey left everyone's jaws on the floor with the response,
07:13He went on to explain the classic actor conundrum,
07:21that right now he's not actively pursuing anything and is happy living a humble life away from the camera,
07:28but if a script came along that was too good to refuse, he'd of course not reject it off the bat.
07:34Still, though, don't expect Carrey to be back in the saddle any time soon.
07:37At the very least, he's taking a big break and, at most, the funny man could be gone for good,
07:43as he himself said, quote,
07:45I have enough, I'm done enough, I am enough, end quote.
07:49Number 2, Daniel Day-Lewis.
07:51Daniel Day-Lewis is one of the greatest actors of his generation
07:53and is generally viewed as one of the very best performers in the history of film, period.
07:59Known for his meticulous, methodical ways,
08:01Day-Lewis has a staggering three Academy Awards for Best Actor to his name.
08:05But for those wondering why one of the all-time greats hasn't been seen on our screens for a little while now,
08:10well, that's because the London-born actor actually called it quits in 2017.
08:14This is actually the second time that Day-Lewis has retired from acting,
08:18with him catching many off guard when he announced his exit from the industry in 1997
08:22to instead become a shoemaker in Italy.
08:26Yes, for real, I have not made that up.
08:28Martin Scorsese, with whom Day-Lewis had worked with on The Age of Innocence in 93,
08:32managed to coerce the actor back into the game in 2000 for his upcoming Gangs of New York,
08:37for which Day-Lewis received an Oscar nomination.
08:40Mesmerizing performances followed in There Will Be Blood, Nine, and Lincoln
08:43before Day-Lewis once again entered retirement after the release of Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread in 2017,
08:49citing to W Magazine how he no longer found value in his work and that he wanted to explore the world.
08:55Number 1, Bruce Willis.
08:56Legendary acting giant Bruce Willis announced the tragic news that he was retiring from the profession recently,
09:02following a diagnosis with aphasia, a brain disorder that impacts the way a person can communicate, speak, and understand language.
09:10The news was revealed by the performer's family on social media, with a statement of fans which read, quote,
09:15To Bruce's amazing supporters, as a family we wanted to share that our beloved Bruce has been experiencing some health issues
09:22and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive abilities.
09:28As a result of this, and with much consideration, Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him, end quote.
09:35Since the news was revealed, there has been an outpouring of support from both fans and fellow actors alike.
09:40With Bruce stepping away from Hollywood, his family finished their statement by saying, quote,
09:44As Bruce always says, live it up, and together we plan to do just that, end quote.
09:50So that's our list.
09:51I want to know what you guys think down in the comments below.
09:52And while you're down there, can you give us a like, share, subscribe,
09:54and head over to whatculture.com for more lists and news like this every single day.
09:58Even if you don't thought I'd be Josh, thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you soon.
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