When Grey’s Anatomy star Ellen
Pompeo recently said she was seriously considering ‘giving up acting’ everyone
flew into a tizzy. But there have been a fair few ‘stars’ that have turned
their back on the fame and glamour of the film industry.
What’s the you say? You just saw
him in a film? Well if you did, you were
either watching a rerun on TV or thinking about The League of Extraordinary
Gentlemen, which released way back in 2003.
But if you think he spends most
of his retirement drinking single malts and getting trollied on wine with his
old pal and Knight in Crime Sir Alex Ferguson, think again. He lent his voice
to the animated film Sir Billi, and also was the voice of James (pronounce it
Jamesh for the full effect) Bond in the 2005 videogame From Russia With Love.
If you grow up in the 1980s, then
it’s more than likely that The Breakfast Club was the film you looked to for
inspiration. Hell! I even had the poster on my wall, along with…well…read on.
The Breakfast Club told a tale
that millions of students across the world could relate to, and we loved it.
The writer and director, John Hughes, suddenly became our storyteller; the
chronicler of our woes – real or imagined. And then in 1986, Hughes wrote and
directed, the legendary Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, a film so in tune with the
times it’s eerie. We were all Ferris Bueller for 90 minutes and we waited
eagerly for Hughes’ next project.
But three projects later there
was sense that Hughes had lost the passion. By 1991’s Curly Sue, his voice was
muted and the hilarious angst that propelled his early work had all but
disappeared.
And although Hughes continued
writing (Home Alone) until 2008, he never directed again. Hughes died in 2009,
and it’s hard not to feel that an achingly poignant talent left the spotlight
far too soon.
OK, so I had the Breakfast Club
poster up, but I also had one of the gorgeous Phoebe Cates. Cates was very
close to being the 80s generation’s Farah Fawcett or Bo Derek. And although she
was certainly more girl-next-door than those two stars, it just added to her
appeal.
She first came to our attention
in Cameron Crowe’s outrageously fun Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and then
captured out hearts in Gremlins and Bright Lights, Big City. By Princess
Caraboo (yes it was as bad as it sounds) she was older but still stunning.
We last saw her in 2001, and she then vanished, ostensibly to spend time with her family and husband Kevin Kline. We’ll miss her, but you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do.
Before there were the Olsen
twins…much, much before…there was Shirley Temple, a child star of such wattage
that even back in 1933, people thought she’d be peerless for millennia. And
they could have been right, but Temple had other plans.
In 1950, a 22-year-old Temple,
already a veteran of 38 feature films decided that she had lost the appeal that
made her such a popular child star and rather than be pulled kicking and
screaming off the stage as it were, she’d just draw the curtains herself.
Temple would return to TV in the
60s, but she never graced the big screen again. Who knows what might have been
had the precocious talent continued in films, but then again, sometimes things
are better left unexplored.
Cary Grant may have been 62 when
he decided to call it a day, but the superstar had more than a few good years
left in him.
Fans always believed that the
star of An Affair to Remember and North by Northwest would act forever. But
when he became a father, late in life, Grant decided to dedicate all his time
to bringing up his daughter, on whom he would dote till his death in 1986.
But even though Grant retired
from acting he would play an active role in the industry.
Watching Rick Moranis in Honey I
Shrunk the Kids, Ghostbusters and Spaceballs was watching a comedian at the top
of his game. His perfect timing and hilarious expressions made him one of the
most-recognised actors of his generation.
But six years after his wife died
from breast cancer, Moranis decided that his children were far more important
than his acting career. He told USA Today: “I’m a single parent and I just
found that it was too difficult to manage raising my kids and doing the
traveling involved in making movies. So I took a little bit of a break. And the
little bit of a break turned into a longer break, and then I found that I
really didn’t miss it.”
Moranis has since lent his voice
to the animated film, Brother Bear, but there’s little chance of him ever
returning to the big screen any time soon. We’ll miss him, but we’ll always
have My Blue Heaven.
