While being in media, music or just on TV means that someone will be in the limelight by default, it doesn’t mean it will always stay like that. Fame can wax and wane, but there are also celebrities who really just don’t want to be celebrities. Indeed, a decent amount of folks just take their fortune and retire young.
People online share examples of celebrities that were household names at one point and suddenly just disappeared from the public eye. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to add your own thoughts in the comments below.
#1
Rick Morranis.... His wife got cancer at the hieght of his career and he stopped working to beat full time dad till his kids graduated. ❤️.
Image credits: WarriorNurse222
#2
Geena Davis.
Jetztinberlin: She's been running a non-profit org advocating for better representation for women in Hollywood on & off-camera since 2004.
#3
Bridget Mendler…now she is a Ph.D. candidate at MIT!
Image credits: reillydean28
#4
The guy who sang Somebody That I Used To Know.
Now he IS somebody that we used to know.
Image credits: GreatXs
#5
Greta Garbo completely abandonned acting and led quite a reclusive life.
Image credits: foxybingo111
#6
Jon Heder
I thought he was going to be a huge star.
But I heard he sticks to smaller roles.
Image credits: anon
#7
David Caruso. Good riddance. He can't act. He always looks like he's trying to hold in a fart. His voice is fingernails on a blackboard.
Image credits: LusciousLennyStone
#8
Danny Lloyd who played Danny Torrance in the Shining only acted in one other small role. He's a professor in Kentucky now.
Image credits: Intelligent-End7797
#9
Charlie Korsmo
Kid from Dick Tracy, Peter Pan's son in Hook, dude was everywhere in the 90s.
Last I know of him he did the smart thing and cashed out for a normal life.
Image credits: TheDood715
#10
Steve Guttenberg.
Boraxo: This one bothers me. Police Academy 6 left me hanging and I might not ever see a 7
#11
Besides Bryan Cranston, like all the cast of Malcom in the Middle.
Image credits: slickheadoflettuce
#12
Joe Torres, the guy who played Danny on the old show "Hey Dude!" on Nickelodeon.
Literally no one can find him.
Image credits: johnnydakota
#13
Bobbie Gentry.
She’s still alive, but she stepped out of the spotlight at the height of her career and after a couple of huge hit songs.
She sang Ode to Billy Joe and Fancy.
But she won’t interview. She won’t talk about her career.
Image credits: Swifty-Dog
#14
One who literally disappeared was Joe Pichler. He was in one of the Beethoven movies. Back in 2006 when he was 18, he disappeared after spending time at his friends house and his car was found the car park of a local restaurant. There was a note in the car, presumably written by him which stated how he wished he was a better brother. Police believe it to be a s*****e note. Despite this, they've never found a body nor any other trace of him. Most likely he's dead by now.
#15
Bridget Fonda.
Sownd_Rum: A good chance Harvey Weinstein ruined her career.
#16
Dolores Hart, she was on a movie with Elvis and in her way to the A list in Hollywood when she decided to join a monastic community an become a nun. There's an HBO documentary about it named "God is the bigger Elvis".
#17
Action star Michael Dudikoff. Starred in the American Ninja movies in the 80's. Was on track to be as big as the other heros like Arnold, Van Damme and Stallone but faded away.
Image credits: TheBklynGuy
#18
The guy who played Mitch Kramer in Dazed in Confused.
Also the girl from Matilda and the Miracle on 34th Street remake.
#19
For me its Martin Lawrence. I feel like I used to see him everywhere but I don't know what he's up to nowadays.
Image credits: DramaticYam241
#20
Bonnie Hunt.
Anonymous: She’s totally dropped off the map. Had a huge crush on her in the ‘90’s.
#21
Sabrina Lloyd. I last saw her on Numbers and I know she was in a few things after that but, nothing in 10 years.
Image credits: NeverCadburys
#22
Leelee Sobieski. She was a bit of a celebrity crush for me back in the day. From the look of her IMDb she’s barely been in anything for the last decade or so. Her last credited movie was a Turkish made for TV movie in 2018.
Image credits: Jeffistopheles
#23
Meg Ryan.
alexmo210: Sad that I think of her I remember When Harry Met Sally/breakup with Dennis Quaid/bad plastic surgery. She was It for a while.
#24
Josh Hartnett. I think he decided to outright quit acting?
Image credits: ravenqueen7
#25
Jenna Elfman. Disappeared after Looney Tunes: Back in Action.
#26
Brandy. I know she's made music and she's still alive, but I haven't heard anything from her even remotely news worthy since the 1997 Cinderella.
Image credits: bunny117
#27
There was a movie called Amazing Grace & Chuck. The young man who starred in it as Chuck, a Little League whiz-kid pitcher who decides to stop playing baseball until there are no more nuclear weapons -- and then his quest goes "viral" and all the kids stop playing their sports, across the world, until no more nukes -- and then when that doesn't work, the kids all stop speaking. Just refuse to talk.
The kid that played Chuck has exactly one movie IMDB credit, that movie.
#28
Phoebe Cates
I always thought she was so beautiful.
#29
After that singer for black eyed peas sung the national anthem she went dark.
#30
Christian Hayden.. the one playing Anakin in star wars prequels... now hes gonna be in Kenobi show but after 2005 movie he just went to live off the money he made in his ranch or farm or whatever and just kinda tapped out of acting and public eye.
#31
Eva Mendes.
TGrady902: Holy cow you’re right! She has barely been in anything going on almost a decade now. You could have told me she was still in every other movie made and I would have just assumed I hadn’t seen them. Super surprising honestly.
#32
Andrew Lincoln.
dan0314: He went back home to spend time with his family, AFAIK he’s done some smaller stuff in the UK
#33
Micheal Jackson (not that one), the guy who played Trevor in Trailer Park Boys.
#34
Sinbad.
I'd love to see him make a comeback though. It's hard not to like him.
#35
Well he didn't disappear without a trace but they f****d him up and blacklisted him Randy Quaid.
Image credits: Draven_26
#36
Lee Evans. Retired from performing and now keeping a very low profile.
#37
Jack Dee - He was really popular once and I love Lead Balloon but you don’t see much of him these days.
#38
Gaz Top. Used to be on every kids TV show or so it seemed.
He told me to f**k off at some sort of roadshow (can't remember what it was for) when I asked him for his autograph when I was about 11 or 12. Happy days.
#39
Seann Walsh.
He got caught cheating on his girlfriend with his Strictly partner in 2018 (it feels much longer ago than that jfc time flys) and I remember seeing an interview with him on Russell Howard’s Good News in 2020 and he *looked* f****d. The whole experience f****d his career and it’s really only last year that he has made any significant come back to TV. .
#40
Johnny Vaughan. He was a loved host of the big breakfast and when he interviewed Madonna, he seemed to have a global appeal for a while.
I saw him on some random history channel program once but never again.
#41
Brittany Murphy. I loved her in Don’t Say a Word. Later found out that she’d passed away but the cause of death is so weird. Especially with her husband passing away half a year later.
Still not over it.
Image credits: CuAl6PO44OH8-4H2O
#42
Randy Quaid. Tried to get asylum in Canada or some crazy s**t.
#43
Alister McGowen & Rory Bremner. The tv impersonator genre has totally dried up.
#44
Hale and Pace. Pretty much everywhere during the late 80s/early 90s cusp, then disappeared.
#45
Richard Blackwood was massive at one point.
#46
Barry from EastEnders... Gone but not forgotten.
#47
The awful Louie Spence- he was everywhere and then after his Celeb BB appearance he dropped off the face of a cliff thankfully.
#48
Brian Cant. Star of every 70s childhood. Just gone. Vanished. Like an old oak table.
#49
The two blokes who weren't David Baddiel or Hugh Dennis from.The Mary Whitehouse Experience.
I know full well their names are Steve Punt and Rob Newman. All four of them were huge in the early 90d, but those two... Imagine Michael McIntyre just going out of all consciousness.
#50
Tim Kash (former TOTP presenter and briefly seen as the next big thing).
#51
Donna Air. Although weirdly her daughter, who looks a lot like her, popped up on my Instagram hanging out with gorillas as her dad's side of the family are very involved in conservation and she was basically raised by some of them!
#52
Mark Lamarr
I remember listening to what I think is the last ever God's Eternal Jukebox on Radio 2, then he just disappeared.
#53
Paul McGann Haven't seen him in anything since Holby City.
#54
Clive Anderson. Hosted Who's Line Is It Anyway, did talk shows for a while including the infamous one with The Bee Gees. Then disappeared.
#55
I was watching the same episodes of TOTP as you so (although not very UK!) I'm going to say PM Dawn, Kris Kross and Color Me Badd.
UK wise: Tasmin Archer, the dude from KWS and Mick Hucknall has been suspiciously quiet of late.
#56
Geoffrey Durham aka "The Great Soprendo", a TV magician. He would also regular guest on Countdown in the Dictionary Corner, amongst other shows and was a very likeable chap I think.
I know his marriage broke down with Victoria Wood and after that he seems to have gotten very into Quakerism and shied away from the public light.
#57
Anne Heche. I havent heard anything about her since the 90s when she had that nervous breakdown... or whatever it was. Last I heard she was found wandering around in the desert or something. Ellen has a bad influence on people. I feel sorry for Portia de Rossi.
Image credits: Belthezare
#58
Dave Benson-Philips. Since gunging people has gone out of fashion he’s vanished. I know he turns up at unis occasionally.
#59
Clive Anderson was quite a big star in the mid 90s. He’s never seen nowadays but paradoxically has arguably the biggest gig of his career: a daytime weekend Radio 4 slot.
