Joaquin Phoenix's Acting Retirement and Other Actors Who Ditched Hollywood Early

If you hate it as much as I do when people in show business say they're retiring and eventually renege on their word several times over, then we're going to be in complete solidarity through this article. It's rare when an actor or musician who decides to retire stays retired without need for a farewell to the farewell (to the farewell) tour...or movie. Now that Joaquin Phoenix is announcing at the time of this writing that he's retiring from acting at the ripe age of 34, the basic consensus from his fans on the net is that he's probably just reactionary to thinking he's done everything he wants to do in movies and will likely go back to acting when the acting itch strikes again. Or, maybe those fans are wrong and he'll keep to his word as some actors and actresses did in Hollywood's long past.

Yes, I'll put the argument out there that Joaquin Phoenix probably hasn't really lived up to his fullest acting potential yet. And you could say the same thing about various actors from Hollywood lore who, through sometimes easily explained circumstances, decided to chuck the world of making movies. For some, that didn't mean quitting show business completely. In those scenarios, you could see a lot of intelligence in why they moved away from Hollywood to stick with some other career in the arts that was more fulfilling. For those who told all of show business to go stick it where the sun don't shine, you also saw an act of intelligence--if also frustrating their fans who knew their favorite actors and actresses could do so much more.

Keep in mind that it's mostly been women who've taken early retirements from Hollywood. There could be an argument there that many of those women retired early because they knew the prospects of not getting work any longer in films once they hit their 40's. While that wasn't quite as acute as it is in Hollywood today, there does seem to be evidence there from long ago that some actresses did get out of the business for that very reason. The most famous case would be the actress who actually wanted to be let alone--not left alone: Greta Garbo.

Only one year older than Joaquin Phoenix is now when she left films at age 35, Garbo seemed to feel concerned that she didn't look as good as she did in her 20's once she took a brief break from films after filming 1939's "Ninotchka." That obviously sounds preposterous when you're only in your mid 30's, but you have to consider the persona Garbo set for herself. Only Bette Davis managed to break the mold in the 1930's of actresses looking less than glamorous in more demanding roles. Garbo arguably would have never fit in well with that type of acting.

After filming 1941's "Two-Headed Woman", Garbo realized that her path didn't look bright with the direction film was heading during the WWII years and after. When she saw her screen tests for a 1949 French film, she realized she'd aged too much at the age of 43 to even bother taking the role. As we all know, she never made a film again. However, when we see those screen tests today (seen for the first time during a TCM docu on Garbo back in 2005), Garbo looked ten times better than most Botox-injected actresses do at 43. She was still a large part of an utterly different era of Hollywood, though.

For most actresses who quit Hollywood before Garbo and after, it was mostly about pure disgust over Hollywood, or perhaps having grand illusions about doing something else. The very first early retiree from films was Theda Bara already in 1919 and merely because she couldn't come to an agreement with the studio she worked for: Fox. The strong magnetic pull of marrying millionaire husbands was sometimes too strong rather than dealing with the incredibly long and stressful long hours of making movies. That's exactly what happened to Bara who didn't seem to mind being a trophy wife from then on.

With someone like Grace Kelly in the 1950's, she was arguably a bit naïve in thinking that living the life of a princess would rival being a movie star. I get the feeling today that had she had the opportunity to live her life over, she wouldn't have become Princess Grace of Monaco that ultimately led to her untimely death from a car accident in 1982. Then again, we don't know exactly how she felt about her role as a princess and being married to Prince Rainier. We know it was no bed of roses, plus the realization that a lot of her potential was lost walking away from Hollywood.

In some cases (for instance, Doris Day), you have to figure that happiness was found walking away from Hollywood, despite so much more that could have been done. When Day retired from films at the age of 44 in 1968, she seemed to find more peace working on TV for a few years in the early 70's. But when she became the Greta Garbo of her generation starting in the 1980's (yes folks, she's still alive and active as I write this)--there seems to be many out there who wish Doris Day would do something in show business again just because...well, Doris Day was good at everything she did.

A lesser-known example in the same boat would be the ballerina turned actress Moira Shearer who really had one brilliant role in Michael Powell's "The Red Shoes" in 1948. Shearer did only half a dozen movies in her entire career (1960's cult classic "Peeping Tom" being her last and only pointless role), though you could say she learned a lot from her legendary role in "The Red Shoes." In that plot, she plays a ballerina torn between two different professional directions that ultimately led to a breakdown and suicide. All indications point to Shearer learning well from her part and turning down myriad plum offers to appear in various prestigious 1950's movie musicals, plus more. Instead, she realized that keeping up her skills as a ballerina was more important. She stayed in the world of ballet for the rest of her life.

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So what about the male actors in history who decided to retire early? You didn't have nary a one through most of the golden age of Hollywood. Based on my research, I found a few promising and forgotten male character actors who decided to chuck the world of movies for other professional horizons. Nevertheless, the biggest name you'll find who retired early to get into politics was that actor by the name of Ronald Reagan.

Yes, it's amazing Reagan didn't get into politics a lot sooner than he did considering his popularity and the fact that his 1950's and 60's movies are generally clunkers compared to his better output in the 30's and 40's. We won't get into any of the analysis that Reagan was still acting while President in the 1980's. Had he not have gone into politics, it's doubtful his acting career would have flourished much past the 1960's, all despite having a lot of active roles on the TV westerns of the era. It's somewhat bizarre to see Reagan's acting parts today and trying to separate it from his later political aura. That gives his acting parts more an interesting resonance that makes watching his earlier films worth the time.

Sure, we can say that Reagan was always likeable in his acting parts. But it's increasingly more obvious in the more recent era that another actor is becoming one of the most likable, even though he decided to walk away from making movies back in the late 90's. It's Rick Moranis who apparently made barrels of money acting in his "Honey, I Shrunk..." movie series. When his wife died of cancer back in the 1990's, Moranis understandably must have thought that being away from his kids while making movies was too much of a grind. Only in his mid 40's after making the comedy "Big Bully" with Tom Arnold in 1996, Moranis decided to spend quality time raising his kids without a mother.

To date, Moranis has only done sporadic projects and only voice acting at that. His fans consistently beg him to make more films, though he's so far refused.

Too bad that the most likeable and actors with the most potential sometimes willfully get away from the business due to the business not being kind to them. It's no real secret that Hollywood is still one of the leading causes of mental degradation if you don't have a strong support system. Those who escape the insanity intact probably have more intelligence than those once brilliant actors who stay way too long at the fair...

Sources:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=7&entry_id=32101

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001256/

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001548/