9 Actors Who Retired After Just One Movie

Introduction

The film industry is a tough and competitive one, and for some actors, one movie was more than enough and they decided to make a career shift after their first movie. The film industry is full of inspiring stories of actors who worked hard for many years before they got their big break and maintained a stable career after their most successful movie. Others skipped various steps and their first movie was a huge hit, boosting their careers and ensuring that they were consistently cast in a variety of projects. There are also some cases where actors decided to leave the film industry after just one movie, no matter how successful or not it was.

Dorothy McGowan in Who Are You Polly Maggoo

The reasons for an actor to quit vary, with exhaustion and wanting to pursue other passions being the most common ones, but when an actor quits after just one movie, the reasons are especially intriguing. Some actors quit the film industry after their first movie as a result of the movie’s huge success, others were discouraged after struggling to find more acting opportunities, and others simply decided that the experience of making one movie was more than enough, but the first and only performances of many of these actors ended up becoming part of film history.

Dorothy McGowan - Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?

Dorothy McGowan was an American model who, in the 1960s, was one of photographer William Klein’s favorite models. In 1966, Klein made his directorial debut with Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?, a satirical arthouse mockumentary that spoofed the fashion world and its many excesses. Dorothy McGowan played the title Polly Maggoo, an American supermodel who was being followed by a French television crew. After starring in Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?, McGowan didn’t act or model again and disappeared from public life. Dorothy McGowan passed away on January 2, 2022, at the age of 82.

Sarah Pickering - Little Dorrit

Little Dorrit is an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ 1857 novel of the same name. It tells the story of Arthur Clennam (Derek Jacobi), who returns to London after working abroad for years. Back in London, he meets Amy Dorrit (Sarah Pickering), with whom he falls in love, leading them to fight their circumstances so they can be together. Despite Little Dorrit’s critical success, Sarah Pickering never acted again, and it’s unknown what happened to her.

Little Dorrit 1987

Lucas Donat - Damien: Omen II

Damien: Omen II is the sequel to the 1976 horror classic The Omen, though it didn’t have the same success. After the death of his parents in the first movie, Damien grew up with his uncle, his wife, and his cousin Mark, played by Lucas Donat. Donat is the son of actors Michael Learned and Peter Donat, but he didn’t follow their steps and retired from acting after Damien: Omen II. Donat is now an advertising executive and the Chief Marketing officer of Autonomy, and is considered one of the foremost innovators of advertising and brand building for internet-based companies.

Mark Richard and Damien in Omen 2

Stefan Güttler - Heart of Glass

Werner Herzog’s Heart of Glass is the story of an 18th-century Bavarian town with a glassblowing factory that produces a brilliant ruby glass. When the master glassblower dies, the secret of producing it is lost, and the local Baron, along with the townspeople, descends into madness. Heart of Glass is known because almost all actors performed while under hypnosis, with the purpose of suggesting the trance-like state of the townspeople. Stefan Gütter played Huttenbesitzer in Heart of Glass and was one of the hypnotized cast members, and this experience was more than enough for him as he retired from acting, and it’s unknown what he has done ever since.

Stefan Guttler in Heart of Glass

Renée Jeanne Falconetti - The Passion of Joan of Arc

Carl Theodor Dreyer’s now-classic silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc starred Renée Jeanne Falconetti as the title real-life heroine. The Passion of Joan of Arc is considered one of the greatest movies ever made and Falconetti’s performance one of the finest in cinema history, but that was her first and only film credit. Falconetti was already an acclaimed stage actress by the time she was cast as Joan of Arc, and there’s contradicting information about her life and career.

Joan of Arc from The Passion of Joan of Arc.

Amber Scott - Hook

Steven Spielberg’s Hook follows an adult Peter Pan, now known as Peter Banning (Robin Williams), who forgot his childhood and became a workaholic lawyer – but when Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman) kidnaps his children, Jack (Charlie Korsmo) and Maggie (Amber Scott), Peter returns to Neverland to save them and regains his memories. Amber Scott won over critics and viewers with her charm and acting skills, but she didn’t continue with her acting career after Hook. In 1995, she had a voice role in the TV series American Experience, and in 2019, she served as a producer in the short film Cannonball, but she hasn’t made a proper comeback as an actress.

Amber Scott as Maggie in Hook

Tami Stronach - The NeverEnding Story

Wolfgang Petersen’s 1984 fantasy film The NeverEnding Story follows Bastian Bux (Barret Oliver) who finds himself inside the world of a magical book that tells the story of young warrior Atreyu (Noah Hathaway), who is tasked with stopping a malevolent force called “The Nothing”. In addition to that, the ruler of Fantasia, the Childlike Empress (Tami Stronach), falls ill and Atreyu has to find a cure. The success of The NeverEnding Story brought unwanted attention to Stronach and her family and she received offers for inappropriate roles for someone her age, so Stronach made a career shift. Stronach returned to acting in 2002 with a physical theater company and has focused on her dancing career.

The Childlike Empress in The NeverEnding Story

Carrie Henn - Aliens

James Cameron’s Aliens follows Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) who agrees to travel back to the moon where she first encountered the deadly aliens to investigate what happened to a human colony. There, Ripley meets Newt (Carrie Henn), a traumatized young girl with whom she confronts the aliens in the movie’s third act. Henn’s performance was praised by critics, who called her “endearingly brave and clever”, but acting wasn’t Henn’s true passion. Instead, Henn pursued her dreams and became a school teacher, and occasionally attended fan conventions.

Carrie Henn as Newt looking sad in Aliens

Peter Ostrum - Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory

Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory introduced the audience to Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum), one of five kids who found the Golden Ticket in a Wonka chocolate bar and was invited to visit the factory of eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder). Although Ostrum has spoken highly of his experience filming Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory and shared that Wilder instructed him in the business, he declined a three-film contract and went on to become a veterinary, an interest he discovered after seeing a veterinarian attending his family’s horse.

Peter Ostrum as Charlie Bucket smiling in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory