12 Stars Who Walked Away From Hollywood at the Height of Their Fame
3. Shirley Temple
In the late 1930s, Shirley Temple was the No. 1 box-office star in America, ahead of every adult actor in Hollywood. As a teenager, though, the roles started to dry up.
She retired from films in 1950, at just 22, and found a second calling in public service. She served as U.S. ambassador to Ghana and later to Czechoslovakia. She died in 2014.
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4. Doris Day
Doris Day was one of the top box-office stars of the 1950s and ’60s, with hits like Pillow Talk and the song Que Sera, Sera.
She made her last film in 1968 and ended her TV show in 1973. She then devoted the rest of her life to animal welfare, founding what became the Doris Day Animal Foundation. She died in 2019 at 97.