10 Actors Who Retired Way Too Early

The title of this entry might as well be “Joffrey Baratheon" and that is perfectly fine. If that was the only role that Jack Gleason (no not the rotund roughhouser from the Honeymooners) ever played, or was ever known for, that would be a career well spent.

So marvelous was his performance as the wicked and cruel King Joffrey in Game of Thrones, Gleeson would often be on the receiving end of a bunch of hate mail and be subject to verbal abuse once spotted in the street.

So much so, that author George RR Martin even personally wrote Gleeson a letter stating "Congratulations on your marvelous performance. Everyone hates you!"

At the end of the day, if you were that convincing in your role of an absolute psychopath, despite being by all accounts a very nice person in real life, then you did your job masterfully. After the Purple Wedding in Thrones, and also singing the end credits of the episode containing said wedding (fun fact) Gleeson decided he had enough of acting.

It really is a shame that somebody so young and so talented decided to walk away from the spotlight so soon, but due to his talent, wonderful reputation, and relative youth, perhaps the jury is still out on whether or not this retirement will hold true.