10 Great Actors Who Quit Hollywood
9. Shirley Temple - Retired At 22
Shirley Temple is best known for her work as a child actor due to her impressive box office draw between 1935 and 1938. During that time, Temple acted in 14 films including Curly Top, The Littlest Rebel, and Our Little Colonel. She continued to act until the age of 22 when she decided she was done with the life.
Fearing typecasting and finding the quality of films she was in to be lacking, she abandoned Tinsel Town and started her life working in a variety of careers.
She married and later campaigned for Congress in the 1960s, but didn't win a seat. That didn't sway her ambitions and after joining a UN delegation in 1969, she became the U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and later, Czechoslovakia, a position she held until 1992.
Shirley Temple Black passed away at the age of 85 in 2014 following a long life as a diplomat, congressional hopeful, and actress.