8 Great Actors Whose Bad Experiences Caused Them To Quit Hollywood

6. No Longer Willing To Make "Compromises" - Gene Hackman

Gene Hackman is an actor who requires little in the way of an introduction - his illustrious career has spanned several decades, during which he's appeared in everything from The French Connection, which earned him an Academy Award for Best Actor, Superman: The Movie, in which like Kevin Spacey he took on the role of villain Lex Luther through to Wes Anderson's modern classic The Royal Tenenbaums. His strained relationship with Anderson and writer Noah Baumbach on Tenenbaums hinted at Hackman's growing despondency with the film industry, and his final movie - the poorly received flop Welcome to Mooseport - seemed to drive the final nail into his retirement coffin. Speaking of his retirement, Hackman said, "The compromises that you have to make in films are just part of the beast, and it had gotten to a point where I just didn't feel like I wanted to do it anymore." While fans might eagerly await his return to movies, the conditions he's set make that a highly unlikely possibility - in response to a question from GQ about the chance of his return, he said, "if I could do it in my own house, maybe, without them disturbing anything and just one or two people".