8 Child Actors Who Left Hollywood Behind – and What They Do Now

Most child stars are remembered for one frame, one line, or one haircut. It’s easy to assume the story stopped there, since the cameras did. For a good number of them, though, life simply carried on somewhere much quieter.

The eight people below stepped away from acting for very different reasons, from plain disinterest to burnout to health struggles. Their next chapters are just as varied, and the details come from recent reporting and reference sources.

Peter Ostrum, the Boy Who Became a Vet

Ostrum was 12 when talent agents picked him for Willy Wonka, and though he enjoyed making the film, he chose not to sign a three film contract afterward. He’d become interested in his family’s horses on his return, and was especially influenced by the veterinarian who tended to them. Charlie Bucket was his only film role.

He earned a veterinary doctorate from Cornell in 1984. In July 1985 he started practicing at Countryside Veterinary Clinic in Lowville, New York, and he retired in September 2023. He still turns up now and then for film festivals and school talks when the movie is back in the spotlight.

Danny Lloyd, the Biology Professor

Lloyd is best known as Danny Torrance in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. He was reportedly led to believe he was in a drama about a family living in a hotel, not a horror film. After a 1982 TV movie, Lloyd retired from acting.

In 2004 he became an associate professor of biology at Elizabethtown Community and Technical College in Kentucky. He usually doesn’t bring up his acting days with students. In 2019 he made a small cameo as a baseball game spectator in Doctor Sleep, the sequel to The Shining.

Jeff Cohen, Chunk Turned Entertainment Lawyer

Chunk from The Goonies is remembered for the truffle shuffle. Cohen has said he struggled to book roles as he got older, because he lost his chubby kid essence. That’s a blunt way to describe how Hollywood can typecast a child.

He’s now an entertainment lawyer, and he negotiated the contract for his Goonies co star Ke Huy Quan on Everything Everywhere All at Once. When Quan won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 2023, he thanked Cohen, his Goonies brother for life. It’s a neat full circle, and a very different kind of screen credit.

Jake Lloyd, Young Anakin Skywalker

In a 2024 interview with Scripps, Lloyd’s mother said he didn’t quit because of Star Wars. She cited her divorce and his mental health, and said he’d stopped enjoying auditions. His departure from acting was less about fame and more about a young person struggling.

Lloyd was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2008, and he recently spent 18 months in an inpatient program at a mental health rehabilitation facility. In a 2025 Variety interview, he said he’d moved to an outpatient program and was feeling pretty good. His update is more about recovery than a career.

Carrie Henn, Newt in Aliens

Henn played Newt, the young survivor in 1986’s Aliens, and it is her first and only acting credit. That makes her leaving less of an exit than a decision never to start a second act. Few child performers can say they made one film and it was that one.

She told Tulsa World that she chose to follow her passion for education instead, and she worked as a teacher. It’s a fitting path for someone who spent her childhood surrounded by adults on a huge production. She traded the set for the classroom.

Mara Wilson, Matilda Turned Storyteller

Wilson debuted at age six in the 1993 film Mrs. Doubtfire, then appeared in nine more roles over seven years, including Matilda in 1996 and Miracle on 34th Street in 1994. That’s a heavy workload for someone still in elementary and middle school. She has spoken often about how uneven the experience felt.

These days she uses her voice as the main attraction, and her recent work includes narrating the children’s novel Wombat by Katherine Applegate. Asked about a return to acting, she told People in May that she would have to change herself a lot to fit Hollywood’s mold, which she doesn’t want to do. Her answer is a calm, practical one.

Bridget Mendler, From Good Luck Charlie to the Boardroom

Mendler was a familiar face on Disney Channel. She starred in Good Luck Charlie and is now a Harvard University alum and a tech company CEO.

It’s one of the sharper career turns on this list, moving from a sitcom set to running a company. Her path shows that time in front of a camera doesn’t have to close other doors, and that a second career can look nothing like the first.

Amanda Bynes, Actor Turned Fashion Student

Bynes earned a degree from the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, though mental health struggles in the years since have kept her from her goal. Her early fame came from comedy on television and film, so a move toward design was a real change of direction. She’s been open about wanting something outside the spotlight.

As of February 2025, a source told In Touch Weekly that Bynes was still pursuing fashion design. The same source said she seemed to be in a really great place. Because that comes from a source rather than from her, it’s best read with some caution.