{"id":55974,"date":"2026-09-09T18:37:03","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T18:37:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/?p=55974"},"modified":"2026-09-09T18:37:03","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T18:37:03","slug":"they-were-once-hollywood-favorites-then-they-walked-away-and-chose-surprisingly-ordinary-careers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/?p=55974","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThey Were Once Hollywood Favorites \u2014 Then They Walked Away and Chose Surprisingly Ordinary Careers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They were once familiar faces on movie screens and television, but fame was not the life they ultimately wanted. Peter Ostrum became a veterinarian after playing Charlie Bucket in <em>Willy Wonka &amp; the Chocolate Factory<\/em>, while Carrie Henn left acting after <em>Aliens<\/em> and followed her childhood dream of becoming a teacher. Danny Lloyd, remembered as the young Danny Torrance in <em>The Shining<\/em>, eventually became a biology professor. Kay Panabaker also traded acting for working with animals, while Nikki Blonsky used her creative talents in cosmetology after starring in <em>Hairspray<\/em>. Their decisions may have surprised fans, but each found a different kind of fulfillment away from Hollywood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The career changes continued with stars whose second acts were just as unexpected. Amanda Bynes pursued training in cosmetology and worked toward becoming a licensed manicurist. Charlie Korsmo left acting for an impressive academic and legal career, eventually becoming a law professor. Michael Schoeffling, once known as the beloved Jake Ryan in <em>Sixteen Candles<\/em>, turned his attention to furniture making and family life away from Los Angeles. Phoebe Cates opened a boutique in Manhattan, creating a business that reflected her personal taste, while Erik Estrada took his television role as a police officer into real life by serving as a reserve officer. Their stories are a reminder that stepping away from fame does not mean giving up on success\u2014it can mean discovering a completely different version of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>They were once familiar faces on movie screens and television, but fame was not the life they ultimately wanted. Peter Ostrum became a veterinarian after playing Charlie&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":55975,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"views":55,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55974"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55976,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55974\/revisions\/55976"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/55975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}