10 Actors with the Longest Gaps Between Film Roles

When an actor is a true star, we can pretty accurately assume that they’ll be in movies for the rest of their life, or until they decide to retire. The movie industry is teeming with stories about actors whose careers have spanned decades, impacting not just one, but multiple generations. Many of us have had the pleasure of growing up alongside our favorite stars, watching them evolve and transform through different roles over the years.

However, even the biggest stars need a break sometimes. The reasons vary—family commitments, a bad experience on a set, general career frustration, or simply the desire to pursue something different. Plenty of Hollywood stars have taken time away from the industry to focus on other aspects of their lives. For some, this break extends into permanent retirement. For others, it’s just a hiatus before a remarkable comeback.

We’ve put together a list of actors who took significant breaks from acting, yet returned to surprise and delight their fans. Some of these comebacks are legendary. For instance, Gloria Stuart hadn’t acted for 50 years before stunning audiences in Titanic. Similarly, James Cagney’s return in Ragtime was both a career revival and a personal journey of healing. The film industry is demanding, and the breaks these actors took were undoubtedly well-deserved. Nonetheless, their returns were welcomed as though no time had passed at all.