Some child actors had a role that most people never forgot, but then these stars seemed to vanish from Hollywood almost as quickly as they arrived.
The girl Ripley found
Carrie Henn’s entire movie career started and finished with Aliens. She played Newt, the young survivor who Sigourney Weaver’s character, Ellen Ripley, discovers hiding out on LV-426. Henn somehow managed to hold her own next to Sigourney Weaver, even though she was only 10.
She only became an actress by accident. Her family was living in England, where the film was shot, at the time because her father was stationed there with the U.S. Air Force. Henn went back to school once filming ended and became an elementary teacher in California much later.
Life beyond the Overlook
Danny Lloyd is such a terrific actor in The Shining that you’d assume he’d spend years acting afterward. He didn’t. Lloyd was only six years old when Stanley Kubrick cast him as Danny Torrance, so the director deliberately kept much of the darker material away from Lloyd during filming.
Lloyd’s next acting credit was in a 1982 television movie about G. Gordon Liddy. But he pretty much vanished after that, aside from a cameo appearance in the 2019 sequel to The Shining called Doctor Sleep. Lloyd became a biology professor as an adult and taught at a community college in Kentucky.
The Empress chose another stage
Tami Stronach had the kind of movie debut people spend years trying to get. She became the Childlike Empress in The NeverEnding Story at just 10 years old. But then she stepped away from film entirely.
It wasn’t entirely her choice, though, and had more to do with her parents feeling uneasy about raising a child in Hollywood. Stronach transitioned toward dance instead and later choreographed in New York. She also taught at Marymount Manhattan College. She eventually returned to screen work as an adult, but decades later.
Damien left Hollywood behind
Harvey Stephens had one job to do in The Omen. He had to look just creepy enough. That way, everyone else around him would realize that Damien, his character, wasn’t just an ordinary little boy. He was five when the film came out in 1976.
While Stephens did do a little more acting afterward, none of it was remotely on the scale of The Omen, so he quit trying to stay famous. Stephens eventually worked in finance in London, although newspapers continued to describe him as ‘the boy from The Omen.’
Scout found another life
Mary Badham arrived in Hollywood with very little acting experience. But still, she managed to land the role of Scout Finch in the 1962 film adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird. Badham ended up nominated for an Academy Award for her role at 10.
She continued to work a little in the entertainment industry afterward, including appearing in an episode of The Twilight Zone and two films in 1966. Acting wasn’t something she wanted to keep chasing, however, and she later worked in art restoration.
Annie moved to the classroom
Aileen Quinn seemed like she was born to play Annie in the 1982 musical. She had everything about the titular character down, like the red curls, the big voice, the dog, the whole thing. But she didn’t turn that into a long movie career.
Quinn performed for a short while after, mainly onstage, but decided to focus on teaching instead. She taught theater at Monmouth University. It’s kind of ironic, really, because Monmouth’s Great Hall was used as Daddy Warbucks’ mansion in Annie. What a full-circle moment.
Chunk changed professions
The biggest issue with Jeff Cohen’s career was that he grew up. He played Chunk in The Goonies when he was just 11, but shortly after, he went through puberty. Cohen said it caused his appearance to change and offers from studios to dry up.
So, he decided to quit acting and go to law school instead. He eventually became an entertainment attorney and co-founded Cohen Gardner LLP to help represent people in the industry. It seems he preferred being behind the scenes, rather than in front of the camera.
One song was enough
Billy Redden barely speaks in Deliverance, yet somehow, he became one of the faces people remember most from the film. He starred opposite Ronny Cox in the 1972 film during the famous ‘Dueling Banjos’ sequence, although Redden chose not to look for a career in L.A.
No, he actually stayed in Georgia and lived a fairly ordinary life, including working at a restaurant near Clayton. Redden later said he made very little money from Deliverance and was actually struggling financially in 2012.
Lucy became a writer
Being nominated for an Oscar is a major achievement. Quinn Cummings managed to do it at 10 years old. She was a nominee for her role as Lucy in The Goodbye Girl, and she did continue acting shortly afterward.
Cummings got tired of Hollywood, however, and decided to eventually step away. She went on to invent a baby carrier called the HipHugger and ran the company behind it. Later, she wrote books, blogs, comedy material, and hosted podcasts.
The rider went home
Kelly Reno grew up on a Colorado cattle ranch and had been riding for years. It was only fitting that he played Alec Ramsay in 1979’s The Black Stallion, and for the 1983 sequel, The Black Stallion Returns. His acting career didn’t last very long, though.
Reno suffered a bad road accident in 1985 that seriously injured him and completely changed the direction of his career. He later went back to ranch work and began driving trucks, completely leaving Hollywood behind.
Buffy never got another chapter
Most people in the 1960s knew Anissa Jones as simply Buffy. She joined Family Affair at eight years old and stayed for five seasons, then had a minor role with Elvis Presley in The Trouble with Girls.
But the end of Family Affair in 1971 meant the end of her acting career, more or less, too. She never managed to make a comeback, as Jones died from a drug overdose in California in 1976. She was only 18 years old.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
16 actors best known for one iconic role
Some characters manage to become so iconic that, decades later, people only see that character when they see the actor, no matter how much they might’ve changed.
