It’s not exactly easy to walk away from a successful career, but some people managed to do it, even though they were still winning championships and making millions.
One final Super Bowl
Peyton Manning definitely struggled during his final NFL season. He faced numerous injuries and didn’t exactly play the best either, but he still managed to finish his career with a Super Bowl victory. In February 2016, Manning helped the Denver Broncos beat the Carolina Panthers 24–10.
This wasn’t any old Super Bowl, though, as it was Super Bowl 50, and winning it gave him his second championship ring. It was also his final game. After winning, Manning announced on March 7 that he would be retiring at age 39. He’d spent 18 seasons in the NFL.
Leaving the number one spot
Ashleigh Barty was the world’s number one tennis player in March 2022. That was when she decided that she’d had enough. Barty won the Australian Open in January without losing a single set, and she was only 25 years old.
She was also the first Australian woman to win the singles title in 44 years. She’d spent 114 consecutive weeks at number one while also having three Grand Slam singles titles. But Barty decided enough was enough. She said she didn’t have the physical or emotional drive to keep competing, so she decided to retire.
An unbeaten farewell
The majority of boxers don’t get a perfect ending, especially after nearly 50 fights. Rocky Marciano was different. In September 1955, he competed in his last professional match against Archie Moore at Yankee Stadium. Moore managed to knock him down pretty early on.
But Rocky refused to give in and, by the ninth round, he knocked Moore out completely. Rocky announced his retirement on April 27, 1956. At that point, he was still the heavyweight champion and had won 49 professional fights, including 43 knockouts.
The final curtain
The majority of performers would be enjoying their retirement when they’re in their 60s, yet Tina Turner kept going. She began her 50th Anniversary Tour in Kansas City in October 2008 at the age of 68. The tour involved her playing 90 concerts across the world.
It ended up becoming her last tour. On May 5, 2009, she played her final full concert at Sheffield Arena in England, as part of a show that lasted nearly two hours. That’d be exhausting for anyone, regardless of their age. Many dates had sold out, but Turner decided she was finished with touring.
Fifty-five million goodbyes
There was no need for Johnny Carson to have a celebrity-packed final episode. Everyone was still watching his show. He’d been hosting The Tonight Show for almost 30 years, so when he said goodbye on May 22, 1992, many Americans were glued to the screen.
Around 55 million viewers watched his last show, which was an incredible 62% share of the TV audience at the time. Carson had hosted around 4,500 episodes and could’ve continued, but he didn’t. He chose to go out on a high instead, while millions still wanted to watch him.
A television empire’s farewell
May 25, 2011, was a historic day for television, as it was the day that The Oprah Winfrey Show aired its last episode. Winfrey had hosted the program for over 25 years and had consistently high views. Yet she decided it was time to say goodbye to daytime television.
The final episode attracted 16.4 million viewers, and it became the show’s most-watched broadcast in more than 18 years. It wasn’t the only episode to do well, as the final three episodes averaged 13.9 million viewers. Winfrey truly ended her daytime show with a bang.
One last comic strip
By 1995, Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes was appearing in around 2,400 newspapers worldwide, and millions of readers had bought his cartoon collections. You’d think that he’d want to continue that success. But he didn’t.
No, Watterson became tired of the daily deadlines, and during the comic’s height, he decided to end it on December 31. His final strip showed Calvin and Hobbes heading into a snowy landscape, ready for another adventure. Watterson never brought the comic back.
The $110 million refusal
Most people would’ve been very happy to receive $110 million. But not Jerry Seinfeld. In 1998, NBC’s parent company offered him $5 million per episode if he gave them another season of Seinfeld. He would’ve earned $110 million for 22 episodes. Yet Jerry refused.
His sitcom was finishing its ninth season as America’s highest-rated television show, and he decided to let it simply go out. The final episode aired on May 14, 1998, and attracted approximately 76 million viewers.
From Hollywood to Monaco
In March 1955, Grace Kelly won the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Country Girl. She beat other Hollywood greats like Judy Garland and Audrey Hepburn, but then her life went in a completely different direction. She quit.
Kelly married Prince Rainier III of Monaco in April 1956, and her final feature film, High Society, was released that same year. She traded her Hollywood career for life as Princess Grace, so while she was still on top, it wasn’t as an actress anymore.
A fashionable fortune
For years, Tom Ford worked on turning his name into a luxury fashion brand, and he eventually succeeded. In 2005, he launched his business after working at Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent. He sold practically everything, whether it was designer clothing or fragrances.
But in November 2022, Estée Lauder announced a deal valuing his company at $2.8 billion, and the sale closed the following year. Ford left his creative director position and his company behind. He’d spent nearly two decades building the brand. Then he chose to sell it with a multibillion-dollar deal.
A billion-dollar fashion house
Hedi Slimane became creative director for Saint Laurent in 2012, and by that time, the French fashion house was already famous. The problem was that it wasn’t bringing in anywhere near as much money as it would under Slimane. He introduced new branding and redesigned stores.
He also gave the clothing a more rock-inspired look. His hard work paid off, as Saint Laurent’s annual revenue jumped from approximately €354 million in 2011 to €974 million in 2015. He left after four years, while the fashion house was approaching €1 billion in yearly sales. What a time to go.
Handing over Microsoft
Bill Gates waited until Microsoft was truly successful before leaving. He’d co-founded the company with Paul Allen back in 1975, and by January 2000, Microsoft was one of the world’s most valuable businesses. Windows and Office were everywhere.
Gates stepped down as CEO on January 13, 2000, although he did remain chief software architect and chairman. It wasn’t a complete departure, but still, he’d pretty much left the top spot.
A billion people on Instagram
Kevin Systrom did something completely unimaginable at the time. He managed to turn a simple photo-sharing app into an app that a billion people used every month, and he did it in less than eight years. In October 2010, he launched Instagram with Mike Krieger.
Facebook agreed to buy the company less than two years later for around $1 billion, and Systrom continued working as CEO at the time. He resigned with Krieger in September 2018. Some reports claim they left due to disagreements with Facebook’s leadership about Instagram’s future, but even so, Systrom walked away from quite a successful business.
Five Olympic golds in one summer
Winning 22 Olympic medals just wasn’t enough for Michael Phelps. He originally retired after the 2012 London Olympics, but then chose to return for the Rio Olympics four years later. He won another five gold medals and a silver one at the competition.
He received his final gold on August 13 and helped the American men’s 4×100-meter medley relay team finish in an Olympic-record 3 minutes, 27.95 seconds. Then he retired. He’d won 28 Olympic medals, including 23 golds, throughout his incredible career.
Champion for five days
Nico Rosberg only spent five days as Formula One world champion before announcing he was going to retire. The announcement came after he’d finally beaten his Mercedes teammate, Lewis Hamilton, to the title.
Despite only being 31 years old at the time, the championship battle had taken a toll on Rosberg. He’d promised his wife that he’d retire if he won the title. He did exactly that and never raced in Formula One again.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
11 once-famous actors you’ve probably forgotten about
For quite a while, these actors seemed to turn up constantly, but then they suddenly vanished from our screens and from our memories.
