It's too bad, he is great. I had begun to wonder about this, since I hadn't seen him in anything in awhile. Lots of great movies a lot of people know about, but my personal fave is The Royal Tenenbaums

Do actors ever REALLY retire voluntarily? I suspect if somebody came up with a Tenenbaum-quality role and offered it to him, he'd get back in the saddle, but there just aren't any.

I think that it gets harder and harder for actors to get big roles when they get that old because the completion insurance for the movie gets too expensive. They're stuck doing little cameo roles that could get re-filmed easily if something happens to them.

Are we going to Addis Ababa, Mister Luthor?

Paul Newman, too. Both very sad.

I have also retired from the film industry. My departure from the screen was captured in this press release from the Associated Press:

Actor in Spastic Monkey Sex Film Series Retires

harder for actors to get big roles when they get that old because the completion insurance for the movie gets too expensive.

Wow, I had never ever thought of that, how depressing. (also, how Plan 9! Lets just get a tall guy with a cape to crouch around and pretend to be the lead for the rest of the movie!)

Do actors ever REALLY retire voluntarily?

I really think at a certain age, like, 78, the simple fact that you need to wake up at 4AM for like a month or more, and spend time sitting around all day to do maybe a scene, I really think you get to an age where it's simply too hard physically, and you lack the motivation.

Mr. Hackman to me is an American giant, and with a career like that, I can totally understand getting simply fed up with the system, but of course the low quality may indeed play a role in some actor's decisions. and I say this as someone who has watched everything he could if Hackman was in it, good or bad, just because of him. There aren't many actors I'd watch regardless of the movie they're in.