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6 "Canceled" Celebrities Who Were Never Heard From Again

These stars have remained out of the spotlight following their controversies.

Even though many celebrities and public figures have been called out for everything from insensitive past tweets to alleged abuse, it seems that, in most cases, their careers continue on in spite of the scandals. But, some celebrities who have been canceled have actually disappeared from public life for the most part, whether that's because they aren't able to get jobs anymore, the jobs they do get aren't in the mainstream, or they stepped back on purpose.

Read on to find out about six canceled celebrities who were practically never heard from again.

READ THIS NEXT: Actor Defends "Unacceptable Behavior" on Set: "I Have Been Canceled."

1
Armie Hammer

Armie Hammer is Moscow in 2017
Maxim Suvoroff / Shutterstock

In 2021, claims about Armie Hammer surfaced, including alleged text messages describing violent fantasies, claims of nonconsensual sexual activity, and an accusation of rape. In response to that accusation, from a woman identified as Effie, Hammer's lawyer said (via Reuters), "From day one, Mr. Hammer has maintained that all of his interactions with (Effie)—and every other sexual partner of his for that matter—have been completely consensual, discussed and agreed upon in advance, and mutually participatory."

After all of this became public, Hammer was either dropped from all of his projects or left them voluntarily. His last film was Death on the Nile, which was released in 2022, but filmed prior to the controversy. He has no movies currently in the works and has moved to the Cayman Islands, where he was making a living selling timeshares, a source claimed to Variety in July 2022.

2
Gina Carano

Gina Carano at the premiere of "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" in 2019
Silvia Elizabeth Pangaro / Shutterstock

Gina Carano made the transition from being a MMA (mixed martial arts) athlete to an actor in the late 2000s. She went on to appear in the action movies Fast & Furious 6, Extraction, and Deadpool. She also had a regular role as Cara Dune on the Star Wars series The Mandalorian, before she was fired due to anti-Semitic social media posts. She had previously been accused of mocking people for their sharing their preferred pronouns and also posted conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election.

Carano did not return to the Star Wars franchise, and her latest projects have not been high-profile. One was a film about Hunter Biden distributed by far-right website Breitbart News.

3
Chris Noth

Chris Noth at the British Independent Film Awards in 2018
Fred Duval / Shutterstock

In 2021, Chris Noth was back in the public eye in a major way first for a positive reason that was quickly followed by a lot of negative attention. Soon after returning to the Sex and the City universe for the sequel series And Just Like That…—and being killed off in dramatic fashion—Noth was accused of sexual assault by multiple women.

"The accusations against me made by individuals I met years, even decades, ago are categorically false," Noth said in a statement (via Variety). "These stories could've been from 30 years ago or 30 days ago—no always means no—that is a line I did not cross."

These allegation resulted in Noth's Peloton commercial being pulled, the removal of his cameo in the season finale of And Just Like That…, and the actor being fired from his show The Equalizer.

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4
Mike Richards

Mike Richards at the 2013 Daytime Emmy Awards
s_bukley / Shutterstock

In 2021, Mike Richards became the new host of Jeopardy! following the death of longtime emcee Alex Trebek. He first faced backlash because he, the executive producer of the show, was named as the new host after a long audition period that including many other candidates. But, when offensive comments he'd made about various groups—included women, Jewish people, and unhoused people—on a podcast in 2013 and 2014 came to light, he stepped down. There was further controversy, because Richards was tied to a discrimination lawsuit that took place while he was the executive producer at The Price Is Right.

In a statement to The Ringer, Richards apologized for his podcast comments and called them "a terribly embarrassing moment of misjudgment, thoughtlessness, and insensitivity from nearly a decade ago."

Not long after stepping down as the host of the show, Richards also lost his jobs as the executive producer of both Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune.

5
James Franco

James Franco at the Governors Awards in 2017
Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock

In 2018, James Franco was accused of sexual misconduct and abuse of power by multiple women, some of whom had been his acting students. This led to a $2 million settlement with two of those students. Franco has not appeared in a film or TV show since 2019, and a few years after the allegations, he spoke out to say that he purposely stepped back.

"I've just been doing a lot of work," he said on The Jess Cagle Show (via People) in 2021. He claimed that he experienced sex addiction after becoming sober from alcohol and admitted to having had sexual relationships with students. "I was in recovery before for substance abuse," he continued. "There were some issues that I had to deal with that were also related to addiction. And so I've really used my recovery background to kind of start examining this and changing who I was."

While he's not yet appeared in another project, Franco made headlines in 2022 when it was announced he would be playing Fidel Castro in an upcoming film.

6
Jeffrey Tambor

Jeffrey Tambor at his Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremony in 2017
Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock

Jeffrey Tambor was at a career high in 2017 when he was accused of sexual misconduct by his assistant Van Barnes, co-star Trace Lysette, and Tamara Delbridge, a makeup artist who had worked with him years earlier. At the time, he was starring on the show Transparent and had won two Emmys for his work on the series. Tambor was then written off of Transparent and has not acted much since then. He appeared in the fifth season of Arrested Development in 2018 and was in the Disney+ movie Magic Camp in 2020.

In 2020 he appeared on Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal show and talked about working on Transparent. "I never, ever, ever, ever intended to make anyone feel uncomfortable—ever. It's just not who I am," he said. "Of course, there were instances where my interaction with these lovely people could have been mistaken way other, way other than how I intended. And I have profoundly apologized, and I apologize now if I made anyone, anyone feel vulnerable, and I'm sorry it ended the way it did."

Lia Beck
Lia Beck is a writer living in Richmond, Virginia. In addition to Best Life, she has written for Refinery29, Bustle, Hello Giggles, InStyle, and more. Read more
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