Being a child actor is not for the faint of heart—it’s no surprise so many young performers struggle as they get older, and find it difficult to handle the pressures of Hollywood. While some left the business to start totally new and different careers, some still dabble here and there in show business as adults. Here are five former child stars who are living very different lives these days, and seem very content to be doing so. Read on to find out what happened to some of your favorite young movie stars.
RELATED: This Child Star Is Now Going by a New Name.
Peter Ostrum
Paramount Pictures
Peter Ostrum played Charlie Buckett in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) and went on to become a veterinarian. “The high school students always want to talk about my particular career choices and how I made the leap from theater to veterinary medicine,” Ostrum, 66, told Veterinary Practice News. “The young kids want to know how Charlie Bucket flew. The answer is with very thin wires… I want them to know that they have options in their lives, and when one door closes, another opens. It’s important for kids to realize that you don’t have to be locked into one particular thing. It’s okay to change your mind.”
Charlie Korsmo
TriStar Pictures
Charlie Korsmo starred in major movies such as Hook (1991) and went on to study physics at M.I.T. before becoming a law professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. “After Hook, that was my last movie as a kid, we really had a sort of choice to make,” he told PEOPLE. “But I hadn’t been in school for a few years. I suddenly found I didn’t really have friends my own age anymore.”
Jeff Cohen
Warner Bros.
Jeff Cohen, 50, is immortalized as Chunk in The Goonies (1985), but these days he’s a respectable lawyer, who actually worked with castmate Ke Huy Quan for his Everything Everywhere All at Once contract. “When the producer of our movie was trying to make my deal, he said he never imagined that he’d have to talk to Chunk and Data for his movie,” Quan told The Hollywood Reporter. “Jeff is an outstanding lawyer.”
Lisa Jakub
20th Century Fox
Lisa Jakub, 45, is known for movies such as Mrs Doubtfire (1993) and Independence Day (1996), but these days she’s living a different sort of life. The former actress is now a writer and yoga teacher. “I didn’t hate it. It wasn’t awful and I’m not whining about how hard my life was,” she wrote on her blog. “Parts of my job were wonderful. But then I got to the point where the competition and the politics and the superficial nature of the industry started to get to me. I felt like a phony who was trying to live someone else's dream. My anxiety and depression intensified. So, I decided I should leave, before I became one of those alcoholic/eating disorder ravaged/drug addicted train wrecks of a former child actor. I had no desire to be a cautionary tale.”
Ross Bagley
Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Fans will immediately recognize Ross Bagley, 35, as the little kid from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990) and Independence Day (1996). These days Bagley is working as a realtor and DJ. Bagley told Hip Hop News Uncensored he wanted a more quiet life after spending so much time in the public eye.
