Retirement is hard choice for many actors

Cary Grant was a class act right up to the end of his Hollywood career, which he concluded by doing that rarest of things — retiring. And he did so when he could have gone on making movies for another two decades. He wasn't ill, he wasn't tired. In fact, when his last picture, "Walk, Don't Run," was released in 1966, Grant was, at 62, still vital, vibrant and had big-screen charisma to spare. He didn't walk away from movies because he wasn't getting offers. He just walked away. By contrast, one of Grant's contemporaries, Laurence Olivier — one of the most celebrated actors of all time — continued to make movies until his death at 82, and most were terrible ("Inchon," "The Jazz Singer"). He also did TV commercials, giving comics a field day and leaving younger moviegoers unaware of his earlier heyday. When to take that final... [read full story]