Yahoo Lifestyle 38 Actors Who Disappeared From Popular TV Shows (And What Really Happened)
Quitting or losing your job isn't anything uncommon, but when you're an actor, people you don't even know will take notice.
Here are 38 actors who quit or got fired from TV shows (and why):
1.Steve Carell initially signed on to Michael Scott on The Office for seven seasons, and as the deadline approached, he was the only cast member who didn't renegotiate his contract.
On the An Oral History of The Office podcast, editor and director Claire Scanlon said, "Steve said he would have come back, they didn’t even try! ...I feel like NBC dropped the ball because I knew the story behind it, which was they just never even bothered, which was just, like, so dumb. I don’t know what was wrong with them."
Upon Michael's exit, Deangelo Vickers (played by Will Ferrell) took over as Dunder Mifflin's regional manager. The show continued for two more seasons, and Steve made a surprise return at Dwight Schrute's wedding in the finale.
2.Cindy Williams played Shirley Feeney on Laverne & Shirley — a spin-off of Happy Days — until the second episode of Season 8. She was pregnant, and production refused to accommodate the schedule changes she needed.
She told Today, "When it came time for me to sign my contract for that season, they had me working on my due date to have my baby...And I said, 'You know, I can't sign this.' And it went back and forth and back and forth and it just never got worked out."
She reportedly sued the producers and Paramount for $20 million after quitting the show.
After finishing out Season 8 with just Laverne, the show was canceled.
3.In 2008, Katherine Heigl withdrew her Grey's Anatomy Emmy nomination because she "did not feel that [she] was given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination." She was subsequently labeled "difficult" and "ungrateful." After going on maternity leave from the show, she decided to only return long enough to wrap up her storylines and then focus on her family.
In 2021, she told Today, "The 'ungrateful' thing bothers me the most. And that is my fault. I allowed myself to be perceived that way. So much about living life, to me, is about humility and gratitude. And I’ve tried very hard to have those qualities and be that person, and I’m just so disappointed in myself that I allowed it to slip. Of course, I’m grateful. How can I not be?"
4.Grace Park played Officer Kono Kalakaua on Hawaii Five-0 for seven seasons. Her salary was reportedly 10-15% lower than what her costars, Scott Caan and Alex O'Loughlin, received, so before the eighth season, she sought pay equity. However, when she and CBS were unable to reach an agreement, she decided to leave the show.
5.Grace Park's Hawaii Five-0 costar Daniel Dae Kim — who played Detective Lieutenant Chin Ho Kelly for seven seasons — also sought equal pay with Scott Caan and Alex O'Loughlin, who also reportedly receive a percentage of the show's profits. He, too, declined to return for the eighth season when his request for pay equity wasn't met.
In a Facebook post, he said, "Though I made myself available to come back, CBS and I weren’t able to agree to terms on a new contract, so I made the difficult choice not to continue."
6.In the late '80s, Cheers actor, Jay Thomas, used his radio show to complain about having to kiss his onscreen love interest, Rhea Perlman. The show's co-creator, James Burrows, promptly fired him because he "insulted Rhea, which meant he insulted all of [Cheers]."
His character was killed off in "a violent yet comedic death" — a Zamboni accident.
7.Suzanne Somers played Chrissy Snow on Three's Company for five seasons. In 1980, she asked for her salary to be raised from $30,000 an episode to $150,000 so her pay would match what costar John Ritter made. However, ABC only offered a $5,000 raise. The day before Suzanne and her husband/manager Alan Hamel went back to renegotiate, he got a call from a friend with connections at the network: "They’re going to hang a nun in the marketplace, and the nun is Suzanne." She was ultimately fired.
Alan told The Hollywood Reporter, "The network was willing to do this because earlier that year the women on Laverne & Shirley had gotten what they asked for, and they wanted to put a stop to it. They’d destroy the chemistry on Company to make a point."
Jenilee Harrison was brought in as Cindy Snow, Chrissy's cousin.
Suzanne told the Hollywood Reporter, "Getting fired for asking for a raise wasn’t fair, but I landed on my feet, and I’ve done OK."
8.In the Dynasty reboot, Nicollette Sheridan was originally cast as Alexis Carrington Colby. However, she left near the end of Season 2 "in order to focus on some personal family responsibilities."
In an official statement, Nicollette said, "Working on the Dynasty reboot and reprising the iconic role of Alexis has been thoroughly enjoyable, but the chance to spend precious time with my terminally ill mother is more important to me right now. I am profoundly grateful to Mark Pedowitz (The CW) and David Stapf (CBS) for graciously allowing me to return to Los Angeles to be with her, and I wish them and everyone associated with the show nothing but continued success. I am hopeful that my fans will embrace my successor with as much passion as they embraced me."
Then, Elizabeth Gillies — who already starred as Alexis's daughter, Fallon Carrington — temporarily took over the role for three episodes at the end of Season 2.
She wore face prosthetics to play Alexis post-plastic surgery.
Explaining how she transformed into Alexis, Elizabeth told TV Line, "I had to get a life cast done, and I'm a little anxious and claustrophobic, so I was worried how I would do with that. They make a mold of your face and you have to breathe through your nose for an hour and a half. The prosthetics we ended up going with were incredibly thin and very impressive; it was done by Blue Whale Studios, run by Matthew Silva and Jonah Levy. It took five hours to get into them and about 45 minutes to get out. I started to get used to it, though. It became like a very calming face mask towards the end of it. I would sometimes fall asleep, which was very strange. It was oddly therapeutic. And I knew it was worth it. The detail they went into — you'll see they painted my chest, my arms, my hands. I’ve never done anything like that."
Having Elizabeth play two main roles was "challenging" production-wise, so for Season 3, they recast Elaine Hendrix as Alexis.
9.In Dynasty Season 1, Nathalie Kelley played Cristal Flores, but she announced her departure during the summer hiatus, telling E! News, "I know that I'm not going to Atlanta in July, that I'm staying here [in LA], and I've got my life back."
She later told TV Insider, "I signed on before I ever read the script. There was a basic outline. I think I wasn’t up to the challenge of a nighttime soap. I wasn’t prepared for that genre. It wasn’t something I had experience in...I felt limited and I felt stuck. At the same time, the writing was boxing me in a little bit. And I think the best thing they felt they could do is start afresh....That's obviously a hard phone call to get as an actor [telling me I was not returning]. It took me by surprise. It send [sic] me into a lot of soul-searching and a realization that I could have dug deeper."
The Cristal that Nathalie played was killed off, and the show brought on the "real" Cristal.
Ana Brenda Contreras then played Cristal for Season 2, but she left due to "personal reasons."
She told People Spain, "It was a decision I made with the producers, and it took a lot of work. I had been carrying a heavy workload, stress, and personal things that made my stay in Atlanta very difficult and had an impact on my health. I'm taking with me the nicest things from my character and my cast mates. I am very grateful to CW, and we are on the best terms. In fact, I keep in touch with the creatives, and I don't doubt that we will work together again."
And lastly, for this show, Daniella Alonso played Cristal for Seasons 3–5.
10.In 2011, Charlie Sheen ranted about Two and a Half Men co-creator Chuck Lorre live on the radio and then to TMZ. He called him a "clown" and a "charlatan" and said that he "violently hate[s]" him. He was promptly fired, and his character was killed off in a freak subway accident.
He was replaced by Ashton Kutcher.
11.In 2013, Selma Blair reportedly criticized her Anger Management costar/executive producer Charlie Sheen's work ethic. In retaliation, he fired her in an expletive-laden text message.
Laura Bell Bundy replaced her.
12.America Ferrera planned to leave her role as Amy Sosa on Superstore after five seasons — but due to COVID-19-related production shutdowns, her story arc spilled over into the first few episodes of Season 6.
She told Variety, "My wish for the show was that it just continued on and on and on and kept on going and that I could start pursuing some of the other creative endeavors that I had been building towards and that I’m starting to do now."
After her departure, the show wasn't renewed for another season. She returned briefly in the final episode.
13.Roseanne Barr played Roseanne Harris-Conner on Roseanne from 1988–1997 then returned for the series revival in 2018. However, she was fired after posting a racist tweet.
In a statement, Channing Dungey, President of ABC Entertainment, said, "Roseanne's Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show."
However, the story wasn't over for the rest of the cast. ABC retooled the show as The Connors — a spin-off centered on Roseanne's daughter Darlene.
14.On the Community set, Chevy Chase used a racial slur while ranting about his character arc. So, ahead of Season 5, NBC made a deal with him to get him to leave the show.
His character was later killed off offscreen.
15.After playing Jesus for two seasons on The Fosters, Jake T. Austin learned that his role was going to be significantly reduced in the next season, so he left.
He didn't want to be held back from taking on other projects
Noah Centineo took over the role in Season 3.
The show explained away Jesus's new look as the result of surgeries he had after the car accident he had in the Season 2 finale.
16.On My Wife and Kids Season 1, Jazz Raycole played Claire Kylie, but she reportedly left the role because her mom objected to a storyline about one of her character's friends getting pregnant.
Jazz told the Christian Post, "I was 12 years old when I got that job. The producers wanted a different thing, they wanted someone a little bit older. I wasn't ready for that."
Jennifer Nicole Freeman then played Claire for Seasons 2–5. The show jokingly acknowledged the recasting.
17.John Rhys-Davies left his role on Sliders after complaining to the writers about the quality of their work. He told Digital Spy, "They would say, 'John, why don't you just say the words as written?' and I'd say, 'I'll tell you what, I will actually say the words as written when you can actually write intelligent sentences!'"
.
He said, "You have to have writers who can write — and who understand that if you're writing science fiction, you should have read some science fiction and you should actually understand some science!"
18.After playing Reggie Mantle for one season on Riverdale, Ross Butler made the decision to have a bigger role on 13 Reasons Why rather than continue playing two small parts on both shows.
He told Vulture, "Reggie's a great character, but it's a different tone. I connected with Zach on a much more real level where I didn't have to create so much of a character for him. Reggie's more outspoken, like that jock archetype. Zach is too, but Zach has more colors, at least from what I saw."
In the 100th episode, Ross returned as Reggie from an alternate universe.
Charles Melton played Reggie for the remainder of the series.
19.Good Times actor John Amos's character was killed off after he criticized the way the non-Black writers wanted to portray the show's Black characters.
He told Sway in the Morning, "They’d go on about their credits and the rest of that, and I’d look at each and every one of them and say, 'Well, how long have you been Black? That just doesn’t happen in the community. We don’t think that way. We don’t act that way. We don’t let our children do that'...I left because I was told that my services were no longer needed because I had become a 'disruptive element.'"
20.In 2019, Ruby Rose did not return to their role as Kate Kane on Batwoman after only one season, citing the COVID-19 pandemic, their allergy to the latex costume, and a serious on-set injury as reasons for leaving.
However, in 2021, she came forward with the full story. Addressing the CW on her Instagram story, she wrote, "I will come for you so what happened to me never happens to another person again — and so I can finally take back my life and the truth. Shame on you."
In a series of Instagram Stories, they described sexual harassment, serious injuries, and other unfair treatment they and others experienced on set.
She also emphasized that she didn't quit the show. She said, "I wouldn't return for any amount of money nor if a gun were to my head."
In a statement to BuzzFeed, Warner Bros. Television Group said, "Despite the revisionist history that Ruby Rose is now sharing online aimed at the producers, the cast and crew, the network, and the Studio, the truth is that Warner Bros. Television had decided not to exercise its option to engage Ruby for season two of Batwoman based on multiple complaints about workplace behavior that were extensively reviewed and handled privately out of respect for all concerned."
Javicia Leslie joined the cast as Ryan Wilder, Batwoman's successor, and the part of Kate Kane was played by Wallis Day during Season 2.
Colin Bentley / ©The CW / Courtesy Everett Collection, ©CW Network/Courtesy Everett Collection
21.Demi Lovato starred on Sonny With A Chance as Sonny Munroe for two seasons before severing ties with Disney Channel altogether.
They told Bustle, "I came out of [rehab] with the choice of talking about my struggles or my journey with the possibility of helping people, or keeping my mouth shut and going back to Disney Channel...I was like that doesn't feel authentic to me. So I chose to tell my story."
The show was reworked into the spin-off So Random, which made the fictional sketch comedy show from the original series a reality. Sonny was replaced by her former nemesis/love interest Chad Dylan Cooper (played by Sterling Knight), but the show never addressed why.
22.Chad Michael Murray played Lucas Scott on One Tree Hill for six seasons before leaving over salary disputes. In an infamous YouTube video, he told fans, "They're not bringing me back next year...because they want to save money."
"See, this is what all the fans should do online, is start blogging and being pissed off that they don't want that. That's what they should do," he also said.
23.When Disney fired Steve Whitmire, who'd voiced Kermit the Frog for 27 years, in 2016, they gave him two reasons — "unwanted notes during the short-lived Muppets reboot on ABC and a union disagreement."
Whitmire told the New York Times, "This is my life's work. The only thing I've done my whole adult life, and it's just been taken away from me. I just couldn't understand why we couldn't resolve this"
24.On Family Matters, Jo Marie Payton played Harriette Winslow until midway through Season 9, when she left because she was unhappy on set.
She told Entertainment Weekly, "I actually made the decision to leave the show two years before I left. I was unhappy about a lot of things; I was going through a divorce, I wasn't happy on the show — it didn't mean I did not want to perform as an actress or an artist. The way I explain it is that, when you're a baker, you don't always want to bake cakes or cookies; you want to bake pies, you want to bake bread. I wanted to do something else. I don’t regret that I left."
Judyann Elder took over the role for the final nine episodes.
25.Anna Faris played Christy Plunkett on Mom for seven seasons, but she left abruptly "to pursue new opportunities" before production began on Season 8.
In a statement, she said, "The past seven years on Mom have been some of the most fulfilling and rewarding of my career...I’ll be watching next season and rooting for my TV family."
However, her decision was reportedly "sudden and unwelcome" for the network, and the show was canceled after only one season without her.
26.On the second episode of Friends, Carol Willick, Ross's ex-wife, was played by Anita Barone, who had initially auditioned for a main role. She allegedly quit because she wanted to pursue a more full-time role, which lines up with the fact that she eventually starred on The Jeff Foxworthy Show.
Jane Sibbett played Carol for the remainder of the show.
Jane was actually cast as Rachel Green originally. However, after producers found out she was pregnant, they told her that "it wouldn't work out."
She told News.com.au, "So I got home from hospital after giving birth to my son, and I got a phone call saying that they were replacing Carol and could I come to work the next day. Two days after I delivered my son, he and I were on the set. I was in a milky haze. But it was funny. It was only supposed to be a two-week job, so I'm very grateful."
27.For Modern Family Seasons 1 and 2, Jaden and Ella Hiller, who are identical twins, played Lily Tucker-Pritchett. However, their parents allowed them to quit because they no longer enjoyed acting, becoming irritable and unhappy on set.
Their mom, Michelle Hiller, told People, "Ella and Jaden are enjoying new toddler adventures in swimming, dance, gymnastics, and rock climbing. They are happy with the freedom of being 3 [years old]!"
Aubrey Anderson-Emmons played Lily for Seasons 3–11.
The show quietly aged Lily up, making her six at the end of Season 4 when she should've been four or five.
28.On The Baby-Sitters Club, Xochitl Gomez played Dawn Schafer in Season 1, but she left to play America Chavez in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
She told Entertainment Tonight, "I felt really sad, but I knew that, just because of COVID, I couldn't be at one place and then another and then have to just switch all the time."
Kyndra Sanchez played Dawn in Season 2.
29.On American Housewife, Julia Butters left the role of Anna-Kat Otto after four seasons so that she could go after new opportunities.
For the final season, Giselle Eisenberg played Anna-Kat.
30.For the first two seasons of Boy Meets World, Lily Nicksay played Morgan Matthews.
On Pod Meets World, William "Rusty" Russ, who played Morgan's dad, said, "I think there was some issues that had to do with growing up. I'm not sure she was very happy at the time and [series creator] Michael Jacobs, to his credit, could see that. He decided what was best personally for her was to let her try something else, go somewhere else."
Costar Danielle Fishel added, "We were talking about the pressure. You really have to want it. It's a lot on your shoulders, and she was six years old. I think eventually she just got to a point where she was like, 'This isn't as fun as you guys all think it is.'"
For Seasons 3–7, Lindsay Ridgeway took over the role.
Both actors reprised the role on the series finale of Girl Meets World.
31.Santino Fontana left his role as Greg Serrano on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend early in Season 2 because, when the show's future was still up in the air, he signed on to other projects.
As a result, his character left, dramatically breaking up with Rebecca at the airport.
Describing the plans for the show if he hadn't left, series co-creator Aline Brosh McKenna told Entertainment Weekly, "We always imagined they would break up because their thing was so toxic and terrible, and that they would become close friends."
When Greg returned in Season 4, he was played by Skylar Astin.
The show explained it as Rebecca seeing Greg differently. Now emotionally healthier, he was basically a new person in her eyes.
32.On The Goldbergs Seasons 4–5, Rowan Blanchard played Jackie Geary. However, she passed on Season 6.
On Twitter, series creator Adam F. Goldberg said, "Let me make this clear. I didn't fire her and never would've. She turned us down, and that meant having the character vanish, and this is my life, and Jackie didn't vanish suddenly. Their story continues."
Alexis G. Zall took over the role for Season 6 then returned in Season 10. In his narration for Season 6, Episode 2, Adam Goldberg explained that his girlfriend had changed a lot after spending her summer away at NYU.
33.Mischa Barton played Marissa Cooper on The O.C. for three seasons, but she didn't discuss her exact reasons for leaving until 15 years later.
In 2021, she told E! News, "Halfway through Season 2 I would say, when we started doubling up on episodes and shooting [became] so much harder...I just didn't feel I could keep going."
Production gave her a choice — "Do you want your job and to sail off into the sunset and potentially you can come back in the future in some bizarre TV scenario, or we can kill your character off and you can go on with your career that you want and what you want to do?"
She felt that leaving "was the best thing for [her] and [her] health and just in terms of not really feeling protected by [her] cast and crew at that point."
34.Valerie Harper starred as Valerie Hogan on the Lorimar Productions sitcom Valerie for two seasons. As the show's ratings increased, she requested a pay raise to $100,000 per episode as well as 35% of the adjusted gross profits. Lorimar turned her down, so she stopped showing up for work. She returned to set when they compromised at $65,000 an episode and 12.5% of the profits. However, a week later, they fired her.
Lorimar also sued her for breach of contract for $70 million. She countersued both Lorimar and NBC for damages, requesting $180 million.
She told People, "This is the worst thing that ever happened to me. I feel robbed and ripped off. There’s the feeling that Valerie Harper is this greedy, clutching actress. That’s a bald-faced lie."
Her charges against NBC were dropped, but she was awarded $1.4 million in damages from Lorimar after the jury ruled she'd been wrongfully fired. She was also awarded 12.5% of the show's profits.
The show was renamed Valerie's Family and continued into the third season without her. Her character was killed off, and Sandy Duncan joined the cast as Sandy Hogan, Valerie's sister-in-law.
35.Topher Grace played Eric Forman on That '70s Show for seven seasons, but landing roles in movies like Ocean's Eleven, Traffic, and Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! inspired him to leave.
Initially, the network planned to recast Josh Meyers as Eric, but they worried that would upset fans of the show. So, they introduced Meyers as a completely new character, Randy Pearson, to fill the void Eric left behind.
36.Lauren Cohan played Maggie Greene on The Walking Dead from 2011-2018. After her first contract was up, it was time to renegotiation with AMC. She reportedly asked for equal pay with her male costars. However, the negotiations left her feeling "in some ways surprised," so she "took that, how baffled [she] was, and thought, 'Okay, well that's a sign. This is maybe just not a fit anymore.'"
"That’s pretty standard renegotiation," she told SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live.
She also told Entertainment Weekly, "To feel like we weren't lining up in so many ways I just thought, 'Okay, well, maybe that means something.'"
However, she also left the door open for her character to come back. In 2020, she returned.
She told the Hollywood Reporter, "I knew [Maggie] was going to come back, we just didn’t know exactly when. I mentally always had her in a quadrant of my brain and soul. [Showrunner Angela Kang] and I just kept this conversation alive and flexible."
37.Maggie Roswell voiced Maude Flanders on The Simpsons from 1990-1999. She asked Fox to raise her salary from $1,500-$2,000 an episode to $6,000. However, Fox only offered her an extra $150 — which didn't even cover her flights from her home in Denver to the recording studio in Los Angeles. So, she quit.
She told the Los Angeles Times, "I wasn’t asking for what the other cast members make. I was just trying to recoup all the costs I had in travel. If they’d flown me in, I’d still be working."
Maude was killed off in the 2,000th episode "Alone Again, Natura-Diddily."
However, in 2002, Maggie reached a deal with Fox. Since then, she's been voicing Maude in flashbacks and as a ghost
38.And finally, on Supernatural, Katie Cassidy played Ruby in Season 3. Series creator Eric Kripke reportedly said that she wasn't brought back for "purely budgetary" reasons, but Katie said that she left for a different role.
In Season 4, she was replaced by Genevieve Padalecki (née Cortese), who went on to marry lead actor Jared Padalecki. She reprised the role in Season 15.
She told Entertainment Weekly, "Danneel [Ackles, who played a recurring role and is married to lead actor Jensen Ackles] and I both from way back, probably around the time we got married, we've always joked about wanting to be a part of it in the end. And so I feel like it's always been out there. The show is a huge thing in our life and in my life, and so initially they approached Jared, who never told me. We were up there for Thanksgiving or something, and Kevin Parks, who is the AD on the show, was like, 'Hey, Gen. I'm trying to schedule when you're coming up to Vancouver.' And I said, 'What? What are you talking about?' He's like, 'What do you mean? Aren't you confirmed?' I was like, 'Dang it. Of course I'll do it.' There was a communication breakdown in our family. Jared knew I really wanted to be a part of it. It's part of my family. So for me, it's always been a no brainer."
