Movie Actresses Who Disappeared After One Role

Some actresses make a single big-screen appearance, leave a lasting mark, and then go do something entirely different with their lives. Sometimes it’s a deliberate decision to step away; sometimes real life simply takes over. Whatever the reason, that one performance becomes their calling card forever.

Here’s a friendly, fact-packed look at women who are best known for exactly one feature-film role and then moved on. You’ll find what they played, how they got there, and—crucially—what they did next.

Carrie Henn

Carrie Henn was cast as Newt in ‘Aliens’ while living with her family at a U.S. Air Force base in England, where casting scouts visited schools and found her. The role became her only film performance, notable for how naturally she handled the survival-heavy scenes despite having no prior experience.

After that, Henn chose not to pursue more screen work. She built a career in education in California, occasionally appearing at sci-fi conventions and in official anniversary features tied to ‘Aliens’, but she hasn’t returned to acting on film.

Tania Mallet

A successful Vogue cover model, Tania Mallet stepped into movies once—playing Tilly Masterson in ‘Goldfinger’. It was her only major film role, and she later explained that strict studio control over her schedule and comparatively low pay made the job less attractive than fashion work.

Mallet returned to modeling and kept a low profile in entertainment circles thereafter, aside from a brief, uncredited television appearance. Career summaries consistently note that she preferred the privacy and independence of fashion to further film offers.

Alicia Rhett

Discovered by director George Cukor during a theater performance, Alicia Rhett landed the role of India Wilkes in ‘Gone with the Wind’—her only feature film. Studio accounts and later profiles emphasize that she was originally considered for other roles before being cast as India.

After filming, Rhett left Hollywood, returned to South Carolina, and dedicated herself to portrait painting and local arts work. Archives and local histories document her sketches from the set and her later career as a working artist and radio voice in Charleston.

Charmian Carr

Charmian Carr’s lone feature-film credit is Liesl von Trapp in ‘The Sound of Music’. She later appeared on television in ‘Evening Primrose’, but she did not pursue additional movie roles, something noted in cast retrospectives and tributes.

Carr built a second career in interior design and authored two books about her experience making ‘The Sound of Music’. She stayed connected to fans through reunions while focusing her professional life outside the film industry.

Dorothy McGowan

Brooklyn-born model Dorothy McGowan made her screen debut as the title character in William Klein’s fashion satire ‘Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?’. After that film’s release, she stepped away from public life and did not continue in movies.

Career summaries and remembrances confirm that the film was her single starring screen role, following an intense run as one of Klein’s favorite models. Later profiles revisit the production and underscore that she chose a life away from the spotlight afterward.

Maggie McOmie

Maggie McOmie co-starred as LUH in George Lucas’s dystopian debut ‘THX 1138’. Sources describe that performance as her only major film credit, with her casting tied to the project’s early independent production phase.

McOmie did not pursue a mainstream film career afterward. She remained active on stage and in local productions, with only rare, small-scale screen appearances in later years, leaving ‘THX 1138’ as her singular lead appearance on film.

Olga Mironova

Olga Mironova played Glasha in Elem Klimov’s ‘Come and See’, a performance often cited in discussions of the film’s harrowing realism. Public filmographies primarily list that feature under her name, reflecting a brief screen résumé.

Available overviews note that she did not continue in film after the production. Details about her life remain private, but records consistently reflect that ‘Come and See’ stands as her sole cinematic role.

Lisa and Louise Burns

The Burns sisters played the ghostly Grady twins in ‘The Shining’, an appearance that quickly entered horror-film iconography. Aside from a brief children’s television credit, the feature was their only big-screen acting work.

Afterward, they took entirely different professional paths—one into law and the other into science—while occasionally participating in events and interviews about the movie as adults. Coverage that tracked the cast’s lives emphasizes that they chose careers beyond acting.

Maria Falconetti

Renée Jeanne Falconetti, better known as Maria Falconetti, was a celebrated stage performer whose only major screen role was Joan in ‘The Passion of Joan of Arc’. Film scholarship and archival notes repeatedly describe it as her sole significant film performance.

After filming, Falconetti returned to the theater and later left Europe during wartime. Biographical accounts trace her life and legacy largely through stage work and the enduring reputation of Dreyer’s film, which remains synonymous with her name.

Have someone you’d add to this list of one-and-done screen turns? Share your picks in the comments!