Top 5 Reclusive Artists

5. Stanley Kubrick

Between 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Full Metal Jacket, and The Shining, director Stanley Kubrick was responsible for some of the most beloved and visionary films of the 20th century. In his later years, Kubrick also developed a reputation as a notorious recluse, thanks to a fear flying that led him to do all of his work from his secluded manor house in England. While Kubrick did have a wide circle of friends, his media shyness was such that even at the height of his career in the 80s and 90s, few people even knew what he looked like. One famous story about him states that when adoring fans would knock on the door of his house and ask to see him, he would pretend to be the butler and inform them that Mr. Kubrick wasn’t home. While this anonymity allowed Kubrick to work in peace, it also allowed impostors and wild rumors about him to flourish. The most bizarre of these came in the form of Alan Conway, a British con man who went around the UK impersonating the director for quite some time, using Kubrick’s name as a way of getting into restaurants and high society parties. Kubrick is said to have been fascinated by his impostor, though he never commented on the situation before his death in 1999.
4. Syd Barrett


Syd Barrett was perhaps the most reclusive musician of all time, to the point that at the time of his death, many of his most devoted fans believed he had already been dead for years. Barrett got his start with the rock band Pink Floyd in 1964, and was driving force behind the band’s shift toward the psychedelic sound that made them famous. Barrett himself was a heavy user of LSD and other psychedelics, a practice that is said to have led to increasingly erratic behavior in him. Barrett left the band in 1968 and halfheartedly released two solo albums, but eventually gave up on music after refusing offers to produce the records of many popular bands. 1978, he moved back into his mother’s house in Cambridge, and it was there that he lived out the rest of his days until his death in 2006. He gave no interviews, and is said to have spent the majority of his time painting and working in his garden.
3. Thomas Pynchon

Perhaps no artist is more stubbornly wary of the media than Thomas Pynchon, the author of the acclaimed books Gravity’s Rainbow and the Crying of Lot 49. Ever since the early seventies, Pynchon’s refusal to ever make a public appearance or grant interviews has led to the creation of a number of unusual myths and theories, some of which Pynchon himself has even commented on. One of the most famous, put forth by a California newspaper, was the bizarre hypothesis that Pynchon was actually the famed writer J.D. Salinger working under an assumed name. Pynchon’s amusing written response read simply: “not bad. Keep trying.” Since then, a number of reporters and fans have gone to extreme, often illegal lengths to discover the writer’s identity. In the 1980s, one man got an employee of the DMV to look up writer’s driving record, and in the late 90s CNN managed to film Pynchon, of whom no recent photos exist, on the streets of New York. Pynchon, enraged, personally wrote the network a letter requesting the footage not be aired. Despite his refusal to be photographed, Pynchon is a prolific writer, and in recent years, he has finally opened up to some interviews. In one of the most humorous twists on his story, Pynchon made two “cameos” on the TV show The Simpsons in 2004. The author’s actual voice was used, but even in the cartoon he was depicted as wearing a paper bag over his head to conceal his identity.
2. Greta Garbo

Commonly regarded as one of the all time greatest movie stars, Greta Garbo was a Swedish actress who gained fame as the preeminent performer of the silent film era and beyond, before retiring to a life of solitude. Garbo became a star with silent films like Flesh and the Devil and The Mysterious Lady before making the switch to sound with 1930s Anna Christie, a film that was publicized with the now-famous tagline “Garbo Talks.” But by the 1930s, Garbo had become quite discriminating about which films she worked on, and after a film called Ninotchka SaveFrom.net in 1941, she retired from movies altogether. Garbo withdrew from the business almost entirely, and spent her later years living anonymously in New York City. She became something of a legend in the city, as well as the number one target of the paparazzi, who considered shots of her the holy grail of celebrity photography. But despite continued interest in her as a performer, she chose to live out her final years alone and secluded, only meeting occasionally with a small group of friends and acquaintances. During her career Garbo never signed autographs, gave interviews, or answered fan mail, and to this day she remains one of the most unusual figures in film history.
1. J.D. Salinger

There is not a more complete representation of the reclusive, publicity shy artist than writer J.D. Salinger, who has spent the last forty years of his life living in almost total seclusion. Salinger gained fame in 1951 with the publication of his still-controversial novel The Catcher in the Rye, which continues to be one of the most widely read and studied books of the 20th century. Following its success, Salinger released a collection of short stories and another novel called Franny and Zooey before retiring from professional writing and moving to Cornish, New Hampshire. He attempted to retire from public life, as well, but interest in him has led Salinger to frequently appear in court to stop the publication of unauthorized biographies and other examinations of his work. The most recent of these is an unauthorized, unofficial sequel to The Catcher in the Rye, which was written by a Swedish book publisher. Salinger has filed a motion to block the book’s publication, but as of now it is still tied up in court. Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about Salinger’s reclusiveness is that by all accounts he has never stopped writing. He continues to work steadily, according to his family, but sees publishing as nothing but “a damned interruption’ and claims that “I write just for myself and my own pleasure.” The idea that somewhere there is a stack of unpublished Salinger manuscripts has been a constant source of speculation by fans and scholars, but outside of a brief attempt to release one of his old novellas–an idea that was quickly abandoned–Salinger has shown no signs of breaking his silence.
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