Why Frankie Muniz Disappeared From Hollywood

If you were a kid around Y2K, chances are Frankie Muniz was a mainstay on your TV set. The New Jersey-born actor made his breakthrough at a young age, playing smartass kid genius Malcolm in the boisterous family sitcom "Malcolm in the Middle." The Fox show was a major hit that built its brand on the unstoppable hijinks of the Wilkerson clan, a working poor family raising five boys. Malcolm was, of course, the middle kid, and he often addressed the camera directly with his signature sardonic commentary.

"Malcolm in the Middle" made Muniz a household name, and he appeared in several high-profile movies and even headlined his own action franchise as a young adult. Eventually, his star power rose so much that the majority of roles in his TV filmography are just titled "himself," where he showed up as some version of Frankie Muniz in shows like "Arrested Development," "Don't Trust the B**** in Apt. 23," and "Lizzie McGuire." 

Eventually, though, Muniz's time in the spotlight tapered off. He's appeared in fewer than 10 films since 2010, and his TV roles these days tend to be one-off guest appearances. Rest assured, though: Muniz has kept busy, and he's about to be back on screen in a big way.

Muniz's first on-screen role came in 1997 when he was just 11 years old, and he landed the lead role in "Malcolm in the Middle" a few years later. The chaos-fueled hit lasted seven seasons, and during that time, Muniz was everywhere. He co-starred in the surprisingly funny Shawn Levy comedy "Big Fat Liar" with Amanda Bynes and Paul Giamatti, headlined the "Agent Cody Banks" franchise opposite Hilary Duff, and he even appeared as Buddy Holly in the pitch perfect music biopic parody "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story." He also had a supporting role in the Nickelodeon hit "Fairly OddParents."

The actor recently told Pedestrian TV he wouldn't let his kids become child actors because it's "an ugly world in general," but he clarified that his own past experiences with fame were actually pretty decent. "To be honest, my experience was 100 percent positive. But I know so many people, friends that were close to me, that had such insanely negative experiences," he explained. He has had one very public low moment, when police were called to his home over an alleged domestic dispute in 2011. Per HuffPost, Muniz denied the incident and no charges were filed.

Despite his high regard for his time as a child star, Muniz spoke in the aughts about feeling a bit tapped out. According to Looper, Muniz once said that when "Malcolm" ended, he had "done little else but work for 12 years." Ahead of the "Agent Cody Banks" sequel, he also told About that he "really [needed] to do something different" after years spent in the comedy sphere. At the time, he meant land more adult roles, but he'd soon find himself dedicated full-time to an unexpected passion.

In a season 1 episode of "Malcolm in the Middle," Hal (Bryan Cranston) took Malcolm and his brothers to a stock car race, and soon after, Muniz himself would catch the racing bug. In 2001, a still-teenaged Muniz drove the safety car at the Daytona 500 where Dale Earnhardt was killed, and he actually met Earnhardt right before his death. Despite the tragedy, Muniz continued working in the racing sphere, and he won the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race in 2005 and the Jovy Marcelo Award in 2008. Over the years, he's driven in NASCAR races and the ARCA Menards series, and he has driven full-time for several racing companies.

Muniz doesn't just dabble in racing, but he actually considers it his second career. "I want racing to be my focus. It's one of those things you have to do 100 percent. You can't just do it halfway," he told SiriusXM's NASCAR Radio (per LadBible) a few years ago. "If I want to make it to any level of NASCAR — ARCA, Trucks, whatever it is — I'm racing against people who have been doing it since they were six years old, and I've gotta do it quickly." 

Based on his consistent success and hard work on the race track over the years, he can likely consider that mission accomplished.

One of the most talked-about aspects of Muniz's post-"Malcolm in the Middle" life came to light in 2017, when he appeared on "Dancing With The Stars." At the time, footage from the show indicated that he had significant amnesia from prior concussions and couldn't remember the year he was nominated for an Emmy for "Malcolm." The story spread like wildfire, but in 2022, he clarified that it had been a bit overblown. In the podcast "Steve-O's Wild Ride!," he explained that he's had nine concussions, but also doesn't "want to blame the concussions or blame anything else" for any cognitive changes. According to Looper, Muniz got his first concussion at age seven while playing soccer, and he later broke his back in a racing incident.

"If you search my name, all it talks about is how, like, I have no memory, or I'm dying of strokes and all this kind of stuff," Muniz told fellow adrenaline junkie Steve-O. "[On 'Dancing with the Stars'] I had to say, like, 'I don't really remember.' But I wasn't saying I don't remember anything." He also explained that he had at one point been misdiagnosed with mini-strokes, when he actually later found out he had migraines with aura (the first of which manifested when he was riding a motorcycle).

"I only know what it's like to be me. Or have my brain," Muniz told People in 2019. "So, I'm only reminded of how bad my memory is when people I see, they come to me and go, 'Oh, you remember when we did this? Remember we went on this trip to this country?'" He seems to be at peace with himself and the limitations of his memory, concluding, "I have no recollection of it, but in my head, it's not like I feel bad or sad about it."

When he's not racing cars or acting, Muniz still seems to have a busy schedule. "I started doing other things," Muniz told Fox News Digital in 2022 when discussing his exit from Hollywood. He continued:

"I was racing cars. I joined a band. I was touring all over. I opened some businesses and I got to experience so many amazing things in my life, which now at this point has made me able to reflect and look back and be so appreciative of the experience."

Muniz has performed as a drummer, worked as a band manager, invested in real estate, and even purchased an olive oil shop with his wife Paige Price, per People. "I love doing payroll," Muniz confessed to the outlet in 2019. "I love doing anything with the financials. I'm a numbers guy, so this has been like a dream come true for me." The couple got married later that year and welcomed a son to their family in 2021.

Despite staying booked and busy for the past several years, Muniz hasn't really had a career comeback as an actor in recent years. That seems poised to change, as Variety reported recently that "Malcolm in the Middle" is getting a Disney+ revival series sometime in the future. With just four planned episodes, it sounds like the legacy sequel doesn't intend to overstay its welcome, and it's honestly one of the only returns to an existing TV world I've been excited about in the past few years. Bryan Cranston and Jane Kaczmarek, who played Malcolm's parents in the original series, are set to return for the show, as is original series creator Linwood Boomer.

It's unclear at this point whether any of Malcolm's siblings, played by Christopher Masterson, Justin Berfield, and Erik Per Sullivan, will return for the sequel series, but the show will include Malcolm's own daughter. According to Variety's logline, the father-daughter pair "are drawn into the family's chaos when Hal (Cranston) and Lois (Kaczmarek) demand his presence for their 40th wedding anniversary party." Just a few weeks ago, Muniz revealed that he and "Breaking Bad" star Cranston remain friends, telling The Hollywood Reporter, "He still reaches out to me every couple of weeks [to] check in on me."

Muniz is also set to star in the upcoming sci-fi movie "Renner," which co-stars Marcia Gay Harden and does not yet have an announced release date.