Steve Martin, 76, may retire from acting after Only Murders In The Building

Steve Martin, 76, revealed in a new interview that he may retire from acting after a legendary showbiz career stretching back to the 1960s.

He currently stars on the Hulu sitcom Only Murders In The Building alongside Martin Short and Selena Gomez, but he will not pursue more roles after the series ends.

‘When this television show is done, I’m not going to seek others. I’m not going to seek other movies,’ he told The Hollywood Reporter in a new profile. ‘I don’t want to do cameos. This is, weirdly, it.’

Outside of acting, his upcoming projects include his 12th book, a documentary and more tour dates as a double-act with Martin Short.

Short and Martin have been friends for more than 35 years and have repeatedly worked together for decades dating back to the 1986 movie Three Amigos.

Martin has now shared that he and Short ‘were very happy just doing the live show’ before Only Murders In The Building ignited their career renaissance.

He said of their tour dates: ‘There may be a natural end to that – somebody gets sick, somebody just wears out – but I wouldn’t do it without Marty.’

When they take their show on the road together, they avoid political jokes, a decision Martin explained: ‘Marty doesn’t mind a “boo,” but I do, so we intentionally minimize any political context. We want to lay down arms for a night.’

Although he skyrocketed to superstardom as a comedian and then embarked on a long and successful career as a movie star, neither job appeals to him now.

‘Go into theaters with a comedy movie starring me? It’s got failure written all over it!’ he said of the prospect of doing another film.

The legendary comedian and his wife Anne Stringfield, whom he married in 2007, divide their time between New York City and Santa Barbara.

Living outside of Los Angeles, he declines to assiduously follow Hollywood gossip and has declared: ‘I’m happy not to know too much about the business.’

Martin first appeared on television on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1968 in his early 20s and continued to land TV gigs afterwards.

His first love, however, was stand-up, and he eventually devoted himself to aggressively touring in order to become a success as a comedian.

Martin spent part of the 1970s ‘on the road with an itinerary designed by the Marquis De Sade,’ according to one of his memoirs.

By the close of the decade, he was a superstar comic, hosting Saturday Night Live, cutting platinum albums and filling stadiums.

However by that point he had also begun to tire of stand-up and focus more on developing a new career in the movies.

He did his first feature film as a leading man in 1979 – The Jerk, an off-the-wall comedy starring him opposite his then-girlfriend Bernadette Peters.

The Jerk was a runaway hit and Martin spent the next decade acting in such memorable films as Planes, Trains And Automobiles; Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid; Parenthood and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

In 1981 he quit stand-up – explaining later that his ‘act was conceptual’ and ‘once the concept was stated’ his task was ‘done’ – and did not do it again for 35 years.

His A-list movie career, however, thundered through the decades ranging from the Father Of The Bride films in the 1990s to the Cheaper By The Dozen and Pink Panther franchises during the 2000s.

However he has now not been in a non-documentary feature film since the 2016 Ang Lee movie Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk.

Martin and Short, carried along by their longtime close friendship, have been touring together since 2015 and released a Netflix special together.

‘I think Steve learned the joy of collaboration,’ Short said in the new profile of Martin. All through his stand-up life, he was by himself. Now, when he has success, he can celebrate with someone. And when something bombs, he can really laugh about it – as opposed to just being alone with it.’