You'd think island living would restore anybody, no matter how hard they worked during the day. Something about palm trees and oceanside lounging just makes it seem like the effort would roll off your back after a hard shift. There's a vague promise of breezy drinks and the call of the surf. There's nothing that all this couldn't repair.

That is, unless you're Jack Lord, actor extraordinaire, who famously starred in Hawaii Five-O for more than a decade. That show's production meant that Lord was island-bound for a big portion of the year. That was true for every actor on the show, but by '79, Lord was more involved in the show than he'd like to be. In fact, he was calling the shot to pull the plug.

"I know I have said it before," Lord told The Washington Post, "but this time is for keeps. This is my last television season. I have too many other things to do with my life."

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By that time, Lord was working "14 or 15" hours a day and came home completely exhausted. Sure, he was known as the face on the screen, but Lord was not just acting on Hawaii Five-O. He did a little bit of everything and oversaw a majority of production. The responsibilities only ramped up when his partner, Leonard Freeman, died some six years earlier.

With all that weight on his shoulders, why was Lord still at it? Why not bow out even earlier if the toll was that large?

"Maybe I'm just trying to prove that a guy from Brooklyn can do something important."