Not everyone who has made it in Hollywood has been able to hold onto their cash. Most have seen the horror stories of celebs like Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen who almost completely lost it in the public eye. Oftentimes, this impacts their ability to continue to work and make money in “the business.”
How many celebrities have been financially impacted by poor choices? How hard were they hit? Below are 10 relatively surprising celebrities who are poor (ish).
10 Celebrities Who Are Poor (ish)
We say poor (ish) because many of these celebs still have high net worths compared to your average American. However, when compared to their famous peers, each of these people have taken a serious financial hit.
Chris Tucker: -$11.5 million
Photo: Gage Skidmore
Chris Tucker was one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood at one time. For the Rush Hour series alone, he made $60 million. Despite earning so much with those films, he is currently $11.5 million in debt. This is due to several foreclosed homes and numerous years of back taxes. Although he has been able to get some work here and there, he hasn’t been able to get back into the black yet.
Teresa Guidice: -$11 million
Photo: Jennifer Marie Puglia
Fans of the reality television show The Real Housewives of New Jersey know who Teresa Guidice is. Even though she comes from a well-off family, she’s made it on the list of celebrities who are poor. She and her family enjoyed an overly lavish lifestyle in Jersey, which led to them filing for bankruptcy in 2011. At the time, she claimed the family was $11 million in debt. Guidice spent also some time in prison for bank fraud, bankruptcy fraud, mail fraud, and making false statements on loan applications. Although she’s been able to make some money from her return to the show, it hasn’t been enough to keep up with her lifestyle and pay her debts.
Coolio: $100,000
Photo: Mark Turner
Coolio hasn’t been a huge success in a while, but he was a fairly large celebrity in the 1990s. He made at least $4 million from record sales alone at his peak. However, he hasn’t been able to hold on to any of that cash, nor has he found new ways to make money. As a result, his net worth is a mere $100,000, and he’s looking for work. You can book him or a private event for as little as $7,500 these days.
Gary Busey: $500,000
Photo: one_salient_oversight
Gary Busey is known for being a bit crazy. Many people don’t know that Busey was actually in a terrible accident, which impacted his personality. It also impacted his finances. After years of drug use and poor behavior, Busey hit rock bottom. Despite him landing some gigs on reality TV in the 2000s, Busey filed for bankruptcy in 2012. He claimed he owned less than $50,000 in assets and owed up to $1 million to creditors. He is now only estimated to be worth $500,000.
Janice Dickinson: $500,000
Photo: BigBrother Junkie
Anyone following the modeling scene knows Janice Dickinson. She had a successful career as a supermodel and also acted as a judge on the panel of America’s Next Top Model. Because of her years of success, you’d imagine her to have a few million stashed away, but that’s not the case. In fact, she declared bankruptcy in 2014, citing a lack of assets and a lack of income to pay her debts.
Lindsay Lohan: $500,000
Photo: jingdianmeinv1
Lindsay Lohan is another star that fell from grace. Similar to Busey, Lohan fell into partying, drugs, and alcohol. Even though she had numerous successes in her career, she was close to declaring bankruptcy in 2011. At this time, Playboy gave her $1 million to pose nude, which was financially helpful, but still not enough. One year later, the IRS seized all of her bank accounts to pay her federal taxes. Her tax debt on top of a rumored $600,000 credit card debt has left her with a small net worth.
Spencer and Heidi Pratt: $600,000
Photo: Gamerscore Blog
Fans of The Hills know Spencer and Heidi Pratt. The pair is known for overspending and buying $3,000 bottles of wine and spending millions on worthless items. Even though they each were making around $2 million a year, they now only have a combined net worth of $600,000. They’ve even been seen splitting a steak at five-star restaurants where they used to spend tens of thousands of dollars in one night.
Stephen Baldwin: $800,000
Photo: Gage Skidmore
Stephen Baldwin is another celebrity that filed for bankruptcy. In 2009, he owed quite a bit of money on his mortgage and to the IRS. Baldwin actually served five years’ probation for failure to pay his taxes three years in a row. His home was finally foreclosed on in 2017 after six years of missed payments.
Mike Tyson: $4 million
Photo: Luke Rauscher
Considering Mike Tyson was worth $300 million at one point in his career, his current $4 million net worth is measly. Much of his wealth was lost while he served time in prison for raping an 18-year-old college student. He also lost a fair amount of money when he got divorced. Like many of the other stars on the list, Tyson also owed the IRS a significant amount of cash (about $17.4 million between the United States and Britain). Additionally, he owed several law firms millions of dollars.
Sinbad: $4 million
Photo: John Mathew Smith
In the 1990s, Sinbad was still a pretty big face in Hollywood. Recent years haven’t been so kind to him though. At one time, he had a net worth of -$11 million and had filed for bankruptcy twice. However, Sinbad was able to turn things around for himself by investing in himself and others. By 2017, his net worth had climbed to $4 million. He said the key to doing that was focusing on himself and not spending on pointless things.
Readers, are you surprised by any of these celebrities on this list?
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Amanda Blankenship is the Director of Social Media for District Media. In addition to her duties handling everything social media, she frequently writes for a handful of blogs and loves to share her own personal finance story with others. When she isn’t typing away at her desk, she enjoys spending time with her daughter, husband, and dog. During her free time, you’re likely to find her with her nose in a book, hiking, or playing RPG video games.
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