Some of the famous Hollywood celebrities have shocked us with their financial downfall. While it didn’t come as a major surprise, Charlie Sheen‘s net worth also came down significantly due to his addiction struggles and divorces. He was once the highest-paid male actor on TV with his role in Two and a Half Men.
According to THR, he earned $1.8 million per episode on the show in 2010. He amassed a total of $150 million from his appearance on the CBS sitcom. However, he was fired from the show in 2011 for his string of comments against the show’s creator, Chuck Lorre. While he continued to make money with FX’s Anger Management, he was also draining his money quickly.
He revealed in his recent memoir, The Book of Sheen, that he spent millions of dollars to hide his HIV positive results. He shared, “I had to tell people in private. Then they would extort me with that information” (via Yahoo!). He revealed in the book that he paid one of the blackmailers $1.4 million, adding that he was “locked in a fear prison.”
According to Fox Business, he also lost a significant amount of money in disputes with the IRS over unpaid taxes and child support payments to his ex-wives. Sheen appears to be turning his life around after seven years of sobriety. However, Celebrity Net Worth currently reports his net worth at just $3 million.
There are many other celebrities like Sheen, whose bad decisions led to a steep decline in their net worth.
5. Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage’s net worth should’ve come to par with some of the A-listers in Hollywood. At one point in his career, Cage was one of the highest-paid actors in the industry, earning $20 million each for Gone in Sixty Seconds, Windtalkers, and National Treasure. However, his net worth came crashing down when his spending habits got out of hand.
Fans won’t believe that Cage used to have a $150 million net worth at the peak of his Hollywood career (via Yahoo Finance). Adjusting for inflation, that amount would’ve been $215 million in today’s money. According to Celebrity Net Worth, he earned $150 million from his acting salaries between 1996 and 2011 alone.
CNBC’s documentary, Secret Lives of the Super Rich, covered Nicolas Cage’s luxurious buys. The Rock actor’s residences included America’s most haunted house, The LaLaurie Mansion, in New Orleans, the medieval castle Schloss Neidstein in Bavaria, Germany, and the Midford Castle in Somerset, England.
The Longlegs actor purchased Leaf Cay, an Exumas island in the Bahamas, for $3 million. His collection also had yachts, exotic cars, art, jewelry, comics (Action Comics No. 1!), a private jet, and even a dinosaur skull.
In 2009, the IRS filed a federal tax lien against property owned by the Lord of War actor in Louisiana. Cage allegedly failed to pay over $6.2 million in federal income tax in 2007 (via Celebrity Net Worth). He was also imposed with another lien for more than $350,000 for tax evasion dating from 2002 to 2004.
The actor shifted the blame when he sued his business manager, alleging negligence and fraud (via PEOPLE). While ABC News reported that Cage owed IRS and creditors in the range of $14 million in debt, the actor shared that it was only $6 million. Cage claimed that he had paid the debts back and added that he had never filed for bankruptcy (via 60 Minutes).
Nicolas Cage has an estimated net worth of $40 million today. According to Parade, he currently commands an upfront paycheck of $4 million per movie.
4. Burt Reynolds
Burt Reynolds was once the hottest star in Hollywood, and every producer in the industry wanted him as a lead. His movies earned him millions of dollars, with which he bought a 153-acre ranch in Jupiter, Florida. He also owned a spread in Arkansas, mansions in Beverly Hills and Malibu, an estate in Georgia, and a mountaintop retreat in North Carolina.
He was so rich that his toupees alone cost him over $100,000. He also had a private jet, a helicopter, sports cars, and 150 horses. However, the lavish lifestyle all came crashing down at one point. He was pushed into a major financial turmoil after an expensive divorce from Loni Anderson in the early ’90s.
According to Vanity Fair, he declared bankruptcy after accumulating a debt of over $10 million in 1996. At the time, he couldn’t even repay a $3.7 million loan to CBS. He shared about the difficult time:
I’ve lost more money than is possible because I just haven’t watched it. I’ve still done well in terms of owning property and things like that. But I haven’t been somebody who’s been smart about his money. There are a couple of actors who are quite brilliant with the way they’ve handled their money. But they’re not very good actors.
Reynolds made a comeback with his performance in the 1997 film Boogie Nights. However, rumors surfaced in 2015 that he was in financial trouble after he started auctioning off personal items and memorabilia, including his Golden Globe award for Boogie Nights. The same year, he reportedly sold his Florida home to neighbor Charles Modica for $3 million (via Inside Edition).
According to reports, Modica allowed Reynolds to stay in the home for a low rent until his death in 2018. At the time of his death, Reynolds reportedly had a net worth of $5 million (via Business Insider).
Despite all his financial issues, he also told Vanity Fair about his life’s major regret, “I would have spent more money and had a lot more fun.”
3. Kim Basinger
Kim Basinger was one of the top actresses in the industry in the ’80s and ’90s. However, before her Oscar-winning role in L.A. Confidential, Basinger declared bankruptcy and had to sell her property. She received huge paychecks for her movie roles in the ’80s.
This prompted her to purchase the town of Braselton in Georgia, a town with just 500 residents. She paid $20 million for the property and expected to turn it into a major tourist attraction like a theme park or movie studio (via UPI). She received ownership of the town’s supermarket, bank, stores, a 600-acre industrial park, and 1200 acres of additional real estate.
However, her plans didn’t pan out, and she sold the property. In the early ’90s, she committed to the disaster film, Boxing Helena. Interestingly, she backed out of the movie at the last minute. Producer Carl Mazzocone sued Basinger for violating her contractual obligations. The production house, Main Line Pictures, claimed that it lost $6.4 million in potential ticket sales due to her actions.
The Los Angeles Superior Court ordered Basinger to pay $8 million in damages and lawyer fees. In 1993, she filed for bankruptcy, declaring that she didn’t have the financial assets to collateralize the judgment (via Variety). Her lawyer, Howard Weitzman, shared, “She just didn’t have the assets to satisfy this kind of outrageous award. As of today, her estate is now frozen.”
In 1995, an appeals court overturned the judgment. A bankruptcy judge proposed that Basinger pay $3.8 million to Main Line (via Variety). Eventually, the case was settled for a slightly lesser amount.
Basinger also faced financial trouble during her divorce proceedings from Alec Baldwin, especially with her legal bill. According to Marie Claire, the legal bill cost $3 million. Things turned ugly between the couple as they didn’t sign a prenup before their marriage.
All of these incidents combinedly put a major dent in Basinger’s net worth. Celebrity Net Worth put her current net worth at $20 million.
2. Michael Jackson
The King of Pop, Michael Jackson, was known for his unorthodox lifestyle. He had made millions from his career by the time of his death. In the ’80s and ’90s, he sold some of his best-selling albums, which brought an enormous amount of money.
He was earning anywhere between $50 million and $100 million a year during the peak of his career (via Parade). However, he balanced out his millions in income with his lavish lifestyle. He reportedly spent $50 million a year.
According to The New York Times, he had spent a considerable amount of money on expensive art, jewelry, and private jets. His lavish spending was allegedly portrayed in the controversial 2003 ITV documentary, Living with Michael Jackson.
In one of the documentary clips, he is seen picking out expensive items at a Las Vegas shop without any concern about their price. He can be heard saying in the video, “That’s only $275k each.” The clip also shows the singer spending $5 million at that particular shop in a matter of 45 seconds.
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According to Jackson’s creditors’ claims, the singer incurred more than $500 million in debt. At the time of his death, he owed $40 million to the tour promoter A.E.G. His millions of dollars in debt came from his Neverland Ranch estate in Southern California, where he kept all his expensive buys.
A forensic accountant claimed that Jackson was paying $30 million in interest alone at the time of his death. In a court filing, Jackson’s estate’s executors shared that they had eliminated the estate’s debt and cleared almost all of the creditors’ claims. His estate has since become a billion-dollar empire through music royalties and media deals.
1. Wesley Snipes
Wesley Snipes was one of the biggest actors in the world in the ’90s. He starred in some major box office successes, even landing the Marvel role of Blade. According to Celebrity Net Worth, the star made a total of $37.9 million from his film roles between 1996 and 2004.
Unfortunately, he was convicted on misdemeanor charges of wilful failure to file federal income tax returns (via FindLaw). He was sentenced to three years in federal prison and served 28 months before being released in April 2013. The indictment noted that Snipes failed to file tax returns from 1999 to 2004, during which he gained worldwide attention for his Blade films.
Snipes also faced a conspiracy charge after it was alleged that Snipes filed false returns for 1996 and 1997, including false tax refund claims of over $11.3 million. The government alleged that Snipes, Eddie Ray Khan and Douglas P. Rosile, attempted to obtain tax refunds using a tax protestor theory called the 861 argument.
He was ordered to pay $17 million in back taxes and penalties. This amount later blew up to $23.5 million in 2018, when the case was brought before a court, and the government offered to lower this debt to $9.5 million. The actor made a settlement offer of $850,000, which the IRS denied (via THR). It remains unclear if Snipes paid any of this $9.5 million debt.
What do you think of these celebrities who basically threw away their money? Let us know in the comments below!
