Yep. She suffered a nervous breakdown during which time her manager royally screwed her over and she had an IRS deal she never did pay off. The charity of her ex-husband (Jose Ferrer) basically kept her afloat (and the financial strain it put on him explains a lot of his really bad TV and movie roles in the last few decades of his life).
I read an interview with George Clooney in which he mentioned how even as an old and obese and ill woman she had to go play nightclubs every weekend and every other week to pay money to the IRS. This begged the question “George, baby, you just paid $19 million for an Italian villa- her tax bill couldn’t have been a fraction of that. Couldn’t you have paid it off for her? I mean you owe her- you lived in her house rent free when you moved to Hollywood.” Perhaps he offered and she refused- I hope that was the case anyway.
Martha Raye is another star from that era who wound up penniless, but the denture commercials she did made her rich again.
A sit-com second banana who left a very sizeable chunk of change was Vic Tayback. There is a library named for him in his home neighborhood because of his bequests.
Stephen Root (bka as either Milton the Swingline stapler guy or as Jimmy James from News Radio) has apparently done very well as he has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to scholarship funds at his alma mater, FSU.
Quite possibly the wealthiest author at the time of his death was James Michener, who through several bestsellers and good investments left an estate worth close to $100 million even though he had given millions to charity.
Anne Rice is sometimes estimated at having a worth of that or more, but “reliable sources” tell me that until she divested herself of most of her holdings recently she was a Michael Jackson like walking timebomb. She owned mansions in San Francisco, South Beach and Beverly Hills, had a penthouse in NYC, and owned numerous homes in New Orleans including the famous First St. (Witching Hour) mansion and the 40,000 square foot former Catholic girl’s school and convent she made into a family home; her book sales plummeted after more and more people realized she sucked and this left her with a very serious cash flow problem and mortgaged to the hilt. She has since sold most of her houses (including the Witching Hour home) and moved to another home on the shores of Pontchartrain.
We’re both right actually; her mother was Jewish, her father was Edward Rutledge Hawn (named for his ancestor, Edward Rutledge, signer of the Declaration of Independence). Hawn was a South Carolina aristocrat who later returned there. Goldie was raised Jewish.
Long story about the catalog: short version is that basically he can’t sell it and derives very little income from it because Sony has a lien on half of it and along with other lenders has garnished most of the income from the other half Almost all of the considerable income it generates goes into debt repayment.
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Two other stars who were majorly rooked by managers:
Robert Mitchum- most of his savings were embezzled by a manager to whom he gave power of attorney, forcing him to keep working til the end of his days.
Doris Day- not only did she find out she was broke and in debt when her husband Martin Melcher, but she was committed to do a television series that she 1- didn’t want to do and 2- had already been paid for even though the money was gone. After many years of rebuilding her life and bank account she finally won a verdict of $25 million against her former manager; he didn’t have that much, but what she did get in the final accounting made her wealthy enough to retire. She owns a resort in Carmel now (Cypress Inn ,which caters as much to the guest’s pets as to the guests) though she recently lost her only child, Terry.
Bill Cosby wound up broke and deeply in debt to the IRS during the early 1970s and pretty much unable to get a job. He was given a contract in Tahoe strictly as a favor from an old friend with some authority there and finally managed to plead his way into the endorsement deal with Jell-O and that paid off his debts. The Cosby Show, of course, made him one of the richest men in entertainment, but to this day he continues to play the lounge in Tahoe in appreciation and he continued to endorse Jell-O long after he needed the money for the same reason.
Cosby’s advice to all up-and-coming celebrities: NEVER GIVE ANYBODY ELSE THE AUTHORITY TO SIGN YOUR CHECKS.
Redd Foxx blew his fortune on divorce (one ex-wife walked away with his Sanford residuals), cocaine and generally extravagant living until he ended up selling his belongings in a Sanford and Son themed “junk shop” in Las Vegas.
Incredibly generous (too generous, really), before he struck it big in TV he had lost a small fortune when he sank his entire wad into a nightclub and allowed his friends from the Chitlin’ Belt to run it- they ran it right into the ground and stole from him left right and center. Even so, he gave many of them guest appearances on Sanford & Son to give them some exposure and income. (I don’t believe LaWanda Page was one of the people who stole from his nightclub, but she had been his friend since childhood before being a stripper/comedienne (disturbing pic). I don’t believe she died rich, but commercials and guest shots certainly made her comfortable; this is her colorful house in South Central L.A…
Another “not as rich as I’d have thought” celebrity: Sonny Bono. His estate was worth only $1.66 million, not much considering he received the publishing rights in his divorce from Cher. In an eye rolling Hollywood fake sincerity move, Cher gave that majorly tearful farewell at his funeral, then filed a claim worth as much as the estate against the estate for back alimony. (She later withdrew it since it would have left his wife and young children almost destitute.)
While the catalog might be worth that much in value, the actual annual income from it is much less. And Jackson is a notorious spendthrift - how much does it cost each year to run a personal amusement park?
Here’s one of several biography pages I found by Googling for Goldie Hawn:
While it may be true that she’s descended from a signer of the Declaration of Independence, it doesn’t look like she grew up rich. Her mother owned a dance studio and sold jewelry wholesale and her father was a musician. What’s your source for saying that she was heir to a fortune?
If I’m not mistaken, her stepfather was the “Merrill” in Merrill & Lynch, hence her stagename.
Anderson Cooper, host of “The Mole”, is the son of Gloria Vanderbilt.
Actor Balthazar Getty is a scion of The Gettys.
Michael Nesmith of the Monkees is the son of Bette Nesmith, who invented Liquid Paper. He apparently inherited around $25 million dollars from her estate.
Regarding those empty Tiffany boxes: A friend of mine went to a party where Tiffany boxes were used somehow as decorations and thrown out afterwards. I was horrified. I have assumed that was in North Carolina, but it could have been elsewhere. Wouldn’t that be weird if they were the same boxes?
Sorry for just now responding, but I just read the above.
I must be wrong on the subject. I heard this from a tour guide in Charleston, SC, who mentioned that she is on the city’s social register. Whether that part is true or not I’m not certain (though she is definitely descended of SC Colonial aristocracy) but I can’t find verification. Withdrawn with apologies.
She is, however, half Jewish and Paul Newman is too, and if you put them together what a fine lookin’ Jew…
Can someone explain what a Tiffany box is? I am guessing it has to do with the jeweler Tiffany. What is horrifying about throwing out an empty box from Tiffany?
Apparently these are no ordinary boxes. They had better be something special, or else I have absolutely no instinct for fleecing the unaware. And if indeed they are so special, then as mentioned in the very first post alluding to it, an enterprising street capitalist can parlay the packaging into a value-added item in their distribution chain. So thanks to this thread, if I ever get anything in a Tiffany box, ya bet I’m getting on the horn to Tiffany to see if it really came from them.
Ty Cobb, in addition to having the highest career batting average in the history of major-league baseball, became a millionaire through investments that included real estate, an auto dealership and stocks, notably Coca-Cola Co. and United Motors, which became General Motors Corp.
He built an entire wing of Emory University hospital (which is why the allowed him to keep his pistol with him when he was a patient there- in addition to being a great ballplayer and financial wizard, he was an all around nut-job).
I’ve read several times that the Three Stooges were majorly screwed financially and that they all died poor. This does not seem to be true at least in the case of Moe Howard, at least according to this guy who met him the year before he died and describes his house as extremely comfortable, immaculately landscaped and decorated and “worth triple the price of the same house anywhere else in the country”. Moe also drove a late model Mazda RX3 and owned a Cadillac at the time, so he had apparently taken very good care of his money (though the Three Stooges were also popular as an act in Vegas and in lucrative personal appearances long after their heyday, which may have replenished his accounts).
I just read an estimate of $12 million for Ray Charles’s estate. (It’s being sued by a mistress who claims he did not provide for her and their teenaged child [attorneys for Charles insist that [spoil]he never saw that woman before in his life… sorry, had to*).
One singer I was surprised to learn is as well fixed as he is is B.B. King. While I know he’s a blues legend, he’s never had the level of success of a rock star or even Ray Charles. However, years ago he started a $1 million trust fund to pay for the college tuition of any of his children and grandchildren who want to go. (He has 15 children by 13 women- some of his children are very successful professionals while others are drug addicted inmates or ex-cons- I’m guessing it largely depended on the mothers as I can’t imagine a man with a very busy tour schedule and 14 other children would be the most hands on dad in the universe.)
I knew that Johnny Carson was very very rich but I didn’t know he was that rich- I’ve read estimates of his estate ranging from $200 million to the half-billion mark. Amongst his other philanthropical gestures: $20 million to the University of Nebraska, a new library and school auditorium for the Norfolk NE high school he attended, medical bills and pensions for some of his former teachers (he went to Norfolk to see his favorite teacher on her 100th birthday) and numerous scholarship funds.
What’s odd: in the 1980s his first wife, Jody, mother of his three sons, sued him for $160,000 in back alimony and money she said she was entitled to at the time of their divorce in the 1960s. Carson fought the case; you’d think he’d have just written a check and called it done since that amount was NOTHING to him and she was the mother of his children. There must be more to the story- either he was a veddy veddy bad man or their divorce was particularly bitter or… hmm.
The much-beloved **Brooks Robinson ** was in serious and highly publicized financial trouble (in debt, being pursued by creditors) when he retired in 1977, mainly as a result of his excessively generous nature. He refused to declare bankruptcy and returned money that fans sent him in the mail. Within a few years, fortunately, the situation had changed completely as Robinson became a very successful local baseball telecaster and an executive at an oil company. He also joined a business-management firm that specializes in helping professional athletes avoid similar problems.
Max Schmeling, the German boxer who had two famous bouts with Joe Louis in the 1930s and died last week at 99, was almost broke after World War II (in which he served as a paratrooper). He participated in five boxing matches for the money and used the funds to buy the license for Coca-Cola’s German franchise, which made him quite wealthy.
I remember a news story from his accountant’s embezzlement trial that Sting didn’t even realize he was being siphoned for millions until the guy was caught.
How about living your life so rich that you could lose millions and not even feel it?
A few facts regarding John Cleese and the Pythoners:
Graham Chapman appeared in Baltimore doing his one-man show, and commented that a British tab – as part of their million-dollar lottery promotion – asked him what he would do with the money if he won. Chapman said he would give it to Cleese “so he could take the day off.”
Another source of the Pythoner’s wealth is the TV show. BBC originally owned the rights to “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” and sold the U.S. rights to ABC, which – in the tradition of American television networks – hacked the episodes up and repackaged them into three 90-minute specials. Naughty words were snipped, scenes reshuffled, continuity errors abounded. A screening of the first show horrified the Pythoners and, fearing for their reputations, sued ABC and the BBC and tried to get an injunction preventing the second show from appearing. An American judge ruled in favor of the Pythoners, but wouldn’t halt the showing (which I believe was immiment). They were allowed to post a statement at the beginning of the show disavowing any connection with the broadcast (an ABC exec’s request to the group to make the announcement funny was not welcomed).
As a side effect, the BBC settled with the Pythoners by giving them the rights to their work. And thus fortunes were launched on the high seas of finance.
Oh, and a Star Wars story which may or may not be true: Fantasy artist Phil Foglio has told the story that, at a science-fiction convention, he met Mark Hamill, who was showing a Star Wars promotional reel. Hamill said that Foglio could invest in the movie if he had five grand to spend. Foglio saw the reel, disliked what he saw, and declined the offer. The fact he still tells the story several decades later indicates to me that he harbors some small tinge of regret over that decision.
(Of course, this leads to the ultimate contract story. When George Lucas negotiated his “Star Wars” contract with the studio he was able to hold onto the merchandising rights because the movie executives didn’t believe anyone could make any money off that silly little sci-fi movie.)
Also on the subject of stupid business decisions: both Little Richard and Roy Orbison were offered hefty percentages of the Beatles publishing rights by Brian Epstein (perhaps the most notoriously incompetent business manager in the history of rock) if they would let the Beatles tour with them and help promote them; both declined. (In fairness, they received similar offers from a lot of other groups nobody anywhere has ever heard of and with reason.) Orbison died quite wealthy due to clean living and good investments but I’m not sure about Little Richard- he still performs but I don’t know if it’s from needing the money or because he likes the adulation.
I was amazed to learn that Anthony LaPaglia is pulling down $1 million per episode for Without a Trace- I had no idea it was that popular (and the Desperate Housewives, while grossly overpaid compared to most of us, are on a much bigger hit and make a small fraction of that).
Bob Denver evidently does okay as he has a comfortable looking house and owns a W. Virginia mountain, but the most he ever made for Gilligan’s Island was under $5,000 per episode. That was almost 20 times what Garrett Morris made for the first season of Saturday Night Live.
Also: I heard Don Knotts speak a few years ago and he mentioned that while he will always be remembered as Barney Fife, it is actually Three’s Company that liberated him from the dinner-theater and county fair circuit (though he still does theater occasionally- for a while he was touring with Joanne ‘Laugh-In’ Worley in On Golden Pond). By the early 1970s his film career had largely dried up (he did the occasional Disney film, but that studio is notorious for underpaying), divorce had cost him much of his earnings to that point and none of his pilots were picked up. While he wasn’t going through garbage cans when he got the call to be Ralph Furley, he was definitely not doing too well financially or professionally. The show however gave him not only a much bigger paycheck than TAGS but by then he knew from his frustration over paltry payments for Andy Griffith the value of negotiating a decent residual arrangement (and like Andy Griffith, Three’s Company has rarely if ever been off the air).
I was very surprised (and glad) to learn that Tim Conway has earned millions from his Dorf videos. They seem so… silly and juvenile… but apparently they are far more popular than I ever realized.
