# Jobs taken by big name celebrities that make you wonder "Why?" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 11, 2012, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jobs-taken-by-big-name-celebrities-that-make-you-wonder-why/627927 "2012-07-11T21:04:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jobs-taken-by-big-name-celebrities-that-make-you-wonder-why/627927/41 "2012-07-13T00:12:33Z")
[QUOTE=Jim’s Son] Howard Stern once commented in the 1980s that some rich people, like Daltrey, do not give a lot of money to their children. Apparently Daltrey told his son that he would have to make his own way into life and his kid was an ordinary working stiff. [/QUOTE] Michael Douglas and Rob Reiner are both sons of rich-and-famous fathers who had the usual struggling actor/4th floor walk-up dump with roommate in NYC experience for a while. I think Douglas got more of a helping hand than Reiner since his dad handed him the rights to _Cuckoo’s Nest_, but I respected their dads for not just renting them an apartment and paying for lessons. I remember during Jim Carrey’s fairly bitter divorce battles with his first wife she wanted a ridiculous amount of child support for their daughter (Carrey’s only child IIRC) because, per the mother, the girl wanted to be an actress and this required acting lessons, headshots, lots of grooming and a fancy wardrobe and ‘networking’ at expensive places. Carrey, who grew up broke and lived in a van (not sure whether it was down by the river) and did the other starving entertainer path, responded with what I remember as a well worded argument to the effect of “I love my daughter but I’m not going to make it easy for her because talent and hard work are what get you a career in show business”. I’m not sure how the court ruled (though his daughter’s not a famous actress and made him a fairly young grandfather). ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jobs-taken-by-big-name-celebrities-that-make-you-wonder-why/627927/42 "2012-07-13T01:00:26Z")
Burt Reynolds did ads for some auto detailing chain a few years back. Whatever money he made off it can’t be worth announcing to the world how indiscriminate he’d become. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jobs-taken-by-big-name-celebrities-that-make-you-wonder-why/627927/43 "2012-07-13T01:30:05Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > I was always under the impression that he was pretty level headed. Townshend could get into financial trouble by doing things like building a Meher Baba center that got overpriced as more and more expenses got added in the construction. Entwhistle liked to buy collections of things like knight’s armor and cars (he couldn’t drive). Daltrey, who was a jerk as a youth (I remember him saying he probably would have been a criminal if he didn’t get involved in music), really straightened out when the others threatened to kick him out in the mid 1960s (as singer, he did not like like the guitar player getting a lot of publicity). > > ``` > Howard Stern once commented in the 1980s that some rich people, like Daltrey, do not give a lot of money to their children. Apparently Daltrey told his son that he would have to make his own way into life and his kid was an ordinary working stiff. > > ``` Daltrey has always been pretty straight-edge as well, so he’s never had a monkey on his back spending his money. On the other hand, he never made as much money as Townshend did since he rarely wrote any songs of his own, and he probably needs a steady income as opposed to just living off royalties, which would explain some of his B-list acting roles and his continuing to tour as a solo act now that Pete is pretty much deaf. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jobs-taken-by-big-name-celebrities-that-make-you-wonder-why/627927/44 "2012-07-13T01:34:36Z")
> [@Death\_of\_Rats](#): > > This was how Raul Julia ended up with his last movie being _Street Fighter_. He knew he was dying and took a few last big paychecks for his kids. To be fair, Raul Julia should have won an Oscar for what he did with Street Fighter. “For you, the day Bison graced your village was a day you’ll always remember. For me, _it was Tuesday_.” ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jobs-taken-by-big-name-celebrities-that-make-you-wonder-why/627927/45 "2012-07-13T02:36:37Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > Burt Reynolds did ads for some auto detailing chain a few years back. Whatever money he made off it can’t be worth announcing to the world how indiscriminate he’d become. He doesn’t have a lot of choice. He needs every cent he can get; at one point even the “little people” creditors like his pool cleaner and a company that did fence repair were suing him. More fans would probably turn against him for owing his cleaning lady $400 than for owing his credit card company $400,000. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jobs-taken-by-big-name-celebrities-that-make-you-wonder-why/627927/46 "2012-07-13T03:52:19Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Daltrey has always been pretty straight-edge as well, so he’s never had a monkey on his back spending his money. On the other hand, he never made as much money as Townshend did since he rarely wrote any songs of his own, and he probably needs a steady income as opposed to just living off royalties, which would explain some of his B-list acting roles and his continuing to tour as a solo act now that Pete is pretty much deaf. This was what I was about to post. Daltrey wrote about two Who songs in their entire career, neither of which was a hit, so he’s never been getting the songwriting royalties. He probably also was not as wealthy from The Who’s heyday as one might guess, partially because the band was deeply in debt (all those smashed instruments cost money to repair/replace) before the massive success of _Tommy_ and partially because in later years they were having to cover some of Keith Moon’s excesses with the band’s profits. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jobs-taken-by-big-name-celebrities-that-make-you-wonder-why/627927.md?page=2)