You've probably heard about the whole thing with the dinosaur skull, but did you know
Nicolas Cage also once owned two European castles at the same time?
Or how about his collection of bizarre and exotic pets?
We'll take 'Crazy Spending' for $400, Alex.
This is how Nicolas Cage lost his fortune.
A taxing role
Cage made his name playing flawed and tortured heroes, so maybe it’s not hugely surprising
that he’s gotten himself into trouble with the law every now and again.
According to TMZ, Cage was slammed with more than $13.3 million in liens for unpaid taxes
from 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007 and 2009, but the actor vowed to pay the cost in full.
Cage said:
"Over the course of my career I have paid at least $70 million in taxes.
Unfortunately, due to a recent legal situation, another approximate $14 million is owed to
the IRS, however, I am under new business management and am happy to say that I am current
for 2009.
All taxes will be paid including any to-be-determined state taxes."
“That’s one way of looking at it.
The other is, you get to keep 75 percent and not go to prison for the rest of your life.
Hahahahaha!”
A cool $14 million seems might like spare change for an actor who was once worth $150
million, but his former business manager Samuel Levin told TMZ in 2009 that the star had to
earn at least $30 million a year just to stay afloat.
In fact, according to Yahoo, about half of his former net worth came from just four films:
Gone in Sixty Seconds, Snake Eyes, Windtalkers and National Treasure - and the last of those
came out almost fifteen years ago.
King of the castles
Although you could argue that Cage is the king of straight-to-DVD releases, his castle
doesn’t come cheap.
And neither does the other one.
According to Reuters, the Wicker Man star bought an 11th century Bavarian castle for
an estimated $2.3 million in 2006.
The following year, he reportedly purchased an 18th century English castle for around
£5 million - which comes out to around $8 million, if you consider the exchange rate
at the time.
According to his former business manager, the castles were "decrepit and needed huge
expenditures."
And although he allegedly put a whopping $4 million into the one in Germany, he only spent
a single night there.
Cage’s zoo
You’ve got to assume that Cage has been angling for a role as a Bond villain - why
else would he buy himself a shark and two venomous snakes?
According to The Daily Beast, the actor has owned his own spattering of rare birds, lizards
and purebred dogs.
On top of that, he’s also given a home to "two albino King Cobras” and hung the antivenom
on a wall in his house - just in case they got a little too nippy.
According to other reports, he’s also purchased a $150,000 octopus, a crocodile and a shark.
Is there any animal he doesn’t own?
“Not the bees!
Not the bees!
Ahhhhh!
Oh they’re in my eyes!
My eyes!
Ahhhhhh!”
Stolen bones
What do a stolen dinosaur skull, a pyramid-shaped crypt, and heads all have in common?
No, it’s nothing to do with Indiana Jones.
They’re all things that Nicolas Cage has splashed his cash on.
And why not, right?
Yes, it seems like Cage has been trying to amass a national treasure of his own.
Somewhere along the line, he allegedly spent his money on a nine-foot-tall, pyramid-shaped
burial tomb and a bunch of shrunken heads.
Strangest of all, he spent $276,000 on a 70-million-year-old dinosaur skull.
According to The Guardian, Cage outbid Leonardo DiCaprio for the rare artifact back in 2007,
but was notified by the Department of Homeland Security in 2014 that the skull, which came
from a Tyrannosaurus Bataar, was stolen.
The gallery which sold Cage the skull had previously gotten in hot water too, having
once hocked a smuggled dino skeleton linked to Eric Prokopi, the paleontologist known
as a "one-man black market in prehistoric fossils."
Cage has since returned the skull to the Mongolian government.
The Action #1 heist
If you really need more proof that Nicolas Cage is a real-life action hero, how about
the time he found himself at the center of a multi-million dollar comic book heist?
It's no secret that the star squandered a hefty chunk of his fortune on a comic book
collection - according to CNBC, the star purchased an edition of the first ever Superman comic
for $150,000.
Only around 100 copies are said to still exist.
Unfortunately, Cage's ultra-rare copy of Action Comics No. 1 was lifted from his home in 2000.
Luckily, according to The Hollywood Reporter, it was discovered again eleven years later
in an abandoned storage locker - and later sold for $2.1 million, the highest price tag
for a comic book in history.
It is believed to have been sold on behalf of Cage, although that wasn't verified at
the time.
If so, this might count as one of the rare occasions on which the absurdity of Cage’s
life actually landed him a profit.
The whole ordeal is so utterly ridiculous that it’s even been picked up by Lionsgate
and transformed into a heist comedy.
Action #1 doesn't yet have a release date, but there’s only one person who can possibly
be cast in the lead role.
Right?
“Going to detain a blighter for enjoying his whiskey?”
“Sir that’s enough.”
“Bangers and mash!
Boggles and squig!
Smoked eel pie!”
“Sir?”
“Haggis!”