You know what they say.
If you do the crime, then you must do the time.
While some super-rich, well-connected folks seem to be able to weasel their way out of
legal repercussions for their questionable actions and behavior, the average individual
who commits some sort of crime will have to pay for their misdeeds.
Celebrities might sometimes think that they are above the law – or at least they might
act like it – but their high-profile status isn't some kind of magical legal shield.
From Robert Mitchum to Tim Allen to Robert Downey Jr., literally, dozens of stars have
found themselves thrown into the slammer after breaking the law and getting caught – many
times totally red-handed.
Join Facts Verse as we take a look at a few classic Hollywood stars who have served time
in jail.
Robert Mitchum
In the autumn of 1948, the star of such classic films as Night of the Hunter and Cape Fear
was puffing away on a joint at a low-key party in the Laurel Canyon area of LA when law enforcement
officers raided the place and arrested him.
At the time, Mitchum was quoted as saying that his arrest would prove to be the 'bitter
end of everything'.
He reportedly believed that he was about to lose his career, marriage, and everything
else he had worked so hard to achieve.
In reality, however, it wouldn't be as bad for him as he suspected.
Mitchum was already separated from his wife, Dorothy, at the time, but they would get back
together, and she would support him throughout the scandal.
As far as the public went, nobody seemed to care that he had been caught smoking the 'devils
lettuce'.
Mitchum's career also didn't seem to take a hit either.
The next film that he appeared in, Rachel and the Stranger, ended up being a box-office
success.
It's speculated that Mitchum's arrest was largely meant to be a publicity stunt to show
off the LA Police department's anti-drug measures.
When it came time for Mitchum to go to court, his expensive studio attorneys took issue
with several irregularities in the case, but ultimately Robert agreed to serve 60 days
in jail.
Upon release, he spent the next three years on probation.
Mitchum died of complications of lung cancer on July 1, 1997.
Mae West
The Roaring Twenties were all about pushing the envelope of what was considered socially
acceptable, but not everyone was happy about this.
On February 9, 1927, Mae West was backstage at a performance of her controversial play
'Sex' when she found herself surrounded by cops from the NYPD Municipal Vice Squad who
subsequently rounded her and the play's cast up and threw them in the back of black police
vans.
West was known for being a wide-cracking, silver-tongued, blond-bombshell during the
Golden Age of Cinema.
She was notorious for delivering some of the most risque and cutting one-liners in film
history.
Since she was both a screenwriter and playwright in addition to being an actress, she penned
many of those suggestive lines herself.
West got her start in show business in burlesque before arriving in Tinsel Town.
As she struggled to make a name for herself in Hollywood, she decided to make a pretty
bold move by writing a provocative play in which she would take on the leading role as
a sex worker.
She fully knew that her play 'Sex' would be met with controversy.
Even though the 20s were pretty wild, there was increasing censorship and scrutiny facing
the entertainment industry.
That being said, looking back on it, 'Sex' really didn't even deserve the backlash it
received.
It was less about the act of sex itself and more about the power dynamics between the
sexes.
On April 19, 1927, West was charged with obscenity and 'behavior designed to corrupt the morals
of the youth'.
She was then sentenced to 10 days in a labor house.
She served her brief sentence on Welfare Island – which was later renamed Roosevelt Island
– in New York City.
It's even alleged that she had dinner with the warden during her stay.
Citing her good behavior, West was released two days early.
West would later say that her time in jail and the media attention she received because
of it was well worth it.
Humorously, she would quip that the only thing that bothered her about the experience was
having to wear cotton panties.
West passed away on September 18, 1980, shortly after suffering a stroke that left her paralyzed
on her right side.
Ultimately it was pneumonia that claimed her life.
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Lila Leeds
Best known for her films Lady in the Lake, April Showers Society Girl, Moonrise, and
Wild Weed, Leeds was a relatively popular actress in the 1940s.
On September 1, 1948, she was arrested alongside Robert Mitchum when the police raided the
party they were both attending.
She was charged with marijuana possession and spent the next sixty days in jail.
Reportedly, Leeds was introduced to heroin for the first time while she was serving time
in jail.
She would later star in the Reefer Madness-style anti-cannabis propaganda film You Shoulda
Said No in 1949, but unlike Mitchum, Leed's career would never recover after the scandal.
Tim Allen
On October 2, 1978, the Home Improvement actor was arrested at the Kalamazoo-Battle Creek
International Airport in Michigan.
He was charged with possession of over 650 grams of cocaine.
Allen ended up pleading guilty to felony drug trafficking charges and gave police the name
of other dealers in exchange for a reduced sentence.
He was initially looking at a life sentence, but after snitching out his buddies, he was
slapped with a sentence of three to seven years in prison.
Allen was paroled on the 12th of June 1981 after serving just two years and four months
of his sentence.
In 1998, Allen was arrested once again for DUI in Birmingham, Michigan.
At the time of his arrest, he had a blood-alcohol level of .15 – almost twice the legal limit
in the state of Michigan.
He was slapped with one-year probation and subsequently checked himself into rehab for
alcohol abuse to fulfill a court-ordered obligation.
James Brown
Known as the 'Godfather of Soul', this legendary singer had several run-ins with the long arm
of the law during the summer months of 1988, but those would only result in him serving
probation.
But later that year on September 24, he went on a reckless and violent spree that resulted
in him being charged with assault and battery with the intent to kill.
That day, he walked into an insurance seminar in Augusta, Georgia, toting a shotgun and
a pistol, and ordered everyone to vacate the premises.
He then ran off in his truck while attempting to evade the police.
During the chase, the cops followed him into South Carolina and back to Georgia again.
He kept running even after police shot out three of his tires.
After driving on wheel rims for six miles, he ended up crashing in a ditch.
Brown, who had earlier that year already been charged with PCP possession and illegally
carrying a pistol ended up being sentenced to six years and six months in prison.
Three years later, he was released.
In 1998, Brown once again got himself into a bit of trouble when he was arrested and
charged with possession of weed.
Fortunately for him, this time he did serve any time in the slammer.
He did, however, have to enter into a 90-day drug treatment program.
In December of 2006, Brown died at the age of 73.
Sean Penn
The I Am Sam star, Sean Penn, has gotten himself into legal trouble on more than one occasion.
In October 1985, Sean pled no contest to charges that he accosted two journalists who were
trying to snap photos of him and his girlfriend at the time, Madonna, in Nashville, Tennessee.
He ended up being fined fifty bucks on each of his two assault and battery charges.
A year later, Penn was charged with assault once again for attacking Leonel Borralho,
a correspondent for a Hong Kong newspaper, after he discovered the man taking photographs
of him and Madonna as they arrived at their hotel.
Several months later, Penn was charged with battery an additional time for allegedly assaulting
singer-songwriter David Wolinksi at a nightclub in Los Angeles.
Then in 1987, Penn violated the terms of his probation and was arrested after he punched
a film extra named Jeffrey Klein in the face while filming the movie Colors.
He received a 60-day sentence in jail.
Months later, he was arrested for reckless driving and spent another 33 days in jail.
Robert Downey Jr.
In the mid-90s, Downey Jr was arrested numerous times on charges related to the possession
of narcotics.
He ended up going through several drug treatment programs and shockingly revealed to a judge
in 1999 that he had been addicted to drugs since he was 8 years old.
He further asserted that it was his father who got him hooked in the first place.
In 1996, Downey Jr was arrested for possessing multiple illegal substances as well as an
unloaded .357 Magnum handgun after he was pulled over for speeding on Sunset Boulevard.
A month later he was arrested again after trespassing into one of his neighbor's homes
and falling asleep in one of their beds while under the influence of an illicit drug.
He was given probation and was ordered to undergo regular drug testing.
After missing a mandatory court-ordered drug test in 1997, he spent six months in the LA
County Jail.
In 1999, he missed another drug test and was arrested yet again.
He was sentenced to three years in prison.
A year into his sentence, Robert was unexpectedly freed after a judge granted him an early release.
On thanksgiving in 2000, he was arrested after his hotel room was searched by police who
found several illegal drugs.
Downey Jr would continue to struggle with addiction for the next year or so and would
be admitted into another two rehab facilities.
After five years of arrests, addiction, and relapses, he got clean and sober in 2001 and
went on to have one of the greatest career comebacks in cinema history.
Mark Wahlberg
Wahlberg has portrayed himself as a professional actor for about as long as we can remember
but when he was 16 years old he spent 45 days behind bars.
He wound up there after assaulting a Vietnamese shopkeeper and using racial slurs against
him.
The night that the incident took place, Wahlberg was apparently under the influence of PCP.
Reflecting on his experience in jail years later, Mark admitted that it had changed his
perspective on life and motivated him to do better.
Well, that wraps up this video, but let us know if you can think of any other stars who
have spent time in jail.
Also, feel free to share your own experience with incarceration and how it changed your
outlook on life.
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