There's something about sitcom stars that makes it seem like we know them — it's almost like
they're family. That being said, it's shocking when we find out that they have shady pasts or
hidden dark sides. Here are some famous people who did time in prison or jail.
From 1991 to 1994, Charles S. Dutton starred on "Roc," a Fox sitcom about a working-class
Baltimore family. Dutton portrayed cranky garbageman Roc Emerson, living with his wife,
Eleanor, a nurse, and his father, Andrew, a retired porter. In the middle of its run,
"Roc" made history when it became the first primetime comedy in decades to broadcast live,
not that wild of a gambit on account of how several cast members were veteran stage actors.
In 1990, Dutton told the Los Angeles Times that, with reform school included,
he spent 10 years of his early life under some form of incarceration. Most of that was spent
at the Maryland State Penitentiary, where he was serving time for several convictions for
several serious offenses. He spoke of what earned him his first 18 months in prison:
"My manslaughter conviction came from a fight with a guy who stabbed me seven times.
I wrestled the knife from him and killed him."
According to the outlet, he then got three years for possession of a weapon,
in addition to a whopping eight more years for a fight with a guard.
A friend sent him a play while he was incarcerated, and Dutton staged it with other
inmates. Shortly after he was paroled in 1978, he entered into the prestigious Yale School of Drama.
Already a cultural institution for his stand-up comedy and acting work, Bill
Cosby became the biggest star in television upon the launch of "The Cosby Show" in 1984. The warm,
low-key show about the Huxtables, a big Manhattan brood lorded over by parents Cliff Huxtable,
a doctor, and Clair Huxtable, a lawyer, attracted more than 30 million viewers
and was the most-watched show on TV by its second season. It stayed near the top of the
ratings and even generated a hit spinoff in "A Different World." "The Cosby Show"
was so dominant in pop culture that Cosby earned the nickname of "America's Dad."
However, 60 women later came forward to accuse Cosby of various forms and
acts of sexual assault, with some of the alleged crimes dating back to the 1960s.
The comedian categorically denied any wrong-doing, claiming that all of his
encounters with women were of a consensual nature. Owing to the statute of limitations,
only one woman's allegations against Cosby could be prosecuted. Temple University faculty member
Andrea Constand reported that Cosby had drugged and then assaulted her at his home in 2004.
At a 2018 trial, Cosby was found guilty of three charges of aggravated indecent assault.
Facing a prison sentence of up to 10 years, Cosby served three years at a
Pennsylvania prison — but he was released in June 2021 after the state's Supreme
Court overturned the conviction and ruled that Cosby didn't receive a fair trial.
In the late '80s and early '90s, Tim Allen was among the most popular stand-up comedians in
America. His act consisted primarily of pointing out the myriad differences between women and men,
namely that the former are competent and cerebral and the latter are grunting, power tool-loving
modern-day cavemen. ABC helped Allen translate that act to TV with "Home Improvement," casting
him as a bumbling dad and ineffectual husband who was also the inept host of a DIY repairs TV show.
"Home Improvement" became a massive hit, sitting near the top of the ratings multiple times,
running for eight seasons and allowing Allen to launch a successful film career.
Before Allen discovered comedy, he earned his living in a less legal way:
trafficking cocaine. According to CBS News, he was busted at the Kalamazoo-Battle Creek
International Airport in 1978 with nearly a pound-and-a-half of cocaine in his possession.
He entered a guilty plea to a charge of drug trafficking,
and, facing the possibility of life behind bars, worked out a deal with prosecutors.
According to the outlet, he'd give the authorities the names of his drug-dealing associates
"in exchange for a [reduced] sentence of three to seven years." Allen later told Esquire:
"When I went to jail, reality hit so hard that it took my breath away, took my stance away,
took my strength away [...] I just told myself, 'I can't do this for seven and a half years.'"
After 28 months as a resident of the Federal Correctional Institution in Sandstone, Minnesota,
Allen was paroled in 1981.
Generations of American kids grew up on "Saved by the Bell,"
a charmingly goofy Saturday morning sitcom about the scheming students of Bayside High
School. Dustin Diamond played arguably the definitive TV nerd in Samuel "Screech" Powers,
a mega-dork genius who made silly faces, talked in a high-pitched squeaky voice, built a robot,
and pined over Lisa Turtle, a popular girl who had zero interest in him. Adding up his
time on all of the various "Saved by the Bell" shows, Diamond portrayed Screech for 12 years.
Diamond was later arrested in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin, for stabbing and wounding a man in
a bar fight that occurred on Christmas Day 2014. The assault weapon, a switchblade,
was discovered in the actor's car, and he was charged with possession of the knife,
as well as carrying a concealed weapon, and first degree reckless endangerment. In May 2015,
Diamond was cleared of the latter charge, a felony, but was convicted
and sentenced on two misdemeanor counts, despite arguing that the stabbing had been an accident.
The actor received a four-month sentence behind bars, but he was paroled after three. However,
Diamond briefly returned to jail in May 2016 because of a probation violation.
Shortly after receiving a lung cancer diagnosis in January 2021, Diamond tragically died at age 44.
Chris Tavarez landed his first prominent acting role as Christopher on Tyler Perry's long-running
TBS sitcom, "Meet the Browns." However, the actor is certainly best known for his next
major sitcom role on "K.C. Undercover," a Disney Channel lark about a family of spies.
Tavarez portrayed Darien, a popular guy and high school football player who can't make
a romantic relationship with K.C. Cooper work out.
In 2017, while "K.C. Undercover" was still in production, Tavarez was arrested and charged
with a single count of spousal battery, for which he entered a plea of no contest,
according to Page Six. Two years later, Tavarez and a woman identified as his girlfriend engaged
in a fight that grew physical. The woman called police, and Tavarez left the scene.
He was arrested a couple days later and charged with felony domestic violence. His partner
suffered a concussion, while Tavarez initially walked free after posting his $100,000 bail.
Tavarez later pleaded no contest and was sentenced to 52 weeks of domestic violence awareness
classes, a year of alcohol rehabilitation therapy, five years of probation, and 300 days behind bars.
Stoney Westmoreland has usually been an, "Oh, it's that guy,"
kind of actor — a performer who pops in for a scene or an episode,
delivers a joke or advances the plot, and then gets out just as quickly. Westmoreland has had
one-shot or briefly recurring roles on dozens of TV shows and movies since the mid-1990s.
He landed his most prodigious gig in 2017 on the Disney Channel dramedy, "Andi Mack," playing
understanding grandfather Ham Mack to the show's title character, a teen figuring out her identity.
In December 2018, according to the Associated Press, Disney fired Westmoreland after he was
arrested for trying to coerce a teenager into a hotel room physical encounter. As it turns out,
the 13-year-old that Westmoreland thought he was communicating with online
was actually an undercover police officer. The actor was released from jail in February 2019,
only to be sent back behind bars in January 2020 after he violated his
supervised release on two occasions: Officers were unable to access a room in his home,
and he also failed to hand over his digital records to authorities.
It goes without saying that Gary Coleman, as wisecracking Arnold Jackson on the 80s sitcom
"Diff'rent Strokes," was the more memorable character of the show
due to his extraordinarily popular catchphrase:
"What'chu talkin' bout, Willis?"
Nonetheless, Todd Bridges may have had the upper hand and sweeter end of the
deal. He played Willis, or rather Willis Jackson, the older of two orphaned brothers
whom the kindly and wealthy Philip Drummond adopted and moved into his deluxe Manhattan
apartment. Bridges, charismatic and telegenic as Willis in real life,
became a teen idol and crush object for millions of young Americans.
In 1989, convicted Los Angeles area drug dealer Kenneth "Tex" Clay was the victim of a point-blank
shooting, according to the Associated Press. Clay later recovered from wounds to his arms and chest,
and Bridges, an admitted cocaine user, confessed to the shooting while he was being arrested,
alleging that the dealer had stolen his BMW. In his trial, Bridges was acquitted of attempted
murder, but since the jury deadlocked on an assault charge, the actor was retried. In that
proceeding, Bridges' lawyer, the now infamous Johnnie Cochran who would later successfully
defend O.J. Simpson in his murder trial, claimed that another party had shot Clay,
because Bridges had an alibi: He was inside Clay's house in the midst of a multi-day drug binge.
Once again, Bridges was acquitted and he was released from custody — but he spent
nine months in jail awaiting trial. According to the Associated Press, he said at the time:
"I feel a lot of relief that it's over."
Since then, Bridges has opened up about his journey toward sobriety.
When Tommy Chong joined the cast of Fox's nostalgic "That '70s Show"
in its second season in 1999, it was a triumph in stunt casting. The show,
about a bunch of teenage goof-offs in a small town in Wisconsin who smoked a lot of marijuana,
introduced Chong as Leo, proprietor of a photo hut who gave the character Hyde a job. He needed the
help — he was an aging former hippie and forgetful space-case on account of consuming way too much
marijuana over the years. Of course, that drug was celebrated in the actual '70s in a series
of movies and comedy albums by the popular duo Cheech and Chong — as in "Tommy Chong."
"They can't."
"What do you mean they can't do nothing, man?"
"Illegal search and seizure, man."
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, federal investigators started a project called
"Operation Pipe Dreams" in the 1990s, looking to bust shops around the country that sold
blown glass objects for the express purpose of consuming marijuana. In February 2003,
numerous stores were raided, including Chong's operation, with more than $100,000
and glass items purportedly used for the consumption of marijuana confiscated.
Along with more than 50 others, Chong was arrested, then entered a guilty plea,
admitting legal fault for promoting illegal drug use in his mail-order business and on his website.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, Chong served nine months in prison. However, he told the outlet:
"There's no punishment in the federal prison. You get a computer.
You get a nice comfortable cubicle. You're in there with nice, intelligent people."
Stephen Fry is an intellectual gadabout who has starred in all kinds of projects. He had a sketch
show called "A Bit of Fry and Laurie," ran the travelogue "Stephen Fry in America," and played a
country lawyer on the drama "Kingdom." He also had a recurring role on "Bones," hosted the game show,
"Q.I.," and in 2016, took on a part in the CBS sitcom "The Great Indoors." Fry played Roland in
this latter gig, the charismatic founder of an outdoors magazine who makes his publication an
online-only affair and hires a new editor — Joel McHale — to oversee the staff of millennials.
But before all that, Fry was a juvenile offender.
According to The New York Times, he left a pub in England wearing another man's
coat and found in its pocket a wallet loaded with credit cards. Fry recalled:
"For the next three months I went ape."
His spree of using stolen means to pay for hotels and restaurants ended with his arrest.
Fry confirmed to BBC Radio 5's "In Short" that he spent three months behind bars for his offenses.
He'd committed fraud in so many counties that it took authorities that long to get
all the paperwork in order, so that when Fry went to trial, those three months counted
as time served, and he was ultimately sentenced to two years of probation.
Lori Loughlin will likely always be best known for her breakout role as Rebecca Donaldson-Katsopolis,
TV host, wife of John Stamos' Uncle Jesse, and mother of adorable twins on the family-friendly
classic "Full House." It's a part she reprised on the Netflix reboot series,
"Fuller House," a job she lost when some unseemly legal problems came to light.
In 2019, according to ABC News, about 50 rich people and celebrities were charged in a college
admissions cheating and fraud operation. The U.S. Department of Justice discovered that these
wealthy people allegedly paid large bribes to get their children into top colleges, such as Yale,
Stanford, and the University of Southern California. Per documents associated with
"Operation Varsity Blues," Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli,
paid out $500,000 to fixers to alleviate their daughters' admission to USC by making it seem as
though they were recruits for the crew team, a sport in which they did not participate.
Loughlin and Giannulli pleaded guilty to the federal charges, and she was convicted. Loughlin
ultimately served slightly less than two months at a federal prison near San Francisco in late 2020.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault,
help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network
website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).