Make money, spend money.
What else is an actor to do with their fortune?
Unfortunately, many actors tend to spend more than they're making - and quickly end up flat
broke.
Here are a few of the action stars who did just that.
You may know Nicolas Cage from the rash of weird, low-budget movies he made where he
basically played himself; the weird, arthouse experiments he's recently starred in; or in
some of the biggest Hollywood action movies of the 90s and early 2000s.
"Going to detain a blighter for enjoying his whiskey?"
"Sorry, that's enough, sir."
"Bangers and mash.
Bubbles and squeak.
Smoked eel pie."
"Sir?"
"Haggis!"
With a slew of high-paying films under his belt, Cage managed to bring in an estimated
$200 million from over 100 films.
According to CNBC, he was even once worth as much as $150 million.
By 2018, however, his wealth had fallen to one-sixth of its peak.
How?
Well, Cage is as big a spender as he is an earner.
At one point, the actor owned 15 houses, some of which cost more than his biggest payday.
Two of his homes were legit European castles.
To go along with his real estate empire, he also bought himself a private island and a
pyramid burial chamber.
His other eccentric purchases include exotic animals, comic books, and the late shah of
Iran's personal Lamborghini - not to mention the time Cage outbid Leonardo DiCaprio for
a T-rex skull, which he later returned after discovering it had been stolen from Mongolia.
No matter how you spin it, that's not the life of a penny-pincher.
Over the years, Burt Reynolds' sly smile and trademark mustache became icons of American
cinema - and his career earnings more than proved it.
During Reynolds' peak, back in the Smokey and the Bandit days, he was banking more than
$10 million per year.
He had it all, too - a ranch in Florida, property in the Smoky Mountains and Arkansas, mansions
in California, and 150 horses.
He wore expensive suits, drove expensive cars, and owned expensive planes and helicopters.
But after the Bandit's financial fall, he found that some of his expensive luxuries
turned into expensive debts.
The downward spiral of financial crises hit Reynolds the hardest following his divorce
from Loni Anderson in 1993, when Reynolds shelled out around $5 million in legal expenses
- while also paying $9,000 per month for Anderson's mortgage and $15,000 in child support.
At the time, Reynolds was having cash flow problems which were caused by a mix of spending
habits, failed investments, and a faltering career.
When CBS sued Reynolds for an outstanding $3.7 million loan in 1996, it was all but
over.
Reynolds had no choice but to file for bankruptcy.
He may be a little past his acting heyday, but Gary Busey's legacy is hard to forget.
He's a hugely talented actor, with five film award wins and eight nominations under his
belt.
For a long time, he also seemed to be pretty much everywhere in Hollywood - so it's no
surprise he made a whole bunch of money at the same time.
Busey has always been fairly quiet as far as his earnings are concerned, so it's hard
to say how much the actor has made throughout his career.
Given that many of his films had budgets over $15 million, however, he had to make at least
a decent amount of money.
Unfortunately, the money had dwindled away by 2012, leaving Busey with less than $50,000
to live on.
Busey's measly 50 grand was overshadowed by over $500,000 worth of debt, leading to a
bankruptcy filing.
The debts were spread out between the IRS, banks, lawyers, hospital bills, and a few
random businesses such as a storage company.
The actor had also been sued for tackling a 57-year-old woman at a Tulsa airport after
a light day of intense drinking, which probably added to his debts.
Fortunately for the star, Busey settled some of his debts by December 2012.
He was let off the hook for about $57,000 in unpaid bills to some creditors, and allowed
to keep $26,000 worth of his assets - although he did still have to pay his back taxes.
Considering that Johnny Depp once had a fortune of $650 million, it's hard to believe he has
ever had money troubles - but it's true, thanks in large part to a legal battle between Depp
and his former management.
Depp was suing for $25 million in allegedly mismanaged funds that cost him tens of millions
in IRS late fees, illegal commission, and money given to his sister without his consent.
TMG slapped a countersuit, claiming Depp was just mad that they had filed for foreclosure
on Depp's home, because he owed them more than $4 million from loans.
The countersuit also claimed Depp has a $2 million-per-month spending habit.
"Welcome to the Caribbean, love."
Some of the frivolous things TMG claimed Depp has dropped money on include $30,000 per month
on wine and $3 million to shoot writer Hunter S. Thompson's ashes out of a cannon.
Depp countered these allegations by saying he spent "far more" than that on wine, and
the cannon stunt cost $5 million.
Which isn't a great argument.
Don Johnson was living the high life in the '80s, as he raked in between $35,000 and $100,000
per episode of Miami Vice.
He was one of the highest-paid television actors of the time, living in a $4 million
ranch in Aspen, Colorado.
His widespread fame also made him a fashionable target for tabloids.
But the fame would fade over time, and the fortune would follow suit.
In 2004, Johnson filed for bankruptcy on one of his companies to avoid losing his house.
The problem: Don Johnson was in debt.
City National Bank of Los Angeles was owed nearly $1 million, and they were going after
Johnson's home to collect it.
The bankruptcy filing served as a way for Johnson to stave them and other creditors
off until he could get his finances in order...and there were a lot of other creditors, from
hospitals to law firms.
At one point, Johnson's grocery bill had fallen far enough behind that the local tavern had
a tip jar specifically to go toward the actor's debt.
Wesley Snipes had a poppin' action career through the '90s and early 2000s, that slowed
way down following 2004's Blade: Trinity - for a number of reasons.
This is because, while money wasn't coming in the way it did during Snipes' early career,
it wasn't being paid out to the IRS, either.
By 2018, Snipes had racked up $23.5 million in tax debt.
The IRS had a history with Snipes that runs for more than ten years.
The actor refused to pay his taxes between 1999 and 2001, claiming he wasn't legally
obligated to pay them in the first place.
The idea was put into his head by his accountant at the time, and the whole ordeal put Snipes
behind $7 million on government dues.
In 2008, Snipes was found guilty on three criminal charges of failing to file taxes
while being acquitted for higher fraud charges.
He received a three-year sentence.
Snipes paid off the back taxes from 1999 to 2004 and then attempted to negotiate his debt
down in 2014 by offering the IRS almost $850,000 - a whopping four percent of what he owed.
The IRS countered: They'd settle for $9.5 million.
Snipes rejected it, claiming "economic hardship," but the IRS didn't buy it.
Chris Tucker brought a trove of quote-worthy lines to the Rush Hour franchise, while kicking
some serious butt with co-star Jackie Chan - and those films provided a serious payday.
Tucker made $3 million off the first and $20 million from Rush Hour 2, and that's just
the one franchise.
The actor has more than 20 acting credits to his name, so his career really should've
been quite profitable.
And it probably would've been - if he'd kept up on his yearly taxes.
"Take care of your business, man, be careful who you listen to.
'Cause that's the last time I let Wesley Snipes help me out with my taxes."
Tucker piled up back taxes over seven years, causing him some major financial problems.
The issues weren't helped by Tucker falling out of the spotlight, either, seeing as he
hasn't starred in a leading role since Rush Hour 3.
The total debt was over $14 million, and the IRS was set on collecting it.
Two separate liens were placed on the actor by 2014: one for $2.5 million and another
for $12 million.
In 2011, Tucker faced foreclosure on his home, a $6 million mansion in Florida that the actor
still owed over $4 million on.
Between the home foreclosure and the tax debt, Tucker's net worth was sitting in the negative.
The actor did finally settle up with the IRS, and his reps adamantly say the debt wasn't
his fault, laying the blame on poor management and accountants.
Most people know about DMX's hip-hop career, but what you might not be as familiar with
is his career in Hollywood.
The rapper has acted in a handful of action movies, such as Never Die Alone and Exit Wounds,
and had roles alongside Jet Li in Cradle 2 the Grave and Romeo Must Die.
Admittedly, most of DMX's wealth came from his multi-platinum music career that kicked
off in the late '90s.
It's hard to say exactly how much the rapper made at his peak, but it was doubtless in
the millions.
And he worked very hard to keep the IRS away from it.
DMX made his purchases in cash and didn't use bank accounts in his own name - but he
apparently didn't try hard enough, because he was later charged with 14 counts of tax
evasion, amounting to over $1.7 million in tax liabilities.
The tax evasion case actually came after DMX had already fallen on hard times.
In 2013, he filed for bankruptcy due to over $1 million worth of back child support, as
well as an auto lease he couldn't afford.
At the time, he claimed to have had a total of just $50,000 in assets.
Before she sat on the throne of Westeros, Lena Headey was an action movie star with
credits in everything from Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles to Dredd.
And, back in 2013, she was also flat-broke.
Lena Headey divorced her husband, Peter Loughran in December 2013, but by that point, Headey
had already fallen on hard financial times.
She had just sold her house and lost a couple hundred thousand on the sale.
Headey claimed in court documents that she needed $6,000 of the couple's 2011 tax refund
to cover living expenses, since she had less than $5 in the bank.
In 2013, SyFy Wire claimed Headey was getting paid $150,000 per episode of Game of Thrones.
Before taking on the role of Cersei, however, Headey had worked on several TV shows and
movies and should've secured herself a hefty nest egg.
Even with legal fees from the divorce, Headey shouldn't have needed to live off credit as
her court documents state.
But legal documents claim that the couple worked through their savings during Headey's
pregnancy, because she wasn't able to work.
They had no choice but to live off credit cards, piling on debt that they'd have to
cover when Headey was back on the screen.
But hey, you know what they say about Lannisters and debts.
"A Lannister always pays-"
"Don't say it.
Don't f---ing say it."
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