Even though they're beloved on the big screen, a number of Marvel's leading names have unsavory
pasts that have gotten them in trouble with the law.
Here are ten Marvel actors who have been arrested, many of them on multiple occasions.
It's known as one of the most famous celebrity mug shots of all time, but as Nick Nolte revealed
in 2011, the infamous image that has trailed him for nearly two decades wasn't actually
a mugshot at all.
The actor, who was arrested in 2002 for driving under the influence of GHB, or liquid ecstasy,
was taken to the hospital for a blood test, which is where a police officer asked if he
could take a photo.
As Nolte told GQ,
"I said, 'Come on, you don't really want to ask that, do you?'"
After the cop agreed to share any money he made from the shot with his fellow officers,
Nolte recalled that he let him shoot the Polaroid.
The actor, who appeared in Ang Lee's Hulk in 2003 as Bruce Banner's father David, opened
up about the incident in his 2018 memoir, Rebel: My Life Outside the Lines.
He revealed that he took GHB prior to going to the gym and that a strong dose made him
feel great.
He was then driving to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting when the drug began to take effect,
so he turned around.
As he wrote,
"I was a mess and driving on the Pacific Coast Highway.
I'm told six drivers called 911 to report a big sedan weaving on the wrong side of the
road."
Nolte entered rehab, and upon his release, he was sentenced to three years' probation.
Vinnie Jones is no stranger to breaking the law.
In 1997, he was arrested and found guilty of assaulting his neighbor Timothy Gear in
a late-night fencing dispute.
According to Gear's account, Jones put his teeth into the top of his scalp.
In 2003, the X-Men: The Last Stand actor was arrested at London's Heathrow airport and
later sentenced to 80 hours of community service and 1,100 pounds in fines for assaulting a
fellow passenger and making a drunken threat to the flight crew.
Then in 2008, Jones was arrested again, this time following a bar brawl at Wiley's Tavern
in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
According to a spokeswoman for Sanford USD Medical Center, he suffered a laceration on
his head and a nasal injury after being hit in the face with a beer glass.
He was treated and then charged with assault and released on bail.
In 2009, he claimed that he acted in self-defense, and he was ultimately found not guilty.
It seems that Woody Harrelson has a penchant for running away from authority.
At the age of 21, when he was caught dancing in the middle of a busy street, he tried to
escape from police before being arrested and charged with disturbing the peace.
He needn't have worried, as he got away with paying a simple fine.
He didn't learn his lesson, though, and in 2002 he tried to run from cops once more.
Harrelson, who appeared in a mid-credits scene in 2018's Venom, was in a London taxi after
a night out when he reportedly broke an ashtray and a lock, jumped out, hailed another cab,
and then sped off.
The driver of the damaged vehicle called police, who stopped the getaway vehicle.
That's when Harrelson jumped out again and started running.
He was eventually stopped and arrested for causing an estimated 300 pounds worth of damage,
and he spent the night in a cell before getting out on bail.
This incident gave Harrelson the idea for the 2017 film Lost in London, which was broadcast
live into theaters.
"A few years back, in London, I had a most unhappy experience, and I decided that I would
write a comedy about it."
Kelsey Grammer has lived a tragic life, which has included the loss of three siblings, substance
abuse, and numerous legal troubles.
The X-Men actor's first run-in with the law occurred in July 1987, when he was arrested
for being under the influence of alcohol and a drug and driving without a license.
As a first-time offender, he was given probation, ordered to enter rehab, and told to return
to court in October 1988 to prove that he had completed treatment.
In April 1988, Grammer was arrested again and found to be in possession of $25 worth
of cocaine.
After missing two arraignment hearings, he was eventually sentenced to rehab and told
to return in May 1990 to report his progress.
In both cases, not only did he not seek treatment, but he never turned up for his court dates.
Finally, an arrest warrant was issued.
Grammer was sentenced to 30 days behind bars plus ten days collecting trash along the highway
for violating his probation.
He also pleaded no contest to his cocaine possession charges and received 90 days' house
arrest.
"I got sort of wrapped up in cocaine for a while and, uh, didn't forgive myself."
The drama continued in 1996, when Grammer was arrested once again after the car he was
driving flipped over.
He was taken to a hospital to treat a cut on his forehead and checked himself into rehab
a few days later.
Meanwhile, California Highway Patrol recommended that he officially be charged with drunk driving.
Just four months after tying the knot in 2004, Josh Brolin and Diane Lane got into a heated
argument that resulted in the Thanos actor getting arrested.
The incident occurred at the couple's home and ended with Lane calling police, claiming
that Brolin had hit her.
According to the couple's spokeswoman, Lane didn't want to press charges, but given the
physical nature of the claim, he was arrested anyway, charged with spousal battery, and
released on $20,000 bail.
In 2008, Brolin was arrested again, this time at a wrap party for the movie W in Louisiana.
The bash was so raucous that a crew member was arrested for public intoxication.
Brolin reportedly tried to intervene and was taken into custody and then released on $334
bond.
Then in 2013, he landed behind bars once again, this time in Santa Monica, California.
It was just before midnight on January 1 when he was arrested for public intoxication and
held until he sobered up.
In one of the darker areas of celebrity arrests, Terrence Howard has a rather frightening history
of assaulting women.
In 2000, the Iron Man actor was on a flight from Toronto to Cleveland when he grabbed
a flight attendant by the wrist and tried to push her after she asked him to return
to his seat.
Upon landing, he was arrested, but all charges were dropped for lack of jurisdiction.
Howard claimed he had been trying to take his daughter to the bathroom.
Then in 2001, the actor was arrested for punching his estranged wife Lori.
According to the police report, the couple fought over the phone and Howard threatened,
"Don't disrespect me by hanging up on me or I'll come over and hurt you."
Lori called 911, but Howard broke down the door to her house and attacked her.
He was charged with simple assault, terroristic threats, harassment, and stalking.
All charges were dropped when he pled guilty to disorderly conduct.
In 2005, Howard took his anger out on strangers, punching a woman in the chest and a man in
the face because they were in front of him at a Philadelphia diner and he wanted to be
seated first.
He was arrested and charged with simple assault and harassment, but again, charges were dropped
when he pled guilty to disorderly conduct.
Before Robert Downey Jr. got sober and turned his life around, he was spiraling out of control.
He was first arrested in 1996 when cops pulled him over for speeding on the Pacific Coast
Highway, and they found cocaine, heroin, and an unloaded Magnum revolver in his car.
He was released on $10,000 bail and later sentenced to probation and 100 hours of community
service.
Two weeks later, Downey was arrested for breaking into a neighbor's house and passing out in
one of the bedrooms while high.
He was charged with trespassing and being under the influence of a controlled substance
and sentenced to three years' probation and rehab.
Downey wasn't quite ready to get clean at this point, though.
After repeatedly skipping out on treatment and missing a court-ordered drug test, he
was sentenced to 113 days behind bars at the Los Angeles County Men's Central Jail in 1997.
In 1999, his probation violations landed him a sentence of three years in a California
state prison.
He was released in 2000, but the arrests kept coming until 2001.
Downey eventually got sober in 2003 and he's since occasionally discussed his past transgressions.
"As far as whatever example I can say to anybody else, I mean, I think the best thing I can
do is keep the plug in the jug myself and stay out of trouble."
Mickey Rourke is known for being a supervillain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but when
he was arrested in November 2007, the circumstances were anything but super.
He was taken into custody for driving on a motor scooter while under the influence after
he was seen weaving from lane to lane on his Vespa in Miami Beach.
It was around 4 a.m., and he had bloodshot, watery eyes.
Also, his speech was slurred and he smelled strongly of alcohol.
He failed a sobriety test, though the police report noted that he asked,
"What the f--- did I do?!
I'm not drunk, I didn't even drink that much."
He was taken into custody and transported to the Miami-Dade Pre-trial Detention Center,
where he was held on a $1,000 bond.
Drunken scootering was hardly the first time Rourke had found himself on the wrong side
of the law.
He was also charged in 1994 with spousal battery after he had allegedly slapped his 25-year-old
wife Carré Otis, knocking her down and kicking her.
Otis later dropped the charge, but that same year, Rourke was also cuffed for resisting
arrest during a fight outside a South Beach nightclub.
In 2008, Forbes dubbed Wesley Snipes "the highest-profile criminal tax target in years"
after he was sentenced to three years behind bars for owing $2.7 million in back taxes.
The Blade star, who didn't submit his taxes in 1999, 2000, or 2001, was charged with three
misdemeanor counts of failing to file tax returns.
He filed an appeal, which was denied, and he was ordered to start serving his prison
term in 2010.
He had a lot to be thankful for, though, as he was acquitted of five other much more serious
charges, including felony tax fraud and conspiracy charges.
During an interview with Larry King in 2010, Snipes indicated that he believed he was being
singled out.
"And the way it's been misreported about the world, I think there's a certain amount of
selectivity going on here."
Snipes was released from prison in 2013 and placed under house arrest to complete the
last four months of his sentence.
The saga wasn't over, though, as the IRS discovered that he had actually failed to pay taxes between
2001 and 2006 and owed $23.5 million.
Snipes took the IRS to court in 2018 and offered to pay $842,061 to wipe out the multi-million-dollar
debt.
Even after the settlement was lowered to $9.5 million, Snipes stuck to his meager offer,
which was a mistake.
He would go on to suffer a major blow when the U.S. Tax Court ruled against his "economic
hardship" claim, concluding that the IRS was entitled to the full $23.5 million.
Mollie Fitzgerald, who had a small role in Captain America: The First Avenger as one
of Howard Stark's assistants, has the most shocking arrest story of all the celebrities
on this list.
On December 20, 2019, her mother, Patricia "Tee" Fitzgerald, was found dead with four
stab wounds in her back.
On December 31, the actress was arrested, charged with the killing, and held in jail
on a $500,000 bond.
Mollie claimed that she acted in self-defense, saying that her mother lunged at her with
the knife.
She confessed to hitting her mother with a vacuum cleaner attachment, to biting her,
and to stabbing her because she had to.
Findings from the autopsy report disputed her claims, however.
According to the official report, Patricia's body showed "defensive injuries," including
bruising around her neck that suggested strangling.
There was zero evidence that she had attacked anyone or ever held the knife in question.
Mollie told a judge in January 2020 that she would be acting as her own attorney.
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