Back in the ’80s, “Diff’rent Strokes” was a wildly popular TV show, and its child star Gary Coleman was making $70,000 per episode! Unfortunately, when the show ended in 1986, Coleman realized that his parents and business advisor had terribly mismanaged his money.
After his success on TV, Coleman tried to find other work but wasn’t lucky. So, he decided to sue his parents and business advisor, which he won. However, it still wasn’t enough money to keep him from going bankrupt in 1999. Coleman had to accept a job as a security guard after a long bill of lawyer fees and several bad investments left him penniless. After facing legal troubles in the 2000s, Coleman passed away in 2010 from a bad fall caused by a seizure.
Teresa Giudice
The loud-mouthed Teresa Giudice became famous after starring in the popular reality show, 'The Real Housewives of New Jersey'. Unfortunately, she and her husband Joe had big legal problems in 2013 after they were charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud, bank fraud, and wire fraud. Teresa got 15 months of jail time, and her husband was sentenced to 41 months.
Needless to say, the couple had to pay a lot of money, a huge part of which was in back taxes. Now, with Joe Giudice still serving jail time, Teresa is trying to get back on her feet.
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye is a legend of soul music. His timeless songs became almost an anthem of the 70s, and people are still listening to "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", "Let's Get It On", and countless more to this day. Gaye even won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Grammys in 1996.
Sadly, Gaye had to file for bankruptcy in 1976 after failing to pay alimony to his ex-wife, Anna Gordy. After a judge declared he had to pay $600,000 from the royalties of his album "Here, My Dear", Gaye was left in a very bad economic situation. Tragically, Marvin Gaye died in 1984, after he was shot and killed by his own father when he tried to stop a fight between his parents. Gaye still owed almost $300,000 to his ex-wife in alimony.
David Cassidy
David Cassidy had an extremely successful acting and singing career back in the '70s and '80s. Catapulted to fame by his role as Keith Partridge in the famous TV show 'The Partridge Family', David was already known around the country and used this to start a career in music.
In 1970, his hit song "I Think I Love You" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and the teen idol was on top of the world. Unfortunately, as it often happens with these stars, Cassidy went bankrupt in 2015, after being in debt for $10 million. A long history of DUIs, alcohol abuse, and a costly divorce in 2014 forced Cassidy to auction off his mansion. Sadly, he died from liver and kidney failure in 2017.
Isaac Hayes
The soul, funk, disco, and rock 'n' roll legend Isaac Hayes was huge back in the 1960s. Hayes was one of the creative powerhouses behind Stax Records, a famous Southern soul music label. Although he made a killing back in the '60s, this Rock and Roll Hall of Famer had to file for bankruptcy in 1976 after a whopping $6 million debt in taxes.
Hayes won three Grammys, one Golden Globe Award for Original Score, and one Academy Award for Best Original Song for the 1971 cult film, 'Shaft'. By 1977, in an interview with Ebony Magazine, Hayes said that his money problems came from mismanaging his record label, insane spending, and just generally placing "too much trust in people". Still, Hayes kept making music, wrote a successful cookbook, and owned two restaurants by the time of his death, in 2008.