Celebrity bankruptcies: 12 famous faces, and flame-outs
She was a Bond girl and Batman’s girlfriend, and by the end of the 1980s, Kim Basinger capped the decade by being part of an investment group that, for $20 million, bought the town of Braselton, Ga. True, it was a small town, with only about 500 residents. But, you know, it was still a town. The plan was to turn it into a tourist attraction and a center of film and television production. Those plans never came to fruition, and Basinger encountered serious financial trouble in 1993. After she withdrew from a role in “Boxing Helena,” the film’s producers sued Basinger and were awarded more than $8.1 million in damages. Before that was overturned, Basinger filed first for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and then Chapter 7. That same year, Basinger’s bankruptcy court liquidated her holdings in Braselton for a substantial loss. (Theo Wargo / Getty Images)
Celebrities, they’re just like us: broke. Not all of them and not all of the time, of course, but even those who live lives of wealth and renown sometimes find themselves short of the former. At which point, like so many other individuals and corporations before them, they file for bankruptcy. The reasons for celebrity bankruptcy vary, of course. There are the classics: extravagant divorce and creative accounting. There are also more novel explanations, such as entourage bloat or the financial burdens that arise from buying a small town.
-- Brendan Buhler
Hard-living piano rocker Jerry Lee Lewis, who turns 78 this year, filed for bankruptcy in 1988, citing debts totaling more than $3 million, including almost a million dollars to a Nashville bar. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles TImes)
The “Danke Schoen” crooner who became known as Mr. Las Vegas filed for bankruptcy in Reno in 1992, seeking to reorganize some $20 million in debt. At the time, Newton was said to be making $250,000 each week by performing in Las Vegas. Newton rebounded with a entertainer-in-residence gig at the Stardust in 1999. By 2005, however, the IRS was seeking $1.8 million from Newton. Financial troubles over the next five years included lawsuits from a Detroit-area airport where Newton had parked his $2-million private plane, Newton’s former pilot, an animal-feed company and a NASCAR mogul.
In 2010, Newton’s security personnel repulsed an attempt by Clark County sheriff’s deputies to enter the entertainer’s 52-acre compound, Casa de Shenandoah, and seize property as recompense for a $500,000 judgment against him. Later that year, Newton sold his home of 45 years to a development partnership (in which he and his wife owned a stake) that sought to turn it into a museum of all things Wayne Newton. The partnership filed for bankruptcy in 2012. In the spring of 2013, the Newtons moved out and onto a more modest 20-acre spread they are calling simply the Shenandoah. (Julie Jacobson / Associated Press)
Legally known as Vickie Lynn Marshall, she was better known as the Playboy Playmate who married an 89-year-old oil tycoon. When her eldery, wealthy husband died one year later, his will left her with nothing. Shortly thereafter, she lost a default judgment of $830,000 in a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by her former nanny, an expense that forced the high-living bombshell into bankruptcy. And lawsuits. Many, many lawsuits. When one case that outlived the Playmate (deceased since 2007) reached the Supreme Court for the third and final time in 2011, Chief Justice John Roberts called it Dickensian, comparing it to “Bleak House.” (Manuel Balce Ceneta / Associated Press)
Not so much an entertainer as a highly entertaining politician, the exquisitely named Symington was, at the time of his bankruptcy filing in 1995, the governor of Arizona. Symington, scion of a family that traced its fortune to Gilded Age robber baron Henry Clay Frick, lost heavily in the real estate market and was $25 million in debt. Two years later, Symington was tried in federal court on charges of fraud, perjury and extortion. He was convicted and resigned from office. Two years later, the conviction was overturned on appeal. Another two years later, Symington was pardoned by President Clinton on the last day of Clinton’s presidency. Decades earlier, Symington (a Republican) had rescued Clinton from drowning when he was caught in a rip tide during an ocean swim.
Although he has publicly mulled a return to politics, Symington has found work as a business consultant and pastry chef. Also, he claims to have seen a UFO while he was governor. J. Fife Symington III, ladies and gentlemen. (Ken Levine / Associated Press)
Trump, once memorably described by Spy magazine as a “short-fingered vulgarian,” will loudly proclaim that he has never been bankrupt. It’s true: The man named Donald Trump has never personally filed for bankruptcy. However, companies named for Donald Trump have filed for bankruptcy four times -- first in 1991, then again in 1992, in 2004 and, most recently, in 2009. All of these bankruptcies revolved around Trump’s eponymous Atlantic City casinos. (Justin Hayworth / Associated Press)
The legendary (and legendarily troubled) heavyweight boxing champion (shown here with Spike Lee), filed for bankruptcy in 2003. By 2004, he was down to little more than $1,200 in cash. His debts, at that point, were estimated at around $38 million. His fortune had once been estimated at more than $400 million and had been spent on, among other things, 110 cars, six mansions, two white Bengal tigers and one $2-million bathtub. Ever since, the ear-chomping champ has been on a quest to restore his public image, admitting to alcoholism and a host of personal sins. (Chris Pizzello / Invision/Associated Press)
