11 Celebrities Who Died And Left A Huge Debt

Even the largest celebrities struggle with money, despite how dazzling the lives of the affluent and famous frequently seem. Despite the numerous motivational tales of famous people who overcame adversity and found success, the contrary may sometimes occur. From athletics to movie stars to artists, fame and fortune may occasionally lead to reckless spending.
Although it's common to believe that success and wealth go hand in hand, that isn't necessarily the case. These 11 well-known celebs who, for a variety of reasons, were essentially impoverished when they passed away serve as proof of that.

1. Marvin Gaye

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Iconic songs like "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and "What's Going On" will always be associated with Marvin Gaye in the history of music. However, a combination of two divorces, severe fines for failing to pay taxes, and a severe cocaine addiction essentially ate away all of his income and then some. He once relocated to Europe in an effort to elude the IRS; later, he supposedly lived in a van in Hawaii and filed for bankruptcy.
Gaye was allegedly more than $9 million in debt when he passed away in 1984 after being shot and killed by his own father following a drug-fueled quarrel. 10 famous people who filed for bankruptcy and what they did wrong are related.

2. Judy Garland

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Judy Garland was born Frances Ethel Gumm and raised in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. She started out in the Entertainment industry at an early age because both of her parents were entertainers. With her two elder sisters, Garland first performed as a singer in a group before switching to acting.
Although Garland appeared in a number of movies and musicals, her role as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz is probably her most well-known one. Although she had a brilliant career, a large portion of it was marred by drug abuse and money troubles. She supposedly had her house taken by the IRS, and when she died in 1969 (ostensibly from an accidental drug overdose), she still owed around $4 million in bills.

3. Michael Jackson

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Although Michael Jackson was very wealthy, he also had a good sense of how to spend it. His binges, mansions, and shopping sprees left him with the type of overhead that would give most people an abrupt coronary. Recall how he burned his erstwhile pal Paul McCartney by stealing The Beatles song library from under his nose?
The King of Pop was in the middle of organizing a big return tour to support his faltering finances when he passed himself from an accidental drug overdose in 2009. He was said to have had earnings of $500 million at the time of his death.
Intriguingly, the deceased singer's estate has profited handsomely from his notoriety and has collected a stunning $2 billion since he moonwalked into the great beyond.

4. Corey Haim

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The tragic cautionary tale of Corey Haim highlights the dangers of being a young child actor who becomes a major celebrity too soon. The Toronto-born actor struggled to find work after reaching adolescence, which resulted in unemployment, despair, and a valium addiction that drove him to declare bankruptcy.
He was residing in his mother's Los Angeles apartment when he passed away at the age of 38, not from an overdose but from pneumonia. In order to collect the funds necessary to cover the cost of his burial, she was compelled to sell some of his personal items to a website selling Hollywood memorabilia.

5. Sammy Davis Jr.

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Sammy Davis Jr. was one of the most well-known entertainers during the 1960s and 1970s, with fingers dripping with diamond rings the size of Volkswagens and a dazzling lifestyle that anybody would envy. However, it wasn't until Davis' death in 1990 from throat cancer that the truth came to light: Davis had been living above his means for years, racking up thousands of dollars in debt and owing $5.2 million in taxes at the time of his death.

6. Bela Lugosi

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Bela Lugosi's legendary portrayal of Dracula gained him enormous acclaim, but it also typecast him, with Hollywood casting directors only considering him for jobs as vampires or crazy scientists. He resorted to opium when the parts dried up and accepted any horrible roles he could to satisfy his addiction. He left behind $1,900 in the bank and real estate worth roughly $1,000 when he passed away in 1956 at the age of 73.

7. Andy Gibb

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Although Andy Gibb, the youngest of the Gibb Brothers, was never as well-known as his siblings, The Bee Gees, he did manage to score a number of songs in the 1970s that catapulted him to notoriety. Unfortunately, he also acquired a serious cocaine addiction and reportedly spent $1,000 per day snorting cocaine up his nose at one time. He was millions of dollars in debt when he passed away at age 30 in 1988 from cardiac problems brought on by his drug addiction.

8. Billie Holiday

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Billie Holiday is considered one of the greatest jazz vocalists of all time, but due to personal tragedy in her life, she turned to drugs and alcohol. Her sometimes confused state gave managers and promoters the opportunity to take advantage of her and cheat her out of a large portion of her earnings. Holliday had only $750 in her bank account when she passed away in 1959 from liver cirrhosis.

9. Omar Sharif

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Omar Sharif once enjoyed success in Hollywood. The lead-in such classics as Doctor Zhivago and Laurence of Arabia was a high-stakes gambler who regularly lost his money at Monaco's casinos. He was also considered one of the top bridge players in the world and eventually gave up acting to concentrate on the game. When he allegedly lost around $1 million playing roulette in a single night, things began to go south, and he vowed never to do it again.
He was compelled to sell his house by the late-life occurrence, and he spent the rest of his day's lodging. Towards the end of his life, Sharif expressed his loneliness and financial ruin in a particularly sorrowful interview. Apart from a few pieces of clothing, I have absolutely nothing. 2015 saw his passing.

10. Erin Moran

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Erin Moran, who is best known for playing Joanie "Shortcake" Cunningham on the popular 1970s sitcom Happy Days, appeared to be on the verge of making the successful transition from child actor to the adult actor when she and co-star Scott Baio left the program to create a spinoff series called Joanie Loves Chachi. One problem:
She never really recovered from the cancellation of the show since it was terrible, legendarily terrible. She spent the next years in a downhill drug and alcohol spiral, and in 2010, a bank foreclosed on her California house. She lived in a trailer park in Indiana for her final years until passing away from cancer in 2017.

11. Aaron Hernandez

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At the end of his life, the tight end for the New England Patriots had more than just financial concerns. When he committed suicide at the age of 27 in 2017, he was serving a life term in jail for the murder of Odin Lloyd, a semi-pro athlete who had been dating Hernandez's fiancée. He had a $50,000 net worth at the time, and his estate was worthless.