Celebrities Who Went Broke After Achieving Fame and Fortune

Houseguest, Jingle All the Way, and his role on A Different World made comedian Sinbad a familiar face in the 1990s. His stand-up specials drew big audiences too. Year after year, though, he was not paying all of his taxes, and the amount he owed kept growing.

By the late 2000s, Sinbad owed the government millions of dollars, and California listed him among its worst tax offenders. He filed for bankruptcy in 2009. Sinbad kept touring as a comedian until a stroke in 2020, and he has been working hard on his recovery ever since.