At Lunch
WHAT IN THE WORLD - Celebs you didn't know were bankrupt─── 12:31 Mon, 06 Jul 2015
Oscar Wilde
Writer and poet Oscar Wilde was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1885 after a trial in which he sued the Marquess of Queensberry for libel, after Queensbury accused him of committing the crime of sodomy.
Queensberry was eventually found not guilty, and his acquittal meant that Wilde was legally responsible for paying the expenses Queensberry had incurred in his defence. This caused Wilde to go bankrupt, and many of his possessions were sold off, including the production rights to The Importance of Being Ernest and Lady Windermere's Fan.
Cyndi Lauper
Early on in her career, singer Cyndi Lauper filed for bankruptcy after her band Blue Angel split up, and for a while she sang in a Japanese restaurant dressed like a geisha to make money, until her manager landed her a deal with a different record company, according to the Rolling Stone magazine.
In 2013 she told ABC News: "In '83 I got my record deal as a solo artist but I had to go bankrupt first. Honestly, the judge said, at the end of the whole thing, he took the gavel and said, 'let the canary sing.' So this canary sang."
Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson filed for bankruptcy in the US in 2003, in a bid to resolve his financial problems.
The former world heavyweight champion earned hundreds of millions of pounds during his fighting career but he is believed to have squandered his fortune on jewellery, mansions, cars, limousines, mobile phones, parties, clothing, and motorcycles, reports the New York Times.
"One of his most recent extravagances came when Tyson walked into a Las Vegas jewellery store and picked up a $173,706 gold chain lined with 80 carats in diamonds. But he never paid for the jewellery, which is among the $23m in debts specified in the petitions he filed with the United States Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan," said Richard Sandomir, a reporter New York Times.
Larry King
Today, talk-show host Larry King has an estimated net worth of $150m, but his fortunes haven't always been so favourable.
"As a fledgling Miami radio announcer in the 1960s, King made no secret that he was 'flying high' despite the paltry salary that came along with the gig," Time magazine reported. In 1971 King was arrested and charged with grand larceny for allegedly stealing $5,000 from his business partner. The charges were eventually dropped but the scandal resulted in him being fired from his radio jobs. He declared bankruptcy in 1978 with debts worth an estimated $350,000.
That same year King was given a late-night talk show slot on the radio which eventually led to his own very successful television show Lary King Live, which ran for 25 years.
