How Gunsmoke Star Burt Reynolds Lost So Much Of His Fortune

Burt Reynolds was once the world's most bankable movie star, and yet his later years were marked by financial woes. At the time of his death in 2018, the "Gunsmoke" star was worth an estimated $500,000 — just slightly more than the median price of a new home in the U.S. in 2026. In the '80s, Reynolds' net worth was equivalent to $200 million in today's conversion, but the "Smokey and the Bandit" actor lost nearly all of it through a series of poor business decisions, a lavish lifestyle, and an ugly divorce.

While a master at the art of acting, Reynolds proved to have nowhere near the same level of acumen when it came to business investment. Throughout the '80s, he dabbled in the restaurant business, investing in Po' Folks and later Daisy's Diner. Both chains failed, leading to $20 million in losses. The biggest problem here was that Reynolds invested as an individual as opposed to making corporate investments, making him personally liable for those millions. That was just the beginning, though. Shortly after the restaurant fiasco, he married Loni Anderson in 1988.

However, Reynolds' affair with cocktail waitress Pam Seals ruined the second marriage, igniting a multi-million-dollar divorce settlement in 1994. The negative publicity surrounding the highly publicized divorce impacted his career opportunities. And through it all, he continued to lead the same lifestyle he had enjoyed during his days as Hollywood's favorite leading man. Two years later, CBS sued Reynolds after he failed to repay $4 million he'd borrowed to sustain his lavish spending in 1990. Shortly after, he filed for personal bankruptcy, claiming to be more than $10 million in debt. His finances never recovered from those disastrous years in the '80s and '90s.

Even though he worked up until his death, Burt Reynolds was never able to recover his financial stability. While his award-winning role in the Paul Thomas Anderson hit film "Boogie Nights" in 1997 gave him a much-needed boost when he needed it most, it wasn't enough to get his financial life back on track. He stopped paying the mortgage on his Florida estate, leading to a foreclosure lawsuit in 2011. "I am as surprised as everyone. I thought my career and my life could not be going better," he told ABC News. In 2015, he sold the home and agreed to pay rent to the new owner.

A few months earlier, Reynolds was said to have auctioned off more than 600 personal items — including his "Boogie Nights" Golden Globe (seen above), which heightened speculation about his finances. "I want everyone to know that contrary to what all the news outlets are saying, I am not broke," he told ET in 2014, insisting he just wanted to get rid of some of the mementos cluttering up his home. However, he admitted to having regrets about many of his financial decisions. "I haven't been somebody who's been smart about his money. There are a couple of actors who are quite brilliant with the way they've handled their money," he told Vanity Fair in 2015, adding with a smile: "But they're not very good actors."

In the interview, Reynolds asserted that he was financially okay, even if he hadn't been able to recover his fortune. "I'm not bankrupt, by any means. I'm not even worried about it," he said. Before he died, he set up a trust where put whatever personal assets he had left.