Celebrities Who Died Broke

Nikola Tesla made millions of dollars for the Westinghouse Electric Corporation but decided to take only $216,600 as a one-time payment from the company. He lost most of his money in 1901 when he dreamed of supplying free electricity by means of the Wardenclyffe Tower Project. The project failed and drained Tesla's wealth, leaving him broke, at the time of his death, in 1943.

Although Joe Louis earned more than $4.6 million during his illustrious boxing career, he received only about $800,000 as most of the money went to his handlers. Nevertheless, he was generous to his family and invested in many businesses, a decision which he would go on to regret later. At the time of his death, Louis owed the IRS $1.25 million, which was never paid.

Despite earning almost $55,000 a week at the peak of her career, Judy Garland lost thousands of dollars due to a lack of business sense and wrong investments. Her lavish lifestyle and drug addiction left her broke and she ended up owing money to many people. At the time of her demise, Garland owed the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) thousands of dollars and her total debt was estimated to be around $4 million.