You would think that any child actor who got their start on a high-profile Disney Channel would just remain in the business for their entire lives. In fact, many of them have! Demi Lovato, Raven Symoné, and Selena Gomez come to mind. (Not to mention the likes of Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake from a generation before that, too.) After all, getting a start like that as a young kid would line a person up for untold riches, fame, and adulation for the rest of their lives, right?

But interestingly, not every Disney Channel alum decides to stay in the business. In fact, many former child stars quickly check out of Hollywood altogether! And yes, this even includes stars you know very well—and maybe even stars that you grew up watching on television! In this list today, we’ll take a fascinating look at the life paths of ten of those stars. These ten former child stars rose to fame on the Disney Channel. But when they got to the pinnacle of their young careers, they all decided to go do something else instead. These are their stories…

Related: 10 Actors Who Turned Down Movie Roles and Regretted It

10 Ashlie Brillault

Actress Ashlie Brillault grew up playing the character of Kate Sanders on the Lizzie McGuire series. But as she aged out, she eventually decided that acting wasn’t for her. So, instead, she went off to college after filming for the show wrapped up. She attended California State University Long Beach, where she studied political science and government. After graduating, she matriculated to the University of Denver to get a degree in law.

Ever since then, she’s been working happily in the legal world! She got a job as a lawyer right out of law school and eventually worked her way up to becoming a partner in the law offices of David Givot back in southern California. She reflected on her desire to do something bigger than television, too. “My ultimate goal is to work on issues related to criminal justice reform,” she said once in a 2015 interview. It seems like she’s done just that!^[2]

9 Clayton Snyder

Back in the day, Clayton Snyder played the iconic heartthrob Ethan Craft on Lizzie McGuire. However, just like Brillault, he decided to take a break from acting once he got to the end of his high school days. Instead of continuing on in show business, he instead went off to college at Pepperdine University in Malibu. And from there, he became a very good water polo player. So good, in fact, that he actually played it professionally for a time in Italy after graduation! Then, he transitioned into a full-time career in real estate. And he’s been selling homes ever since!

To him, the funniest part of his life now is when a homebuyer suddenly recognizes who he is and where they know him from. “We’ve had plenty of clients where halfway through showing them homes, they’re like, ‘My wife and I just found out who you are, and we can’t believe it!’” he told E! News about his two worlds sometimes coming together. “But that makes me feel good because I know that’s not why they’re working with me. It’s the best of both worlds, where they have the fun of realizing that, but their actual entry point was because of the work that we do.”^[2]

8 Nick Spano

Nick Spano rose to fame as a child star by playing the older brother Donnie on Disney’s Even Stevens sitcom. After that show wrapped, he tried his hand at a few more television series, too. But eventually, he grew tired of the acting grind. So he opted to go to UCLA for college. After graduating, he went into business—opening up a spa as well as a market management firm. Then, in 2015, he pulled another major career switch by opening up a coffee house-slash-restaurant in Los Angeles called Re/creation Café. There, he hosts community art shows and other social events for locals.

“Re/creation Café is a creative community space and eatery,” he once explained to the local news outlet VoyageLA. “It’s a place where people come to play and connect through good food, art, and music. Our goal is to get people (specifically adults) playing again. There really is nothing out there like Re/creation at this time. We are known for our events, such as Paint Social, Play, Goddess Celebration, Rave on Wheels, Yamashiro Night Market, and Love is Blind, but the cafe is something different.” Well, good for him. It sounds like he’s found what he is meant to do after all that child acting!^[3]

7 Kay Panabaker

Kay Panabaker’s whole life was devoted to the Disney Channel during her childhood. She appeared on several different shows, including Phil of the Future, Life Is Ruff, and Read It and Weep. But then, in 2012, she stepped away from acting for a bit to go to college. And she never returned!

She first went to UCLA to study zoology. After finishing there, she transitioned to Santa Fe College in Florida in an animal husbandry program. Now, she’s back to working with Disney—but not in the way you might be assuming! In her adult life, Kay actually works with various wild animals at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in central Florida. So she’s still in the Disney family… just not anywhere close to being on screen!

“Looking back, finding my true passion was worth all of the extra time,” Panabaker once told Naperville Magazine about her slow move to finally work with animals rather than keep on with her acting career. “I work with some of the most incredible people who inspire me to work harder and make a bigger difference in the world. That aspect was missing in my previous career and is something that feeds my soul in my current line of work. I love it when I leave work and have felt like I was able to inspire and make a difference, even if it was just one person that day. I don’t earn a fraction of what I used to, and yet, I couldn’t be happier.” We love to hear that!^[4]

6 Amy Bruckner

Amy Bruckner got her start on the Disney Channel when she appeared as a cast regular on Phil of the Future. In that show, she played Phil’s younger sister, Pim Diffy. She was there for the show’s entire run, and she became a well-known star to millions of young people who quite literally grew up watching her on television. However, when it came time for her to grow up, Amy wanted to do something totally different. Always precocious and forever a great public speaker, the law was what called her name!

After wrapping the series, Bruckner matriculated to New York University. There, she studied human rights and feminist theory. Then, after graduation, she returned to Los Angeles and attended UCLA School of Law. Now, she works at a law firm in Los Angeles that represents movie studios, television networks, production companies, and other entities. So, she’s still in entertainment! Just at a much higher level than as a child actor. Oh, and one more tidbit: she goes by Amelia now rather than Amy. Clearly, her adult life has come full circle and is far different from who she was as a child!^[5]

5 Jennifer Stone

Jennifer Stone was a star on Wizards of Waverly Place opposite Selena Gomez. On the show, she played the best friend of the main character, Alex—a girl named Harper. But after the show ended and Gomez transitioned into super stardom as a pop music sensation, Jennifer took a very different route. She gave up acting, went to school, and eventually decided to become an emergency room nurse! That decision came about after she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in her own personal life. She became interested in medicine and decided that she wanted to help other people along the way.

“Regardless of your background, circumstances, choices, we’re all very much the same—and acting gives you that gift,” Stone reflected once on her acting career in an interview with Deadline about her choice to go into the nursing profession. “In nursing, you come across so many different kinds of people that to be able to view people that way is such a gift.”

She continued from there: “For so long, I’ve developed characters and just explored human nature and what makes people, people. I think it strengthens your sense of empathy and it strengthens your area of questioning why people do what they do. It also leads me to an understanding that people are very much the same.” What an amazing realization. We love to see it—a child star who turned out perfectly well-adjusted and is doing something for the betterment of society^[6]

4 Morgan York

Morgan York made a name for herself at a very young age when she landed a role opposite Miley Cyrus on Hannah Montana. But television didn’t turn out to be everything she wanted as she got older. At some point, the job became more of a job and less of a fun endeavor as she aged out of her youngest years. So she moved on. After acting, she pursued a career in literature. Today, she works at a publishing house. She is even hoping to become a published author herself at some point in the future!

Looking back on her short but successful acting career as an adult, York once explained her reason for transitioning out of the industry in a TikTok video: “I started acting when I was 9, and from the beginning, my mom told me, ‘The second this becomes not fun, or you want to stop, you can stop.’ I never expected it to be a lifetime thing. I even remember as a kid trying to imagine myself as an adult actor and just not seeing it.”

She wasn’t done there, either. The former child star continued with more about her decision to walk away from acting: “It wasn’t fun anymore. My passion for acting did not outweigh all the costs, like all the time you have to spend away from loved ones on sets and the constant scrutiny from people watching you.” Honestly, that sounds like a very mature and sensible decision to us.^[7]

3 Daniel Lee Benson

Daniel Lee Benson has had quite the road after quitting acting. He played Zeke on Wizards of Waverly Place. After the show wrapped, he initially decided to walk away from the world of theater and television. However, as he aged into being a full-grown adult, he began to receive messages threatening blackmail. That’s because leaked pictures of himself in suggestive photos were being spread online and posted on adult websites. For a long time, Benson tried desperately to scrub all that content from the internet. But the pictures just kept getting passed around and re-shared. And things got so bad that he almost lost his job!

Sick of continually dealing with that part of his past, Daniel decided to flip the switch on it and join OnlyFans. Amazingly, he built up a large following. And he also received a ton of support from fans who have continued to follow his, um, interesting second career. “I decided to stop fighting against it and, instead, go the other direction and completely lean into it and build out a page instead of letting these people sell my privacy,” Daniel shared in a very revealing TikTok about his unexpected career move. “I’ve met a lot of really great people in the adult entertainment industry, and it’s changed my life for the better.” Well, all good, just as long as he feels that positively about it, we suppose…^[8]

2 Tiffany Thornton

Tiffany Thornton was Demi Lovato’s closest co-star back in the days when the two of them were on Sonny with a Chance. But after that show ended, and Demi moved onto huge heights in the pop music industry, Tiffany shifted away from the Hollywood world. Instead of continuing to act, she left the screen and stage behind. And she became… a cheerleading coach! For a while, she worked as a recruiter at a Christian college in Arkansas. But she eventually found her way back to the thing that she really loved the most—cheerleading.

Ever since, she has been mentoring teenage girls and young women in a positive way while teaching them the value of cheerleading. “I absolutely love working here and seeing how God moves in the lives of these students,” Tiffany wrote of her decision to move into the world of cheerleading in a very appropriately peppy Instagram post back in 2017. “Plus, they come to my house a few times a semester for a big get-together where I make chicken spaghetti, salad, and banana pudding for dessert.” Wow. That sounds like a wonderful life!^[9]

1 Bridgit Mendler

When Good Luck Charlie made it to the Disney Channel, millions of viewers watched Bridgit Mendler steal the show as its star. But after the series wrapped, she took a complete left turn away from acting. And what she’s doing now will REALLY shock you! First, she attended the prestigious University of Southern California. Then, she got a master’s degree in humanity and technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Then, she went on to earn a PhD from MIT while simultaneously getting a law degree from the world-renowned Harvard Law School. We’re tired just thinking about all that!

After all those graduations came and went, Mendler then took a job at the Federal Communications Commission working in… wait for it… their Space Bureau! Yes, really! She “completely fell in love with space law” while there, as she told the media later. She came to love space so much that she eventually left that job and started her own company called Northwood Space. That company is tasked with building ground stations that can link up to satellite dishes that fly high in the sky, miles and miles above the Earth. And it’s already raised millions of dollars in early-stage startup funding!

“The vision is a data highway between Earth and space,” Mendler revealed to CNBC when they asked her about the company. “Space is getting easier along so many different dimensions, but still, the actual exercise of sending data to and from space is difficult. You have difficulty finding an access point for contacting your satellite.” Impressive to see that a Disney Channel alum turned to that level of work after teenage stardom. We love to see it!^[10]

Documentaries help us gain insider knowledge and more depth in certain important social issues. They also provide new conversation fodder in our day-to-day lives. When we see scandal, corruption, evil, and injustice play out on our screens at home, we begin to feel personally involved.

The key figures in the following shocking documentaries have all been exposed in such a way that their reputations and careers have never fully recovered. On these occasions, the camera was able to capture more than the subject ever intended.

10 Blackfish (2013)

Blackfish centers around an orca named Tilikum as well as the death of a SeaWorld killer whale trainer named Dawn Brancheau, who was dragged underwater by Tilikum. This was not the first violent incident involving Tilikum, who had previously dragged a trainer underwater. Luckily, that trainer survived. In 1999, a man named Daniel P. Dukes was found dead in Tilikum’s tank under suspicious circumstances.

Blackfish claimed that Tilikum and the other killer whales held in captivity were victims of cruel circumstances. These social animals were separated from their families and placed in tanks the size of only two lengths of their bodies. The ill effects of their captivity are indicated by their drooping dorsal fins—something seen in only one percent of wild killer whales.

There was widespread anger after the documentary was released, and SeaWorld suffered a $15.9 million loss due to low audience attendance. In 2018, SeaWorld and its former CEO were also ordered to pay $5 million in fines “to settle fraud charges for misleading investors about the impact the documentary film Blackfish had on the company’s reputation and business.”^[1]

9 Living With Michael Jackson (2003)

Journalist Martin Bashir had unprecedented access to Michael Jackson’s life for his fly-on-the-wall documentary Living with Michael Jackson, released in 2003. The documentary focuses on life at the Neverland Ranch, where the singer reveals that disadvantaged children are invited to sleep in his bed while he sleeps on the bedroom floor.

Bashir intended to focus on the King of Pop’s career but portrayed a very uncomfortable side to the musician instead. In one controversial scene, Jackson was seen holding hands with a 13-year-old boy on camera. Jackson made an official complaint to the independent television commission, stating he had been “unfairly treated.” He said, “Martin Bashir persuaded me to trust him. [ . . . ] Today I feel more betrayed than perhaps ever before.” He added, “Everyone who knows me will know the truth [ . . . ] that I would never harm any child.”^[2]

In 2019, a new documentary titled Leaving Neverland focused on two men, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who alleged they were sexually abused by Jackson as children. Following its release, many radio stations decided to boycott the singer’s hit songs.

8 Going Clear: Scientology And The Prison Of Belief (2015)

Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief is a controversial commentary on the Church of Scientology and its founder, L. Ron Hubbard. Director Alex Gibney claims the church draws in followers for money while subjecting them to physical and psychological degradation. Also highlighted is the war between the IRS and the church, which is exempt from paying any taxes on the basis of religion.

According to a former church spokesman, Tom Cruise’s ex-wife Nicole Kidman was deemed a “potential trouble source” because her father was a psychologist—a profession that Scientology is against. The documentary alleges that Kidman’s phone was tapped, and Cruise had to report daily on his relationship status. Actor John Travolta was also labeled as a key figure for the brainwashing cult in the stunning expose.

Lawrence Wright, who wrote the book that led to the film, said, “[The church] always wanted celebrities who could sell Scientology. [ . . . ] We hold people like Tom Cruise and John Travolta and others responsible for not demanding change inside that church.”^[3]

7 Surviving R. Kelly (2019)

The docuseries Surviving R. Kelly caused such public outcry that record label RCA, which is owned by Sony Music, cut all ties with R. Kelly. They removed his name from their website following an online petition which gained more than 110,000 signatures.

The singer-songwriter, real name Robert Kelly, reportedly married singer Aaliyah in 1994 and falsified the records to make her appear 18 years old when she was just 15 at the time. The brief marriage was later annulled. Kelly’s former personal assistant revealed, “I had papers forged for them when Aaliyah was underage. It was just a quick little ceremony. She didn’t have on a white dress. He didn’t have on a tux. Just everyday wear. She looked worried and scared.”^[4]

According to his former victims and their families, Kelly abused and manipulated dozens of young women and girls over the years. His former backing singer, Jovante Cunningham, stated, “He destroyed a lot of people. I can’t stress to you enough how people are still suffering behind things that went on 20 years ago.”

6 Making A Murderer (2015)

Former district attorney Ken Kratz was one of the central figures in the Netflix docuseries Making A Murderer, which premiered in December 2015. Kratz prosecuted Steven Avery and Branden Dassey for the murder of Teresa Halbach in 2005. Dassey was just 16 years old when he was convicted; he had learning difficulties and a below-average IQ.

Following the release of the documentary, Kratz became Public Enemy Number One when his own crimes were brought into the spotlight. In 2010, the Associated Press reported Kratz had sent “repeated text messages trying to spark an affair with a domestic abuse victim while he was prosecuting her ex-boyfriend.” According to police reports, two more women came forward claiming they had resigned from his office due to sexual harassment.

In 2014, the Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended Kratz for four months, stating, “This was exploitative behavior, harassing behavior, and a crass placement of his personal interests above those of his client, the State of Wisconsin.” Kratz was ordered to pay the costs of disciplinary proceedings—an amount that bankrupted him.^[5]

5 The Case Of: JonBenet Ramsey (2016)

On December 26, 1996, six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey was found dead in the basement of her family home in Boulder, Colorado. Her father found her body eight hours after she was reported missing. There was also a handwritten ransom note discovered in the house, demanding $118,000 for the safe return of JonBenet.

In 2016, CBS aired the docuseries The Case of: JonBenet Ramsey to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the child’s death. Former investigators of the original case and forensic experts came together to reexamine the murder. They built a new theory that suggested JonBenet’s brother Burke, who was nine years old at the time of the crime, bludgeoned his sister to death, and the parents covered for him.

Burke Ramsey then sued CBS for $750 million. His lawyers stated, “The accusation that Burke Ramsey killed his sister was based on a compilation of lies, half-truths, manufactured information, and the intentional omission and avoidance of truthful information about the murder of JonBenet Ramsey.” The lawsuit was settled privately, and the case of JonBenet Ramsey is still unsolved.^[6]

4 Nanook Of The North (1922)

Nanook of the North, released in 1922, focused on the life of great Inuit hunter Nanook. The documentary showed Nanook and his family surviving the powerful elements of Northern Canada. Director Robert Flaherty explained, “What I want to show is the former majesty and character of these people, while it is still possible—before the white man has destroyed not only their character but the people as well.”^[7]

Flaherty was criticized for heavily staging the “real-life” events depicted in the film. Nanook can be seen harpooning a walrus and dragging it out of the Arctic waters, although the Inuit had stopped walrus-hunting a long time prior. Nanook’s igloo was proven to be a film set with a missing wall because filming inside a real igloo was too dark.

Another staged moment was when Nanook was introduced to a gramophone for the first time, and he attempted to eat the vinyl, yet Nanook knew what vinyl was long before this film. It was also revealed that Flaherty had created Nanook’s “family” much like a casting call.

3 Icarus (2017)

Filmmaker Bryan Fogel uncovered the dark truth about doping in sports for his 2017 documentary Icarus. The documentary focuses on an alleged doping program overseen by the Russian Sports Ministry which involved coaches, officials, and politicians. Whistle-blower Grigory Rodchenkov, former director of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory, fled to the US, where he went into hiding and is now protected by US authorities.

Speaking on a panel at the Sundance Film Festival, banned Olympian Lance Armstrong agreed with the level of corruption in sports. He said, “My situation five years ago, when [my doping use] came out, the organizations—USADA (The United States Anti-Doping Agency), WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) [ . . . ] the declarations [they made] were pretty strong: ‘He’s biggest fraud in the history of sport’; ‘The most sophisticated doping program that ever existed’. We don’t need to debate whether or not those statements are true, but those are strong statements. But underneath all of that you have a system that really doesn’t work that well.”^[8]

2 The Panama Papers (2018)

In 2018, The Panama Papers detailed how more than 300 reporters from 80 different countries came together to investigate offshore accounts. More than 11.5 million documents, dubbed the “Panama Papers,” were leaked by an anonymous source. The documents detailed such things as corporations that were used for illegal purposes, including fraud and tax evasion. Offshore accounts originally exploited by criminal kingpins are now tax havens for the wealthy. The financial information of many prominent public figures was exposed.

In 2017, another leak, dubbed the “Paradise Papers,” occurred. Famous names involved in this shocking expose included singer Shakira for transferring more than £30 million in musical rights to an offshore firm; Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton, who avoided paying taxes on his £16.5 million private jet; pop star Madonna, shown to be a major shareholder in a medical supply company in Bermuda; and the estate of the queen of England, which invested more than £10 million offshore in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda. However, Queen Elizabeth II was not personally involved in the investments.^[9]

1 The Staircase (2004, 2013, 2018)

On December 9, 2001, well-known author Michael Peterson discovered his wife, Kathleen, lying unconscious at the bottom of the stairs in their Forest Hills mansion in North Carolina. He claimed she must have fallen down the stairs after consuming alcohol, but the autopsy report concluded that she had sustained severe head injuries consistent with blows from a blunt object. The report stated Kathleen died from blood loss at least 90 minutes after those injuries occurred.

Peterson decided to take an “Alford plea,” which meant that he did not admit guilt but still plead guilty. In 2012 and 2013, Peterson took part in a follow-up to the docuseries The Staircase (which originally aired in France in 2004) with the intention to prove his innocence. In 2018, The Staircase was made available on Netflix, along with three new episodes providing further updates. However, the docuseries caused a very different reaction from audiences, as theories online all pointed toward Peterson’s guilt.

Director Jean Xavier de-Lestrade admitted, “[A producer] was completely convinced that it was a murder and Michael Peterson did it.” Even Lestrade himself is still unsure, explaining, “After 15 years following the case, and after spending weeks, months, and years with Michael Peterson and his family, I still can’t tell you I am convinced by something.”^[10]

Cheish Merryweather is a true crime fan and an oddities fanatic. Can either be found at house parties telling everyone Charles Manson was only 5’2″ or at home reading true crime magazines.
Twitter: @thecheish

We all have our heroes in the sporting world, whether they’re football players from our favorite local teams or Olympic champions. We look up to them, and our children learn from them. We may even want to learn everything we can about our favorite sports idols, from their origins to their training methods to their favorite cereal.

Successful athletes are still only human, though, and can make the same terrible choices as any of us. A number of sports stars over the years have ruined their careers through their horrible decisions. Here are ten such fallen idols.

10 Ryan Lochte

Ryan Lochte, from Daytona Beach, Florida, grew up loving the water and eventually became known for his title as a 12-time Olympic medalist. His winnings include six gold medals, three silver medals, and three bronze medals, certainly qualifying him as an Olympic champion. On top of this, he holds the world record in the 200-meter individual medley as well as having been named both World and American swimmer of the year for the years 2010 and 2011. He holds a whopping total of 70 international competition medals, 45 of which are first place, and he has a huge social media following. So, what is it that made him make the horrible decision that almost ruined his career?

In 2016, Lochte was scheduled for the Rio Olympics, in which he would maintain his award-winning title and maybe even add a few more medals to the collection. This, however, ended when he was charged with making a false statement to police regarding him and a mate being held at gunpoint and robbed. Once caught out in his lie, he was summoned to court, where he revealed that he and his friends were not robbed and fabricated the story to cover the fact that they had been caught by security vandalizing a gas station bathroom. Lochte’s story had left Brazil embarrassed, and upon the revelation of the truth, famous sponsors Speedo and Ralph Lauren dropped him as a client. Lochte ended up avoiding all charges after his lawyer argued that he did not break any laws by exaggerating the details of the events of that night.^[1]

9 Lance Armstrong

Lance Armstrong was one of the world’s most favored cyclists, having overcome cancer and made a full comeback to the sport despite the doubt thrown at him from doctors and the public. He had his first victory on the Tour de France in 1999 and trained ever harder to gain more and more titles across the Olympics and the Tour. He focused most of his time on the Tour de France up until he retired for two years and returned for two more races in 2009 and 2010. In 2009, he managed to place third, and in 2010, he fell back into the pack before announcing a second retirement. In addition to struggling with illness throughout his career, he was constantly accused of using illicit drugs to enhance his performance. Were the rumors true?

Despite never testing positive, Lance Armstrong admitted on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2012 to doping throughout his cycling career. The world was shocked as the details of his scandal were finally revealed. As a result of this, he was stripped of all seven of his Tour de France wins and banned from cycling to set an example of what will happen to athletes using banned substances. While Armstrong believes that he should be forgiven, he also assured ABC in a 2015 interview that if he was put back in 1995, when “[doping] was pervasive,” he would do it again. He says that the lying and dishonesty is his biggest regret. Apparently, doping to drive his career was worth losing all his dignity over.^[2]

8 Tonya Harding

Born in Portland, Oregon, in 1970, Tonya Harding began ice-skating at the age of three. During her sophomore year, she dropped out of school in order to focus all her time on the sport to try and make a career out of it. In 1991, despite the critics along the way, she won her first national title and also became the first American woman to successfully land a triple axel in competition. From there, she continued winning medals, including silver at the World Championships, fourth in the French Winter Olympics in 1992, and eventually another gold at the 1994 US Championships. Her main rival was Nancy Kerrigan. Just how far would Harding go to get ahead of her competition?

During the buildup to the 1994 Winter Olympics, the competition got fierce between Harding and Kerrigan. It reached the point where the pressure got so heavy for Harding that she resorted to criminal acts in order to get ahead. In addition to the competition, Harding was constantly facing media attacks for being on from the “wrong side of the rink.” Articles stated that she didn’t have as much a chance as Kerrigan because she wasn’t as beautiful or graceful, further incensing her. Finally, Harding’s then-husband and her bodyguard devised a plan to break Kerrigan’s leg right before the qualifiers in order to destroy her Olympic chances. The attack was poorly planned, and the hired hit man ended up missing Kerrigan’s knee, dealing her only a bad bruise before making a dramatic exit.

Kerrigan went on to make the Olympic selection, and both she and Harding were thrown into a media circus speaking of conspiracies and hatred between the two. Harding’s husband spent time behind bars for the attack while Harding initially walked free but later pleaded guilty to hindering prosecution, landing her three years’ probation, 500 hours of community service, and a $100,000 fine. She was also banned from the sport for life.^[3]

7 Lamar Odom

Lamar Odom was born in Queens in 1979 and lost his mother at the age of 12, leaving him in his grandmother’s care. To cope with his grief, he threw himself into basketball and was named Player of the Year in his high school years by Parade magazine. He managed to start off his professional career with the Los Angeles Clippers, who were renowned for their losing record, before being offered a better contract with the Miami Heat. Here, he trained with the likes of superstar Dwayne Wade and hugely improved his game. After that season, he was invited to represent the United States in the Olympics, where he worked with the team to win bronze, which he personally stated was the greatest honor of his entire career. Following this, he ended up contracted to the LA Lakers, where he would play the next seven NBA seasons. This would be the height of his career.

Although his life was seemingly perfect, Odom was struggling with drug abuse, which eventually led to the demise of his career. In the 2000–2001 season, he was suspended for violating the extremely strict NBA drug policy after receiving a charge for driving under the influence. He was ordered to attend three months of rehab for alcohol abuse. However, he began taking up drugs again after being traded off to a Dallas team in a deal he wasn’t happy with. In 2015, he was identified at a brothel after overdosing and passing out.^[4] Staff made a panicked emergency call, reporting that he had blood and a white substance coming from his mouth and nose after taking large amounts of what they thought was herbal Viagra. Following this near-fatal incident, he was forced back into rehab and no longer plays for any teams on the NBA.

6 Ray Rice

Ray Rice is an NFL legend who played as running back for the Baltimore Ravens for five seasons and one Super Bowl win. Unlike your average backfield player, Rice has a much shorter build, but he trained harder than any other to eventually become the best. His training to reach the NFL began in his freshman year of college, when he helped the Rutgers Scarlet Knights make their comeback after a 14-season losing streak. During his sophomore year, he broke a school record with 1,794 yards, which included a 225-yard push against Pitt. From there, he realized his dream by skipping his senior year and entering the NFL draft, where he was picked by the Ravens in the second round. So what could possibly have lead to Ray Rice’s demise after proving to be such a valuable player for the Ravens? What changed the words “plays for” into “once played for” at such a young age?

Despite needing his incredible skills as their running back, the Baltimore Ravens were left with no choice but to terminate Rice’s contract after footage was released showing Rice punching his fiancee in an elevator before dragging her body out into a hotel foyer. He was also suspended by the NFL commissioner for an indefinite time. While footage had previously been released showing Rice dragging his fiancee out of the elevator, no action had been taken, as there was not enough evidence to show that he had done anything wrong. Six months later, however, TMZ released the graphic video, which showed Rice knocking the woman unconscious. He was charged with felony aggravated assault but was able to avoid jail time and has since stated that the elevator incident was the biggest mistake of his life.^[5] It’s unknown if he will ever be able to return to the sport he loves so much.

5 Plaxico Burress

Plaxico Burress is another NFL legend who played as a wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers, the New York Giants, and the New York Jets. His career began at Michigan State University, where he set a record for the most passes caught in a single season with a whopping 65 catches. He also came close to the records of most touchdown catches, receptions, and receiving yards and was ranked as the MVP of his team. In 2000, he was drafted into the Pittsburgh Steelers, but due to an injury, he only played 12 games in his first NFL season. Although he was a great player on the field, he gained a reputation of being a problem off the field, which meant that when he became a free agent in 2004, his options were limited, and the Steelers would not sign him again. He eventually ended up with a contract with the New York Giants, where he fought to repair his reputation by playing an amazing season. It was with the Giants that he helped secure a win at the 2008 Super Bowl against the New England Patriots. So where did he go wrong?

His second season with the Giants got off to a horrible start. He was suspended from a game for violating team rules. It wasn’t long after this that he made the mistake which would lead to his demise. At the end of 2008, Burress was admitted to a hospital after shooting himself in the leg at New York night club. He claimed that he was being lead upstairs with his friends by a security guard to get away from the crowd when he lost his footing, resulting in his gun being unhooked from his belt. In an attempt to catch it before it hit the floor, he accidentally pulled the trigger on his own leg. Surprisingly, it wasn’t the shot to the leg that ruined his career but rather the fact that he didn’t have a license to be carrying the gun. He ended up serving 20 months in jail for criminal possession of a firearm and paid a heavy fine.^[6]

After being released in 2011, he did attempt to make a comeback by signing with the New York Jets and then again with the Steelers, but it was too late. His career was already over.

4 Michael Vick

NFL quarterback Michael Vick drew attention from the NFL while he was playing for Virginia Tech in his sophomore year. He also drew the attention of the MLB, who attempted to draft him. However, he decided instead to skip his final years of college to play in the NFL. Upon this decision, he was quickly drafted as quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons. He signed onto a six-year contract, during which he would star as the team’s starting quarterback and lead them to victories, eventually landing him a ten-year contract extension. Everything seemed to be falling in place for Vick, as he was basically set for life with a career on an incredible team. So why did he throw it away?

Not long into his contract, it seemed that stardom had gotten to Vick’s head, and officials began to question whether he had the maturity levels to handle the amount of pressure that had been put on him at such a young age. The Falcons began to perform poorer and poorer, and although Vick was still putting up good numbers, he wasn’t supporting the team in the way he had when he was first signed. He bought a house in Georgia, which, in the long run, proved to be more of a playground for him and his friends than a place of living for a serious athlete.

In 2004, a truck owned by Vick was seized, and the two drivers were arrested after they were discovered to be transporting a large amount of marijuana. Vick, however, was never charged. A year later, he was sued for allegedly giving a woman a sexually transmitted disease, and then two years after that, things spiraled even more out of control. Authorities investigating a drug-related tip-off raided Vick’s property, which lead to the discovery of a dog fighting scene run by him and his friends.^[7] After authorities uncovered damning evidence linking Vick to the ring, he pleaded guilty and served 21 months in prison. He eventually returned to the NFL but is now retired.

3 Tiger Woods

Professional golfer Tiger Woods officially turned pro in 1996 and proved himself to be competitive and unrelenting while building his career. His achievements include 105 worldwide wins and 14 majors as well as a huge number of successful projects off the course. He is founder and CEO of TGR, an enterprise made of his companies and philanthropic projects. These include TGR Design, the TGR Foundation, TGR Live, and The Woods Jupiter. Among all his successes, he holds 79 PGA Tour wins, which is the second-highest for any one player in the world. In 2001, he became the first golfer ever to hold all major professional titles in one year, including the Masters Tournament, PGA Championship, US Open Championship, and the British Open Championship. Overall, he is ranked as one of the most outstanding players in his field of all time. So what happened?

“Scandal,” they called it. It all started in 2010 with Tiger’s wife chasing him out of the house wielding a golf club at him after learning that he had been unfaithful. She knew there was at least one other woman, perhaps maybe two, but this night would come to unveil the true ugly behind Tiger Woods. His then-wife, Elin Nordegren, went through his phone while it was unattended and called the girl he was having an affair with, leaving a voice mail. Upon realizing what had happened, Woods attempted to cover his tracks, but he was already too late. Nordegren continued to spy and found yet another affair her husband was having through his phone. She ambushed him while he was half-asleep with the golf club, resulting in him attempting a get away in his Escalade, only to crash.

After this incident made the news, there was an outpouring of truth from porn stars, strippers, escorts, and party girls, who all stepped forward to confess their affairs with Tiger Woods. After the confessions, there were 15 known mistresses, one of whom was underage. This was enough to ruin the reputation Woods had worked so hard to build up and temporarily pushed him into hiding. While it didn’t ruin his game, it did mar his sponsorship deals and his image in the public eye. Never again would his career be at the same level.^[8]

2 O.J. Simpson

O.J. Simpson, born in 1947, became a football superstar during his college years at the University of Southern California. Although he initially had trouble getting onto the team due to his poor grades, he eventually gained his fame playing for the USC Trojans, where he set NCAA records and won the Heisman Trophy in 1968. From here, he joined the Buffalo Bills, where he had a rocky start before excelling and becoming the first NFL player to successfully rush more than 2,000 yards in a single season. In 1979, he retired from professional football to pursue a career as a sportscaster and actor. Ironically, back in 1974, he played a man framed for murder by police in The Klansman. He also had a starring role in The Naked Gun series.

During his career, Simpson struggled with a poor marriage and divorce after losing his daughter when she drowned in the family swimming pool right before her second birthday. His second wife Nicole Brown, with whom he had two kids, also complained to friends about how he physically abused her. In 1989, the couple attended a New Year’s Eve party where Simpson was witnessed threatening to kill Brown. He, however, managed to brush off the incident in TV interview,s stating that it was just a fight and that both parties were in the wrong and spoke of how they had since moved on with their life together.

In 1994, however, the bodies of Brown and Ron Goldman, a close friend of hers, were discovered stabbed to death outside their Los Angeles home. It wasn’t long until police were on the hunt for Simpson as a major suspect in the crime and ordered him to surrender himself. Although he pleaded not guilty and was acquitted of all charges, he was later found liable for the wrongful deaths of Brown and Goldman. Unfortunately, the signs were there from an early age for Simpson, as he was once part of a gang called the Persian Warriors, which landed him in the San Francisco Youth Guidance Center in 1962.

Following the incident, Simpson was to publish a ghostwritten book called If I Did It, but the book’s rights ended up in the hands of the Goldman family, who edited the book to add commentary and published it under the edited title of If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer. Finally, in 2008, Simpson and a friend were convicted on 12 counts of armed robbery and kidnapping, which landed them with up to 33 years in prison.^[9] Simpson was granted parole and released in 2017, but he’d long since ruined any good reputation he’d built for himself during his NFL years.

1 Oscar Pistorius

Born in South Africa in 1986, Oscar Pistorius (aka the Blade Runner) overcame all odds when he became hugely active in the international sporting community despite having had both his legs amputated when he was an infant. He began running at the age of 16, and a mere few months later, he stood on the podium and received a gold medal at the Athens Paralympics. After this, Pistorius was able to compete in competition with able-bodied athletes, as his level of success among the Paralympians became too high. In 2012, he was the first amputee to ever compete in track events at the Olympics. After this success, however, everything turned south for Pistorius as he was thrown into trials over the murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

In 2013, Pistorius was arrested after shooting and killing his girlfriend through the bathroom door, allegedly believing she was an intruder. He was ultimately found guilty of culpable homicide and reckless endangerment and sentenced to five years in prison. After being freed just one year into his sentence, an appeals court overturned the original judge’s decision and upgraded his conviction to murder. He was sentenced to serve six years in prison.^[10] His sentence was later increased to 13 years, and he will be eligible for parole in 2023.

There is still to this day a lot of debate on social media as to whether Pistorious’s story is believable or not. If he thought the person in the bathroom was an intruder, where did he think his girlfriend was?

My name is Tarni Kirkpatrick and I am the author and editor of Life in Wonderland, an online travel blog. I started this when I began my journey around the world, and it has been growing ever since. Check it out at lifeinwonderland.net or add me on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

The expression “crime does not pay” is wrong. Crime can pay very well. The royalties off crimes can leave quite the bounty. The actions of the following ten criminals resulted in hugely popular songs that still turn a profit. Some of the most famous musicians of all time got their start from people more occupied with committing crimes.

Related: 10 Bizarre Times Musicians Got Into Trouble With The Authorities

10 Anders Klarström

Anyone that gushed over boybands in the 1990s probably did not check out the Nazi punk band Commit Suicide. Ulf Ekberg is likely the only fan in that Venn Diagram. Along with Anders Klarström—the future head of the Swedish Democrats—Ekberg used Commit Suicide to promote far-right ideology. The radical outfit was hardly poised to top the hit parade with lyrics like “Men in white hoods march down the road, we enjoy ourselves when we’re sawing off n—rs’ heads/ Immigrant, we hate you! Out, out, out, out! Nordic people, wake up now! Shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot!” Klarström’s violent lyrics were not artistic hyperbole. He threatened to burn Jewish theater director Hagge Geigert alive. In 1986, Klarström’s militia-like arsenal of weapons was discovered. The band disbanded after Klarström was convicted for illegal firearm possession.

Down a group, Ekberg needed a new outlet. In August of 1990, Jonas Berggren asked his friend Ekberg to temporarily replace an absent bass player. A few weeks later, the lineup became permanent. With Berggren’s two sisters singing lead, the new group was called Ace of Base. ^[1]

It is unfair to dismiss Ace of Base as a fad. The brief mania in the early ’90s was incredibly influential. The giddy maximalist sound of hits like “The Sign” or “All That She Wants” was crafted by a team of Swedish songwriters for hire. By the decade’s end, the bombastic Nordic sound dominated the airwaves. The ultimate success of that evolution is discussed further in the article.

9 Raffaele Minichiello

Technically, Raffaele Minichiello is a musician in his own right. He runs a YouTube channel showing off his accordion prowess. However, his musical skill is often ignored for a bigger claim to fame. He committed the longest airplane hijacking in world history.

On October 30, 1969, Minichiello boarded TWA Flight 85 from San Francisco to Los Angeles with an M1 rifle packed in his luggage. Gun pressed against a stewardess’s back, he ordered the plane reroute to Rome. Over the next 18 hours and 22 minutes, the flight traveled nearly 7000 miles. When he landed in Italy, he was arrested after an extensive manhunt. He only served one and half years in prison.

Among the forty passengers taken captive that night were the members of the 1960s pop group Harpers Bizarre. As a sign of good faith, Minichiello released the passengers in Denver. Upon release, reporters tailed Harpers Bizarre to get their story. Unfortunately, the band could not capitalize on their new notoriety. The previous experience made them reluctant to travel. The lack of touring caused the group to infight. Further conflicts over management forced a breakup.

One former bandmember, Ted Templeman, was now desperate for a job. Less than a year after the hijacking, Templeman started work in an entry-level A & R position for Warner Brothers Records. He listened to demo tapes sent in by unknown wannabes. Among the scores of amateurs, two acts that Templeman discovered found future success. He launched Yacht Rock forefathers The Doobie Brothers and hair metal pioneers Van Halen into the mainstream. ^[2]

8 Sabrina Jackson’s Killer

When someone dies, custom says to rest coins on their eyes. No one placed any quarters on Sabrina Jackson’s lifeless body when it was discovered in 1983. Nor did anyone find the culprit responsible. All authorities could go off was a rumor. It was hypothesized that she was murdered in a retaliatory killing over her cocaine trafficking. The assault was more calculated than the standard drive-by. A guest came into her house intending to kill. At some point, they drugged her drink. In her unconscious state, they turned on the gas and slithered out.

Her eight-year-old son Curtis was wayward. His father had abandoned him. His mother was killed in a malicious attack. His grandmother was left to watch him. Curtis felt like a strain on his elderly caretaker. To relieve some of her troubles, he brought in extra income by selling drugs. By nineteen, he ascended the ranks to become his neighborhood’s kingpin. This success came with a few stints in jail for minor offenses. When his son, Marquise, was born, he swore off the trade. He would not let his child grow up without a parent as he did. Instead, he committed to making a living on a skill he picked up in jail, rapping. [Source 6] For a career marred by death, it is appropriate that he choose a name as valuable as two quarters resting on a pair of eyes, 50 Cent. ^[3]

7 Richard Mason’s Killers

Kit Lambert never wanted to get into music. The son of a composer and actress, he thought he would have a simple life among educated high society. In May 1961, he joined two Oxford friends, Richard Mason and John Hemming, on an expedition to discover the source of the Iriri River in the Amazon. They did not succeed. On September 3, Mason went searching for some food. Unknowingly, he stumbled upon the elusive Panará tribe. Fearful of all outside contact, the cannibalistic Amazonians stabbed and killed him.^[4] Police initially arrested Lambert and Hemming on the assumption that they made the story up to get away with murder. Expedition backers from the Daily Express secured their release.

Back in England, Lambert changed careers. He became an assistant director on films, like From Russia with Love and The L-Shaped Room. On the latter’s set, he met fellow assistant director Chris Stamp. Stamp convinced Lambert to check out a band he liked called The High Numbers. Lambert and Stamp decided the group could be the subject of a potential documentary. Charmed by the backstage antics, the two eventually abandoned their filmmaking aspiration. Lambert became the band’s manager on the condition that they change their name. He suggested The Who. Kit Lambert shaped one of the greatest rock bands ever, all so that he wouldn’t be food again. Yeahhhh! ^[5]

6 Jim Gordon

As a ubiquitous session drummer in the 1970s California scene, it is impossible to count how many records bear Jim Gordon’s name. That number skyrockets if one adds samples, if for just one track. Dubbed “the national anthem of hip-hop,” his near-universal drum break on the Incredible Bongo Band’s cover of “Apache” has been sampled more than seven hundred times. His handiwork propelled two of the most consequential artists in early hip-hop. Popularized by DJ Kool Herc, “Apache” was the go-to party starter of Herc’s legendary merry-go-rounds. It was an omnipresent sound at hip-hop’s unofficial big bang. When “Grand Wizzard” Theodore pioneered turntablism, the first album he scratched was “Apache.” Jim Gordon’s beat carried the next 40 years of music. But his presence brings a dark legacy.

Decades of drug use destroyed Gordon’s mental health. He retired from music after imaginary voices started haunting him. After a series of violent outbursts, he was sent to a psychiatric hospital. Upon his release in 1983, he became convinced that his mother was sending these messages to torture him. She had to be silenced, permanently. After bludgeoning her with a hammer, he stabbed her to death. As of 2021, he remains committed to a mental hospital.^[6]

5 King Ludwig II

King Ludwig II’s obsession with fairy tales prevented him from living happily ever after. As the ruler of Bavaria, Ludwig II wasted government funds constructing whimsical castles. Even as Prussians sieged his kingdom, he sank resources on ostentatious designs. One castle included an indoor cave on top of a man-made lake, so he would have a proper setting to dress up as his favorite opera character. Another building, Neuschwanstein, served as an architectural template for Disney World’s enchanting Cinderella Castle. There was a reason Ludwig was so drawn toward opulence. He believed he was the reincarnation of King Louis XIV of France.

Proclaiming himself a vessel for the Sun King’s spirit caused advisors to worry over his mental health. Other actions gave them pause too. He grew utterly obsessed with swans, carving the bird on every wall of his house. He talked to invisible courtiers for hours at a time. His eccentricities eventually grew more violent. He stole a citizen’s purse, strangled his brother with a rope, and orchestrated a bank robbery. Finally, in 1886, the government declared him insane. The day after he was deposed, his corpse was found floating in a pond. The doctor who diagnosed his insanity was also dead. The mysterious circumstances of the deaths have caused historians to speculate. Physicians, at the time, concluded that Ludwig killed the doctor and then drowned himself. However, conspiracies still abound.

Whatever happened to Ludwig that night cannot undo his positive impact on music history. A closeted homosexual, Ludwig showered composer Richard Wagner with gifts and money to earn his affection. Wagner denied the king’s advances but relied on his patronage. Before Ludwig discovered Wagner, Wagner considered retiring. Without any investors, he told his friend that “only a miracle can help me now or I am done for.” Ludwig’s lifelong sponsorship gave Wagner the freedom and finances to become one of opera’s great talents.^[7]

4 Morris Levy

When Tommy James left for New York with a demo of “Hanky Panky,” every label he approached was eager to sign him. The next day, they all turned him down. Roulette Records strongman Morris Levy warned them that James was his next act. If they poached him, the Genovese crime family would pay them an unpleasant visit.

Convicted extortionist and connected mobster Levy ran Roulette Records as an arm of his criminal empire. He skimmed money from competitors by bootlegging their records. No one dared rip off his signees. A burned corpse of a bootlegger that crossed Levy was found in a pyre of stolen albums. A less monstrous but still legally dubious practice was payola. The mafia-controlled racket gave aligned disc jockeys sanctioned hits to promote on their show. Under Levy’s management, James’s impressive string of indelible gems got the airplay they deserved.

The relationship was hardly worth the brief fame. Nearly 40 million dollars of James’s royalties were funneled toward Levy’s prostitutes, tax shelters, and monthly dues to the Genovese family. James retaliated by pulling a gun on Levy in a drugged-out brawl. Levy yanked his most valuable artist off the ground and threw him against the wall. Trying to put pressure on Levy, the rival Gambino family placed a hit on James. James was only able to live thanks to strings pulled by another powerful friend, Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Working in that line of business takes a lot of blood and luck, crimson and clover, over and over.^[8]

3 Lou Pearlman

Lou Pearlman started his career with a con. Lou Pearlman ended his career with a different con. In between, there were some songs.

His first enterprise swindled investors with a fraudulent blimp company. Recruiters financed a company that did not own a single airship. Passing off a reconstructing weather balloon to look like a blimp, he purposely sabotaged his maiden flight. The insurance payout funded borderline legitimate projects. His next idea was to operate a fleet of personal airplanes. After boyband New Kids on the Block booked a flight, Pearlman figured he could rake in millions if he formed his own group.

Pearlman created the two dominant artists of the ‘90s boyband boom, The Backstreet Boys and N’Sync. The ploy of a faux rivalry lined Pearlman’s pockets with stolen profits. When the bands finally wiggled out of their terribly constrictive contracts, they dropped Pearlman as their manager. Denied his major revenue source, he started a new con. In 2008, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for embezzling millions in a phony retirement pyramid scheme.

Pearlman exploded the craze that Ace of Base started. Pearlman hired a then-unknown composer Max Martin to craft his records. The two’s luck split over the ensuing decades. Until Pearlman’s death in 2016, Martin hit number one every year his former boss rotted in prison. By 2021, Martin had written the third-most number-one songs of all time.^[9]

2 Owsley Stanley

Hippies saw themselves as rebels against the powers in charge. Yet, their longest-lasting musical export was a product of the Central Intelligence Agency at its most villainous.

Starting in the 1950s, the CIA investigated LSD’s potential weaponized use as a truth serum. National security was too big of a priority to worry about rights like voluntary participation or informed consent. Unwitting victims were lured off the street and unknowingly slipped the drug. Behind fake walls, observers monitored their reactions. In one of the most unethical chapters in United States history, participants were raped, fell into comas, starved to death, jumped out of windows, and turned to murder. As awful as the experiment was, the CIA unwittingly catalyzed a cultural revolution.

Not all members regretted their involvement. The clandestine trials were Bohemian writer Ken Kesey’s first exposure to LSD. Having manufactured well over one million doses of the drug, MK-Ultra contact Owsley Stanley supplied Kesey and his entourage of the Merry Pranksters the potent chemicals needed for their infamous acid parties. The Warlocks, the in-house band, scored the debauched affairs with a rambling jam session resembling the drug’s hallucinatory effects. The profits of Stanley’s illegitimate business financed the Warlock’s first tours. Formlessness became the hallmark of the band, even after they changed their name to The Grateful Dead.^[10]

1 Michael Maybrick

Let’s start with the inarguable and then move to the speculative. First, the obvious truth, Duke Ellington made the world a better place. Over his six-decade career, Ellington consistently reshaped jazz history. Behind his piano at the Cotton Club, Ellington popularized the Big Band sound. Manager Irving Mills signed the legend after overhearing “Black and Tan Fantasy” creep through the airwaves of a local dive bar. Ellington’s 1927 song was not strictly an original composition. Mills was attracted to Ellington’s creative juxtaposition of jazz and motifs borrowed from Michael Maybrick’s 1892 hymnal “The Holy City.”

Despite “Holy City’s” reputation as the bestselling song of the 19th century, it is hard to confirm much of its songwriter’s biography. The nagging question, especially for researcher Bruce Robinson, is—did Maybrick get away with murder?. Circumstantial evidence strongly suggests he framed his sister-in-law for poisoning his brother. Unfortunately, Maybrick’s depravity might be even worse.

In his book They All Love Jack, Robinson makes a compelling case that Maybrick was the real identity of the eternally mysterious serial killer “Jack the Ripper.” Stops on Maybrick’s concert tours corresponded to the time and place where “Jack” sent his letters. Masonic elements splattered the crime scenes. Maybrick was a high-ranking member of the fraternity. The bodies were discarded within walking distance from Maybrick’s travel lodge. Singing a song by a serial murderer turned Duke Ellington into a household name, a fate Maybrick was surely thankful he avoided.^[11]

It’s not very easy to get through life without a job. Unless you’ve lucked into independent wealth because of family money or tripping over a giant gold nugget at some point, you need to work. The lucky amongst us can get jobs we enjoy that allow us to pay the bills and feel good about what we do. Most people just work to survive, though.

Once you get a job, keeping the job is a whole different ball game. According to one study, 40% of people will be fired from a job in their lifetime. There can be almost endless reasons for losing your job, but some are far more unpredictable than others. 

10. BJ Tyler’s NBA Career was Killed By an Ice Pack

For the lucky few people in the world who are talented enough to be professional athletes, the sky seems to be the limit. If you’re a good enough basketball player, you can make millions of dollars on a contract, plus millions more in sponsorships. You can play for a decade in the NBA and be rich beyond your wildest dreams for the rest of your life if you’re responsible with the money. But the “ifs” in those sentences carry a lot of weight.

BJ Tyler had signed a $6 million contract with the Toronto Raptors. From the outside, it looked like he would have become a pretty big star in the game, and his future was laid out on a clear path before him. But then, as with too many athletes, an injury sidelined him and made him retire from the game completely. What’s weird about this is how it happened.

Tyler wasn’t hurt on the court, or even off the court. He had a minor problem with his ankle one day and put an ice pack on it to reduce swelling. And then he fell asleep. With the ice left untended on his ankle, it caused permanent nerve damage which ruined his ability to play basketball. He could no longer move with any speed, and his career was over. 

9. Howard the Duck Ruined the Career of More Than One Person

Long before the MCU was a thing, Marvel was trying its hand at movies for lesser-known properties.  Captain America, Nick Fury, Dr. Strange, The Punisher, and more all had movies before Robert Downey Jr. ever donned the mantle of Iron Man. And the most infamous film of all was 1986’s Howard the Duck.

The movie is most well-known today for being a giant cinematic failure. It was about an anthropomorphic duck from outer space who has a kind of sexy scene with Leah Thompson, the mom from Back to the Future. It was pretty weird all around. Most audiences hated it, but a few people still love it to this day.

It was such a big bomb that the studio never recovered. In fact, it’s one of the few movies that you can point to which has been blamed for ruining the careers of at least three different people. 

Thompson once mentioned she felt the movie was such a big bomb that it mostly tanked her career. Director Willard Huyck never made another movie again after its failure.  Frank Price, the president of Universal Pictures, resigned within a month with speculation being that the poor box office of Howard the Duck was the primary cause. 

8. Director John McTiernan Wiretapped Coworkers

The 1990 movie Die Hard has stood the test of time as one of the great action movies. People still love it to this day, and if you go online around Christmas every single year people will debate whether it qualifies as a Christmas movie. 

Director John McTiernan seemed like he would have been poised to continued the upward trajectory of his career which began taking off with Predator and continued on with other hits like The Hunt for Red October and Die Hard with a Vengeance.

Unfortunately, make Tiernan derailed his own career when he decided he should illegally wiretap some of his co-producers after the 2002 dud Rollerball. McTiernan ended up going to jail thanks to the scandal, which included him lying to the FBI about it. The act ruined his Hollywood career and you can imagine few in the business would trust him again after that.

7. A Model From a Plastic Surgery Meme Says It Ruined Her Life

Meme culture has been big on the internet for years, but did you ever stop to think about the people behind the memes? Sometimes a website will track down the “star” of a member and make a cute story out of it. Sometimes it’s not so cute. That’s what happened with Heidi Yeh, the model featured in a plastic surgery meme.  

Yeh originally signed on to make an ad for a Taiwanese plastic surgery clinic. The ad features her, a man, and three kids. The idea behind the ad was that the mother and father looked a little different from the children because of plastic surgery. The text of the ad was “The only thing you’ll ever have to worry about is how to explain it to the kids.”

The ad was not supposed to extend beyond the local area being served by the clinic. However, once it got online, someone turned it into a meme and it spread around the world. It started traveling with a story that it was real, and Yeh was getting a divorce because her husband saw their ugly kids and decided she had defrauded him by not disclosing that she’d had surgery.

Because everyone believed the story was real, she lost modeling jobs. Companies thought not only had she had plastic surgery, but that she was this horrible person who had lied to her husband.

6. Colonel Sanders Ended His Law Career By Fighting in Court

Despite dying in 1980, most people around the world still know the face of Colonel Sanders thanks to his restaurant Kentucky Fried Chicken. During his lifetime, the colonel was what polite people would describe as a colorful character. For instance, he once shot a man for painting over one of his advertisements. 

For a time, Colonel Sanders worked as a lawyer. It’s hard to say if he was any good, but word is he once got into a fight in a courtroom with his own client. There were no serious legal repercussions for the colonel, but it put an end to his law career and allowed him to focus on chicken, so maybe it was all for the best.

5. Larry Bird Ended His Career by Building a Driveway for His Mom

In the 1980s, Larry Bird was one of the biggest names in basketball and is still often considered among the top 10 to ever play the game. He was a 12-time all-star; he won a gold for the US Olympic team, and he was making millions of dollars. It’s been said he had earned as much as $80 million and when he left the game in 1992, he left $24 million on the table.

It’s not that his career had come to a natural end; instead, Bird injured himself and had to retire from the game. His back injury is one of the worst in basketball history because he was in his prime at the time it happened.

Arguably the biggest tragedy is how the injury happened. He had opted to help build his mother a driveway at her house back in 1985. He was shoveling gravel outside and threw his back out. It bothered him for years and was constantly locking up. Even surgery couldn’t fix it. It got so bad he had to bow out of the game when he arguably should have had many years to go. 

4. Jean-Claude Van Damme Turned Down a 3-Movie, $12 million Deal

The 1980s and the 1990s were a golden age for action movies. Stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, and Jean-Claude Van Damme were huge. But nothing lasts forever, and action stars often age out of their roles as time goes on. That’s not to say that Schwarzenegger and Stallone aren’t still making action movies today, they’re just not as intense as they used to be.

Jean-Claude Van Damme, on the other hand, could have probably had a much bigger career than he did. However, Van Damme was a man who bought into his own hype more than other people did. There had been rumors for years that he was very good at sabotaging his own career, and thought he was bigger than he was. The man confirmed as much himself.

After the commercial success of his movie Timecop in 1994, he was offered a three picture, $12 million deal. Instead of taking it, he demanded more money. He wanted $20 million “like Jim Carrey.”  The studio hung up on him and he was blacklisted, tanking his career and relegating him to “direct to video” releases.

3. Allan Carr Produced the 1989 Oscars Then Never Worked in Hollywood Again

Every year the Academy Awards puts on the annual Oscar broadcast and, more often than not, the next day people complain about what they didn’t like about it. But the Oscars are going to be hard pressed to ever outdo the 1989 opening that was so bad it ended the career producer Allan Carr.

The opening segment featured an unknown actress portraying Snow White doing a musical number with Rob Lowe, who is not a singer. The show had no host, just these random performances that made little sense, were bloated with random stars, and were awkward and cringe-inducing to watch.

No one bothered to ask Disney for permission to use Snow White, so they sued for copyright infringement. The broadcast is still considered the worst in the show’s history and ensured subsequent shows never went without a host for another 30 years. 

2. Justine Sacco Was Fired Over a Tweet

Remember Justine Sacco? She was one of the first people to fall victim to what was later labelled “cancel culture.” Which is to say that Sacco said something online that exploded and ruined her life offline as well.

In 2013, Sacco was flying to South Africa and before she boarded the plane she tweets “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white.” She did not know the storm that created during her time in the air. It went viral, was seen by thousands, and soon after she was fired from her job as a communications director. 

For a time she was the villain of the internet, and the tweet effectively ruined her life. If you’re hoping for a silver lining for this sort of thing it’s worth noting that Sacco eventually got another job and, within a few years, was hired back by the same company for an even more high profile job. So getting cancelled is more of a temporary thing for some folks. 

1. Composer Robert Schumann Ruined His Potential as a Pianist with a Homemade Invention

If you want to make a living as a pianist you have to keep your hands safe. Robert Schumann really wanted to be all he could be when he tickled those ivories. He invented a device that would help strengthen his hands and allow him to play piano even better. Except the exact opposite thing happened.

Schumann is widely known these days as a composer rather than a pianist. Also, for the fact he spent his final years in an asylum. But the reason he failed as a pianist was his invention. Using a cigar box and wire, the device was meant to allow him to rest his hands while he played, allowing them to get stronger. He caused permanent damage to two fingers, however, and couldn’t play at all.

It’s intriguing that for all the power that our brains have, it often chooses to reflect inward and damage the mind. Please, tell me if you’ve never been drifting off to sleep when your brain snaps you back to reality to remind you of something completely embarrassing that you had done in the past. You’d be the first. We cope with these horrible memories by telling ourselves that we were young and stupid and that nobody even really remembers it like we do. All these are valid points, but sometimes they’re not. What if you’re a professional and mess up something so basic that it actually overshadows your whole career?

Two quick things before diving into this list. First, this list is meant to be lighthearted, so I’m not including any incidents that resulted in people getting hurt or killed for their failures. Secondly, my rubric for judging how much they are known for their gaffe is based on the auto-complete feature in Google. So if one of the top three search options is the person’s name and their mistake, I count it. With that said, let’s look at 10 athletes who are famous for their mistakes.

10 Bill Gramatica Celebration Injury

Bill Gramatica is a former NFL kicker drafted by the Arizona Cardinals in 2001. As a rookie, he went 16/20 in field goals and 25/25 in extra points, setting a rookie franchise record of 73 points scored. He probably could have scored more had he not famously gotten injured on December 15, 2001. After nailing a field goal, Gramatica took a running leap before making an awkward landing and falling to the ground clutching his leg. It turns out his celebratory jump ended with him tearing his ACL. The kicker is that this all happened in the first quarter on a 42-yard kick. Not really the most dramatic circumstances to warrant such a celebration.

Gramatica recovered and spent a few more years in the NFL, but his injury is still what he is most known for. To his credit, he is able to look back and laugh. In 2010, he corrected an interviewer who said he got injured from jumping. “My jump was excellent. It was my landing I needed to work on” I agree with him. If you stop the video just as he lands, it is a pretty good celebration. As a special note: due to his injury, the late, great Pat Tillman handled kickoff duties for the rest of the game.^[1]

9 Lindsey Jacobellis

The most decorated female snowboard cross athlete ever is not known for her five world championships but for her last-minute celebration that knocked her from gold to silver in the 2006 Winter Olympics. Jacobellis was almost 150 feet (46 meters) ahead of her competition, which equates to about a 3-second lead (that’s how fast they go), when she attempted a method grab on the second to last jump to add a little flare to her victory. Unfortunately, that flare caused her dreams to go up in smoke as she fell and was overtaken by Tanja Frieden, earning her quite possibly the most disappointing silver medal in history. At first, Jacobellis said the method grab was meant to stabilize her board but later owned up that she was excited and wanted to pump up the crowd.

Despite her unparalleled success at the X-Games and world championships, Jacobellis continued to struggle when it came to the 2010 and 2014 Olympics. She began to wonder if her 2006 fall was all she would be known for. Eventually, she teamed up with a mental skills coach named Denise Shull, who encouraged her to analyze, normalize, and embrace that defining moment of 2006. Whatever they did worked because, in 2022, Jacobellis won the Olympic gold she had been chasing after for years. Jacobellis may still be known for her fall, but now it is in the greater context of a redemption arc.^[2]

8 Alexander Semin Fight

In the broadest sense, there are two kinds of hockey players: the big hitters that will punish you if you touch the puck and the skill guys who score goals like I eat cookies. Suffice to say, if you’re unfamiliar with who Alexander Semin is, you’ll definitely know what kind of player he is after watching this fight against New York Ranger Marc Staal in 2009.

In an attempt to stick up for his goalie who was knocked down by Semin, Staal grabs Semin by the jersey, and they begin to tussle. Semin wriggles out of his jersey and then proceeds to… “play the drums” on Staal’s chest—as announcer Joe Benenati stated. You really have to watch this video to understand just how weird this was. And if you were wondering. Yes, this was Semin’s very first and only fight in the NHL.^[3]

7 The Cody Parkey Double Doink

With less than 10 seconds left in the 2019 NFC wildcard playoff game between the Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles, the Bears set Parkey up for a 43-yard field goal. Parkey blasted the ball through the uprights for the game winner, but before the snap, Eagles coach Doug Pederson called a time-out, so the kick didn’t count. Parkey again attempted the 43-yarder only to see it ricochet off the left upright, hit the crossbar, and land in front of the field goal. The Bears lost the game and ended their season by a score of 16-15. It wasn’t really the kick that cemented the legacy of Parkey; it was more the call from NFL commentator Chris Collinsworth, “Oh my goodness… the Bears’ season’s gonna end on a double doink.”

It was those final two words that took off all over the internet. There’s just something about how double doink rolls off the tongue and how it evokes that feeling you get when you hear the fail music from The Price is Right. Although it was later revealed in the game tape that the Eagles’ defensive tackle Treyvon Hester just barely blocked the kick and caused the ball to stray off course, the damage had already been done to Parkey’s reputation. Just as a reference to how much this took off, the double doink actually has its own Wikipedia page! ^[4]

6 Patrik Stefan Missed Empty Net

It was January 2007, and the Dallas Stars were holding a 5-4 lead over the Edmonton Oilers with 12 seconds left in the game. The Oilers pulled their goalie for an extra attacker. As the Oilers went up the ice, Stefan came up with a steal and skated in all alone toward the empty net. Instead of shooting from a short distance, Stefan decided to go for the casual skate and tap into the net. But the puck hit a divot in the ice and bounced over his stick. Trying to maintain control, he fell to the ice and ended up passing it to the Oilers, who quickly transitioned and scored a goal to force overtime.

Although Dallas ended up winning the game in a shootout, this moment gained Stefan a lot of notoriety in the worst way. I think the play-by-play announcer described it best: “Oh, I thought he was gonna until he blew it! The cherry on top is that there were 12 seconds left. Had he done anything else than what he did, Dallas would not have had to go into overtime. Stefan only played 13 more games in the NHL after that. He now coaches teens in the Detroit area and often tells them after a bad shift or game, “There’s always next shift, next game. I didn’t kill somebody. It’s a game. Mistakes happen.”^[5]

5 Steven Bradbury’s Unlikely Win

Steven Bradbury is a four-time Olympic speed skater who was the first person from the southern hemisphere to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics. He is a source of pride for Australia, yet all anyone really remembers is how he won that gold medal.

It was at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. Bradbury was in his fourth Winter Olympics and was almost 30, making him the second-oldest competitor. He managed to make the semi-finals after another racer was disqualified but recognized that he could not match up to the much quicker, younger skaters like Apolo Ohno. So Bradbury developed a strategy of hanging back from the other racers, hoping they would crash. Sure enough, that is what happened, and Bradbury took first in his semi-finals race. Bradbury was in dead last during the final race until the final corner when the frontrunners caused a pileup. Bradbury cruised by to earn Australia’s first gold medal.

After the race, Bradbury had this to say, “Obviously, I wasn’t the fastest skater. I don’t think I’ll take the medal as the minute-and-a-half of the race I actually won. I’ll take it as the last decade of the hard slog I put in.” Many American commentators were not happy with Bradbury’s win but accepted that the risk-taking behavior of the favorites was what allowed him to win. Nevertheless, Bradbury is seen as an underdog and a hero to many. His win was so impactful to Australians that he is directly referenced in the phrase “do a Bradbury,” which means to succeed in an unlikely way.^[6]

4 Pete Carroll Not Running the Ball

There’s a reason why Pete Carroll is one of the longest-tenured NFL coaches in the league today, but he is also famous for one of the most questionable play calls in the history of the sport.

In 2015, the Seattle Seahawks were going for their second Super Bowl in three years. With only 26 seconds left in the game and down 28-24 against the New England Patriots, the Seahawks found themselves less than a yard from the end zone on 2nd-and-goal. Everyone watching this game knew what was going to happen next: Beast Mode. Marshawn Lynch earned the nickname Beast Mode due to his explosive running game that shredded through defenders. To get an understanding of his power, you have to watch his legendary game-winning run against the Saints in 2010. So you’re about two feet from the goal line, and you’ve got one of the most powerful running backs in the game. No brainer, right?

That’s why the next play was so shocking. Instead of handing the ball off to Lynch, Seahawks quarterback Russel Wilson threw a pass aimed at Ricardo Lockette. The pass was intercepted by Patriots rookie Malcolm Butler. It was his first career interception. The Seahawks lost the Super Bowl, and all anyone could think about was why Lynch wasn’t carrying the ball. Fans, Seahawks players, and analysts were all second-guessing Carroll. I mean, they had a chance to take out the Brady/Belichick Patriots, and they blew it. That final play also birthed a great meme of Seahawks defender Richard Sherman looking on in shock and terror as the interception occurs.^[7]

3 Armando Galarraga’s Almost Perfect Game

The perfect game is one of the rarest feats in all of sports. For those unfamiliar, a perfect game is when a pitcher goes nine innings without letting a single batter get on base. In nearly 150 years of professional games, only 20 players have accomplished the feat. It is something special, and the Detriot Tigers’ Armando Galarraga was so close to capturing one, and many argue he did.

In a 2010 game against the Cleveland Indians, Galarraga was one out away from a perfect game. He threw a pitch to Jason Donald, who put the ball in play. Galarraga celebrated as the ball clearly beat Donald to first base, but then he shook his head and smirked. The first base umpire, Jim Joyce, called Donald safe. Just like that, Galarraga’s perfect game was ruined. Galarraga went on to win the game, but it didn’t really matter. While Joyce was adamant he made the right call during the game, he was horrified after seeing the replay.

In an amazing display of sportsmanship, Joyce reached out and spoke to Galarraga and tearfully admitted to his mistake. Galarraga responded graciously by saying, “probably feels more bad than me. Nobody’s perfect. Everybody’s human. I understand. I give the guy a lot of credit for saying, ‘I need to talk to you.’”

Since that game, Galarraga has been awarded a car, had his perfect game recognized by the governor of Michigan, and earned a medal of reasonableness from Jon Stewart. While both the player and ump will forever be remembered for this really bad call, Joyce’s humility and ability to admit his mistake, along with Galarraga’s grace and acceptance, have made this a very positive and unifying moment in baseball.^[8]

2 Shizo Kanakuri’s Long Race

Shizo Kanakuri is known in Japan as the father of the marathon. His best-known race is the marathon he ran in the 1912 Olympics, where he completed the marathon in a time of 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 5 hours, 32 minutes, and 20 seconds. Truly a legendary effort in persistence and resiliency.

The 1912 Olympics were held in Stockholm, Sweden, which required Kanakuri to travel by boat and train for 18 days to reach the Games. Already weary from traveling, Kanakuri struggled with the local cuisine and the unexpected heat. Additionally, this was Kanakuri’s first time experiencing white nights, the phenomenon where the sun shines throughout the night. All of this led to Kanakuri spending more time recovering than actually training.

Kanakuri was unable to finish the race and unceremoniously returned to Japan out of embarrassment. The problem was that he never alerted racing officials about his withdrawal. News spread, and it became a running joke—pun intended—that somewhere in Sweden was a lost Japanese marathoner. The story persisted until 1967, when Swedish Television reached out to him with an offer to finish what he started. Kanakuri accepted and was triumphant. After completing the marathon, Kanakuri stated, “It was a long trip. Along the way, I got married, had six children and 10 grandchildren.”^[9]

1 The Butt Fumble

Okay, I’m gonna be honest with you, this whole list was made just so I could have a reason to talk about the Butt Fumble. It was Thanksgiving 2012, but we all remember it like it was yesterday. The New York Jets and New England Patriots faced off in the primetime slot. Quarterback Mark Sanchez took the snap and dropped back for a handoff but had a miscue with the running back. With the play pretty much blown, Sanchez tried to get back to the line of scrimmage to not lose any yards. He started to slide when he collided with the derriere of Jets offensive lineman Brandan Moore. This caused Sanchez to drop the ball as he fell to the ground, which was then picked up by Patriots safety Steve Gregory and returned for an easy touchdown.

This play became the defining moment of Mark Sanchez’s career. It was the perfect storm: a comically inept play resulting in the other team scoring during a nationally televised game being watched by millions and played in front of 79,000 fans. Maybe it was because everyone was woozy from all the tryptophan in the turkey, but the Butt Fumble took off. It was featured on ESPN’s “Not Top 10” list the following day and was quickly voted to the “worst of the worst” spot for 10 months straight. ESPN had to eventually retire the play because people continued to vote for it. ESPN even did a sports science segment showing that the impact of Sanchez colliding with Moore created a force of 1300 pounds. No wonder he dropped the ball.

While analysis of this hilariously bad moment is totally fascinating, it is also interesting to see how Sanchez and Moore have handled the publicity of this event. Moore definitely doesn’t find the play amusing and seems more annoyed about how much it has impacted the other accomplishments in his career. On the other hand, Sanchez seems much more accepting and laughs about it quite a bit.

In an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, Sanchez talked about how he can laugh about it, but it has frustrated him as a competitor to have that one stupid play be all anyone remembers you for. Sanchez then goes on to say that he looks at the Butt Fumble as the bad you sometimes have to take with the good. If he laments the critiques of that play, then how can he accept the accolades of his good plays? It’s a great way to look at it and a very healthy way of dealing with failure. It’s still hilarious watching him get dropped by his own teammate’s butt, though.^[10]

On average, standard medical doctors who practice in the United States make more than $180K annually, while specialists can make up to twice that amount! That’s a pretty good deal—they get to help people and potentially save lives. In exchange, they get more than enough money to pay off the several years of schooling it took to earn their medical license and then some!

But here are ten careers that make more (or around the same) money than a doctor—and some require much less time and education to get started.

10 Air Traffic Controller

How hard can it be to direct air traffic? You have a whole added dimension to work with, so preventing mid-air crashes should be simple, right? Well, it’s not those kinds of crashes that air traffic controllers are trying to avoid—it’s the ones on the runways and taxi lanes.

Air traffic controllers are responsible for all the traffic in and out of the busiest places 24/7, city airports. They must keep an organized schedule and itinerary to ensure that flights land safely and commuters leave on time. All that congested traffic must be a massive headache, so it’s no wonder they make the big bucks!

They make around $120K a year, depending on the size of the airport they work for.

9 Lawyer

Lawyers are expected to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the laws they specialize in, so people pay them good money to protect their interests, whether that be from criminal charges or their property and to whom it goes when they pass on.

A common misconception about lawyers is that they’re in court constantly, battling against the other side and cross-examining witnesses. Truth is, neither party wants to drag things out in court, where either side takes a huge risk, so things are usually settled in quiet meeting rooms.

On average, lawyers make $127K a year or more if they specialize in the higher profile stuff. They often need that money to pay off their law school debt.

8 Judge

It makes sense that judges would make more than lawyers; although the profession requires much of the same skill set, it expects more responsibility from the appointed authority. To start, there’s a limited number of judge positions to fill, making the job prestigious.

Plus, what could be better than getting paid to judge people, have them stand whenever you walk into the room, bang a gavel, and wear cool robes all day? Becoming a judge earns an instant badge of respect and admiration and a decent paycheck to boot.

Depending on the district, a judge can earn between $162K to $185K a year. Many judges sit on the bench for decades and can even make their way up into the federal district, earning more money, upwards of $280k!

7 Airline Pilot

The only thing more complicated than directing airport traffic is operating the planes, which have complex and intricate controls that somehow get a hundred-ton aircraft flying through the air like a bird. On top of that, airline pilots are responsible for carrying dozens of lives thirty-thousand feet in the air to get them safely to their destinations. That’s a lot of pressure for one or two pilots, so, amazingly, they can keep their cool while they make announcements over the intercom.

Another benefit is that while the requirements to become a pilot are lofty (get it?), they’re still affordable and reasonable. All it takes is a bachelor’s degree in aviation, 1,500 hours of flight practice, and licenses for bigger and more complex aircraft along your career.

A pilot’s salary ranges from $110K to $200K, depending on the airline.

6 State Governor

Many may not like it, but the politics game is a sure way to get money. Those that run for state governor and get elected have a base salary that, depending on the state, ranges from $92K to $204K per year. Those amounts quadruple across four years.

Then, if they are re-elected, those in the upper range can make more than a million dollars in just eight years. That’s a lot of money, and I haven’t even mentioned contributions given by lobbyists with special interests. And they give them that money to fund their campaigns long before they get elected.

5 Voice Actor

Voice acting literally sounds like the most fun job in the world. They get to sit in a booth and speak in funny or exaggerated ways to bring life to an animated character. However, breaking into the field of voice acting isn’t as easy as you might expect.

The most iconic voice actors have backgrounds in stage acting and take their jobs very seriously. It’s a lot of hard work, too—each line you hear out of a cartoon’s mouth is rarely from the first take, and speaking like that can put a lot of strain on your voice, so the job also requires a lot of warmups and training to maintain vocal health.

Depending on their roles, voice actors can be paid up to $217K annually.

Unfortunately, due to some drama revolving around Hellena Taylor not reprising her role as the iconic Bayonetta for the third game in the series, it may become more difficult for voice actors to get the payment they deserve. Taylor lied about what those at Nintendo and Platinum Games offered her for the role and tried to get fans to boycott the release. The stunt destroyed her credibility (and career!) and the credibility of other voice actors who just wanted fair pay.

4 Large Commercial Farmer

For a very long time, farmers have commonly been associated with poverty. In fact, this connection is where the word “villain” comes from, as it means “low-born rustic.” Somehow, it went from petty insult to label for the eccentric antagonist, but the connotations are far from the truth.

See, one of the earliest signs of civilization is agriculture. As long as there’s been a way to grow food, there’s been a hierarchy of power relating to who grows the most. Those that grow the most food also sell the most food, giving them a lot of control and wealth over the area. Things are more nuanced today, but the biggest farmers still make a ton of money.

The biggest farmers in America make up to $245K a year!

3 Pro Gamer

Everyone enjoys playing video games, but imagine being paid to play them! I’m not even talking about quality assurance or testing games to their breaking point to find and report bugs to the developers. The class of gaming for profit that I’m talking about involves the world of e-sports. There are huge cash prizes for the winners of hugely popular and competitive games of all kinds, from Street Fighter to Call of Duty.

These competitive gamers aren’t just the average young people, either. They dedicate their lives to being the best players in the world, playing on such a high-level skill that the average gamer could never hope to match them.

Recently, the Dallas Fuel (they even have regional teams with cool names, just like traditional sports!) won the 2022 Overwatch League tournament, earning $1.5 million! Split across their starting five, alternate players, and coach, each earned around $166K. And yes, a coach is necessary for this type of e-sport.

The top content creators on Twitch are earning even more than that, playing games for the entertainment of millions on the world’s most popular live-streaming service. Richard “Ninja” Blevins (you might have seen his blue hair) earns $500K a month for playing Fortnite!

2 Astronauts

Most people never need to remember the complicated math equations they learned in pre-calculus, but most people don’t become astronauts. To be an astronaut is to have several careers rolled into one—astronomer, mathematician, physicist, engineer (electrical AND mechanical), and more. On top of all that, they’re also expected to remain in peak fitness and health, so they’re always ready to fulfill their missions and fix any problem that arises.

Outer space is a cold and unrelenting environment, so only the best and brightest minds and bodies can take on its many challenges. To be an astronaut, you must be a nerd AND a jock. That’s why astronauts make $393K a year.

1 Celebrity Bodyguard

Out of all the jobs on this list, this might be the easiest one to prepare for—though it does involve a lot of risks and physical training. Celebrities hire big, tough-looking people to keep them safe from overly zealous fans or whoever else they don’t want in their personal space. And celebrities, being highly paid actors, politicians, or musicians, pay very handsomely to those willing to put themselves in harm’s way to protect them. You have to hand it to celebrities—they may have completely different and lavish lifestyles, but they provide a lot of jobs by merely existing.

Depending on who hires them, a bodyguard’s pay can range from $250K to $800K per year! Talk about high risk, high reward!