Gary Busey Reaches Settlement In Bankruptcy Court

If there’s one thing that can be said about bankruptcy court, it’s that the process is slow. Celebrity Apprentice contestant and actor Gary Busey declared Chapter 7 all the way back in February, and the court system only closed his case a few days ago. Unfortunately, the horizon isn’t looking all that spectacular for the 68-year-old.

When dealing with the courts, Busey did manage to get $57,303.63 worth of debt knocked off of his overall total. However, when a person's debt starts out at a whopping 500,000 dollars, a little over $57,000 begins looking like dimes and nickels. Not that I have personal experience with this, but yeesh. According to TMZ, the man still owes $451,297.33--money which did not go away due to his bankruptcy declaration. Apparently, this is because that latter number is owed to state and federal taxes, and even declaring bankruptcy won’t get a person into the clear when the taxman is involved.

The good news is, his final court settlement is far less than the over one million dollar number it was initially believed the actor owed back in February. Additionally, the man does get to keep his assets—all measly $26,000 worth. It’s a little sad to see a 68-year-old man who has achieved quite a lot in his life finding himself in such dire times, and hopefully, Busey will be able to work his way out of the situation with the tax man and land on his feet. There won’t be much he can do about that credit rating, though.

Jessica Rawden
Managing Editor

Jessica Rawden is Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. She’s been kicking out news stories since 2007 and joined the full-time staff in 2014. She oversees news content, hiring and training for the site, and her areas of expertise include theme parks, rom-coms, Hallmark (particularly Christmas movie season), reality TV, celebrity interviews and primetime. She loves a good animated movie. Jessica has a Masters in Library Science degree from Indiana University, and used to be found behind a reference desk most definitely not shushing people. She now uses those skills in researching and tracking down information in very different ways.