‘Who’s The Boss?’ Star Danny Pintauro Gets Real About Not Having ‘Endless Money’ From Residuals as More Actors Open Up About Financial Struggles
Who’s The Boss? alum Danny Pintauro has opened up about working to make ends meet as an actor.
Pintauro, 50, appeared on the hit Tony Danza sitcom from 1984 to 1992. He played the young son of Angela Bower (Judith Light), who hired Danza’s character to work as her live-in housekeeper.
The former child star recently decided to return to acting after a decade away from Hollywood. But landing enough jobs to pay the bills is a challenge, so he’s been filling the gaps with a gig as an Amazon delivery driver.
“Working hard while ‘not working,’ he captioned an April 7 Instagram post. The entertainment business has been soooo slow, so I’ve been doing what a lot of people do — figuring it out, showing up, and taking the work that’s there while I keep building the work I really want. 38 packages today! There’s no shame in staying in motion.”
‘Who’s The Boss?’ actor says finding work is an ‘uphill battle’
In a statement shared with People, Pintauro expanded on his decision to work for Amazon. He explained that getting back into the acting business has been an “uphill battle,” especially given the general state of the entertainment industry.
“Since 2021 alone, television production in Los Angeles has dropped dramatically, and even pilot season is a fraction of what it used to be,” he pointed out.
While Pintauro made good money from Who’s the Boss?, it doesn’t provide an endless stream of cash, he added.
“People overestimate what residuals from a sitcom in the ’80s and ’90s look like,” he explained. “I invested a good portion of that money, but I also used a lot of it to pay for Stanford and to get through my early 20s, so it’s not like there’s just been endless money sitting there.”
‘The Pitt’ actor opens up about $80,000 in student loan debt
Pintauro is not the only famous face to get candid about the financial realities of trying to make it as an actor. Patrick Ball, who plays Dr. Frank Langdon on The Pitt, said he was on the verge of quitting acting entirely before he was cast on the HBO Max medical drama.
“Working as an actor, you don’t know what’s coming, have no money—the financial outlook can be bleak. I was looking for an off-ramp,” he recently told Cultured magazine.
Once he started work on the Noah Wyle show, Ball took a big step to secure his financial future.
“I paid off my student loans like three months into The Pitt, and that was a really profound moment ‘cause I thought I was gonna die with it. It’s a huge burden to carry, and a lot of people carry it,” he said.
“I was $80,000 in debt and I had been through a series of failed relationships where my financial insecurity was a real problem,” he continued. “I had just thought that was going to be my life forever, and that is a really heavy thing to live with.”
‘The Cosby Show’ alum still struggles ‘to make ends meet’
Ball isn’t the only actor from The Pitt who’s experienced tough times. Recently, Geoffrey Owens guest starred in an episode of the show. The role comes years after The Cosby Show alum made headlines when he was spotted bagging groceries at a Trader Joe’s. More recently he was working as a host at a bar in New York, according to TMZ.
In addition to The Pitt, Owens has recently appeared in Ghosts, The Night Agent, Poppa’s House, and the Netflix movie Nonna’s House. But his budget is still tight.
“Even today, right now, as we speak, I still struggle to make a living,” he said in a 2024 interview (via E! News). “I struggle every day to make my ends meet. And people can’t get their heads around that because they see me in movies.”
But, he added, he’s “not complaining” – he knows he’s more fortunate than many struggling actors.
“I’m grateful for the work I have,” he said. “I work more than a lot of people do, so I got to keep perspective.”
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