If we have discovered something in the previous couple of weeks, it is that being an Oscar winner with a legendary profession doesn’t assure that you’re going to be financially set for all times. First up, Francis Ford Coppola. In late October we discovered that Coppola was auctioning off his watch assortment and numerous actual property property after going utterly broke from spending $100+ million of his personal cash financing the ill-fated “Megalopolis.”
Then Kevin Spacey instructed an interviewer that his funds had been so unhealthy that he was successfully homeless and accepting any job he might, together with singing cabaret at a resort in Cyprus.
And now apparently it is Richard Dreyfuss’s flip. Truly, Richard first made the declare that he was broke almost a decade in the past. How might the Oscar-winning star of classics equivalent to “Jaws,” “The Goodbye Lady,” Shut Encounters of the Third Variety,” “Down and Out in Beverly Hills,” and “What About Bob?” have no cash? It appeared nearly not possible to imagine. Till now. Journalist Ben Dreyfuss, Richard’s estranged son, simply confirmed it in a painful Substack essay about his household drama…
Ben and Richard Dreyfuss in 2013 (by way of Getty Photos)
“I am Broke”
Richard’s first public admission about his funds got here again in February 2016 throughout an extended, unusually candid interview with the Each day Mail throughout a promotion of the Twenty fifth-anniversary re-release of “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Useless.” In that dialog, Dreyfuss did one thing nearly no A-list actor ever does: he brazenly stated he was “broke” and taking any performing job he might get for cash.
When pressed on that considerably stunning declare, Richard expounded:
“The Fact is tough to say or hear, however I’ve had a tremendous quantity of unhealthy luck financially, and I noticed I did not have the cash I had… [When] I take advantage of the phrase ‘I am broke,’ it means I am broke. It means I haven’t got the cash I had. I wished to retire and take my spouse on cruises. I can not afford that. I would like to have the ability to go to Europe once I need. I can not.”
In a follow-up reply, Richard expanded:
“I used to be by no means good with cash. I spent an excessive amount of and did not take into consideration the implications. I used to be being a younger spoiled film star. After I lastly met the enterprise supervisor I’ve now, he stated, ‘Did not anybody ever inform you to take a portion of every wage and put it apart in a particular account you may’t contact?’ and I stated, ‘No.’ Too unhealthy for me. I did not give it some thought.”
Household Drama
Almost a decade after that interview, Richard’s monetary admissions out of the blue took on new weight because of a collection of explosive posts made by his eldest son, journalist Ben Dreyfuss. On November 13, 2025, Ben printed a string of candid reflections on Twitter and adopted them with an extended Substack essay detailing the breakdown of his relationship along with his father. The posts had been beautiful not solely due to the household estrangement, however as a result of they confirmed—flat out—that Richard’s cash issues had been actual.
“Everybody assumes my siblings and I are rich from our dad,” Ben wrote. “We’re all a bit too uncomfortable to make it clear, however now we have no cash from my dad. My dad has no cash.”
Based on Ben, the household dynamic started to unravel in 2017 when his youthful brother Harry accused actor Kevin Spacey of groping him at age 18. Ben says he was managing his father’s Twitter account on the time and posted a supportive message on Harry’s behalf. That tweet, he claims, prompted somebody to make their very own allegation towards Richard, which Dreyfuss has all the time denied. The fallout created years of rigidity.
By 2022, a household dinner in San Francisco erupted right into a shouting match involving accusations, resentment, and long-simmering frustrations. Ben admits he lashed out, calling his father a homophobic slur—one thing he says he instantly regretted and has tried to apologize for repeatedly.
In January 2024, he despatched Richard an extended electronic mail making an attempt to fix issues. Ben printed that message as a part of his 2025 Substack put up. In it, he expressed confusion and unhappiness over their estrangement, acknowledged his errors, and requested his father to reconcile. Richard by no means responded. As a substitute, Ben shared what he says was the final electronic mail he ever obtained from his father—a blistering, all-caps message during which Richard accused Ben and his sister Emily of mendacity to him, publicly embarrassing him, and believing he was hiding cash from them.
Ben, for his half, insisted the estrangement is not about inheritance or cash in any respect. He wrote that he all the time understood his father was now not rich. However because the emails present, cash was undeniably a strain level—one which hovered over the household’s battle even when it wasn’t the basis trigger.
The place Did the Cash Go?
The earliest cracks appeared within the late Seventies and early Nineteen Eighties, when Dreyfuss turned one of many highest-paid actors of his technology at the very same time his life-style spun uncontrolled. He has brazenly admitted that he spent too aggressively, saved nothing, and ignored fundamental monetary planning. That interval overlapped along with his cocaine habit, which he has spoken about repeatedly in interviews. In 1982, he was arrested after crashing his automotive right into a tree, an incident that led to rehab and a short lived profession stall. Addictions are costly. Profession interruptions are costly. Each collectively can vaporize tens of millions.
Then got here the profession slowdown. After a collection of main hits, Dreyfuss stepped again from leading-man roles within the Nineteen Nineties and 2000s. Appearing revenue for many performers is very uneven, even in one of the best of instances, and Dreyfuss has been blunt concerning the shift: older actors merely aren’t supplied the sorts of roles or salaries they as soon as commanded. By his personal account, the paychecks shrank dramatically.
The most important monetary blow, nevertheless, got here from a call Dreyfuss made later in life. Within the late 2000s, he successfully retired from performing to pursue The Dreyfuss Civics Initiative, a mission he envisioned as his new full-time function. He spent 4 years finding out in Oxford, lectured across the nation, and threw himself into training and advocacy work. What he did not do throughout that point was act. And performing was the one revenue stream that had ever supported his life-style. When he ultimately returned to Hollywood, he found fewer alternatives, decrease pay, and a totally totally different trade than the one he had left behind.
Actual Property
Richard MIGHT nonetheless have some illiquid wealth within the type of actual property. That does not precisely assist pay for groceries, but it surely’s price noting. This is what I used to be in a position to piece collectively about Richard’s actual property historical past:
In 1995, Richard bought a Los Angeles dwelling to Kevin Costner for $2.7 million. In 2005, the yr he divorced Janelle Lacey (Ben’s mom), Richard bought a house in Sherman Oaks, California, for $1.9 million. He had listed it a yr earlier for $2.4 million. In Could 2006, Richard and his new spouse, Svetlana, paid $1.02 million for a house in Carlsbad, California. They bought this dwelling in July 2008 for $820,000. In April 2008, Richard paid $1.0 million for a house in Encinitas, California. At the moment, this property, which sits on 1.2 acres, is price round $2 million. He seems to nonetheless personal this dwelling right this moment.
