This list represents a small sampling of individuals who, like you, have needed the assistance of bankruptcy at one time or another. You wouldn't naturally associate these names with bankruptcy. For many, bankruptcy does not signal the end, merely an opportunity to start over with a clean slate. Many have successfully recovered and continued to live happy fulfilling lives. If you do decide to file for bankruptcy, you can rest assured that you will not be stigmatized for the rest of your life.

P.T. Barnum
Showman and Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey Circus founder P.T. Barnum went bankrupt in 1871.

Kim Basinger
Kim Basinger filed for bankruptcy in 1993. The actress lost a $8.1 million lawsuit to Main Line Pictures for backing out of the eventual bomb, "Boxing Helena." She had to sell her $20 million town investment in Braselton, Ga. 

Frank Baum
Wizard of Oz author

Buffalo Bill
Wild West showman

Lorraine Bracco
Bracco filed for bankruptcy in 1999, after legal fees and taxes from a five-year legal battle with ex-husband, Harvey Keitel, over custody of their daughter Stella.

Toni Braxton
Braxton was $3.9 million in debt from financial mismanagement when she filed for bankruptcy, and all of her household possessions, including the two Grammys she won, were priced to sell so she could pay off her creditors.

Lenny Bruce
Legendary comedian Lenny Bruce was declared a 'bankrupt pauper' in 1965. 

Samuel L. Clemens ("Mark Twain")
Best - selling American author - humorist (1894)

George Clinton
Bankruptcy is not funkadelic... but the lead singer of Parliament had to declare it in 1985.

Francis Ford Coppola
The "Godfather" director has had his share of financial apocalypses from financing his films. His Zoetrope production company filed for bankruptcy in 1990.

John DeLorean
Automobile designer and entrepreneur

Walt Disney
His name may be a stalwart brand today, but early in his career, Disney was just a struggling filmmaker with too many bills. In 1922 he started his first film company with a partner in Kansas City, Kansas.
The two men bought a used camera and made short advertising films and cartoons under the studio name Laugh-O-Gram. Disney even signed a deal with a New York company to distribute the films he was producing. That arrangement didn't work out so well, though, as the distributor cheated Disney's studio.
Without the distributor's cash, Disney couldn't cover his overhead, and his studio went bankrupt in 1923. He then left Kansas City for Hollywood, and after a series of increasingly successful creations, Disney debuted a new character named Mickey Mouse in 1928.

William C. Durant
Founder of General Motor.  William Crapo Durant took a massive hit during the Great Depression that saw his fortune fall from $120 million to bankruptcy. He spent his last few years running a bowling alley in Flint, Michigan.

Mick Fleetwood
Rock star, lead member of "Fleetwood Mac" (1984)

Henry Ford
Automobile manufacturer In 1899 the young mechanic and engineer started the Detroit Automobile Company with the backing of three prominent politicians. Ford hadn't quite mastered the innovation and production techniques that would eventually make him rich, though. Over the next two years, Ford proved to be too much of a perfectionist, and his plant only produced 20 cars as he painstakingly tinkered with designs.
The enterprise went bankrupt in 1901 and reorganized into the Henry Ford Company later that year. Ford eventually left that group and finally got things right in 1903, when he founded the Ford Motor Company. Things didn't go so badly for the Henry Ford Company after he left, either; it changed its name into one you might find a bit more recognizable: the Cadillac Automobile Company.

Zsa Zsa Gabor
She's been married seven times, but it was a libel lawsuit, not a divorce, that landed Zsa Zsa in bankruptcy court.

Marvin Gaye
The “Let’s Get It On” crooner filed for bankruptcy in 1976 after the royalties from his next album were promised to his ex-wife as an alimony substitute. The album was titled “Here, My Dear.”

Charles Goodyear
19th century American inventor, who discovered how to vulcanize rubber.

Ulysses S. Grant
18th US President; Civil War general, best-selling American Author, face is pictured on the US fifty dollar bill ( 1884 after leaving office).

Dorothy Hamill
America’s ice-skating princess Dorothy Hamill made an ill-fated purchase of Ice Capades, having to eventually sell the company in 1995 and filing for bankruptcy in 1996.

H.J. Heinz
When Heinz was just 25 years old, he and two partners began a company that made horseradish. As the legend goes, the spicy root was the first of Heinz's famed 57 varieties, but it wasn't as lucrative as he'd hoped. A business panic in 1875 bankrupted his enterprise, but Heinz's passion for condiments remained strong.
The very next year, Heinz got together with his brother and a cousin to start a new company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The reorganized group started making ketchup, and the business took off. Last year the H.J. Heinz Company had over $10 billion in revenue.

Milton Snavely Hershey
Founder of Hershey’s Chocolate

Charles Keating
Morality crusader, white-collar swindler

Margot Kidder
She played Lois Lane in "Superman," but Margot Kidder didn't have anyone to rescue her in real life. Her bankruptcy in the 1990s was due to $600,000 of debt accrued from medical bills for an injury the star received on set.

Larry King
Larry King racked up substantial debts in the '70s and declared bankruptcy in 1978.

Cyndi Lauper
She's so unusual... and, at one point, so insolvent. Lauper filed for bankruptcy in 1981 before becoming an '80s icon.

Stan Lee
Comic book industry pioneer , co-creator "Spider Man," "The Incredible Hulk," "The X-Men" etc (2001).

Abraham Lincoln
16th President of the United States

Meat Loaf
Battles and lawsuits between The Loaf and various managers and publishers left The Loaf bankrupt in the early 1980s.

George McGovern
Politician (1991)

William McKinley
25th US President (1897-1901)

Willie Nelson
The country legend owed the I.R.S. $16.7 million in 1990, forcing the government agency to seize his bank accounts and real estate. Nelson released an album titled “The IRS Tapes: Who’ll Buy My Memories?” to pay them what he owed.

Wayne Newton
The Vegas showman filed for bankruptcy in 1992 with $20 million in debt. He and his finances recovered, but in 2005, the IRS claimed he owed them $1.8 million in back taxes.

Tom Petty
Musician Tom Petty was $500,000 in debt in 1979 when he filed for bankruptcy.

Debbie Reynolds
Hollywood sweetheart Debbie Reynolds’ 1997 bankruptcy stemmed from her Las Vegas hotel, the Debbie Reynolds Hotel and Casino, which eventually flopped.

Mickey Rooney
The longest-working star in Hollywood filed for bankruptcy in 1996 over a $1.75 million debt owed to the IRS.

Oskar Schindler
Activist who saved over 1000 Jews from the Nazis

Anna Nicole Smith
Anna Nicole had her fair share of financial insanity during her lifetime - filing for bankruptcy in 1996 after a former employee sued her for sexual harassment - and won - an $830,000 award.

Donald Trump
Famed entrepreneur Donald Trump was $900 million in debt in 1990, but clawed his way back to the top after financial restructuring and hosting his hit reality show, “The Apprentice.”  

Johnny Unitas
Legendary Hall of Fame football quarterback

Oscar Wilde
Acclaimed poet and author

James Wilson
U.S. Supreme Court Justice (1789-1798)

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