This Is How Nicolas Cage Blew A $150 Million Fortune
It's not exactly a secret that Nicolas Cage is one of the more...eccentric...actors of our generation. Yes, he's had some absolute bombs that are practically a gold-mine for memes but he's also an Academy Award winner from one of Hollywood's royal families. Knowing this, it shouldn't be surprising that at Cage's career peak, he had a net worth of over $150 million!
Also knowing Cage, it's not a shock that he managed to blow all that cash in the most exuberant ways. He filed for bankruptcy in 2007 and has since been taking on any and every movie role he can to stay afloat. Check out all the outrageous purchases Cage has made over the years and some of the weirdest things he does when he's not blowing his cash.
A $276,000 Dinosaur Skull
Yep, a real fossilized dinosaur skull. In 2007, someone auctioned off a genuine Tyrannosaurus Rex skull that was unearthed in Mongolia's Gobi Desert. The highest bidder happened to be none other than Nic Cage, who paid a whopping $276,000 for it.
Since it was sold at a private auction, the skull was considered a stolen artifact but that didn't stop Cage from keeping it at his residence for seven years. In 2015, he handed the skull over to authorities so it could be returned to Mongolia.
Two Albino King Cobras
According to Cage himself, the two albino king cobras — named Moby and Sheva — that he bought in 2004 were his favorite purchase. Cage said he kept them in his home and never got the venom removed. The venom is so dangerous though that Cage actually had to keep anti-venom in his house.
In 2008, Cage revealed that he has secretly bought the king cobras and within days, his entire neighborhood was threatening to sue him, so he gave them to a zoo.
A Haunted New Orleans Mansion
Delphine LaLaurie was a 19th century woman who owned a New Orleans mansion. In the mansion, she used the attic to torture and imprison slaves. It's estimated she killed more than 90 slaves and it's said her soul and the souls of those she killed haunt the mansion today.
So, of course, Nicolas Cage bought it. He paid $3.5 million for the historic New Orleans mansion but lost it to foreclosure in 2009.
The Original Superman Comic
Cage's fortune went down the drain in a different way in 1997. He bought an original copy of Action Comics No. 1 for $150,000 which was Superman's first comic appearance. Three years later, the comic book was stolen from Cage's house by an unidentified culprit.
The comic wouldn't be recovered until 2011 when it was returned to Cage. He either didn't want the stress of the comic getting stolen again or he was short on money because he turned around and quickly sold it for $2.1 million.
An 11th Century German Castle
Around the same time that Cage was buying haunted mansions, he also had his eye on a $2.3 million 11th century castle in Germany. He had stumbled across the castle while traveling and decided to buy it off the family that had owned the castle for nearly 500 years.
Many think the reason Cage bought the castle was because his family is part Bavarian and he wanted to raise his children outside of America.
A Giant Pyramid To Be Buried In
Add a nine-foot-tall white pyramid to the list of outrageous things Cage has bought. Cage was looking ahead to the future and decided to buy a massive pyramid and turn it into a mausoleum to be buried in when he died. He even announced he wanted to feel like "a modern day pharaoh."
He placed the pyramid in a New Orleans cemetery and residents weren't happy about it. Many speculated that he likely had to remove other burials in order to make room for the massive pyramid.
An Octopus To Help His Acting
First the king cobras and now an octopus. Nicolas Cage seems to really enjoy buying insanely expensive and exotic animals. The octopus was worth a reported $150,000 and Cage claimed it "helped his acting."
Unless cage was starring in Finding Nemo, we're not exactly sure how the octopus was going to be any help. Most likely, the claim was yet another way for Cage to try to dupe the IRS into thinking his weird purchase was a business expense.
A Shark
Adding to the albino King Cobras and octopus, for a short period of time Cage was also the proud owner of a salt-water shark. We could forgive the octopus but a fully grown shark seems like a bit much. While buying a shark can be a surprisingly cheap endeavor (even Kevin Federline owns one) it's keeping them alive that costs a lot.
A healthy shark requires at least 500 gallons of water to swim in and pounds of food to eat every day.
Several Pygmy Shrunken Heads
Anyone who has visited one of Cage's homes would know he's an avid collector of shrunken heads. Shrunken heads have been found in many areas of the world but were popularized by many tribes in the Amazon rainforest. Essentially, it's a severed human head that has been dried and prepared as a trophy.
The cost for one shrunken head can be upwards of $70,000 so if Cage owns several of them, then you can do the math.
A Private Gulfstream Jet
One of Cage's more boring extravagant purchases is the one that might have cost him the most. A Gulfstream jet is often referred to as the cream of the crop when it comes to private jets. While no one knows exactly how much he paid for it, according to his tax bill it likely cost more than $20,000,000.
As if that wasn't enough, Cage tried to claim the jet as a business expense but the IRS didn't buy it and charged him an extra $666,000 in unpaid taxes.
A 3 Million-Year-Old Meteroite
According to Cage's former financial manager (who clearly didn't do a very good job), one of the actor's crazier purchases was spending $25,000 on a piece of a meteorite that landed in Nigeria in 1962.
While it would probably be pretty easy to dupe Cage, NASA authenticated the meteorite. The space agency confirmed that the rock was indeed from Mars and estimated to be roughly 3 million years old!
The Shah Of Iran's Lamborghini
Cage has an extensive car collection but this purchase takes the cake. Apparently, he just had to have the Lamborghini Miura SVJ that was owned by the Shah of Iran. The Shah owned the car up until the 1979 Iranian Revolution when it was seized by the people. Somehow, a member of the Shah's former government got their hands on it and took the car out of Iran and to Europe.
Fast-forward twenty years later, and it landed in Nicolas Cage's lap for a cool $450,000.
A Deserted Island In The Bahamas
Cage reportedly dropped $3 million to purchase a deserted island in the Bahamas. The 40-acre undeveloped island was bought by Cage in 2006 and is about 85 miles southeast of Nassau. Named Leaf Cay, the island boasts three white sandy beaches and two lagoons.
Before he had to sell the island to get out of debt, Cage and his son spent a majority of their time there. Fun fact: Leaf Cay is only a few miles south of Pablo Escobar's former island, Norman's Cay.
Fifteen Homes
By 2008, Nicolas Cage owned fifteen different homes around the world. That included the haunted mansion, the German castle, and the private Bahamas island. He also had some relatively more modest homes in California, New York, and Rhode Island.
According to Cage's financial manager, Cage spent most of his time going from home to home throwing lavish parties. In 2007 alone, the actor spent $30 million on real estate purchases and property taxes.
A Mansion With Built In Model Trains
One of Cage's former Bel-Air mansions has some impressive history that the actor ruined. It was owned by Dean Martin and Tom Jones but when Cage took ownership, he outfitted half the house with model trains sets on tracks that ran a couple feet below the ceiling.
Cage eventually put the Bel-Air mansion up for sale for $35 million but it didn't go for the high price tag, likely because people didn't want to sleep with model trains running above them.
A Fleet Of Yachts
We're not sure what was going through Cage's mind when he decided he needed not one, but four, luxury private yachts. He spent a whopping $20 million on the yachts. His favorite was a motor yacht that he named "Sarita."
It was built to hold 12 guests and boasts an elliptical machine on the top deck. That sounds like the most expensive gym membership available. Just another day in the life of Nicolas Cage.
An Art Gallery...Of Himself
Many celebrities spend their fortune on artwork and Cage is no different, except his art gallery is a little stranger. In 2014, an art gallery was opened by fans of the actor that included him painted as various memes. The Cage-inspired gallery included a Nic Cage Pokemon, a Nic Cage shark, and a Nic Cage Elvis.
Apparently, the actor found the gallery so hilarious that he bought a few of the art pieces for himself.
A Ghost Rider Painting Worth Thousands
Years after Cage had gone bankrupt and had to sell off his comic book collection, he returned to Comic Con to start back up. In 2016, Cage reportedly dropped upwards fo $1 million at Comic Con. No one bothered to notice what comics he was buying because he also dropped $5,000 on a painting of the character Ghost Rider.
Cage played the character in a film that left him with a Razzie nomination for Worst Actor, so we're not exactly sure why we wanted to commemorate that.
He Did Mushrooms With His Cat
Drugs and Hollywood go together like peanut butter and jelly, but of course Cage took it to a weird level. The actor had hallucinogenic mushrooms in his fridge that his cat, Lewis, was able to get into and eat frequently.
Rather than be a good cat parent and stop it, Cage decided instead to keep letting it happen and take some of the 'shrooms whenever his cat did. Cage told David Letterman that he and the cat would just "stare at each other for hours, not moving, just staring at each other."
He Didn't Have Enough Money To Get Out Of Jail
In 2011, Cage was booked at the New Orleans jail for disturbing the peace after he got into a heated fight with his wife in the streets. He proceeded to punch a bunch of cars and tried to resist arrest. He was held with an $11,000 bail but the actor couldn't even afford that.
So who came to the rescue? None other than Duane "Dog The Bounty Hunter" Chapman. The bounty hunter was apparently a huge fan of the actor and couldn't stand to see him without the funds to be free.
He's Picky With The Animals He Eats By How They Have... Intercourse
Yes, you read that right. The strange actor used to choose which animal meat and byproducts he ate by the way they got it on. Cage told The Sun that he thinks "fish are very dignified with sex" and "so are birds" so he has no problem eating fish or eggs.
On the flip side, he said when it comes to pigs and doin' it, "not so much" and he refuses to eat any pork. The real question is why was he watching these animals so closely?
He Hijacked A Plane With Charlie Sheen
Okay, the two didn't actually take over the controls but on a flight, they technically hijacked the PA system. Cage told David Letterman that he and Sheen thought it would be funny to take over the plane's PA system and say he was the pilot, that he wasn't feeling well, and that he was losing control of the plane.
Naturally, the passengers and the real pilot started freaking out. The plane landed safely but six armed officers were ready to arrest him when they landed.
He Created His Own Vanity Comic Book Series
Always obsessed with comic books, Cage and his son Weston created their own series in 2007—just one year before they would be way too bankrupt to publish anything. The comic book Voodoo Child was about a teenager murdered 200 years ago who returns from the dead with special powers after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.
It was pretty sweet that Cage got to live out the dream of publishing a comic book with his son before he was too poor to even think about it.
He Spent A Night In Dracula's Castle
According to Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance co-star Idris Elba, Cage had some strange accommodations when they were filming. The movie was shot in Transylvania, Romania, so Cage took the opportunity to stay in Dracula's castle.
Even though Cage likes spooky things, Elba said he would show up on set every morning looking "exhausted and spooked-out." When asked by Elba, Cage simply said he just "channeled the energy" and fought through it.
He Crashed His Own Birthday
Every year on the actor's birthday, the Alamo Draft House in Austin, Texas holds a Nicolas Cage movie marathon. The line-up is always a mystery and it's mostly meant as a way to celebrate the strange actor's life.
Well, in 2017, Cage decided he wanted to see what movies were playing and crashed the party. Rather than quietly sitting down and enjoying his best works, Cage took over the stage and read "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allen Poe.
He Got A Tattoo To Become A Man
While other cultures have Quinceañeras and Bar Mitzvahs the culture of Nicolas Cage has lizard tattoos. In 1994, Cage got a large tattoo on his back of a lizard wearing a top hat and twirling a can.
He told the Philadelphia Inquirer that "other cultures have initiations into manhood and that's what the tattoo was for me." A lot of stars get bad tattoos and don't feel the need to make up a ridiculous story to justify it.
A Mime Stalked Him For Years
Sadly, actors in Hollywood have gotten used to crazy-devoted fans stalking them. Cage doesn't do anything normal, so he landed himself a stalker who was a mime. The actor told Parade magazine that while filming Bringing Out The Dead, a mime kept appearing on the set and doing strange things.
No one knew how the mime was getting past security but Cage thought it was "unsettling." He even worried the mime was "silent but maybe deadly."
He Landed The Title Of China's Best Actor
He might be the laughing stock of Hollywood now but not everyone feels that way. In 2013, he was given the "Best Global Actor In Motion Pictures" award by the Huading Awards, which is basically like China's version of the Oscars.
Cage went to China to personally accept the award and interact with the people. It's probably the one place on earth where Cage still has a devoted army of fans.
He Proposed To Patricia Arquette But She Thought It Was A Joke
Arquette would go on to be Cage's first wife and stay married to him from 1995 to 2001 but the first time he proposed, she thought he was crazy. According to Arquette, Cage asked her to marry her only a few days after they met in the '80s. She thought it was a joke and played along by making a list of things he had to do to have her heart.
When Cage started fulfilling the lost list of crazy requests, she quickly backed out of it and avoided him for years.
He Developed His Own Form Of Acting
Some people have tried to call what Cage does "method acting" but to him, it's so much more. Cage has called his acting method "Nouveau Shamanic" and even wants to write a manual about it.
Cage only studied acting for six months before he landed his first role and dived right in. The over-the-top emotions and facial expressions were apparently inspired by Robert de Niro and Laurence Olivier but Cage has taken it to the next level.
