These Ghanaian celebrities have gone from riches to rags

These Ghanaian celebrities have gone from riches to rags

The real test in life comes after the celebrity compass changes direction and is no longer pointing in your direction. Ghanaian celebrities in the creative arts have had poor lives after they retire from the creative jobs.

While some Ghanaian celebrities managed their finances well and are still doing great after they retire or lose their stardom, some also just lived in the moment without thinking about tomorrow and are now broke, living from hand to mouth after their stardom faded.

In this article, we look at some of the celebrities whose finances at the peak of their careers were not managed well and are now leaving from hand to mouth;

Sam Adjeteyfio

If ever someone came out to say Sam Adjeteyfio was as broke as the poor church mouse, no one would have believed it.

Not because the person was not trustworthy or themed a liar, but simply because, Sam Adjeteyfio has had a far too successful movie career for the public to believe he was struggling financially.

Sam Adjeteyfio

But sadly, that seem to be exactly the case with the veteran Ghanaian actor. In the late 90s and early 2000s, Sam Adjeteyfio was probably the biggest name on Ghana television screens. He was the lead actor in the biggest and most successful TV series of the early 2000s, Taxi Driver.

From there, he went on to play lead roles in so many Ghanaian mainstream movies and even got featured in a couple of Ghanaian/Nigerian movies.

It came as a surprise then, few weeks when the veteran and once celebrated actor came out to admit that he is really struggling to make ends meet.

In a couple of media reports, Sam Adjeteyfio admitted to mismanaging his finances during his hay days and even revealed that he currently occupies the boy’s quarters of a friend’s mansion because he has no money to rent an apartment for himself and his family.

According to him, he spends his day moving from one set to another hoping to find some roles in order to make something small to put food on his table.

William Addo

A couple of years ago, William Addo was a household name in the Kumawood movies industry, staring in some of the most successful Kumawood movies and television series.

However, after movie roles dried up and no producer was knocking on his door for movie features, things started turning sour for the veteran actor. All the money he made at the peak of his career was already well spent and he had next to nothing left on him.

William Addo

Things got much worse for William Addo when he developed an eye complication that demanded an amount of Ghc10,000 to be corrected in a surgical operation.

Mr. Addo who could not hide his predicament any longer came out to lay bare his suffering and asked for the public’s support to help him raise the needed Ghc10,000 for his eye surgery.

In several media interviews, the veteran actor confessed to being in financial difficulties and having to spend the little he has left on his eye treatment. He also admitted that there was no way he could single-handedly raise the required Ghc5000 for the first part of the eye surgery, hence calling for donation and the public’s support.

His story is a classic example of an actor who went from riches to rags after they were no more in the limelight. As he once said in an interview, “I concentrated more on the ‘show’ instead of the ‘business’ aspect of the job”.

Kiki Gyan

Once upon a time, there was a famous music band known as Osibisa, they toured the world, filled 90,000 capacity stadiums, enjoyed the grandest of celebrity status and fame, made millions from their unique music and Kiiki Gyan a Ghanaian legend was a member and one of the leading figures of this band made up of Four Ghanaians and some three Caribbean (other nationals later joined the band).

Kiki Gyan

The band was perhaps the most famous music band in the 70s and early 80s, giving the world smash hits after hits and raking in millions of dollars.

A couple of decades later, after the band was no more, and members were now in their old age and enjoying the fruits of their labor, the situation was different for Kiki Gyan, the historic and once famous keyboardist of the band.

“We travelled around the world, flew first class, slept in the best hotels, and had the best girls. Man, life was good, too good,” Kiki told me in an interview three years ago.

“More than $2m ($3.6m) passed through my hands. I could make £8,000 over a weekend as a session keyboardist. I was the best in London.”

He found himself fighting serious drug addictions and losing everything he had worked for to drugs.

Sadly he lost his battle to drugs in 2004, by which time he had lost everything he had and was surviving on the mercies and goodwill of friends and family.

Super OD

Super OD is a Ghanaian legend and one of the most celebrated people in Ghana today. Not because he holds a celebrity status or enjoys some level of stardom now, but because of what he has done for the movie industry and his decades of being a topnotch actor, gracing our TV screens for decades. He started his career in the 70s with roles in the shows of iconic producer and director, Osofo Dadzie.

Super OD

His popularity shot to an all-time high in the 80s when he became part of the famous new show, Akan Drama aired on Ghana Television.

He made great strides as an actor in those days and was the nation’s favorite actor by all stretch. However, after his stardom and era of fame faded away, Super OD begun to face financial difficulties. In 2017, Agona East MP, Hon. Queenstar Pokuah Sawyer made a donation to the ailing veteran actor to help ease his financial woes.

All the fame and money he made in his youthful days seemed not to be enough to help take care of him in his old age. Other personalities including the former President, John Mahama have paid a visit to him and made some financial pledges to help the once famous and celebrated actor.

Super OD died on Tuesday, February 13, 2018, at the Agona Swedru Government Hospital in the Central Region.

Charles Asampong Taylor

Between 2001 and 2005, former Ghanaian footballer, Charles Asampong Taylor was the biggest football star in Ghana. He played for the two biggest clubs in Ghana, Accra Hearts of Oak and Kumasi Asante Kotoko during which time he won all the biggest club trophies in Ghana and Africa.

Charles Asampong Taylor

He became the most expensive player ever on the local football scene when Kotoko coughed out a whopping $42,000 to buy him from arch-rivals Hearts of Oak in 2003. His wealth and fame during that era were unquantifiable.

No player who plied his trade in the country earned as much as he did or came close to him in terms of wealth and fame. But a decade after he retired from gracing the green pitch, the once famous footballer, has very little to show for all the wealth and fame he enjoyed in his prime years.

But unlike the other mentioned celebrities, Charles Taylor is not doing so badly as he finds himself now as an ordained man of God.

However considering the money he made during his footballing days, Charles Taylor could be said to be broke because he was largely expected to do well compared to his current situation after retiring from football.