'80s Heartthrob Lorenzo Lamas Filed for Bankruptcy Twice – At 56, He Took a Job Flying Helicopter Tours to Pay the Bills: See Him Today

Years after becoming a familiar face on television, he turned his attention from acting to aviation. Read on to discover how his career changed and see what the former heartthrob looks like now in the photos at the end of the article.

Long before Lorenzo Lamas was flying passengers over Los Angeles to earn a living, he was one of the faces television audiences knew well. With thick brown hair and leading-man looks, the actor emerged as a heartthrob and became especially known for playing Lance Cumson on "Falcon Crest."

Acting kept him in the public eye for years, but the success visible on screen did not tell the full story of his finances. By 2004, the gap between what Lamas earned and what he owed had become substantial enough that he filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

His filing listed approximately $433,000 in assets and $616,000 in liabilities. But the actor was hardly without an income at the time, as he reported gross annual earnings of about $264,000 and took home roughly $11,000 each month.

Yet more than half of that monthly income was going toward alimony and child support, while payments on two expensive vehicles cost another $1,400 a month. Other debts had accumulated alongside those obligations.

Approximately $145,000 was owed on credit cards, while another $35,000 was owed on personal loans. The filing also included money owed to a plastic surgeon and a smaller amount in back taxes, while his expenses included flight time in private planes and flying lessons.

Lamas received his second Chapter 7 discharge in 2014, a decade after the first. That same year, he spoke publicly about another change unfolding in his life.

Amid those liabilities, one significant financial cushion remained. Lamas had approximately $215,000 in a profit-sharing plan that was exempt from the bankruptcy because it qualified under ERISA.

After the Chapter 7 case concluded, his unsecured debts were discharged, allowing him the opportunity to emerge from the filing without those balances hanging over him. Nine years later, however, he was back in bankruptcy court, and the financial picture had changed dramatically.

When Lamas filed for Chapter 7 again in 2013, there was no six-figure retirement fund among his reported assets. Instead, he listed just $9,100 worth of property — largely made up of furniture, clothing, and personal belongings — while his checking account held less than $500.

The debts had changed, too. Of the approximately $322,000 he reported owing, about $285,000 consisted of tax debt, most of it owed to the IRS and some to the state of California. Another $19,200 was owed in child support, and his monthly expenses had climbed above $7,000.

Perhaps the sharpest contrast with his first filing was on the income side. The actor who had previously reported gross earnings of $264,000 a year now listed no income of his own. Instead, his wife was earning approximately $36,000 annually.

Lamas received his second Chapter 7 discharge in 2014, a decade after the first. That same year, he spoke publicly about another change unfolding in his life.

During an appearance on "Oprah: Where Are They Now?," Lamas made clear that he had not intentionally decided to wind down his career in entertainment. Acting was still something he loved; however, he noted:

"It's just a crazy business, and I am just not the person to sit around and wait, you know, for somebody to offer me a job."

So, at 56, a man who had spent decades working in front of cameras was earning his living from a cockpit. "I work for Elite Helicopter Tours out of Van Nuys, California. I'm a tour pilot," Lamas revealed.

However, aviation was not simply something he pursued between acting jobs; he described it as a career he was actively building so his livelihood would no longer depend on whether someone in Hollywood called. "You can't count on things happening if you're not in control of them happening," he continued.

That distinction — between waiting for work and creating work for himself — was at the heart of the path he described. After years in a profession where another person ultimately decided whether he got the part, aviation offered him something he said acting could not.

"And I'm in control of things happening in my aviation career, and I'm not in my acting career," the former heartthrob explained. "So I love to act, but aviation is paying the bills now." It was a strikingly different working life from the one audiences had first watched unfold decades earlier.

The years are visible in his gray hair and changed appearance, while the helicopter cockpit reflects where his working life eventually took him. See Lamas then and now in the photos below.

Lorenzo Lamas During His Heartthrob Years

Lorenzo Lamas Now