Posted on 10/13/2026 9:17:40 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
RJ Mitte spent years dealing with a financial nightmare few Breaking Bad fans knew about.
Less than a year before his death at 34, the actor opened up about an alleged betrayal by a former business manager who he said diverted money that was supposed to pay his taxes.
The fallout, Mitte claimed, followed him for a decade and ultimately cost him more in taxes than he earned from the AMC hit. Mitte died Monday, October 12, in Brownsville, Texas.
His representatives confirmed his death in a statement shared with People, while authorities said an autopsy would be performed. His representative later confirmed to the outlet, hours after TMZ first reported his death, that Mitte died by suicide.
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(Excerpt) Read more at parade.com ...
Sure he made some good money for that show but it wasn’t that much money was it? He wasn’t the star of the show or anything, he just had a fairly small part really. Not like he was supposed to live out a lifetime on that sum of money was it?
It sounds he made the money that resulted in the taxation, but hus crooked manager took more than he was supposed to.
On another site story it said he had 3 million in his account at one point. He was on almost every episode so I can believe this.
His business manager should be in jail. I wonder what happened to him.
I just read about RJ Mitte’s tax problems.
Even though, RJ was very likely swindled out of a lot of his earnings, it seems the IRS ultimately puts the responsibility of paying those taxes on the back of the taxpayer, not the advisor.
**RJ said he decided against naming the woman who stole from him and sueing her, because of the expense of litigation, plus, this tax consultant has connections to local law enforcement (she worked at a sheriff’s office) which made attempting to report ot retaliate legally feel practically impossible at that time.
IOW: She got away with it!!
He was good, young, actor with a disability. Not too many jobs in Hollywood for him. The people around him stole his money.
Tragic story and ending for him.
It would it he spent his money wisely.
He was in 56 episodes of Breaking Bad, even assuming a fairly minor role and a small pay of say $100k per episode, he would have made $5.6 million, which is greater than the life time earnings of most Americans. The median lifetime earnings for someone with a professional degree such a Doctor or Lawyer is $4.7 million.
If you make that money over a life time, the taxes owed are a lot less. More than a third of that money would be going for income and Medicare taxes.
That is true, but conversely earning it over 7 years instead of 40 means if he puts the money into a good safe investment he would earn much more returns earlier, so total life time salary plus investment earnings would be far greater so it works out even better in his favor.
I had chatgpt run the numbers.
Person A earns $110,000 a year starting at age 24, pays normal federal taxes (including SS, medicare), he would have $86,215 left over after taxes, assuming he spends all but $10,000 of it, and puts that away in a safe investments that pays him 5% return a year. He would have almost $1.3 million in the account when he retired at age 65.
Person B earns $800,000 a year for 7 years starting at age 24, and never works again. He also pays all his federal taxes, he also spends $76,215 a year on himself like person A, he puts the remainder of the money into a safe investment that returns 5% a year. He would have $7.5 million in his account when he reaches 65.
The reason why this doesn’t happen in real life, is that it’s far easier for the $110K person to keep his spending 75-80K a year because because he doesn’t have the rest of the money available. Person B would be very tempted to spend more than that a year because the money is just sitting there and tempts him.
If the advisor took the money that was meant to pay his taxes I’d imagine she should be in jail.
His manager/accountant filed his taxes but didn't send his tax payments to the IRS, instead keeping them for herself. She did it to 14 other actors. By the time he found out about it, unpaid taxes, interest and penalties had ballooned.
This is one area where Canada does better than the US. If you fall behind one year you can catch up over a few years without penalty.
“His manager/accountant filed his taxes but didn’t send his tax payments to the IRS, instead keeping them for herself.”
shouldn’t the IRS take this into consideration?
No way he made 100k per episode. Not even close. Have you been sniffing glue?
You don’t get it. His manager was responsible for financial things like filing his taxes. The crooked manager provided the actor fake tax receipts making him think they were paid/correctly filed. Meanwhile, the manager stole the money and the actor didn’t find out he had been cheated until the IRS and state tax dept sent him letters. Penalty and interest along with years of back pay was more than he had money for once he found out. This poor guy—he should have named the dirty manager.
You’re aiming a bit high.
As of 1 July 2026, union scale for a major role (guest star) in a one-hour TV show is $11,290 per episode.
Most co-stars are hired as day performers at $1,283 a day.
https://secretactor.com/pages/sag-aftra-rates#background-stunts
Mitte wasn’t an “in demand” actor before Breaking Bad so I don’t think it likely he could have commanded a wage much over scale, if any.
Funny the stuff you can discover if you do some research before posting.
4.7 MILLION over 50 years. Yet, most professionals(especially MDs)do not make that money until later in their career. Meaning, they go to college, with most accumulating a lot of debt. Then eventually make a lot of money in their 50s & 60s.
This young man, like many professional athletes made a lot of money in his twenties. Which means even if he was making 4-7% on his earnings he should be easily worth $7-10 Million. Unless, he spent MORE than he earned. Which is the problem with most people in that age range that suddenly make a lot of money.
50% of NFL players are broke ten years after leaving the league where the minimum pay is close to $500K.
NBA players are even a higher percentage.
Many child actors end up addicted to drugs. Very few reach adulthood due to abuse and addiction. If you look at young actors in general, there is a VERY small percentage that turn into functional adults with a career in the entertainment industry. Very few get out alive.
Leonardo Dicaprio is one of the few examples. Even though he is widely pictured at Diddy parties. Kenua Reeves is another that seems to actually be a pretty good guy that made it from child actor to adult and is not completely screwed up.
Brook Shields was a famous child actor but generally dropped out of modeling/acting after attending Princeton.
Again, there are ONLY A FEW to make it to adulthood.
There are countless numbers of entertainers that died young.
Hence the name Hollywood Babylon.
My question is what about RJ Mittle’s parents?
Did they help guide his early career or just take advantage of him?
Did they help him pick a financial advisor?
I have dealt with a couple financial advisors in my life/career. I would NEVER trust anyone to control HOW my hard earned money was invested. Why do so many people TRUST people to invest their earnings? The hard part is making your FIRST million. Turning that into 2,3,4,5, 6 &,etc is a matter of proper investments and letting it earn interest or mutual funds over time. Then DO NOT SPEND more than you earn.
I remember when the actors of “Friends” all negotiated together and were paid $100K/episode. It was a big deal because they were the first TV actors to make that much per episode. A lot of TV actors did not make that much.
That is why you see people like Henry Winkler(the Fonz)still doing crap rolls in his 70s. Unless you were people like Jerry Seinfeld they did not get paid a lot.
Remember when Susan Sommers started selling the “Thigh Master” ? Would she have done that if she had made so much money playing Chrissy on Threes Company? The number one rated TV show back in 1980.
Research and follow through was useful and informative, thank you.
It could well be that his parents spent it “on his behalf”, as he may have given them at least some power of attorney. We know the agent abused his trust. The man was very young and had a severe case of cerebral palsy. I do not know what kinds of expenses (better wheel chairs, accessible house furniture, etc.) would also be part of his spending. That’s not the same as spending it on cocaine and floozies.
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