Chris Sarandon ‘Lost Everything’ in Late ’80s After Doing Business with a ‘Fraud’

Chris Sarandon is opening up about a major financial setback he experienced in the 1980s.

The Princess Bride actor, 83, recently spoke with The Guardian about his long career, from the high points, the “mortgage movies” and the unexpected setbacks. One such hitch in the road was when he invested money with the wrong person and ultimately lost much of his savings.

The “major financial reversal” took place in the late ’80s, he said, when he “invested money with a guy who defrauded me.” Sarandon explained that he “bought into a number of brownstone buildings in Manhattan” during a prosperous period for him. But then things took a turn for the worse.

“The guy ended up being a fraud, and because I had signed all of the mortgages with this guy, I became as liable as he was — not criminally, but financially,” Sarandon explained. “So I lost everything. I’d been saving money all through my career for my old age, and I had to liquidate it.”

Sarandon noted that it was the worst time of his life as he dealt with money and marriage woes. He and his second wife, Lisa Ann Cooper, who share three children, called it quits in 1989 after nine years of marriage.

Despite finding success in 1993’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, his career slowed, and he took on roles in what he called “mortgage movies” — his heart was in some, but not all of them, he said — because he had rent to pay.

Now, Sarandon doesn’t appear on screen much, but he remains somewhat in the spotlight with his COVID-19 lockdown project: his food podcast, Cooking By Heart. On the show, Sarandon hosts guests who share their culinary memories, including his first wife, Susan Sarandon.

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Though his acting career has slowed, Sarandon told The Guardian he doesn’t mind — constant projects suited him at one point, but he doesn’t have that kind of drive now.

“Honestly, I don’t have the fire in my belly anymore. There was a time early in my career where I was on fire, and I was thrilled to be doing what I was doing,” Sarandon said. “I set out to have a career, I didn’t set out to be famous, and so my goals were fulfilled, really, sort of midway through.”

Sarandon, who has been married to third wife Joanna Gleason since 1994, said he gets “offered stuff occasionally” but turns most of them down because he doesn’t find the plotlines “very interesting.”

“I did it for a long time, and I was able to support myself – except for that disastrous three or four years when things were bleak. But I came out of it, and I did fine. I’m a lucky guy.”