Celebrities are some of the most popular people in the world. After all, they wouldn’t be celebrities otherwise. While their lives tend to be in the spotlight, we bet that there are several celebrities with criminal records that you don’t know about. Plus, some of the best actors, athletes, and other famous people who would shock you have criminal records.
In this article, we take you through some examples of celebrities with criminal records and arm you with the tools necessary to do a little sleuthing of your own.
What Is a Criminal Record?
A criminal record is a collection of someone’s criminal history. When we’re referring to celebrities with criminal records, we’re referring to court cases, arrests, drunk driving, and plenty of other criminal records.
Criminal records also include the details from police reports, information about victims, and much more. Overall, anything to do with someone’s criminal past is considered a criminal record.
4 Celebrities With Criminal Records
There are a lot of celebrities who have criminal records. Even many celebrities who don’t have criminal records may have had records that are expunged or otherwise sealed. Learn about some of the most notable celebrities with criminal records below.
1. Robert Downey Jr
Robert Downey Jr is probably the most notable celebrity on this list with a criminal record. He has a long list of criminal records that you can look through, with a theme of drug possession and drug problems. In fact, he even had court-ordered drug screenings and had to spend time in jail.
While Robert Downey Jr may have been pardoned in 2015 to clear his record and allow him to vote in California, he had several arrests (mostly drug charges) from 1996 to 2001.
2. Will Smith
Will Smith may be the poster child for a lot of celebrities, well, until he slapped Chris Rock on live TV, but did you know that his slapping goes beyond that?
Back in 1989, Will Smith was arrested on a charge of aggravated assault. What’s more, he was also charged with conspiracy to commit a crime and reckless endangerment. While these charges were dropped, they’re still available within his criminal records.
3. Tim Allen
Tim Allen, a famous actor for shows like Home Improvement, has been arrested more than one time. One of his first run-ins with the law was back in 1978. During this year, Tim Allen was arrested for having more than 650 grams of cocaine. This is no small amount of cocaine, and he ended up in jail at the age of 25 for more than two years.
Tim Allen’s second arrest came back in 1997. This was for driving while under the influence of alcohol, and he had to serve a year of probation.
4. Matthew McConaughey
While marijuana may be legal in a handful of states now, Matthew McConaughey hasn’t always been viewed in the way that it’s viewed now. In fact, it’s the reason that Matthew McConaughey was arrested back in 1999. During this year, the police were called to his home due to the fact that he was making a lot of noise.
When police showed up at his home, they searched his home and found marijuana and other problematic items. The charges were mostly dropped, and all he had to pay was a $50 fine for the noise complaint.
How to Find a Celebrity’s Criminal Record
Are you curious about a celebrity that hasn’t made our list? While we covered some of the more notable celebrities with criminal records, there’s an easy way to find out if any celebrity has a criminal record.
The best way to find out if a celebrity has a criminal record is to run their name through a criminal record search, such as the one found on Information.com. This is a tool that will comb through millions of public records to compile a full report that contains information about someone’s criminal record.
Our Last Words on Celebrities With Criminal Records
There are a lot of celebrities with criminal records. While we covered some of the more notable celebrities with a criminal history, you can find out if anyone has a criminal record with a little help from Information.com.
Simply enter anyone’s name into the tool, and it will compile a full report of that person’s criminal record. As long as it hasn’t been sealed or expunged, you shouldn’t have any issues.