Despite the common perception that actors escape serious repercussions for their misconduct, many film and TV performers have faced arrest, legal charges, and punishment for various offenses. The legal system generally doesn’t show leniency to actors who break the law, whether they’re top-tier Marvel actors caught in unlawful acts or Hollywood stars whose on-set antics land them behind bars. While some have spent only short stints in jail, others have been imprisoned for much longer durations.

On a more extreme end, a handful of actors are serving life sentences in prison. These individuals have been incarcerated for severe crimes such as murder, rape, and kidnapping, subjected to some of society’s harshest punishments. Below is a list of actors whose reckless and catastrophic choices led to their permanent loss of freedom. 

The following article mentions instances of rape, sexual assault, domestic abuse, and child abuse.

Ryan Grantham was previously recognized for supporting roles in movies like “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” and appearances on shows like “Supernatural” and “Riverdale.” Tragically, the Canadian actor gained far greater notoriety in 2020 when he murdered his mother and began a plan that included a mass murder spree, ending with an assassination attempt on the then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. 

On March 31, 2020, Grantham shot his mother, Barbara Waithe, in the back of the head while she was playing piano in their townhouse. Grantham then filmed a GoPro video in which he confessed to the murder before loading his car with firearms and Molotov cocktails in order to carry out his violent spree. But the assassination plot never came to fruition: Grantham turned himself in to police in Vancouver before he could carry out his macabre plan, and was sentenced to life in prison in September 2022.

Grantham, who was charged with second-degree murder, apologized for his actions during his June 2022 sentencing hearing. Justice Kathleen Ker, who presided over his trial, said that the former actor was in the grip of a mental health crisis prior to the murder, spending much of his time using marijuana and watching violent online videos. Canada carries an automatic sentence of life imprisonment for second-degree murder; Grantham was additionally required to wait 14 years before being eligible for parole.

Isaiah Stokes had appeared on major television series like “Power,” “Law and Order: SVU,” and “Boardwalk Empire,” and was also a hip-hop artist and record label owner. But all of that forward momentum came to a screeching halt in 2025, when Stokes was convicted for the murder of Tyrone Jones in 2021. Stokes was also convicted of two counts of criminal possession of a weapon — the gun used to kill Jones as he sat behind the wheel of his car in the St. Albans neighborhood of Queens, New York.

Stokes had been involved in an altercation with Jones at a birthday party in October 2020, which led to a physical confrontation with other party attendees when Stokes refused to leave the party. In late January 2021, Stokes placed a GPS tracking device under Jones’s vehicle and found him parked at an intersection in Queens, where he was waiting for a friend. Stokes approached the car and fired his gun 11 times, striking Jones in the head and chest and killing him.

A police investigation led to Stokes’s arrest in July 2021; a search warrant of his apartment uncovered documents related to the GPS used on Jones’s car. A jury found him guilty of murder in the second degree and the aforementioned weapon possession charges, sentencing him to 25 years to life in prison.

David Meza lived two very different lives. The Imperial Beach, California resident was expecting a child with his girlfriend while also working as a male escort and adult film actor under the name Mario Romo. These worlds collided in gruesome fashion in 2015, when Meza murdered Texas retiree Jake Clyde Meredino, with whom he had been in a sexual relationship for two years. 

According to court records, Merendino showered Meza with gifts, including sports cars and motorcycles. On April 30, 2015, both men traveled to Mexico to close on Merendino’s condominium before checking into a hotel. Meza left the location in the early morning hours of May 1 and returned to the United States; the following day, he contacted Meredino and re-entered Mexico. The two met at a ravine, where Meza stabbed Meredino 24 times and nearly decapitated him. Meza then filed an application to verify a will, allegedly written by Merendino on hotel stationery, which made Meza the beneficiary of his $3 million estate.

Meza claimed that he was visiting a friend during his May 1 trip to the U.S., but authorities found considerable evidence that he committed the crime, including his cell phone pinging at the murder scene and a guilt-ridden phone message. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey T. Miller pronounced the crime as “shockingly evil” before sentencing Meza to life in prison, slapping him with an additional 20 years for conspiracy to obstruct justice.

Former child actor and “That ’70s Show” star Danny Masterson became the subject of a criminal investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department in 2017 after four women filed sexual assault allegations against him. Charges of rape in three of the cases were filed in 2020 against Masterson, who pled not guilty, and a trial was set for October 2022; however, a jury was unable to reach a verdict, which resulted in a mistrial.

In May of the following year, Masterson again went before a judge and was convicted of two of the three rape charges (the third charge was declared a mistrial). The actor was sentenced to an indefinite period of 30 years to life, and initially incarcerated at North Kern State Prison. After bail was denied prior to an appeal hearing, Masterson was relocated to the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo, California. He will be eligible for parole in 2042.

From 1994 to 2011, actor Michael Jace worked steadily in features and on television, enjoying a seven-season run on “The Shield” as police officer Julien Lowe and roles in films like “Boogie Nights” and Tim Burton’s “Planet of the Apes” remake. But Jace’s life away from the set was fraught with chaos and violence, including bankruptcy and charges of domestic abuse, which resulted in Jace shooting and killing his wife in their Los Angeles home.

Police arrived at Jace’s home on May 19, 2014 after the actor called 911 to report that he had shot his wife, April Jace. He was arrested and charged with her murder, which was viewed in part by their two young sons. A weeklong trial in 2016 revealed that Jace was angered by his wife’s request for a divorce and believed that she was having an affair; his attorneys argued that while Jace admitted to pulling the trigger, he should have been charged with involuntary manslaughter for committing the crime while in emotional distress. A jury disagreed and sentenced Jace to 40 years to life for second-degree murder and gun enhancement, which in California generates an extra penalty if a firearm is used in a felony.

As @JinnKid, Ali Abulaban amassed millions of online followers with his comedy skits and impressions of characters like Al Pacino’s Tony Montana from “Scarface.” But off-camera, Abulaban’s life was no laughing matter. The San Diego man was sentenced to 25 years to life in 2024 for the murders of his estranged wife and a friend in 2021.

Abulaban met his wife, Ana, in 2014 while both were serving in the Air Force. They married and began a family, and in 2019, Abulaban’s impressions developed a huge following on social media sites. But when some of the attention began to center around Ana, who often filmed or appeared in her husband’s videos, petty jealousy blossomed into Abulaban verbally and physically abusing his wife — some of which he recorded — which resulted in the couple’s separation.

In October 2021, Abulaban entered the apartment he formerly shared with Ana and installed a listening device on their daughter’s iPad, allowing him to overhear a conversation between Ana and a friend named Rayburn Barron. Abulaban was jealous of Barron after the latter remarked that Abulaban was lucky to be married to Ana. Abulaban went to the apartment and shot both Ana and Barron, recording the entire incident. Charged with two counts of murder, Abulaban claimed he was under the influence of drugs when he killed his wife, but San Diego Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Fraser handed down two consecutive life sentences for the murders in May 2024.

An aspiring child performer, Skylar Deleon only appeared in a handful of commercials and as extra in an episode of “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.” But the adult Deleon’s criminal career was alarmingly successful: He was responsible for three grisly murders, and while awaiting trial, tried to get another inmate to kill Deleon’s father and cousin, who were key witnesses to one of the murders. 

Deleon committed his first murder in 2003, when he robbed and killed John Jarvi, whom he had met while serving time in prison for robbery. The following year, he met Thomas and Jackie Hawks under the pretense of buying their yacht, and won them over by bringing along his then-wife, Jennifer Henderson, who was pregnant at the time. The Hawks invited Deleon and two accomplices to join them on a test cruise in Newport Beach Harbor; the three men overpowered the couple, forced them to sign over their estate, then tied them to an anchor and threw them overboard.

An investigation into their disappearance led police to DeLeon. He was tried jointly for all three killings, and claimed that he had committed them to fund gender reassignment surgery. Deleon — who underwent the procedure in 2023 — was found guilty of first-degree murder in all three cases and sentenced to death in 2009, as was accomplice John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Jennifer Henderson received a life sentence, while a second accomplice, Alonso Machain, was sentenced to 20 years.

Joe Son parlayed his brief (and unsuccessful) tenure as a mixed martial artist and wrestler into minor roles in feature films, most notably that of the bowler-hatted henchman Random Task in 1997’s “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.” The violence that marked both sides of his career carried over into real life in 2008 when he was convicted of numerous sexual offenses and kidnapping. Sentenced to seven years to life, Son added additional time to his prison tenure when he murdered his cellmate in 2011.

Enhancements in DNA technology helped link Son to a 1990 case in which a woman was abducted on Christmas Eve and subjected to repeated rape and torture. Police were unable to match a suspect with DNA taken from the victim until 2008, when Son was required to provide a DNA sample as part of a 90-day sentence for violation of probation resulting from a felony vandalism charge. Son’s DNA was a match to the sample, and he pled guilty to the kidnapping and rape charges with an enhancement for committing the rape while armed with a handgun. Less than a month after being sent to Wasco State Prison, Son was charged with beating his cellmate to death. Found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, Son’s sentence was changed to 34 years to life.

Though largely unknown outside of Filipino audiences, Dennis Da Silva was a popular child actor in the 1980s, appearing on series like “That’s Entertainment” and the strange international superhero movie “Captain Barbell.” His career went into decline after his final screen performance in the 1991 film “Underage Too” — which added an unpleasantly ironic note to his 2002 arrest for rape and child abuse and subsequent imprisonment for life.

Da Silva was charged with 15 counts of rape and four counts of child abuse in regard to his live-in partner’s 14-year-old daughter. Though Da Silva claimed he was in a consensual relationship with the girl — whom he impregnated — he was detained in prison for the next 17 years. When his case finally went to trial in 2020, the Pasig City Regional Trial Court found him guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment for each of the rape charges, as well as additional sentences of between four and six years for each of the child abuse charges. Da Silva was also ordered to pay $4.8 million in Philippine pesos to the victim.

Actor Kaalan “KR” Walker was poised for breakout stardom after landing a lead role in the 2018 remake of the classic ’70s action-thriller “Superfly.” But his time in the spotlight was brief: Walker, who was also a dancer and rapper, was arrested that same year for multiple counts of rape involving both women and teenage girls.

Prosecutors stated that Walker, who also appeared in the 2017 drama “Kings” with Halle Berry, used his nascent celebrity status and social media to lure each of the women, who worked as models, with the promise of work in music videos or other jobs. In 2022, he was found guilty of three counts of forcible rape, two counts of statutory rape, and other sexual-based offenses. He received a sentence of 50 years to life for the crimes.

Two years later, Walker posted a message on his Instagram profile which touted his life and accomplishments behind bars, including earning a master’s degree in sociology and founding various Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous groups. His suggestion that his efforts could help motivate others was met with derision on social media.

A former professional basketball player and congressman in his home country of the Philippines, Dennis Roldan was also a prolific and award-winning actor in features and on television. One of his more high-profile turns was as a kidnapper in the 2005 big-budget action-drama “Terrorist Hunter.” That same year, Roldan was arrested for his part in the kidnapping of a young boy, and in 2014, he was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison.

Roldan and a pair of co-conspirators were charged with kidnapping three-year-old Kenshi Yu in February 2005. The suspects demanded a $25 million ransom in Philippine pesos from the parents, who negotiated the amount down to $10 million before Yu was rescued by police in late February. Charges of kidnapping, which are typically a non-bailable offense in the Philippines, were filed against Roldan in 2005, but he was allowed to post bail and leave jail the following year.

Trial for the kidnapping charges began in 2008, and Yu was able to not only positively identify Roldan as his kidnapper, but also labeled him as the “big boss” behind the crime. The Pasig Regional Trial Court found Roldan guilty and sentenced him to reclusion perpetua, a charge for capital crimes in the Philippines which carries a maximum sentence of 40 years to life with the possibility of parole after 30 years. Roldan petitioned for appeal after only four years in prison, but the Court of Appeals rejected his effort.

If you or anyone you know needs help with mental health, has been a victim of sexual assault, is dealing with domestic abuse, or may be the victim of child abuse, contact the relevant resources below: