Highlights
- Zachary Ty Bryan encountered legal trouble, including charges of assault and fraud.
- Tim Allen, Bryan’s former TV dad, expressed sadness and concern over Bryan’s behavior.
- Bryan may face consequences for his recent arrest and could potentially lose his royalty payments.
Throughout Hollywood history, there have been many child stars who were paid a fortune. Dakota Fanning even reportedly made enough to buy her parents a mansion before she turned 12 years old. However, even at the height of Home Improvement’s success, the show’s cast wasn’t making $1 million per episode like some TV stars.
Thankfully for Zachary Ty Bryan, he and his former Home Improvement stars were paid enough to become rich. However, Bryan’s life has taken some sad turns since he was a TV star. That has reportedly left Bryan in a position where he might even lose the royalty payments he still gets from Home Improvement.
How Did Home Improvement’s Zachary Ty Bryan Get In Serious Legal Trouble?
Between 1991 and 1999, millions of Home Improvement fans watched Zachary Ty Bryan. First introduced to the viewing world when he was still a child, Bryan had become a young man when the series finale aired for the first time.
As Home Improvement fans may remember, Bryan’s Home Improvement character Brad Taylor got himself in trouble at times. Sadly for Bryan and the people who love him, it seems like life is imitating art as the former child star has been getting into a lot of trouble.
In June 2023, The Hollywood Reporter asked Tim Allen to comment on Bryan’s troubles. Allen’s response was sad to read as it seemed clear that Bryan’s former TV dad was upset to see what had been happening. “I don’t know what’s going on with him, a great kid who has grown into a complex man.”
Allen continued, All you can do is step aside and let somebody go through their process. At a certain point, he deviated from the guy I know to somebody who is reacting to situations that I had nothing to do with and can’t control.”
In 2020, Home Improvement fans first learned about what appears to be Bryan’s dark side. After Bryan’s neighbors reportedly called the police on the actor, he was arrested following a violent incident with his girlfriend at the time.
Bryan wound up being charged with charges of interfering with making a report and charges related to the violence. Ultimately, Bryan pleaded guilty to two charges of menacing and assault in the fourth degree constituting domestic violence. Bryan was ordered to serve three years probation and to have no contact with his girlfriend who was involved in the violent incident.
From there, it seemed like Bryan might have been making some positive strives in his life. After getting married for the second time in his life, Bryan welcomed a daughter and twins which made him a father of seven children.
Tragically, in July 2023 Bryan was involved in another situation that was similar to his 2020 arrest. This time, the police reported that following a violent incident with a woman, Bryan fled the scene before they arrived.
It didn’t take the police long to track Bryan down, however, and he was arrested on felony assault charges. As of the time of this writing, it is unclear what kind of consequences Bryan will deal with due to this incident. However, it is known that Bryan already briefly spent time behind bars due to this event.
A month before Bryan’s second assault arrest, he got himself in trouble for very different reasons. Following an extensive investigation by The Hollywood Reporter, the publication reported the four people were accusing Bryan of fraud.
“Separately, four sources allege that Bryan stole their money through a fraudulent scheme tied to an agriculture-technology startup in individual amounts ranging from $5,000 to $25,000, and totaling close to $50,000. They believe he did so by offering fake contracts that have no value outside of the paper they are printed on.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter’s piece, the people that Bryan defrauded were trying to find him to recoup their losses. However, according to one of the people who spoke to THR, their attempts to reach Bryan’s went nowhere.
“On the hunt for their money, a source texted Bryan recently to ask for an update. The individual received a reply almost immediately from someone claiming to have inherited the phone number: ‘He changed his number months ago. Sorry. And he owes, like, tons of people money. Hope you’re not one of them.’”
Does Zachary Ty Bryan Still Get His Home Improvement Royalty Payments?
During the 1990s, Zachary Ty Bryan starred in more than 200 episodes of Home Improvement. An extremely popular series at its height, Home Improvement became a staple of syndication, and it can now be streamed on Disney+.
As one of Home Improvement’s stars, Bryan is entitled to royalty payments since the show continues to live on. In Hollywood, those royalty payments are typically called residuals.
Since Hollywood accounting is very hard to understand, it is nearly impossible for outsiders to estimate how much money Bryan gets in residuals.
No matter how big or small Bryan’s Home Improvement residuals might be, he may not be able to enjoy them for much longer. The reason for that is according to Radar Online, someone who claims to be Bryan’s former business partner wants the actor’s residual payments.
According to Bryan’s business partner, the Home Improvement star forged a fake contract to trick him out of $108,000. Wanting to recoup his money, Bryan’s former business partner has filed legal documents seeking to seize the former child star’s residual payments.
If Bryan’s former business partner succeeds in court, he will take all of Bryan’s residuals until he gets his $108,000 back. That includes everything Bryan gets paid for his years starring in Home Improvement. Bryan would also lose out on all the residuals he gets from any other movie or TV show he was a part of.
That said, if Bryan has to give up his residuals, he should eventually get them back in the future. At least that will be the case if nobody else sues the former Home Improvement actor over his residuals.
Source: NewsFinale
