Award-winning actor Kevin Bacon says he learned a major lesson after being scammed in one of the world’s largest Ponzi schemes, orchestrated by the late financial criminal Bernie Madoff.
The “Footloose” star, who has been married to actress Kyra Sedgwick for almost 40 years, has never disclosed how much money he and his wife lost at the hands of Madoff. However, Bacon told the publication that the ordeal made him “more careful” about his investments.
“It sucked, and we were certainly angry and all the things,” the actor said.
“But then we woke up the next day and said, ‘What do we got? We love each other. We love our children. We’re healthy. No one took away our ability to make a living.’ So we got back to work.”
In June 2009, Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison and was transferred to the Federal Correctional Complex in Butner, North Carolina.
The former New York financier died at the age of 82 in the prison’s medical center on April 14, 2021, after spending more than a decade behind bars.
Many of Madoff’s victims have been compensated for their losses. In December 2024, the Department of Justice (DOJ) revealed that it had begun releasing its 10th and final distribution to those impacted by Madoff’s fraud scheme.
The last round of payments, which totaled more than $131 million, was disbursed through the Madoff Victim Fund. Established by the DOJ in 2013, the program has paid out more than $4.3 billion from forfeited funds in an effort to compensate those who were swindled by Madoff.
“With this 10th and final distribution, we have succeeded in compensating 40,930 victims with close to 94% of their losses,” Kim added.
“As this extraordinary effort demonstrates, this office and [the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section] are committed to protecting and assisting victims of crime, no matter how long it takes and no matter how complicated the endeavor.”
Bacon, who shares two children with his wife—daughter Sosie, 33, and son Travis, 35—has previously discussed how he was impacted by the scandal.
“We had most of our money in Madoff,” Bacon said.
“But I have to say that ... there were a lot of people who were much worse off than we were. You know, old people, people whose retirement funds were completely decimated,” he added.
“So there’s always going to be somebody that’s going to have it a lot worse than you ... Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”
Bacon told the podcast’s hosts—fellow actors Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett—that he and his wife had been able to recoup some of their losses.
“We got sort of like a portion of some money back, and there was also a lawsuit,” Bacon said, adding that he figured people would not appreciate him “whining about money.”
The scandal was chronicled in HBO’s 2017 biopic “The Wizard of Lies.” The crime thriller, which was based on Diana B. Henriques’s 2011 book of the same name, featured Robert De Niro as Madoff, with Michelle Pfeiffer portraying Madoff’s widow, Ruth.
Actors Alessandro Nivola and Nathan Darrow played the sons of the disgraced financier, Mark Madoff and Andrew Madoff, respectively. Mark Madoff died by suicide in December 2010 at the age of 46; Andrew Madoff succumbed to cancer in September 2014 at the age of 48.
