“Who’s the Boss?” child star Danny Pintauro offered fans a candid glimpse into the financial realities he faces years after the end of the hit sitcom that made him famous.
Fans recognize Pintauro as Jonathan Bower, starring alongside Judith Light and Tony Danza. They were stunned when they saw images the actor shared in April, showing that he was working as an Amazon delivery driver, according to Entertainment Weekly. Pintauro set the record straight by explaining the reality of being a working actor during a June 22 interview recent episode of the “Pod Meets World” podcast.
“When I posted the picture for [Amazon] Flex, I really didn’t, it did not cross my mind because everybody knows that I’m working,” he said on the podcast.
“It’s one of the five different gig jobs that I’m doing right now. We’re gig actors. Acting is one of the six gigs,” he admitted.
Pintauro explained that the public has misconceptions about what he earned while starring on the show, and how far those funds extended.
He was only eight years old when he began acting in “Who’s The Boss?” and was an integral part of the show for all eight seasons throughout the ’80s and ’90s, according to Entertainment Weekly. At that time, there was reportedly no legal language in the actors’ contracts about future earnings. Pintauro admitted he doesn’t make much in residuals.
By comparison, he said the money he earns working for Amazon is “surprisingly good,” noting that he can make approximately “$80 to $100” in two to three hours.
“We have to do what we have to do to survive,” he said in the podcast, according to Entertainment Weekly.
“We have got to keep moving as humans.”
Pintauro continued, “We’re all doing it. I am not different from you in that sense. We’ve never been different from you in that sense. I don’t make money from residuals.”
He also addressed the residuals in an April statement to People. “People overestimate what residuals from a sitcom in the ’80s and ’90s look like,” Pintauro said.
He continued. “I invested a good portion of that money, but I also used a lot of it to pay for Stanford and to get through my early twenties, so it’s not like there’s just been endless money sitting there.” (RELATED: Disney’s ‘Parent Trap’ Child Star Hayley Mills Reveals She Lost Her Fortune To Taxes)
NEW YORK, NY – JANUARY 15: Danny Pintauro (L) and Judith Light attend “Honeymoon In Vegas” Broadway Opening Night at Nederlander Theatre on January 15, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Robin Marchant/Getty Images)
“Returning to acting after a ten-year break is an uphill battle. I’m reintroducing myself as an adult actor in an industry that looks very different than it once did,” he said.
“Since 2021 alone, television production in Los Angeles has dropped dramatically, and even pilot season is a fraction of what it used to be.”