Danny Pintauro is revealing the less glamorous side of sitcom fame: Not every child star grows up rich.
The "Who's the Boss?" alum went viral in April after posting a selfie while working as an Amazon driver in Los Angeles. After stepping away from acting for 10 years, the 50-year-old said he began delivering packages while trying to break back into showbiz.
The actor told Fox News Digital that despite starring in a hit sitcom from 1984 to 1992, he still has bills to pay.
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"People always assume that if they recognize you, you must be financially set for life, and that's just not how it works," he explained. "There's this very inflated idea of what residuals - especially residuals from that era, from the '80s - look like.
"We were working on a television model. DVD compilations didn't exist, so there's nothing in the contract to stipulate what to do if that should come up. Reruns and syndication were barely a thing, so the contracts were just not conducive to residuals."
"When a network purchases the series, I get some money from the purchase, but I get less money every time it gets purchased," he shared. "Season 1, for instance, has been purchased so many times by every network where it airs that I'm getting five to six cents per episode, and then they can air it as many times as they want."
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"A lot of people think that every time it airs, I'm getting money for that airing," he continued. "That's not the case. The money that did come in from the show was great, but I used a hefty amount of it to pay for Stanford and support myself in the years after the show ended. So there just isn't a pile of money sitting around these days."
After "Who's the Boss?" ended, Pintauro walked away from Hollywood to study at Stanford. Determined to build a life beyond child stardom, he took a job at the Gap to earn his own paycheck. He later waited tables and moved into management at P.F. Chang's.
In New York, he tried to become a theater director but "failed miserably," he said. In Austin, he worked at an animal shelter caring for cats while training to become a veterinary technician. But after feeling pulled back toward performing, he left his job to pursue acting full-time.
Amazon Flex, a delivery program that allows independent drivers to use their own vehicles to deliver packages, groceries and same-day orders, came in handy.
"I did it for a while when we were in Austin," he said. "[My husband and I] discovered that living in Austin was not going to be conducive to getting my career off the ground, so we made the decision to move to L.A. [in 2022] and haven't looked back."
But being an Amazon Flex driver in Los Angeles wasn't as easy.
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"The first shift I had was a little scary," he admitted. "The neighborhood was not great. I had to put my hazards on, lock the car and run to deliver the package. And there was a dog. I had to throw the package over the gate because there was a scary dog barking at me. The whole shift felt like that."
Pintauro said he never expected his Instagram post to go viral. He said he shared the selfie to shed light on the realities of chasing a career in an entertainment industry that looks far different from what it once did.
"For me, as a working actor, I'm not working as an actor," he said with a laugh.
He noted that these days, fewer projects are being made, studios are playing it safe and actors with recognizable names are often prioritized for roles.
Still, Pintauro said he's grateful he chose to be candid with his followers, using his platform to highlight the harsh realities of today's Hollywood while encouraging others to keep pushing forward.
"I feel like people have really connected to the story, which I really love, but I think the connection is partly because we all know what it means to do what we've got to do, especially in this economy," he said. "We've all got to work multiple jobs. We've all got to work in any way we can to make sure we provide for ourselves and our families."
Pintauro said he feels fortunate to stay busy. He wasn't prepared for the obstacles and uncertainty he would face while trying to pursue his love of acting again.
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"It's rough," he said. "It's a rough time to be an actor in Los Angeles. A lot of production is happening overseas now. So many of the major shows you know are filming in other countries. That means a lot of actors are being hired from those countries instead of trying to find us in L.A. and fly us to wherever they're filming."
"When I was a kid, I auditioned for the job and got it," he said with a smile. "I always got the job. I was the cutest little kid. There was just something about my childhood. It felt like the universe was at hand. But the environment has changed. Sitcoms are really gone. I never expected network shows would become second fiddle to streaming services."
Today, Pintauro hopes more acting opportunities will come his way. He also wants others juggling side gigs and financial pressures while chasing their dreams to know they are not alone.
"We're all doing what we need to do to stay in motion," he said. "I have so much more respect for people doing whatever it takes to take care of themselves, their families and everything in between. Anyone who's followed me for the last 10 years knows that I've pretty much done whatever it takes to stay afloat and keep going."
"Through it all, I stay hopeful," he said. "I keep moving."
