'Grace under Fire's Brett Butler Doesn’t Look the Same at 65 after Losing $25M & Being Ousted from Beloved Farm

• The "Grace Under Fire" actress, Brett Butler, earned $25 million for her famous role in the show.
• She later shocked many with her unexpected disappearance.
• The actress' return included explaining what happened and why she found herself broke.

The 1993 sitcom, "Grace Under Fire," was led by actress Brett Butler. The show was such a hit that it was nominated 22 times and won seven, including two Primetime Emmy Award nominations.

The series won two Young Artist Awards through Kaitlin Cullum, including Best Performance in a TV Comedy - Supporting Young Actress in 1997. Jon Paul Steuer was also nominated for Best Performance by an Actor Under Ten in a TV Series in 1995.

In 1997 and 1998, Cullum was nominated for two Young Star Awards but took none home. The show had three Golden Globe nominations, with Butler being in the running in 1995 and 1997 for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Comedy or Musical.

The series had three Humanitas Prize nominations for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Comedy or Musical. At the Viewers For Quality Show Awards, "Grace Under Fire" had nine nominations, of which Butler was the only winner.

The show also snagged three BMI Film & TV Awards from 1994 to 1996. It tied with "Frasier" in 1994 as the People's Choice Award winner in the Favorite New TV Comedy Series category.

Butler made her character, Grace Kelly, a likable person leading the series to the most famous role in the 1993-94 season. The show was likened to "The Honeymooners" if Alice had children and left Ralph.

The series centered on Kelly (and the actress' real life) working at an oil refinery before mothering her son, Quentin, played by Steuer, daughter Libby (Cullum), and second son, Patrick, played by Cole and Dylan Sprouse. Butler's character was mostly seen looking disgusted or grim while making clever but grown-up jokes.

The Show Based on Brett's Life and How Much She Earned for It

It was once revealed that during the peak of Butler's career in the mid-'90s, the star raked in $250,000 per episode for "Grace Under Fire." Her move to Hollywood happened in 1992 after the creators of "Roseanne," Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner, asked her to feature in her sitcom.

The actress' comedy was more on the dark side compared to "Roseanne." The celebrity once recalled shooting the pilot of her show with a live audience, and one of the jokes was her mentioning how her husband cleaned his fist, and "it went off."

Seeing how the audience laughed at the crass domestic violence joke was an indication that the show could work. Thus, according to reports, Butler made around $25 million starring in the sitcom.

The show's storyline saw Kelly divorcing her alcoholic and abusive husband. After recovering from her alcohol abuse, Kelly tried to rebuild and protect their children from repeating her mistakes while finding humor in her relationships with her oil refinery co-workers, neighbors, and pharmacist.

The series was based on Butler's life, except she didn't have children, and it was brilliant because she was an incredible stand-up comic and comedian. People loved the sitcom, but the actress surprised everyone when she suddenly disappeared at the peak of her career.

Brett's Departure from Acting and Her Financial Loss

In July 2021, Butler, then 63, faced the fact that she needed help after falling six months behind on the rent of her Los Angeles apartment. The star was facing possible eviction and confessed to Lon Strickler, a close friend and blogger, saying:

"I told him, 'I might've waited too long to do this, but I am so *expletive* right now."

The actress admitted that she'd been "ashamed to death" when she fell on hard times with Strickler deciding that opening a GoFundMe account would be in her best interest. In his plea, Butler's friend wrote on the account that she'd "exhausted all of her resources and the stress of looming eviction is straining her mentally and physically."

The blogger asked the star how much she wished to raise, and she questioned the appropriate amount for someone who needed something without being greedy. They both decided on $15,000, but the site raised $12,583 from 246 donors.

The funds were enough to cover some of Butler's debtors for a little longer, but Strickler later raised the target to $20,000, noting how Butler still needed more assistance to get back on her feet. Strickler ultimately managed to raise $49,440 from the account before it closed.

Butler was used to difficult times, having been discovered in the mid-1980s while doing stand-up comedy in New York City after surviving an abusive alcoholic father. Sadly, the pressure of starring in "Grace Under Fire" took a toll on her, leading to a Vicodin addiction.

The star also became addicted to painkillers she was prescribed for sciatica, and her addictions made her erratic on set. The actress' co-stars began quitting, and in its fifth season, the sitcom was canceled abruptly.

The show's fourth season coincided with Butler's addiction, and it went down to number 45. That was when the actress went into rehabilitation for the first time in October 1996, delaying the season five premiere by several months.

The star relapsed in August 1997 and missed several tapings, causing work on the show to cease again for a month, leading ABC to cancel the show altogether and finishing its final season at number 68. Carsey-Werner explained the break saying they'd suspended production so Butler could "resolve personal issues."

"Grace Under Fire" only managed to shoot fourteen of its twenty-five episodes in its final season before it went off-air. Some sources shared that the sitcom's end was mainly due to Butler's "erratic behavior" and the production company's reluctance to address those issues until it was too late to fix them.

At one point, the series ranked at number 11 with almost 21 million viewers weekly, but in 1998 it had a little over half that audience. People who worked on "Grace Under Fire" blamed Carsey-Werner for letting things worsen.

In her book, "Knee Deep in Paradise," Butler admitted her role in the mess confessing to clashing with producers while trying to protect her vision for the sitcom. Her publicist, Lisa Kasteler, said the star had no comment regarding the series or her plans.

Those linked to the show hoped the actress would get help, but Butler admitted that at the show's end, she'd become "difficult" and was "out of my mind." The star confessed that the series was supposed to have been pulled from the screens sooner than it was.

The actress still got two Golden Globe nominations despite everything that had happened and taking the blame for the show's failure, As the show's star, she felt the need to take on the responsibility and said she felt "awfully guilt-ridden."

By July 1998, Butler finally got sober. She shared how she shouldn't have lived through that year and insisted that she hadn't touched illegal substances or alcohol since.

Earlier, after "Grace Under Fire" premiered, there were behind-the-scenes issues that caused Chuck Lorre, the creator, to leave after only the first season. The show had different writers and a different producer yearly.

Lorre confessed that nothing he did made Butler happy, including the number two series in ratings. Carsey-Werner eventually sold the rerun rights to local TV stations, and ABC gave it a two-season renewal to reach the minimum 100 episodes it needed to air in syndication Monday through Friday.

A few years after "Grace Under Fire" concluded, the actress ran away to Georgia, where she bought a country home she'd seen online. Sadly, that didn't work out well, as she failed to pay her mortgage on time and ended up losing the farm.

In 2011, Entertainment Tonight claimed Butler once lived in a homeless shelter when she fell on hard times. However, this wasn't true. The celebrity was adamant that she always had a roof over her head and accused the ET producer of making up the homeless story for ratings, noting:

"I have no idea why she did that. But once that gets out there, it just goes everywhere."

When Butler was asked by David Letterman what the secret to her show's success was, she confidently and jokingly said, "Yeah: me." Her skills as a stand-up comedian on both cable television and in nightclubs made her a hit.

She was also able to deliver jokes in a structured way, which made her transition to a sitcom easy. But as an actress, she was still stiff. The star believed most of her punchlines would've been better if she had a hand in them herself.

Despite the amount of fortune Butler made as an actress in a hit sitcom, she squandered everything away due to her financial carelessness. She admitted to being "too trusting" of the people who worked for her, and a lot of her things were stolen, without the proper insurance to cover the theft, something she also admitted was stupid of her.

The celebrity also loaned money and gave a lot of it away because she always felt guilty having it and couldn't get rid of it fast enough. The star acknowledged how some people wouldn't even sympathize with her situation as she wasn't the only one who experienced it.

Most stars she knew who were in the same situation didn't have the same opportunities she had, but that didn't reduce her self-loathing or fear. Luckily, she overcame all her challenges and rebuilt a name for herself.

Brett's Rise from the Ashes

There was a time when Butler believed getting revenue from the "Grace Under Fire" DVD deal would help her survive, expecting it to make her around $1 million. However, the deal fell through, leaving the star "broke," and her farm foreclosed.

The celebrity returned to Los Angeles around 2010/11 with four dogs and three cats, hoping to make her return. The comedian drove 2,500 miles with a litter box in her truck, and after winning against addiction, she returned to stand-up comedy and acting.

In 2016, Butler starred in "How to Get Away With Murder," featured in "The Leftovers," had a recurring role in "The Walking Dead's" season nine, and appeared in "The Morning Show." The star was back to having a good Hollywood reputation.

Damon Lindelof, the showrunner of "The Leftovers," recalled how Butler came in to read for an FBI agent that was meant to be a once-off character, but after making exciting choices, they wanted to give her something more frequent. They wrote in a new character with a more significant role, and the actress "crushed it."

In 2020, someone else celebrated [Brett] Butler's return through the show and revealed how they'd "burst into tear[s]" when they saw her in it.

However, the celebrity earned a little over the guild minimum, sometimes taking home $5,000 for a one-day shoot. When she shot thirty-three episodes of "Anger Management," her salary only covered her living expenses, including her one-bedroom rent of $2,500.

The comedian also covered the ongoing care of her horse, Tommie, whom she'd left in Georgia. The mare was elderly, and Butler continued providing for it because she knew it would be killed if she didn't.

In 2019, she concluded her work on "The Walking Dead" and began shooting "The Morning Show." During that time, she battled a depression unlike any other, confessing how the disease ran in her family, stating:

"My dad was an untreated bipolar alcoholic, and stuff first started popping up for me when I was about 50."

Butler admitted that she might be down, but she wasn't out, and she planned on having a stand-up routine about the darkness she faced. In 2021, she said she needed a few months to write it.

Signs that she saw the light again showed up in how the star had started jotting down jokes like she did in the earlier days of her career. It was all in anticipation of her return to stand-up comedy. The now gray-haired and wrinkled actress confessed that she couldn't recall the last time she did that and was grateful.

Over the years, the super-talented comedian has received praise for her role on "The Morning Show," with one person writing:

"God bless the person(s) responsible for giving Brett Butler a part in 'The Morning Show.' She got a raw deal in the past, and so glad to see her back."

In 2020, someone else celebrated Butler's return through the show and revealed how they'd "burst into tear[s] "when they saw her in it. The following year, another Twitter user was impressed with the actress being cast as Reese Witherspoon's mother, saying it was "sweet."

In 2022, someone shared how the 1990s child in them was "very proud" to hear one particular phone voice in a scene. The person admitted to shouting "THAT'S BRETT BUTLER!" when they recognized the unique actress!

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