From Good Times To Bad: Whatever Happened To The Cast Of Good Times?

“Not So Good Times”

Monte’s acting to sue blacklisted him as a scriptwriter that was “too hard to work with” and his relationship with Norman Lear ended. Soon he lost his home and his car, eventually succumbing to drinking and developing a crack cocaine addiction. After struggling for 30 years, as of 2005 Monte eventually found a Salvation Army homeless shelter that allowed him to write.

Newly clean—the shelter conducted drug tests—Monte continued to write, developing 30 movie and book pitches. He told NPR, “My living in the shelter and my being broke, I see that as a minor inconvenience. Life is way too short for me to let some idiotic thing like that make me unhappy… Goals are like life, you don’t reach them, you keep fighting to attain them.”