Sounds like "Marjoe" with Marjoe Gortner who let the film makers see what a scam he was operating. He later went on to do movies like "Star Crash" and other low budget features.

The image you mentioned bothered me enough that I decided to see if I could find it on the net. I found a similar story on Wikipedia about Marjoe Gortner.
The story is flighty even by Wikipedia standards [en.m.wikipedia.org] but the images are disturbing.
The article said he talked about 'mock-drowning episodes'. 'They did not beat him as they did not want to leave bruises that might be noticed during his many public appearances.'

Also from the article -- 'By the time he was sixteen, his family had amassed what he later estimated to be three million dollars. Shortly after Gortner's sixteenth birthday, his father absconded with the money'.

Assuming there is any truth at all to Gortner's story, I'm once again shocked by how low people can sink. It's hard to consider them people at all.