EXCLUSIVE

Hollywood ain't as glamorous as it's cracked up to be -- at least for low-level actors -- just take this guy from "Sons of Anarchy" and a bunch of other shows ... who allegedly couldn't pay a $56 bar tab.

Sources tell us, 43-year-old Paul Vasquez got drunk at a dive bar in San Jose last night, and tried to bail on the bill. Cops were called to the scene, where Paul was detained, and we're told his dad had to come pay for him.

Paul was eventually released, but there's a lesson here ...

Paul has had small roles on two episodes of "Sons of Anarchy." He's appeared on "Justified," "CSI:NY," "Kingshighway," "How I Met Your Mother," "ER," and much more ... going all the way back to his first acting gig in 1987.

The pay scale for the Screen Actors' Guild is nothing to thumb your nose at either -- someone like Vasquez could stand to earn anywhere from several hundreds of dollars per day to several thousand -- but clearly, steady work is hard to come by.

So what's the lesson? Think twice before you move to Hollywood, kids. Not everyone's Tom Cruise.