How much is Jon Hamm worth?
| Net Worth: | $40 Million |
|---|---|
| Profession: | Professional Actor |
| Date of Birth: | March 10, 1971 |
| Country: | United States of America |
| Height: | 1.86 m |
About Jon Hamm
Known as a smoldering 1960s ad man romancing a bevy of tulle-skirted beauties on Mad Men and giving Ben Affleck a run for his money in the blockbuster The Town. For a guy like Jon Hamm, it seems like it was only a matter of time. He is, as longtime friend Paul Rudd describes, “one of those unfair guys who are good-looking, really funny and good at everything.” And though it would take him some 13 years to become a star, no one could say he didn’t deserve it.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri Jon Hamm’s parents divorced when he was just two years old. He lived with his mother in a St. Louis suburb but also got to see his father on the weekends. However tragedy was never too far away, and when he was 10 years old, his mother became sick and died of colon cancer. Moving in with his father grandmother and two half sisters, something that was“difficult in the best of circumstances,” as he once described it, he found an outlet in the prestigious John Burroughs Prep School. Surprising himself, he and others found that he excelled as both athlete and performer.
Maybe it was the tragedies in his youth that caused Jon to drop his insecurities and just do it, or perhaps he was just born gifted? Whatever it was, he had a natural talent of being able to slip into characters and didn’t mind being mocked either. When a person is developing they need to go through a phase where others either don’t understand them, or don’t want to. But for those who can be contrarian the promised land awaits.
Hamm left the Midwest for a few years to attend the University of Texas. However soon after arriving and settling in, his grandmother died, and soon after that, his father died as well. By age 20, he had lost both of his parents.
After being back home and attending funerals, Hamm finishing school at the University of Missouri where he had become active in the theater. Still, stuck for work, he found himself a job teaching drama at his former high school, if you can’t do, teach, right? However, after visiting with longtime friend and actor Paul Rudd in 1992 in Hollywood, he began to see a better picture for himself. Times had been so tough on Hamm that he had given up hope altogether, his youthful ideas of making it big as an actor had long been struck off in his mind. But with a new glimpse at what his future might look like, with the little money that he did have, he bought a car for $150 and made his way to Southern California in 1995.
After pounding pavement for a while he managed to find an agent that he felt he could trust. But then, he didn’t land any work for three years. “I came in the Dawson’s Creek era,” he remembers, “it was all about tiny guys who looked like teenagers, and I haven’t looked like a teenager ever.”
So the 24-year-old Hamm worked as a waiter and set designer, and was, eventually, dropped from his agency and struggled day to day to break through. It was humiliating but he taught himself to carry on and never give up. A lot of people having hit such terrific roadblocks in Hollywood would have given up, headed back to the Midwest looked for a mate and settled down.
He decided to set a deadline: if he hadn’t made it by the time he was 30, he would give up. And that was just the kick he needed, because once he established a failure date, work began to trickle in.
He was cast in a play co-written by and starring Jennifer Westfeldt that would later become a film, Kissing Jessica Stein. He had a one-episode contract for the television drama Providence, which was then lengthened to 19 episodes, it wasn’t much but it allowed him to quit waiting tables, at least for now. He had a series of small roles in film and television throughout the early 2000s, with recurring roles on The Division, The Unit and What About Brian. His windfall also brought him love, too, he fell in love with his co-star Jennifer Westfeldt and they had married in 1997.
He became known for his dramatic performances, but is a “comedy nerd,” according to Tina Fey, and this really began to come out in The Sarah Silverman Program and 30 Rock.
Then, after 12 years of dues-paying toil, he was cast over 80 others as Don Draper in AMC’s Mad Men. Of course, having been hit by set back after set back, Hamm didn’t think the role would go to him. It was too good with too many contenders, but he was the right fit and the rest is history.
Just like Don Draper, he lost his parents early and had to fight for everything that he had. Recalls Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner, “Jon walked out of the room and I said, ‘That guy has lived.’”
Hamm has lived, and is finally living well. He went from miscellaneous handsome guy to full-fledged star in a single television season, and with a face like that, and the talent and wit to back it up, it’s easy to see now that it was only a matter of time. As of this year, Jon Hamm has a net worth estimated at $40 million dollars.
“I had a pretty serious mullet back in the day.”
