How much is Kevin Bacon worth?
| Net Worth: | $70 Million |
|---|---|
| Profession: | Professional Actor |
| Date of Birth: | July 8, 1958 (age 64) |
| Country: | United States of America |
| Height: | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) |
About Kevin Bacon
From humble beginnings waiting tables, Kevin Bacon has become one of the most famous character actors in Hollywood, and at some point or another was almost certainly your mom’s crush. With several classics under his belt such as Footloose from the 1980s, Sleepers from the 90s, and Mystic River from the 2000s, Bacon has defined each decade with his diverse roles.
Knowing that he isn’t the most in demand lead actor, Bacon steals the show in every movie with his supporting roles and as a part of ensemble casts. But if you don’t know him from his classic performances, he is also recognizable for becoming a viral meme in the 2010s.
After a couple of small stints in successful movies such as Diner and National Lampoon’s Animal House, Bacon was quickly suited and booted by producers and he danced his way in to the hearts of millions of Americans in Footloose.
The actor beat out both Tom Cruise and Rob Lowe for the part of Ren McCormack, a role made iconic by Bacon. Footloose catapulted Bacon into stardom when it made 10x its budget at the global box office. It was a product of it’s time and though the movie might seem corny by today’s standards, it is still a pop culture tent pole and is mentioned in movies and TV shows every single year.
After Bacon swerved away from musicals, he was cast in a string of movies in the 1990s, playing character actors that would become his modus operandi. Kicking off the decade, Bacon played Val McKee, a handyman hunted by monsters in the Nevada desert in Tremors, and in the same year he played a medical student who kills himself just to quickly bring himself back to life in Flatliners. In the following years he played an astronaut in a dramatized version of the 1970 lunar mission in Apollo 13 and William O’Keefe in the political thriller JFK.
Though he has never won an Academy Award, Bacon has been nominated for and won several Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild awards, and he is often mentioned as one of the best actors in history to have never won an Oscar. Along with his hilarious and infamous characters in his oeuvre, Bacon has taken on many dramatic roles to huge acclaim, including a role in the Clint Eastwood helmed movie, Mystic River, and most controversially, in 1995’s Sleepers.
The story of Sleepers about four boys being beaten and raped in a boys’ penitentiary is debated as being a true story. Nevertheless, the movie was a big success and it made $165.6 million worldwide.
After starring in a huge range of movies from horror to comedy to drama, Bacon has claimed that he has worked with everybody in Hollywood, and if not, then he has worked with everybody within six degrees of separation. This spawned the trivia game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, based on the idea that any actor can be connected to any other actor through their affiliation to Kevin Bacon himself. It started an internet frenzy and became a viral meme.
Bacon’s very first role came when he was just 18, in National Lampoon’s Animal House, which earned him an estimated $700 per week, and thought that doesn’t seem like much, Bacon thought it was more money than anybody ever had. Bacon worked on the set for five weeks, making a total of an estimated $3,500. However, being only 18, it wasn’t the foundation for the wealth he would later accrue, as he claims he blew the money within weeks. If he thought $700 a week was a lot, the 18 year old Kevin Bacon would collapse if he found out how much he would make years later.
Many of Bacon’s fees for his roles are not publicly known, but it is reported that in the 1990s and 2000s he earned an average of an estimated $2 million per role, with the highest payday to his name being an estimated $2.5 million for his take on Sean Nokes in Sleepers. The actor also appears in a lot of TV shows often as himself, with credits on shows such as Will & Grace, Bored to Death, and SMILF. With hundreds of performances to the actor’s name, Bacon has bagged tens of millions over the years and has come a long way since he was waiting tables.
But it isn’t only his acting skills that have gotten him stacks of cash, as he has signed several endorsement deals, most recently leading an ad campaign for the egg industry. And on the other side of the pond, Bacon was the face of the phone network Everything Everywhere in the United Kingdom. He appeared in TV commercials in which he revisited his iconic characters, and this even reignited an interest in the actor in the UK, as there was a massive spike in sales of movies starring Bacon.
Even if Bacon’s avoidance to being typecast initially deterred him from getting work, it has served him well in the long run. After he had become a certified star in the musical Footloose, Bacon was offered millions to star in similar movies, but being an actor with such a dynamic range, he didn’t want to keep playing the same role over and over. In the 1980’s this strategy didn’t serve him well, as producers in town couldn’t see him as anything other than a musical star.
Work was so dry for the star that his most famous role in the 80s after Footloose may have been his five-second cameo in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. However, in the 90’s there was a Kevin Bacon renaissance, and he got exactly what he wanted, to star in movies that were worlds apart from each other, such as the horror comedy Tremors, the medical drama Flatliners, and the sci-fi biopic Apollo 13. This success was all thanks to resisting temptation and being patient.
Unlike many actors, Bacon leaves his ego at the door, as other actors would decline roles for not being the lead, Bacon has claimed that he knew he wasn’t going to find success in landing leading parts, so he became a character actor in movies with ensemble casts. As he was so willing to take a back seat to more famous actors, he has yielded great results in playing officials in political dramas including JFK, Frost/Nixon, Patriot’s Day, and A Few Good Men, and more often than not, Bacon comes out as the MVP.
His name is a big factor of his success. It is the reason for many of his endorsement deals and is the primary factor for being chosen to lead the ad campaign for the egg industry, making fun of the idea that it’s eggs and Bacon’. Where Bacon has embraced the jokes and even joined in on them, other actors have been known to change embarrassing names fearing they won’t get work.
Bacon’s Total Net Worth
Kevin Bacon has made good earnings during his career, he was already being paid a reported $2.5 million dollars for his role in Sleepers (1996) which was not a lead role. It is estimated that from his over 100 appearances in films and TV series, Bacon has earned $130 million dollars. That is including his producing, directing and writing work, as well as all of the appearances that he has made as himself, including in advertising.
Bacon was born in Philadelphia and later moved to New York to pursue his acting career. Eventually however he relocated to California and has paid most of his taxes on his earnings in the high tax state. After tax, it is estimated that Bacon’s career earnings are at around $68.9 million, having paid $61.1 million dollars (47%) in taxes.
Kevin Bacon married Kyra Sedgwick in 1988 and they remain together. They have two children together, Travis and Sosie Bacon, they seem to have had a peaceful homelife and, Kyra also being an actor, they have starred together in Pyrates, Murder in the First, The Woodsman, and Loverboy.
While it is true that Bacon has not gone through any costly divorces, he and his wife Kyra were some of the major victims of the Bernie Maddoff Ponzi scheme. Their losses have been estimated to have been as high as $40 million. However, likely, that was the figure that they supposedly held in the scheme and the amount that they invested was likely far less than half of that. The amount was also split between his wife, Kyra.
Bacon has also made small real estate investments and will have likely also diversified his investment portfolio and not put all of his eggs in one basket. He purchased a property in 2011 for $2.5 million dollars in Los Feliz, Los Angeles and is said to have a few properties elsewhere in the United States around the $2 million dollar mark.
When he lost so much money in the Maddoff scheme, he may have received some back in the form of restitutions and from various insurance companies protecting his wealth. In any case, Bacon has kept a cool head about it saying “It was a bad day,” and not much else.
Overall, it is estimated that he will have still seen positive gains over his total investment portfolio despite the losses. Somewhere in the region of $8 million dollars. He will have likely also spent about $5-7 million on himself and his family during his career. Therefore, it is estimated that Kevin Bacon’s net worth is around the $70 million dollar mark.
Summing-Up
Kevin Bacon has starred in so many films that are known for their strange concepts and for an actor who doesn’t conform to what is expected of him, the actor has amassed a huge wealth. Even despite him and his wife, Kyra Sedgwick, being one of the 5,000 victims of Bernie Maddoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme and losing tens of millions of dollars, the couple still have a combined net worth estimated at well over $100 million. Though he doesn’t currently have any upcoming projects, with a last name like Bacon, he’ll no doubt be offered endorsement gigs for the rest of his life.
