How much is Rodney Dangerfield worth?
| Net Worth: | $8 Million |
|---|---|
| Profession: | Professional Comedian |
| Date of Birth: | November 22, 1921 (aged 82) |
| Country: | United States of America |
| Height: | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) |
About Rodney Dangerfield
Rodney Dangerfield, whose real name is Jack Roy, was an American actor, author, (stand-up) comedian, musician, producer, and screenwriter. He gained attention from his self-deprecating humor, monologues, and catchphrase “I don’t get no respect!”. Dangerfield’s career began in the 1940s and ended after seven decades. He grew in popularity as a mainstay on late-night talk shows and starred in nearly 100 films and television series as both himself and fictional characters.
Richard Dangerfield became famous after he became a mainstay on the talk shows of Ed Sullivan, Johnny Carson, and Dean Martin. His birth name is Jacob Rodney Cohen and he was born on November 22, 1921, in the Village of Babylon, New York. He’s the son of Philip and Dorothy Cohen and has one sister.
His father was a vaudevillian performer and his mother was a homemaker. After his father abandoned the family, Richard and his sister Marion moved to Kew Gardens, Queens alongside their mother. In 1939, he graduated from the local Richmond Hill High School.
When he was fifteen, he developed an interest in stand-up comedy and began writing while performing at a resort based in Ellenville, New York. Four years later, he legally changed his name to Jack Roy. Throughout the 1940s, he struggled to find a good job and often found himself working odd jobs just so that he could support his wife and family.
After struggling financially for several years and not finding a suitable job, he decided to enter the show business and took the stage name “Rodney Dangerfield”. By the early 1960s, when his career was just starting, he fell into debt and couldn’t get any bookings, owing about $20,000 by his own estimate.
What made the television star so rich are his many transformations on the media and television. Dangerfield’s first appearance, that to this day remains uncredited, was in the 1956 film noir The Killing. At that time, he focused his attention on stand-up comedy and took part in several comedy shows based in the New York area.
In March 1967, a last-minute replacement was needed for a comedy act at The Ed Sullivan Show and that’s how the comic was given his first role. He eventually became the surprise hit of the show and began headlining shows around the states, earning as much as an estimated inflation-adjusted $2,500 per performance.
After his appearance on Ed Sullivan’s late-night talk show, he began appearing regularly on The Tonight Show and The Dean Martin Show (in more than 70 episodes). At the same time with his prosperous acts on realities, comedy, and late-night talk shows, Richard Dangerfield became a musician. His debut studio album titled The Loser was released in 1966 and eleven years later was reissued with the name What’s In A Name.
He continued to release albums during his illustrious career, with the most prosperous being No Respect and Rappin Rodney. The first won a Grammy Award during the 1981 ceremony in the category “Best Comedy Recording” and was a commercial success, while the second only received a nomination upon its release in 1985.
In the final decades of his life Richard Dangerfield appeared less on camera and began writing more. In fact he authored four books, I Couldn’t Stand My Wife’s Cooking, I Don’t Get No Respect, No Respect and It’s Not Easy Being Me. By this time Dangerfield is estimated to have had a net worth of $8 million.
The success of Richard Dangerfield comes from his roles in films such as Caddyshack, Easy Money, and Back to School, with the first marking his breakthrough film role. Among some of his other eminent roles in films are in Little Nicky, Natural Born Killers, Ladybugs, and Meet Wally Sparks. Concurrently with these, starting in the 1980s, he produced and wrote his own television specials – I Can’t Take It No More, It’s Not Easy Being Me, and Nothing Goes Right to name a few.
Besides his acclaimed comedy acts and music that earned him three Grammy Award nominations, of which he won one, Dangerfield became an author. His first book entitled I Couldn’t Stand My Wife’s Cooking was a huge hit upon its release in 1972. It was later followed by his three other books – I Don’t Get No Respect (named after his catchphrase) from 1973, No Respect from 1995, and It’s Not Easy Being Me from 2004. In 2002, for his contribution to the stand-up comedy, he received his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Summing-Up
Rodney Dangerfield is recognized as one of the best actors and stand-up comedians from the 20th century. Over the course of his seven-decades-long career, he has created music, produced films, and wrote books hence his net worth was estimated to be $8 million.
