How much is Whoopi Goldberg worth?
| Net Worth: | $60 Million |
|---|---|
| Profession: | Professional Actress |
| Date of Birth: | November 13, 1955 (age 67) |
| Country: | United States of America |
| Height: | 5 ft 4 in (1.65 m) |
About Whoopi Goldberg
As a formally trained actress, Whoopi Goldberg got started doing monologue instead of traditional stand-up. She was immediately recognized for being very funny, though, which led to one of the biggest comedy careers of the ’80s and ’90s. In addition to being one of the driving forces behind the Comic Relief charity, Goldberg is one of the few entertainers to ever get an EGOT — she’s won an Emmys, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony.
Fame came to Whoopi through her roles in The Color Purple, Ghost, and the Sister Act films. These films made her into an international star, recognized worldwide. Her role as moderator of The View made her a known voice in the current affairs and political circles. Whoopi took over the role from Rosie O’Donnell in 2007, and the show has averaged over 3.6 million viewers since.
On The View, Whoopi is known to champion certain causes and is not reticent with her views. She has also used her unique brand of humor to make political commentary more interesting and available to wider audiences. This has sometimes got her in trouble, but it has, nevertheless, bolstered her stature as a talk show host. In 2019, she made her views known publicly about what she thought of celebrities who divulge their nude photos. This led to tweetstorms from various other actresses who defended their right to the freedom of what they want to publish!
Last, but not least, her activism for LGBT rights holds her dear to many a LGBT’s heart, and makes her even more well-known throughout the world.
Caryn Elaine Johnson better known as Whoopi Goldberg was born in 1955 and is an American actress, comedian, author, tv host, and human-rights activist. Instantly recognizable with her dreadlocks, impish grin, and quick wit, she became best known for her role in The Color Purple (1985). The Color Purple launched Whoopi into the mainstream, establishing her as an actress. Ghost (1990) was another crucial film for her, it won her an Academy Award for “Best Supporting Actress”.
Born and raised around Manhattan, she grew up in a family with a Baptist preacher father and a nurse-and-teacher mother. Her father would not feature prominently as her father left his family early on. Whoopi Goldberg only has words of praise for her mother, who worked two jobs to support her and her brother. She describes her mother as equally strong and wise. She attended but never finished high school.
She took the name Whoopie because her mother and grandmother compared her to a “whoopie cushion”. One of the most transformative events in the life of the then young Whoopi Goldberg was when she encountered Uhura on Star Trek. She remembers screaming to her mother to come and see. There was a black woman on tv and she wasn’t a maid. Whoopi Goldberg would be a life long Star Trek fan after that.
Whoopi trained under Uta Hagen, an American actress and theater practitioner in New York. She then created a one-woman comedy show with various characters played by Whoopi herself called The Spook Show. Her show was later taken to Broadway by film director Mike Nichols and renamed Whoopi Goldberg: Direct from Broadway and won her a Grammy for “Best Comedy Recording” in 1985.
After the Grammy win, she caught the attention of Steven Spielberg who cast her in the lead role of his film The Color Purple. For the next few years until the nineties, Whoopi was a very busy actress, completing many new films, most of which were comedy-thrillers or comedy-dramas, like Jumpin’ Jack Flash (1986), Burglar (1987) and The Telephone (1988).
While these films were entertaining, they were not critically acclaimed or box-office successes. When the 90s rolled around, Whoopi was seen in Bagdad Cafe, a CBS television sitcom that ran for two seasons.
The movie Ghost was released in 1990, in which Whoopi played Oda Mae Brown, an eccentric psychic. Her Academy Award win for “Best Supporting Actress” made her the first woman of color in nearly 50 years to win an Academy Award, and the second, for acting.
Whoopi went on to big-budget productions, starring in a recurring role in Star Trek, and a few other comedies like Soapdish. Then came Sister Act in 1992 which was a huge commercial success with $125 million in box-office earnings and a Golden Globe nomination for Goldberg. She would reprise the same role in Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit a year later in 1993.
In the 2000s and 2010s through to the recent years, Whoopi made quite a few films and returned to the television. Her most noteworthy work has been as the moderator of The View, created by journalist Barbara Walters, featuring interviews of renowned people, discussions on topics of the day, and entertainment.
Whoopi’s early success paved the way in the entertainment industry for women of color to gain recognition and win roles that were far and few in between. On the social front, Whoopi is an advocate of human rights, and she has been on the panel of at the Alliance of Youth Movements Summit on how social networks can be used to fight violent extremism in 2008, and also moderating a panel at the UN in 2009 on human rights, children and armed conflict, terrorism, human rights, and reconciliation.
Whoopi is also a staunch campaigner for LGBT rights, often lending her voice and her status to fight for equal treatment and rights of the LGBT community. She is one of the most visible advocates of the LGBT community.
Whoopi Goldberg’s Earnings
Growing up in a project in the US usually meant that the dwellers of these housing projects had difficulty making ends meet. While this must have had an impact on Goldberg, she also knew how to capitalize on the time when her star was rising and worked very hard making over 20 films in the 90s. In total her films have grossed over $1.3 billion in the US and Canada, even though after The Color Purple, her 7 films in the 80s did not do particularly well.
While she would feature quite regularly on Star Trek, her favorite film, her biggest earning films were the Sister Act films which performed very well at the box office. Whoopi Goldberg originally entered into a $20 million dollar contract with Disney. It was reported that she was paid $8 million for Sister Act and $12 million for Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit.
The first Sister Act movie earned $231.6 million at the box office. Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit earned $125 million at the box office. With a total budget of $69 million for both movies, which included Whoopi’s $20 million deal, the films were a notable success.
At the height of her career, Whoopi Goldberg was one of the highest-paid actresses in the world. Sister Act also became a Broadway stage musical and Whoopi took on the role of Mother Superior and played in a number of performances. The show closed in late October 2010, however she also sang in the Broadway musical adaptation of Xanadu.
Other than being an entertainer and a TV presenter, Goldberg is also the owner of Whoopi & Maya launched in April 2016, a company that makes medical cannabis products for women seeking relief from menstrual cramps.
With her films, television work, stage productions, ad hoc engagements and her medical cannabis business, Whoopi Goldberg ranks amongst some of the wealthiest stars in Hollywood. Most of Whoopi Goldberg’s earnings in recent years has come from her co-hosting of The View, where she is reported to earn $8 million dollars per year.
Goldberg’s Total Net Worth
Whoopi Goldberg is one of the most hard-working people that has ever worked in show business or anywhere for that matter. The average actor might release a film every 6 to 12 months, but when she was in top form, Goldberg would release a film every 4 to 5 months, and also star in a TV show or two as well.
Her highest paying roles have been in the movies, Sister Act 1 and 2 among others. She has also earned well on TV, notably on The View. Her reported annual salary from the talk show, where she is the moderator and co-host, is $8 million. She earned $12 million from her starring in Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit.
While Goldberg has not been paid as much as A-lister actresses, she has earned a number of roles in the $2-3 million dollars range and many more still around $1 million, with a handful above the $5 million dollar mark for a starring role. Many people also don’t know how many appearances she has made, often only being paid small amounts for very small roles but they add up. Whoopi Goldberg has almost 200 acting credits to her name. She has also produced more than 30 films and TV series episodes, as well as directed and written.
More importantly, she has made over 500 appearances as herself which is where she earns the majority of her money today. Overall it is estimated that she has earned around $105 million dollars during her career.
Of that amount, $10-11 million is expected to have been paid in business related costs. The remainder, $94.5 million, will have been taxed at 47% as Goldberg has been residing between the states of New York, New Jersey and California. She lived more in California during her high earning movie actress years. More recently, as The View is filmed in New York, and she lives in New Jersey, she has paid a lower state income tax.
After tax, her earnings are estimated to be in the region of $50.08 million, having paid $44.42 million dollars in tax. It is estimated that she has invested some of that amount and earned a good return over the years. Goldberg has invested in real estate and likely also in American stocks. She has bought and sold a number of properties in three or four different states. For example a 745-acre farm in Vermont which she sold for $2 million. An apartment in Manhattan which she sold $2.05 million, and in 2018, she sold her Pacific Palisades home for $8.8 million.
Whoopi Goldberg has been married and divorced three times. To Alvin Martin between the years of 1973 and 1979, to David Claessen between 1986 and 1988 and to Lyle Trachtenberg between 1994 and 1995. It is estimated that Whoopi has had to pay around $4-6 million dollars in alimony, including spousal support. She has one child with Alvin Martin.
Whoopi Goldberg is a levelheaded woman who has had success as an actress and more so in the appearances that she has made as herself. Goldberg is said to have dyslexia, it is unlikely that this will have stopped her from successfully managing her finances however. Many top entrepreneurs and top earners have also purportedly been diagnosed with dyslexia, and nevertheless, performed extremely well.
In her personal life Goldberg has likely spent $5-6 million dollars of her career earnings but also probably possesses assets valued at around $2-3 million, not including investment assets. In her investments, she may have earned investment returns of $16-17 million dollars. Therefore, it is estimated that Whoopi Goldberg has a net worth of a rounded up $60 million dollars.
Summing-Up
Representation matters and it is the life and career of Whoopi Goldberg that is the crowning achievement of that statement. A little girl, seeing for the first time someone like herself, a black woman staring as one of the titular characters on a TV show, would be transformed.
She would defeat all the potential bad prospects her life could well have laid out for her, her lack of college or high school diploma, being a minority, and being a woman. There is enduring prejudice in all those categories in Hollywood, but Whoopi Goldberg and her success showed that prejudice is an obstacle that talent, hard work, and campaigning can conquer. From a little girl, whose mother worked hard to support her, to one of the most highly paid actresses in the world, the life of Whoopi Goldberg is truly one to look up to and celebrate.
