What is Steve Martin's Net Worth and Salary?
Steve Martin is an American comedian, actor, writer, and musician who has a net worth of $140 million. As you'll see in the paragraphs below, outside of his significant acting paychecks, Steve Martin owns an art collection that is worth at least $50 million and real estate in California that is worth a combined $30+ million.
Steve Martin has been cracking people up with his brand of intelligent humor since the late 1960s. He won his first Emmy at the age of 23 as a writer for "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour." From there, he went on to write for "The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour" and "The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour," among other programs. He moved out from behind the camera in 1969 and thus began a long and very successful career as a performer. His early years were a little rough, but by the mid-70s, he'd hit his stride. Frequent appearances performing stand-up on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" (he appeared 56 times between 1972 and 1992), "The Gong Show," and "Saturday Night Live," made him a household name. His comedy albums were also immensely popular and earned him multiple Grammys.
By the late 70s, his stand-up performances were filling arenas, so it seemed only logical to shift his focus to feature film work. Film had always been his first love, and the first short film he wrote and appeared in, "Live Action," was subsequently nominated for an Oscar. Since then, he has gone on to appear in such popular projects as "The Jerk," "Pennies from Heaven," "All of Me," "Roxanne," "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles," "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," "Parenthood," "Father of the Bride," "Leap of Faith," "Shopgirl," and "The Pink Panther" reboot. He has also released eleven studio albums, some comedy and some music. An accomplished bluegrass musician, he has had three albums reach #1 on the US Bluegrass charts and has won two Grammy Awards for his music projects, in addition to his comedy albums. He's also a prolific writer and has published numerous scripts, novels, and children's books.
$50 million+ Art Collection
Steve Martin is a renowned art collector. For decades, not much was known of the collection. There had been rumblings that Martin was an astute collector, but for many years only his close friends knew the full extent. From what little we do know, today Steve Martin's art collection is worth $50 – $100 million.
Martin made his first significant purchase in the late 1960s. That first purchase was a painting by Los Angeles-based artist Ed Ruscha. He soon added a piece by 19th-century American artist James Gale Tyler. By the late 1980s he was picking up pieces at prices in the single-digit millions. For example, in 1987 he paid $2.3 million for a 1927 work titled "Captain Upton's House," by Edward Hopper. He still owns this piece today, and it is likely worth $20-30 million. Interestingly, the seller in this example was actually the Internal Revenue Service, which had repossessed a collection by convicted and imprisoned income tax evader Andrew Crispo.
By the 1990s, with his film paychecks exploding, Steve began to make bigger purchases. In 1999 he paid $10 million for Edward Hopper's "Hotel Window." The seller was Forbes Magazine heir Malcolm Forbes. Forbes purchased the painting at the same 1987 IRS/Andrew Crispo auction for $1.3 million. Steve Martin sold this painting in 2006 for $27 million, a price that broke the record for a Hopper sale by more than 10x.
Today Steve Martin's art collection reportedly features a mix of modern and contemporary pieces, with works by renowned artists like:
- Edward Hopper
- Pablo Picasso
- Roy Lichtenstein
- Willem de Kooning
- David Hockney
- Georges Seurat
- Francis Bacon
- Lucian Freud
He also has an appreciation for contemporary American artists like Eric Fischl and Cindy Sherman. In 2001, 28 items from his art collection were displayed as part of an exhibit at the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art.
Real Estate
In January 1995, Steve paid $3.175 million for a home in Beverly Hills. The 7,000-square-foot home was built in 1939 and features multiple structures surrounding a large lawn with a pool and outdoor entertaining area. In 1997, Steve paid $995,000 for the 1.1-acre property next door, which featured a 4-bedroom home. In 2019, he sold the neighboring parcel for $2.22 million. Today, his main property is worth at least $10 million.
Villa Au Soleil St. Barts
Perched in the hills of St. Barts, overlooking the Caribbean, the stunning 180-degree view of the surrounding landscape is one of the reasons Mr. Martin purchased the home in 2008. St. Barts is known for being one of the more private Caribbean islands, and it has become a favorite of paparazzi-averse celebrities everywhere. Consequently, they have rented the home to a host of other luminaries when they are not there. The house has four bedrooms and an open-plan living room space. There is also a formal dining room. It features floor-to-ceiling windows, multiple skylights, and bright colors. There is an infinity pool, a sun deck, multiple terraces, and a private garden. Steve put the villa on the market for $11 million in 2013 and sold it for an undisclosed sum in 2015.
Montecito "Mud House" Mansion
At some point in the early 2000s, Steve paid an undisclosed amount for an architecturally significant estate in Montecito, California. Set on nearly 6 acres and known as "The Mud House," it was designed and built in the 1970s by architect Richard Coate, Jr. The home is made entirely of poured concrete and today is considered one of the world's most important examples of Modernist concrete architecture, also known as Brutalism.
There's a 30-minute documentary from 1974 about the construction of the "Mud House":
The home's 7,400 square feet of living space is partially underground and contain three bedrooms, four bathrooms. The guest house has an additional two bedrooms and one bathroom. Steve listed the home for sale in 2015 for a bit under $11 million, but ultimately did not find a buyer. Today the home is likely worth closer to $20 million, based on similar nearby comparable sales of homes that have no architectural significance.
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Early Life
Steve Martin was born Stephen Glenn Martin on August 14, 1945, in Waco, Texas. He grew up with his mother, Mary, father, Glenn (a real estate salesman), and sister, Melinda, in Inglewood and Garden Grove, California. Steve attended Garden Grove High School, where he was on the cheerleading squad, and he had a job selling guidebooks at Disneyland from 1955 to 1958. He enjoyed spending time at Disneyland's Main Street Magic shop and began working at Fantasyland's magic shop in 1960. At the age of 18, Martin began performing music, magic, and comedy at Knott's Berry Farm. After graduating from high school, he took drama and poetry courses at Santa Ana College before transferring to UCLA to study theater in 1967. While attending college, Steve performed at local clubs, and he dropped out of UCLA when he was 21.
Stand-Up Comedy Career
In 1967, Nina Goldblatt, Martin's former girlfriend, submitted his work to Mason Williams, the head writer of "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour." Williams hired Steve to be a writer, and the writing staff won an Emmy for Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy, Variety, or Music in 1969. Martin also made his first TV appearance on the show (1968) and went on to write and perform for "The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour" from 1971 to 1973. Beginning in the mid-1970s, he frequently appeared on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson," "The Gong Show," "The Muppet Show, " and "Saturday Night Live," and his stand-up comedy albums, "Let's Get Small" (1977) and "A Wild and Crazy Guy" (1978) went platinum and earned Steve 2 Grammys. "A Wild and Crazy Guy" included the song "King Tut," which hit #17 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart and has sold more than a million copies. He also released "Comedy Isn't Pretty" in 1979 and "The Steve Martin Brothers" in 1981.
Acting Career
In 1977, Martin starred in "The Absent-Minded Waiter" (which he also wrote), and it earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Short Film, Live Action. He then starred in 1979's "The Jerk" (which he co-wrote with Carl Gottlieb and Michael Elias); the film grossed $100 million worldwide and is considered to be one of the funniest movies of all time. In the 1980s, Steve starred in future classics like "Three Amigos," "Planes, Trains, & Automobiles," "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," and "Parenthood," and he appeared in 17 films in the 1990s, including "Father of the Bride" movies, "Leap of Faith," and "Bowfinger." Though Martin has been focusing on music more than acting in the 2000s, he did films "Bringing Down the House," "Shopgirl," "Baby Mama," and "It's Complicated" as well as the "Pink Panther" and "Cheaper by the Dozen" movies. In 2020, Martin reprised the role of George Banks for the short "Father of the Bride, Part 3(ish)," and since 2021, Steve has portrayed Charles-Haden Savage in the television series "Only Murders in the Building."
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Writing Career
Martin has published 12 books, including "Picasso at the Lapin Agile and Other Plays" (1996), "Pure Drivel" (1998), "Shopgirl" (2000), and "Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life" (2007). He also wrote the screenplays for "The Jerk," "Three Amigos," "Roxanne," "Bowfinger," and several other films. Steve wrote the script and music (along with Edie Brickell) for "Bright Star," which ran on Broadway from February to June 2016, and embarked on a national tour the following year; the play won a Drama Desk Award and 2 Outer Critics Circle Awards. His play "Meteor Shower" made it to Broadway in November 2017 and starred Amy Schumer, Keegan-Michael Key, and Laura Benanti. In 2020, he released a collection of cartoons with Harry Bliss called "A Wealth of Pigeons." In 2022 came the memoir, "Number One Is Walking: My Life in the Movies and Other Diversions," and in 2023, Martin released the audiobook co-written with Adam Gopnik, "So Many Steves: Afternoons with Steve Martin." In 2023, Martin was featured playing banjo on the Kelly Clarkson single, "I Hate Love."
Music Career
Steve began playing banjo at age 17 and has frequently included it in his stand-up comedy act. He contributed to Earl Scruggs' "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" in 2001, winning a Grammy for Best Country Instrumental Performance. Martin released the album "The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo" in 2009 and won a Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album. He began touring with bluegrass band Steep Canyon Rangers in September 2009 and recorded the album "Rare Bird Alert" (2011) with them. Steve then collaborated with Edie Brickell on the 2013 album "Love Has Come for You," and the title track won him his fifth Grammy (Best American Roots Song). Martin and Brickell collaborated again on 2015's "So Familiar" and the musical "Bright Star." In 2017, Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers released "The Long-Awaited Album."
Personal Life
Steve began a relationship with Bernadette Peters in 1977, and they stayed together for four years; Martin wrote the character of Marie in "The Jerk" with Peters in mind, and the pair also starred in "Pennies from Heaven" together. Steve was married to actress Victoria Tennant from 1986 to 1994, then went on to wed writer Anne Stringfield in 2007. Steve and Anne welcomed a daughter in December 2012, making him a first-time dad at the age of 67.
Awards and Honors
Steve has won several awards for his work, including 5 Grammys, 2 People's Choice Awards, 2 Writers Guild of America awards, an Emmy (1969), a Mark Twain Prize for American Humor (2005), and a Kennedy Center Honor (2007). He received an honorary Academy Award in 2004 as well as lifetime achievement awards from the American Comedy Awards (2000), American Film Institute (2015), and the Las Vegas Film Critics Society (2010). Martin was ranked #6 on Comedy Central's 2004 list of the 100 greatest stand-up comics, and in 2011, the International Bluegrass Music Association named him Entertainer of the Year.
