What is Ed O'Neill's Net Worth and Salary?
Ed O'Neill is an American actor who has a net worth of $65 million. Ed O'Neill first gained widespread recognition for his portrayal of Al Bundy, the disgruntled shoe salesman and family man, in the long-running series "Married… with Children" from 1987 to 1997. O'Neil's performance as the sarcastic and cynical patriarch earned him critical acclaim and a devoted fan base.
A decade later, O'Neil continued his successful television career by starring as Jay Pritchett in the Emmy Award-winning series "Modern Family," from 2009 to 2020. His portrayal of the mature, often grumpy, but loving father and grandfather showcased his versatility as an actor and earned him multiple Emmy nominations. As we detail in the next section, during his time on "Modern Family," Ed was one of the highest-paid actors on television.
O'Neil has also appeared in various films, including "Little Giants," "The Bone Collector," and "Sun Dogs." He has guest-starred on numerous television shows and lent his voice to animated series such as "Wreck-It Ralph" and "Finding Dory." He is also a highly-paid voice over actor, most notably for the medication Zyrtec.
Modern Family Salary
At the peak of "Modern Family," Jesse and his co-stars were among the highest paid actors on television. For the seasons that filmed between 2014 and 2018, Jesse's salary per episode was $190,000. In 2018, Jesse and the other principal stars were given raises to $500,000 per episode. That worked out to around $12 million per season in the later seasons.
Early Life
Edward Leonard O'Neill was born on April 12, 1946, in Youngstown, Ohio. His mother was a homemaker and social worker, and his father was a truck driver and steel mill worker. He graduated from Ursuline High School before transferring to Worthington High School and then attended Ohio University on a football scholarship. After his sophomore year of college, he transferred to Youngstown State University, where he was a defensive lineman on the football team. In 1969, the Pittsburgh Steelers NFL team signed O'Neill as an undrafted free agent, but he never made it through the training camp and got cut. Following his failed attempt at an NFL professional football career, O'Neill returned to Youngstown State University and joined the school's theater program. Following graduation, he briefly worked as a social studies substitute teacher at Ursuline High School before making the decision to pursue acting full-time. He moved to New York in 1977 after not having much success landing any acting jobs or roles in Youngstown theater productions. In New York, he worked as a busboy while studying at the Circle in the Square Theatre School.
Career
In 1979, O'Neill landed the role of lead understudy in the Broadway play "Knockout." He finally got to perform on stage when the lead actor left the production. Movie director William Friedkin saw him perform and cast him in his film "Cruising" (1980), which starred Al Pacino. He then appeared in various projects, such as a 1985 Red Lobster commercial, a guest appearance in "The Equalizer," and the pilot for the show "Popeye Doyle" (1986), as well as failed pilots for the show "Farrell for the People." However, his breakout role was as Al Bundy on the Fox sitcom "Married… with Children". He landed this role after a Fox casting agent saw him perform in a production of "Of Mice and Men" at the Hartford Theater in Hartford, Connecticut, and invited him to audition. "Married… with Children" was a big hit and ran for 11 seasons from April 1987 to June 1997. He starred alongside Katey Sagal, who played his character's wife, Christina Applegate as his daughter, and David Faustino as his son. "Married..with Children" was the show that launched O'Neill into stardom and made him a household name. The "Married" cast was honored in 2009 at the 7th Annual TV Land Award Show.
During this period, in addition to "Married…with Children", O'Neill starred in multiple films, such as "Dutch" (1991) and "Little Giants" (1994). He also had various smaller parts in films like "The Adventures of Ford Fairlane" (1990), "Wayne's World" (1992), "Wayne's World 2" (1993), "The Bone Collector" (1999), and the miniseries "The 10th Kingdom". His other television jobs include appearances on "In Living Color," "8 Simple Rules", "Dragnet," "The West Wing," "John from Cincinnati," and "Star-ving". Additionally, he appeared in a stage production of David Mamet's "Lakeboat" in 1994. In the new millennium, O'Neill has appeared in films like "Lucky Numbers" (2000), "Nobody's Baby" (2001), "Spartan" (2004), "Redbelt" (2008), "Entourage" (2015), "Sun Dogs" (2017), and "The Last Shift" (2020).
In 2009, O'Neill returned to the world of sitcoms with the ABC show "Modern Family." He played the character Jay Pritchett, the patriarch of the family. "Modern Family" was incredibly successful and ran for 11 seasons from September 2009 to April 2020. The final episode of the show actually boasted 7.37 million viewers. It also won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series five times and the 2011 Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy.
(Photo by Rich Polk/Getty Images for IMDb)
In addition to his on-screen acting roles, O'Neill is also a prolific voice actor. He voiced the character Mr. Litwak in the animated films "Wreck-It Ralph" (2012) and "Ralph Breaks the Internet" (2018) and the character Hank the Octopus in the Disney animated film "Finding Dory" (2016). He has also provided his voice on various television shows, including "WordGirl" (2009), "Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil" (2011), "Handy Manny" (2011), "The Penguins of Madagascar" (2012), and "Family Guy" (2015). Additionally, since 2012, O'Neill has provided voice-overs for television advertisements for the over-the-counter medication Zyrtec, as well as Straight Talk, Walmart's mobile phone service. Other advertisement work he has done includes a series of commercials for 1-800-COLLECT in the 1990s and an advertisement for then-presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008.
O'Neill was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011 at 7021 Hollywood Blvd. He was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards for "Married… with Children" and three Primetime Emmy Awards for "Modern Family". O'Neill also won four Screen Actors Guild Awards for "Modern Family" and two Behind the Voice Actors Awards for his work on "Wreck-It Ralph."
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Personal Life
O'Neill is married to the actress Catherine Rusoff. Together, they have two daughters. In December 2007, he received his black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He was introduced to the practice by his friend, the writer/director John Milius, and has practiced the sport for over 20 years.
