What was Harry Dean Stanton's Net Worth?
Harry Dean Stanton was an American actor, musician, and singer who had a net worth of $10 million at the time of his death in 2017. Stanton played Samuel Brett in "Alien" (1979), Jack Walsh in "Pretty in Pink" (1986), Roman Grant on the HBO series "Big Love" (2006–2010), and Carl Rodd in "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me" (1992) and the 2017 "Twin Peaks" revival.
Harry had more than 200 acting credits to his name, including the films "Cool Hand Luke" (1967), "The Rose" (1979), "Christine" (1983), "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988), "The Green Mile" (1999), "Seven Psychopaths" (2012), and "Lucky" (2017) and the television series "Gunsmoke" (1958–1968), "Zane Grey Theater" (1958–1961), "Rawhide" (1959–1965), "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" (1976–1977), and "Getting On" (2013–2015). Stanton also voiced Balthazar in the 2011 computer-animated film "Rango," and he appeared in several music videos, such as "Say Say Say" by Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson (1983), "Those Memories of You" by Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and Emmylou Harris (1987), and "Dreamin' of You" by Bob Dylan (2009). Harry passed away in September 2017 at the age of 91.
Early Life
Harry Dean Stanton was born on July 14, 1926, in West Irvine, Kentucky. His mother, Ersel, worked as a cook, and his father, Sheridan, was a barber and tobacco farmer. Ersel and Sheridan divorced when Stanton was a teenager and both later remarried. Harry grew up with younger brothers Ralph and Archie, and he had a younger half-brother named Stanley McKnight. Stanton studied at Lafayette High School, then he enrolled at the University of Kentucky in Lexington to study radio arts and journalism. As a college student, he appeared in productions at the Guignol Theatre directed by Wallace Briggs. Harry came from a musical family, and in the 2011 documentary "Harry Dean Stanton: Crossing Mulholland," he stated, "I had to decide if I wanted to be a singer or an actor. I was always singing. I thought if I could be an actor, I could do all of it." Briggs encouraged Stanton to leave college and pursue an acting career, and Harry then studied acting at the Pasadena Playhouse in Los Angeles. Stanton served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and was a cook on the USS LST-970 in 1945 during the Battle of Okinawa.
Career
Stanton made his television debut in a 1954 episode of "Inner Sanctum," and his first film was 1956's "Revolt at Fort Laramie." He then appeared in the films "The Wrong Man" (1956), "Tomahawk Trail" (1957), "The Proud Rebel" (1958), "Voice in the Mirror" (1958), "Pork Chop Hill" (1959), and "A Dog's Best Friend" (1959), and from 1958 to 1968, he guest-starred in eight episodes of the CBS Western "Gunsmoke." In the '60s, Harry guest-starred on "The Untouchables" (1960–1961), "Bonanza" (1961; 1963), "Daniel Boone" (1964; 1969), "The Fugitive" (1965), "The Andy Griffith Show" (1967), "Adam-12" (1969), and "Petticoat Junction" (1969) and appeared in the films "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (1960), "How the West Was Won" (1962), "The Hostage" (1967), and "Day of the Evil Gun" (1968). He co-starred with Paul Newman in 1967's "Cool Hand Luke," and he portrayed President Warren G. Harding in the 1975 TV movie "The Legendary Curse of the Hope Diamond." Stanton starred in the films "Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid" (1973), "Dillinger" (1973), "Where the Lilies Bloom" (1974), "The Godfather Part II" (1974), and "Farewell, My Lovely" (1975), and he played Billy Ray in 1979's "The Rose" alongside Bette Midler. That year he also co-starred with Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, and John Hurt in the science-fiction horror film "Alien," which was preserved in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry in 2002 for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." In 2008, "Alien" was ranked #7 on the American Film Institute's list of the best science-fiction movies.
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In the '80s, Harry appeared in films such as "Private Benjamin" (1980), "Escape from New York" (1981), "One from the Heart" (1982), "Repo Man" (1984), "Paris, Texas" (1984), "Red Dawn" (1984), "Fool for Love" (1985), and "Twister" (1989), and he hosted "Saturday Night Live" in 1986. He played Detective Rudy Junkins in the 1983 Stephen King/John Carpenter horror film "Christine," then he starred as the father of Molly Ringwald's Andie Walsh in 1986's "Pretty in Pink." In 1992, Stanton played Carl Rodd in the film "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me," and he reprised his role in five episodes of Showtime's 2017 "Twin Peaks" revival, which served as the show's third season. He starred in the films "Never Talk to Strangers" (1995), "Down Periscope" (1996), "She's So Lovely" (1997), "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" (1998), and "The Straight Story" (1999), and he returned to the work of Stephen King in 1999's "The Green Mile." Harry played "Toot-Toot" in the film, which earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture and also starred Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan, David Morse, and Bonnie Hunt. In the early 2000s, Harry appeared in "The Man Who Cried" (2000), "The Pledge" (2001), "Anger Management" (2003), "The Big Bounce" (2004), and "The Wendell Baker Story" (2005), and from 2006 to 2010, he played Roman Grant on "Big Love" alongside Bill Paxton, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloë Sevigny, and Ginnifer Goodwin. Stanton appeared in 37 of the show's 53 episodes and received two Satellite Award nominations for his performance.
During his time on "Big Love," Harry appeared in the films "Alpha Dog" (2006), "You, Me and Dupree" (2006), "Inland Empire" (2006), "The Good Life" (2007), and "The Open Road" (2009). In 2011, he voiced Baron Kleberkuh on the Adult Swim animated series "Mongo Wrestling" and mole farmer Balthazar Douglas Peterson in "Rango." Stanton then had a cameo as a security guard in "The Avengers" (2012) and starred in the films "Seven Psychopaths" (2012) and "9 Full Moons" (2013). In 2012, he was the subject of the documentary "Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction." In 2017, Harry appeared in the film "Sick of it All" and played the title role in the drama "Lucky," which earned him several posthumous awards. Stanton's final film was 2018's "Frank & Ava," a biopic about Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner. Harry also sang and played guitar at nightclubs throughout his life, and he played harmonica on the 1989 The Call album "Let the Day Begin."
Personal Life
In 1981, Harry began a relationship with Rebecca De Mornay after meeting on the set of "One From the Heart." They split up the following year after Rebecca and Tom Cruise became romantically involved during the filming of "Risky Business." Stanton was good friends with Jack Nicholson, and he was the best man at Jack's 1962 wedding to Sandra Knight. After Nicholson and Knight divorced in 1968, Harry and Jack lived together for two years. Since 2011, Lexington, Kentucky, has held the annual Harry Dean Stanton Fest to "celebrate the diverse film work of this legendary cinematic icon and remind the community of his Lexington roots." In 2012 and 2013, the festival curated gallery shows of artwork featuring Stanton.
Death
On September 15, 2017, Harry passed away at L.A.'s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center at the age of 91. He was cremated, and his ashes were scattered in Kentucky, outside downtown Lexington.
Awards and Nominations
For "Lucky," Stanton won Best Actor awards from the Gijón International Film Festival, Film Club's The Lost Weekend, Indiana Film Journalists Association, and Satellite Awards as well as a Best Foreign Actor award at the Días de Cine Awards, a Best Actor in a Foreign Film (Millor actor en pel·lícula estrangera) award at the Sant Jordi Awards, and a Special Mention – Performance at the Thessaloniki Film Festival. In 2017, the Phoenix Critics Circle posthumously honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2018, he received a Special Honorary Award from the Austin Film Critics Association. In 2003, Harry and his "Alien" castmates won a DVD Exclusive Award for Best Audio Commentary (New for DVD), and in 2012, he and his "Seven Psychopaths" co-stars shared a Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Ensemble Cast. He received two Satellite Award nominations for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television for "Big Love" (2007 and 2009), and he earned a CableACE Award nomination for Actor in a Dramatic Series for "Hotel Room" in 1994. Stanton and his "The Green Mile" co-stars earned an Awards Circuit Community Award nomination for Best Cast Ensemble and a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Theatrical Motion Picture, and the "Seven Psychopaths" cast received a San Diego Film Critics Society Award nomination for Best Ensemble Performance.
