What Is Renée Taylor's Net Worth?
Renée Taylor is an American actress, screenwriter, playwright, producer, and director who has a net worth of $3 million. Renée Taylor is best known for playing Sylvia Fine on the sitcom "The Nanny." Taylor won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy, Variety or Music for "Acts of Love and Other Comedies."
Early Life
Renée Adorée Taylor was born on March 19, 1933, in The Bronx, New York City. She is the daughter of Charles and Frieda Wexler. Her mother, an aspiring actress, named her after Hollywood silent film actress Renée Adorée, who was making waves at the time. Taylor graduated from the Academy of Dramatic Arts.
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Career
Taylor started out with improv groups in the 1950s before going on to work as a comedian in the early 1960s at the New York City nightclub Bon Soir. There, she opened for a then-unknown Barbra Streisand. In 1967, Renée got a shot on the big screen in Mel Brooks' "The Producers," playing the role of Eva Braun. She landed this gig while starring in the play "Luv" alongside Gene Wilder, who Brooks later cast as the film's protagonist.
In the early '70s, Taylor and her husband, Joseph Bologna, became quite the dynamic duo in the comedy scene. They teamed up to create the hit Broadway comedy "Lovers and Other Strangers" which was such a success that it earned them Academy Award nominations. In 1971, they wrote and starred together in "Made for Each Other," receiving a nomination from the Writers Guild of America for Best Comedy. Renée's next role was as Arlene Sherwood in the 1991 comedy "Delirious," in which she starred alongside Jerry Orbach and John Candy.
Between 1992 and 1994, Taylor played the overbearing Jewish mother of Brian Benben's character on the HBO series "Dream On." In 1993, she was cast as Richard Lewis's mother and Don Rickles' ex-wife in the Fox sitcom "Daddy Dearest." Unfortunately, the TV show was canceled after only two months. That same year, Renée was lined up for occasional guest appearances on CBS's fresh sitcom "The Nanny," where she played Sylvia Fine, the mother of Fran Drescher's character. When "Daddy Dearest" got the ax, her role on "The Nanny" was upgraded, making her a recurring cast member in the first season and a regular by the third. This gig ran parallel with her work on "Dream On."
Taylor's role on "The Nanny" made her very popular and a familiar face to many. Her husband also made two guest appearances on the show—first as a self-absorbed actor named Allan Beck and later as Sylvia's doctor and admirer during the final season.
From 2008 to 2012, Taylor was a guest star on "How I Met Your Mother," playing Ted Mosby's neighbor, Mrs. Matsen. She also guest-starred on the Disney Channel series "Shake It Up" as Mrs. Lacasio, a cranky elderly woman in a retirement home, and appeared as Robbie's cranky grandmother who wants to learn how to use the Internet on the Nickelodeon series "Victorious."
Taylor's guest appearances on TV shows barely scratch the surface of her versatile talents. She is also an amazing voice actor who voiced Mrs. Start in the animated hit "Ice Age: The Meltdown" and cracked up the audience as Linda's mom on the Fox animated series "Bob's Burgers." Additionally, she played Martha Benson in the 2009 comedy flick "Opposite Day."
Other films and TV shows that Renée Taylor has appeared in include Fran Drescher's "Happily Divorced" (2011–2012), the Fox cartoon "Allen Gregory" (2011), Tyler Perry's "Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor" (2013), "The Do-Over" with Adam Sandler (2016), and "How to Be a Latin Lover" starring Salma Hayek (2017).
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Accolades and Awards
In 1971, Taylor was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for "Lovers and Other Strangers." In 1973, she won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy, Variety or Music for "Acts of Love and Other Comedies," shared with her husband. The following year, she got another Emmy nomination in a similar category for "Paradise." Furthermore, she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 1996 for her role on "The Nanny."
Personal Life
Renée Taylor and Joseph Bologna tied the knot on August 7, 1965, in Stamford, Connecticut, and were married until Bologna's death in August 2017. They had a son who followed closely in their footsteps. He is a filmmaker and directed them in the last film they starred in together titled "Tango Shalom."
