What Is Richard Linklater's Net Worth and Salary?
Richard Linklater is an American director, screenwriter, producer, and actor who has a net worth of $8 million. Linklater first gained widespread notice for his 1990 film "Slacker," which cost $23,000 to make and went on to earn $1.25 million at the box office. Richard wrote, directed, and produced the films "It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books" (1988), "Dazed and Confused" (1993), "Before Sunset" (2004), "Bernie" (2011), "Before Midnight" (2013), "Boyhood" (2014), "Everybody Wants Some!!" (2016), and "Apollo 10½" (2022). He has also directed films such as "The Newton Boys" (1998), "School of Rock" (2003), and "Before Sunrise" (2004), and he produced the television series "Up to Speed" (2012), "School of Rock" (2016–2018), and "That Animal Rescue Show" (2020).
As an actor, Linklater has appeared in "It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books," "Slacker," and "Before Sunrise" as well as the films "The Underneath" (1995), "Scotch and Milk" (1998), "Waking Life" (2001), "Spy Kids" (2001), "Chelsea Walls" (2001), "The Hottest State" (2006), "RSO: Registered Sex Offender" (2008), and "Blaze" (2018). Richard has earned five Academy Award nominations, including three for "Boyhood." In 2015, "Time" magazine included Linklater on its list of the year's most influential people.
Early Life
Richard Linklater was born Richard Stuart Linklater on July 30, 1960, in Houston, Texas. Linklater's parents, Diane (a Sam Houston State University professor) and Charles, divorced when he was 7 years old, and Richard and his sisters, Susan and Tricia, moved to Huntsville with their mother. Linklater attended Huntsville High School, where he was a backup quarterback for the football team (the #1 ranked team in Texas). He transferred to Bellaire High School for his senior year because he was better at baseball and that school had a better baseball coach than Huntsville High. Richard won a Scholastic Art and Writing Award as a teenager, and after graduating from high school, he enrolled at Sam Houston State University but later dropped out and worked on an offshore oil rig. While working on the oil rig, Linklater read novels in his free time, and when he returned to land, he began visiting a Houston repertory theatre, which led to him realizing that he wanted to make films. Richard bought a Super-8 camera, editing equipment, and a projector, then he moved to Austin and studied film at Austin Community College.
Career
In 1985, Linklater co-founded the Austin Film Society. After making several short films, Richard made his feature film debut with 1988's "It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books, which took a year to film and a year to edit. He then formed Detour Filmproduction and made his second feature film, 1990's "Slacker," which was preserved in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry in 2012 for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." His next film was 1993's "Dazed and Confused," which featured future stars Matthew McConaughey, Ben Affleck, and Renée Zellweger, and he followed it with the 1995 Ethan Hawke–Julie Delpy romantic drama "Before Sunrise." The film earned Linklater a Silver Bear for Best Director at the 1995 Berlin International Film Festival. He then directed 1996's "SubUrbia" and wrote and directed 1998's "The Newton Boys." In 2001, Richard released the animated film "Waking Life" and the drama "Tape," then he directed the 2003 Jack Black comedy "School of Rock," which was later adapted into a 2015 Broadway musical and a 2016 Nickelodeon series. Linklater received his first two Academy Award nominations (Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay) for 2004's "Before Sunset" and 2013's "Before Midnight," which were both co-written with the film's stars, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy.
(Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images)
Richard directed and produced the 2005 "Bad News Bears" remake, then he wrote and directed the animated film "A Scanner Darkly" and the comedy-drama film "Fast Food Nation," which were both released in 2006. He directed and produced the 2008 period drama "Me and Orson Welles," then he reunited with Jack Black for 2011's "Bernie." In 2014, Linklater released the coming-of-age drama "Boyhood," which he filmed from 2002 to 2013, and it won more than 170 awards, including a Golden Globe. Next, Richard wrote, directed, and produced 2016's "Everybody Wants Some!!" and wrote and directed 2017's Last Flag Flying," which starred Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston, Laurence Fishburne, and Cicely Tyson. Linklater wrote and directed 2019's "Where'd You Go, Bernadette," a comedy-drama based on the bestselling 2012 Maria Semple novel of the same name, then he wrote, directed, and produced the 2022 animated film "Apollo 10½." In August 2019, it was announced that Richard had been tapped to write, direct, and produce a film adaptation of the 1981 Stephen Sondheim-George Furth musical "Merrily We Roll Along."
Personal Life
Richard has been in a relationship with Christina Harrison since the '90s, and they welcomed daughter Lorelei in 1994 and twins Alina and Charlotte in 2004. Their oldest daughter, Lorelei, played the main character's sister in "Boyhood." Linklater became a vegetarian in his early twenties, and in 2015, he spoke about it in a "Boyhood"-style documentary for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Richard lives in Austin, Texas, and in 2017, he teamed up with the Austin Film Society to open AFS Cinema, a two-screen movie theater dedicated to classic, arthouse, and international films.
Awards and Nominations
Linklater has been nominated for five Academy Awards: Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay for "Before Sunset" (2005) and "Before Midnight" (2014), and Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Achievement in Directing, and Best Writing, Original Screenplay for "Boyhood" (2015). He earned a Golden Globe Award for Best Director – Motion Picture and a nomination for Best Screenplay – Motion Picture for "Boyhood," and he received a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Children's Program for "School of Rock" in 2017. "Boyhood" also earned Richard awards from the BAFTA Awards, Alliance of Women Film Journalists, AARP Movies for Grownups Awards, Awards Circuit Community Awards, Bodil Awards, Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards, Cinema Eye Honors Awards, CinEuphoria Awards, Danish Film Awards, Días de Cine Awards, Film Independent Spirit Awards, Gold Derby Awards, Gotham Awards, Online Film & Television Association, and Satellite Awards as well as several film critic associations and film festivals. In 2015, Linklater was honored with a Career Achievement Award from the Casting Society of America, a Filmmaker Award from the Cinema Audio Society, and a Distinguished Collaborator Award from the Costume Designers Guild Awards.
In 2001, Richard received the John Cassavetes Award at the Denver International Film Festival, and the Texas Film Awards inducted him into the Texas Film Hall Of Fame in 2007 and gave "Dazed and Confused" the Star of Texas Award in 2013. Linklater won Austin Film Critics Association Awards for "A Scanner Darkly," "Me and Orson Welles," "Bernie," "Before Midnight," and "Boyhood," and he received a Tribute Award at the 2013 Gotham Awards. For "Before Midnight," Richard, Julie Delpy, and Ethan Hawke shared screenwriting awards from the Boston Online Film Critics Association, Hollywood Film Awards, Indiana Film Journalists Association, International Online Cinema Awards, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, National Society of Film Critics Awards, San Diego Film Critics Society Awards, Seattle Film Critics Awards, and Utah Film Critics Association Awards, and they received the Critics' Choice Louis XIII Genius Award at the 2014 Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards. In 2002, Linklater won an Ottawa International Animation Festival Award for Best Animated Feature Film for "Waking Life," and he earned an International Online Cinema Award for Best Animated Feature for "A Scanner Darkly" in 2007. He has also won awards from the Provincetown International Film Festival (Filmmaker on the Edge Award, 2021), San Francisco International Film Festival (Founder's Directing Award, 2014), SXSW Film Festival (Louis Black Lone Star Award for "Bernie," 2012), Tribeca Film Festival (Special Mention – Documentary Short for "Live from Shiva's Dance Floor," 2003), Venice Film Festival (Best Film for "Waking Life" and Laterna Magica Prize – Special Mention for "Waking Life" and "Tape," 2001), and Virginia Film Festival (Narrative Feature for "Last Flag Flying," 2017).
