What is Carol Burnett's Net Worth and Salary?
Carol Burnett is an American actress, comedian, writer, and singer who has a net worth of $45 million. Carol Burnett has enjoyed an illustrious career spanning over six decades in the entertainment industry. Renowned for her versatile talent, Burnett has left an indelible mark on American television and comedy with her groundbreaking work. Her most iconic achievement is "The Carol Burnett Show," a variety sketch program that aired from 1967 to 1978. The show was a trailblazer in many ways, including the fact that it was one of the first to be helmed by a female host, which helped pave the way for future generations of women in comedy.
Over the years, Burnett has garnered numerous accolades that speak to her immense talent and impact. She has won six Primetime Emmy Awards one Grammy Award, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States, in 2005. Additionally, in 2013, Burnett was awarded the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, which recognized her immense contributions to American culture through her comedic work. In a testament to her enduring influence, the Golden Globe Awards introduced the Carol Burnett Award in 2019, an accolade honoring outstanding contributions to television. Burnett was the inaugural recipient of the award, further cementing her status as a true television and comedy legend.
Early Life
Carol Creighton Burnett was born on April 26, 1933, in San Antonio, Texas. Both of her parents were involved in the acting world, as her mother was a publicity writer for movie studios, and her father managed a cinema. However, she was mostly raised by her grandmother, as both of her parents struggled with alcoholism. By the late 30s, her parents had divorced, and Carol Burnett moved to Hollywood. Once again, she lived with her grandmother and was raised in a boarding house alongside her half-sister, Chrissie.
Carol's grandmother was a trained musician and her mother played the ukelele, and this led to Carol's fascination with music and singing from an early age. Carol's grandmother also took her to the movie theaters often, sparking an early interest in film. As a young girl, she worked at a movie theater.
Following her graduation from high school in 1951, Carol Burnette was anonymously given an envelope containing $50, which would cover one year of tuition at UCLA. Focusing on theatre arts and English, she was initially forced into studying acting as a prerequisite for her chosen career path as a playwright. Although she was reluctant at first, she fell in love with acting and the appreciation she felt from the audience when performing.
After this positive experience, Carol Burnett appeared in a range of university theater productions. Although her mother disapproved of her acting ambitions, Burnett eventually set a goal of traveling to New York to star in a musical.
After attending a party hosted by her professor, Carol Burnett ran into a man and his wife who offered to give her a ride home. Carol revealed her dream of traveling to New York, and this mysterious man offered her an interest-free loan of $1000 so she and her boyfriend could make the trip and become established in New York. As per his instructions, Carol Burnett never revealed the identity of this man. In the year that she traveled to New York, her father passed away from long-standing complications related to alcoholism.
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Early Career
Although Carol Burnett failed to book any acting jobs during her first year in New York, she eventually booked a minor role in The Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney Show in 1955. She followed up with a role in the sitcom Stanley before gaining notoriety with live performances in New York's nightclubs and cabarets, famously gaining the attention of US Secretary of State John Dulles with the performance of "I Made a Fool of Myself Over John Foster Dulles."
Burnett continued to steadily gain momentum with a range of Broadway musical performances and appearances in game shows and variety shows like Pantomime Quiz and The Gary Moore Show. She won an Emmy for her performance on the latter show, which raised her star power considerably. Burnett started to headline shows and theater productions from this point onward.
The Carol Burnett Show
In 1967, Carol Burnett started hosting The Carol Burnett Show. The variety show was incredibly successful during its 11-year run and won 23 Emmy Awards. Burnett became a beloved entertainer during this period, and her show involved musical numbers, endless parodies, interaction with the audience, and, of course, her trademark "Tarzan yell."
Following The Carol Burnett Show, she appeared in a range of films and television series. Some of her most notable film roles were in productions such as The Four Seasons, Seasons of the Heart, Noses Off, and Horton Hears a Who (a voice acting role). In addition, she continued to appear in television programs such as All My Children, Desperate Housewives, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and Hawaii Five-O. She also appeared in Broadway productions such as Moon Over Buffalo and Putting it All Together. From the 2010s onward, Carol Burnett reduced her activity as an actress, preferring to stay out of the public eye.
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Relationships
During college, Carol Burnett met her first husband, Dan Saroyan. Although they were married in 1955, they divorced in 1962. In 1963, she married TV producer Joe Hamilton and had three children with him before their divorce in 1984. One of the main contributing factors to their separation was their daughter's struggle with drug addiction. In 2001, Carol Burnett married Hollywood Bowl Orchestra drummer Brian Miller, who was 23 years her junior.
Real Estate
In 1999, Carol Burnett purchased an ocean-view house in Montecito, California, for $2 million. She then oversaw extensive renovations to her new one-story, 5,000-square-foot home, including extensive kitchen remodeling. At the time, reports suggested that Burnett planned to make the house her primary home.
In 2001 Oprah Winfrey spent $50 million on a home in Montecito. This sparked what journalists dubbed "the Oprah effect," which influenced other homeowners in the area to list their homes for inflated prices. One of these homeowners was Carol Burnett, who subsequently listed her Montecito home for $36 million. Years later, it was reported that Carol Burnett was still living in her Montecito home despite her earlier efforts to sell.
In 2008, Burnett sold her Trump Tower apartment for $5.58 million. The luxurious 2,000-square-foot condo directly overlooks Central Park.
In 2002, Carol Burnett paid $1.2 million for an apartment on Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles. She listed this apartment for sale in October 2022 for $4.2 million. She sold this unit in April 2023 for $3.7 million.
In the early 1990s Carol bought an 8-acre property in Santa Fe, New Mexico, for an undisclosed amount. She proceeded to build a 7,500-square-foot, 7 bedroom, 11 bathroom mansion. A later owner eventually expanded the mansion to 9,500 square feet. The mansion was featured on the cover of Architectural Digest in 1996. Carol sold the property in 1998 after listing it the previous year for a little under $4 million. Here is a video tour from mid-2021 when the Carol Burnet Santa Fe Estate was listed for $6 million:
