What Is Thomas Dolby's Net Worth?
Thomas Dolby is an English musician, composer, producer, music video director, and teacher who has a net worth of $10 million. That is a combined net worth with his wife of more than three decades, actress Kathleen Beller. Thomas Dolby has released the studio albums "The Golden Age of Wireless" (1982), "The Flat Earth" (1984), "Aliens Ate My Buick" (1988), "Astronauts & Heretics" (1992), and "A Map of the Floating City" (2011), and he is probably best known for the 1982 hit single "She Blinded Me with Science."
Dolby has composed film soundtracks such as "Howard the Duck" (1986), "Rockula" (1990), "FernGully: The Last Rainforest" (1992), "Toys" (1992), "We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story" (1993), and "The Gate to the Mind's Eye" (1994) as well as the video game soundtracks "Double Switch" (1993), "Cyberia" (1994), "The Dark Eye" (1995), and "Obsidian" (1997). Thomas is the founder of Headspace, a company that created the RMF file extension for the Internet; that business was later renamed Beatnik and worked with cell phone companies, including Nokia. In 2014, Dolby accepted a position at Johns Hopkins University's Peabody Institute, where he is the head of the Music for New Media program. Thomas also published the 2016 book "The Speed of Sound: Breaking the Barriers Between Music and Technology," and he has directed several of his music videos and the 2013 short film "The Invisible Lighthouse."
Early Life
Thomas Dolby was born Thomas Morgan Robertson on October 14, 1958, in London, England. He is the son of Martin Robertson and Theodosia Spring Rice, and his brother Stephen is an information retrieval researcher and computer scientist who has won a Tony Kent Strix award and Gerard Salton Award. Martin taught archaeology and classical Greek art courses at Oxford University, the University of London, and Trinity College, Cambridge. In the mid-1970s, Thomas studied at Abingdon School in Oxfordshire, England, and he completed his A Levels there. In a 2012 interview with OneDublin.org, Dolby said of his early experiences with music, "I sang in a choir when I was 10 or 11, and learned to sight-read single lines, but other than that I don't have a formal education. I picked up the guitar initially, playing folk tunes – Dylan – then I graduated to piano when I got interested in jazz, listening to people like Oscar Peterson, Dave Brubeck, Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, and so on. The first electronic instruments started to become accessible in the mid-70s and I got my hands on a kit built synthesizer and never looked back."
Career
Dolby released his debut album, "The Golden Age of Wireless," in May 1982, and it reached #8 on Canada's "RPM" chart and #13 on the "Billboard" 200 chart. The album featured the single "Europa and the Pirate Twins," and 1982, Thomas also released what would become his biggest hit, "She Blinded Me with Science." That song was originally a non-album single, but it was later included on the 1983 re-release of "The Golden Age of Wireless." "She Blinded Me with Science" was a top 10 hit on the Canada "RPM" Top Singles chart, New Zealand's Recorded Music NZ chart, and the "Billboard" Hot 100, Hot Dance Club Play, and Top Tracks charts. Dolby's second album, 1984's "The Flat Earth," reached #14 on the UK Albums Chart, and the single "Hyperactive!" (which Thomas originally wrote for Michael Jackson) peaked at #16 on the Canada "RPM" Top Singles chart and #17 on the UK Singles Chart. Next, Dolby released the 1988 album "Aliens Ate My Buick," and it reached #30 on the UK Albums Chart. The album featured the singles "Airhead," "Hot Sauce," and "My Brain Is Like a Sieve," and "Airhead" reached #6 on the "Billboard" Dance Club Songs chart.
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Thomas released his fourth album, "Astronauts & Heretics," in 1992, and it reached #35 on the UK Albums Chart. The single "Close but No Cigar" reached #14 in New Zealand and #22 in the U.K. Dolby didn't release another studio album until 2011, and "A Map of the Floating City" peaked at #171 on the UK Albums Chart. He also released a multiplayer online game of the same name, which he described as being "set against a dystopian vision of the 1940s that might have existed had WWII turned out a lot differently." Thomas played in David Bowie's band during 1985's Live Aid, and he has also collaborated with artists such as Robyn Hitchcock, Foreigner, Thompson Twins, Def Leppard, Malcolm McLaren, George Clinton, Joni Mitchell, Belinda Carlisle, Roger Waters, James Horner, The Fallout Club, and Todd Rundgren. Dolby served as the TED Conference's musical director from 2001 to 2012.
Personal Life
Thomas married Kathleen Beller on July 2, 1988, and they have welcomed three children together, Talia, Harper, and Graham. Kathleen is an actress who played Kirby Anders on "Dynasty" and earned a Golden Globe nomination for the 1979 film "Promises in the Dark."
Awards and Nominations
Dolby has earned four Grammy nominations: Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s) for "Mulu The Rain Forest" (1985) and "The Key To Her Ferrari" (1989), Best Music Video, Short Form for "Thomas Dolby" (1985), and Producer of the Year, Non-Classical (1989). In 1984, he received an MTV Video Music Award nomination for Most Experimental Video for "Thomas Dolby: Hyperactive!" In 2012, Thomas received The Moog Innovation Award, which is awarded to "pioneering artists whose genre-defying work exemplifies the bold, innovative spirit of Bob Moog." He has also received the Yahoo! Internet Life Lifetime Achievement in Internet Music award (1998) and the Roland Lifetime Achievement Award (2018).
