Harry Shearer Net Worth: The Simpsons & Career

Harry Shearer

Multi-talented actor, musician, radio host, voice actor, director, writer, and producer Harry Shearer’s net worth is a staggering $85 million. 

Even though it seems a little hard to swallow, he is indeed all the things mentioned above.

Shearer gained fame after joining the radio comedy group “The Credibility Gap” from 1969 to 1976.

After the group broke, he appeared as a cast member on “Saturday Night Live”.

Harry Shearer
Harry Shearer (Source: Pocono Record)

In 1984, Shearer created, wrote, and starred in the critically acclaimed rockumentary comedy “This Is Spinal Tap.”

His popularity skyrocketed after he joined the animated sitcom “The Simpsons” cast in 1989, lending his voice to various characters.

Furthermore, Harry has been nominated for several Grammy and Emmy Awards and has won a Primetime Emmy Award.

Harry Shearer | Quick Facts

As of April 2024, Harry Shearer’s net worth is a massive $85 million. Let’s look at quick facts to understand more about Harry Shearer.

Birth Name Harry Julius Shearer
Professional Name Harry Shearer
Nick Name Shearer, Harry
Birth Date December 23, 1943
Age 80 Years Old
Birth Place Los Angeles, California, USA
Height 1.69 m/5 feet 7 inches
Weight 64 kg/141 lbs.
Religion Jewish
Gender Male
Nationality American
Body Type Slim
Eye Color Green
Hair Color Brown
Profession Comedian, Actor, Producer, Director, Musician, Author, Voice Actor, Radio Host
Father’s Name Mack Shearer
Mother’s Name Dora Warren
Net Worth  $85 Million
Horoscope Capricorn
Ethnicity White
College
  • The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
  • Harvard University
Distinctive Feature  Long Hair
Sexual Orientation Straight
Marital Status Married
Spouse
  • Penny Nichols ​ ​(M. 1974- Div. 1977)​
  • Judith Owen ​(M. 1993- Present)
Children None
Active Since 1953-Present
Social Media InstagramFacebookTwitter
Last Update April 2024

Harry Shearer | Net Worth and The Simpsons

Net Worth

Voice actor, comedian, musician, author, and actor Harry Shearer’s net worth as of April 2024 is a whopping $85 million.

Harry has accumulated significant wealth thanks to his successful acting career.

He joined the original 1975 cast of Saturday Night Live as one of the first writers and performers in August 1979.

Real money for the actor started to generate when he wrote, starred in, and created movies.

Some of Shearer’s movies’ box-office collections are given below:

Movies Box-office Collection
The Simpsons Movie (2007) $527,071,022
Godzilla (1998) $376,000,000
My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997) $298,923,419
Chicken Little (2005) $310,043,823
The Truman Show (1998) $264,118,201

All the movies mentioned above have helped him accumulate a large wealth. In addition, he has been featured in several other successful movies too.

Furthermore, his other income sources are endorsement deals, book sales, and royalties.

The Simpsons

Shearer is well-known for providing voices for characters on “The Simpsons.”

The show’s creator, Matt Groening, was an admirer of his work, and Harry was a fan of the blog Matt used to write.

He initially hesitated when Matt asked him to be in the show because he believed the recording sessions would be too difficult.

Since voice actors typically record their parts individually, he thought the voice acting was “not a lot of fun.”

After three phone conversations with the executive producer, he was persuaded to join the crew of The Simpsons.

He was informed that the actors would tape their lines together. Shearer received $30,000 per episode up until 1998.

Fox threatened to replace the six primary voice performers with new actors during a wage dispute in 1998. They even went far as to start the voice-casting process.

The Simpsons
The Simpsons (Source: FilmAffinity)

Nevertheless, the disagreement was settled, and Shearer received $125,000 for each episode until 2004 when the lead actors sought $360,000 every episode.

A month after the disagreement was settled, Shearer’s income increased to $250,000 per episode.

The cast members received $400,000 each episode following salary discussions in 2008.

Three years later, Fox threatened to terminate the series unless the cost of production was reduced.

Harry and the other cast members agreed to accept a 30 percent wage cut, amounting to just over $300,000 per episode,

On May 14, 2015, he made his departure from the program. He rejected, claiming that the salary was insufficient.

Later on, Shearer agreed to continue working on the program on the same agreements as the other voice actors on July 7, 2015.

Net Worth of Harry Shearer in Different Currencies

Let’s look into Harry Shearer’s net worth in different currencies, including the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.

Currency Net Worth
Euro € 83,953,225
Pound Sterling £ 70,578,050
Australian Dollar A$ 122,721,725
Canadian Dollar C$ 109,474,050
Indian Rupee ₹ 6,792,082,250
Bitcoin ฿ 3963.28

Harry Shearer | Houses & Cars

Houses

As of April 2024, Harry Shearer’s net worth is a massive $85 million.

Eight years ago, the famed actor bought a vacation property in Ahakista, a village in the Republic of Ireland.

Since 2009, he has owned a home in Notting Hill, West London, England. The Central Line is only five minutes away, and the neighborhood is extremely calm.

He currently lives in a mansion in Santa Monica, California. Furthermore, Shearer has a house in New Orleans and Cork.

Cars

Unlike other public figures from Hollywood, Shearer doesn’t have a sizable car collection.

He dislikes spending his hard-earned money on expensive cars and only uses vehicles for the sake of transportation.

Moreover, Harry might own a few vehicles that he hasn’t made public.

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Harry Shearer | Lifestyle & Vacation

Lifestyle

Multi-millionaire actor, comedian, writer, and television host Harry Shearer lives a luxurious life with a net worth of $85 million.

Before his successful career in Hollywood, he did various jobs to survive.

Harry worked in the Sacramento state legislature for a while after graduating and then spent a year attending grad school at Harvard.

From 1967 to 1968, he was a high school English and Social Studies teacher.

Nonetheless, he was in the entertainment business from his childhood.

Shearer began taking piano lessons from a teacher whose daughter was a child actress.

Later, the piano instructor wanted to shift careers and work as a children’s agent because she had connections in the industry.

Harry’s teacher requested his parents’ consent before taking him to an audition.

A few months later, she called Shearer’s parents to let them know that she had arranged for Harry to attend an audition for “The Jack Benny Program” on the radio.

Harry With His Wife (Source: The Arts Desk)
Harry With His Wife (Source: The Arts Desk)

Moreover, on June 12, 1974, Shearer married folk singer Penelope Nichols, although they divorced in 1977.

He married singer-songwriter Judith Owen on March 28, 1993, and the two of them started Courgette Records in 2005.

Since the late 1980s, he has frequently attended the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

Shearer has repeatedly criticized New Orleans’ levee system, and his 2010 film “The Big Uneasy” explores the structural flaws that resulted in flooding after Hurricane Katrina.

The movie shows that the fatality was caused by carelessness and poor leadership on the part of the city’s leaders.

Vacations

Harry loves traveling and spending quality time with his friends and families.

Of all the countries he has been to, Fiji is his idea of paradise, and he makes an effort to visit there each year. On one of his visits, he used a torch to go night snorkeling.

His favorite hotel is the Prague Four Seasons.

When he travels, he always has his AM/FM shortwave portable radio with him, one of his major travel essentials.

Harry always carries his iPod and iPhone with him, but he needs a radio that is simple to use and doesn’t require an internet connection.

Harry Shearer | Charity

Shearer and his wife host “Christmas Without Tears,” an annual holiday charity event.

They first held the charity event and concert in 2005 to support the residents of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Live performances have collected money for particular charities in New York, London, New Orleans, Chicago, and Los Angeles over the years.

The “Elton John’s Aids Foundation,” “Our Friends Place,” “West London Mission,” “Snow City Arts,” and other at-risk organizations have benefited from it.

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Harry Shearer | Movies, Books, Investment, and Endorsement

Movies

Shearer has appeared in a number of movies and television series in his career.

He played Mark Shubb in the film “A Mighty Wind” in 2003 and Victor Allan Miller in “For Your Consideration” in 2006.

He also provided the announcer’s voice in the 2016 movie “Mascots.” Harry served as the composer for the 1997 movie “Waiting for Guffman.”

“J. Edgar! The Musical,” which had its world premiere at Aspen’s U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, was co-written by Harry in 2003.

Harry Shearer Film
Harry Shearer Film (Source: FilmAffinity)

From 2007 to 2009, Shearer provided the voice of Mayor Whoozle for “Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!

In addition to playing G. Gordon Liddy in the 1999 film “Dick” and Richard Nixon in the TV special “Nixon’s the One,” he voiced Carl Sagan in the 1988 film “My Stepmother Is an Alien” (2012).

Harry portrayed Marc Gavin in the 2020 online drama “The Salon,” which was shot amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Likewise, has also appeared as a guest star on a number of TV shows, including “Friends” (1995), “Miami Vice” (1988), “Murphy Brown” (1990), and “ER” (1997).

Books

Shearer has ventured into the world of words and has written three books.

His first book, “Man Bites Town,” was published in 1993 and is a compilation of pieces he authored for The Los Angeles Times between 1989 and 1992.

His 1999 book “It’s the Stupidity, Stupid” examined some people’s hatred toward former President Bill Clinton.

Not Enough Indians,” is his third book and his first novel. It is a comic book about Native Americans and gambling that was published in 2006.

Investment & Endorsement

As of April 2024, Harry Shearer’s net worth is a massive $85 million.

Harry’s major investment is his career in the entertainment business, for which he has contributed his blood, sweat, and tears.

He has provided his voice and endorsed many video games.

“The Simpsons Cartoon Studio” (1996), “Virtual Springfield” (1997), “The Simpsons Wrestling” (2001), “The Simpsons: Road Rage” (2001), and others fall under his endorsed games.

Similarly, Harry has penned articles for the “Los Angeles Times Magazine,” “Newsweek,” and “Slate,” and in 2005, he started writing for “The Huffington Post” as a contributing blogger.

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Harry Shearer | Career

Harry was a member of the radio comedy group “The Credibility Gap” from 1969 to 1976.

The group first had a show on KRLA radio, but it was canceled in 1970, so they moved to KPPC-FM, which was canceled in 1971.

The comedy group then started playing in nightclubs and concert halls.

Shearer co-wrote the 1979 movie “Real Life” and contributed to the 1977 sitcom “Fernwood 2 Night” after the group broke up.

Harry With His Simpsons Character (Source: nerdy views)
Harry With His Simpsons Character (Source: nerdy views)

Harry became a cast member and writer for “Saturday Night Live” on NBC in 1979. He quit the sketch comedy show in 1980.

He decided to give the show another shot but quickly discovered that guests were treated better than the cast.

Shearer joined the voice cast of “The Simpsons,” an animated Fox sitcom, in 1989.

Among others, he has provided the voices for Kent Brockman, Reverend Lovejoy, Ned Flanders, Waylon Smithers, Principal Skinner, and Charles Montgomery Burns.

Some Interesting Facts About Harry Shearer

  • In 1953, Harry made his screen debut in “Abbott and Costello Go to Mars,” where he played a minor role.
  • Goucher College in Maryland awarded Harry an honorary doctorate in 2006.
  • Shearer worked in television, film, and radio throughout his childhood and teenage years.

FAQs

What is Harry Shearer’s favorite thing in London?

He likes the noon performances at London’s St. Martin-in-the-Fields on Trafalgar Square.

Similarly, he likes Ronnie Scott’s and the 606 Club on Lots Road in Chelsea.

Why did Harry Shearer not appear in popular series during his childhood?

His parents declared that they did not want him to be a recurring character in a show, and they preferred that he only perform smaller roles so that he can have a normal childhood.

Who voices Smithers in The Simpsons?

Harry provides the voice for Smithers.

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