Charlotte Rae Lubotsky was born on the 22nd April 1926, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA, and is an actress, comedian, singer and dancer, probably still most famous for her role of Edna Garrett in the 1980s NBC sitcoms “Diff’rent Strokes” and “The Facts of Life”. Charlotte is also known for her appearance in “Sesame Street”, in which she portrayed Molly, the Mail Lady. She has been nominated for Tony and Primetime Emmy Awards, and for her engagements in “The Facts of Life” she was honored with a TV Land Award in 2011.
Have you ever wondered how much wealth this acting veteran has accumulated so far? How rich Charlotte Rae is? According to sources, it is estimated that the total amount of Charlotte Rae’s net worth, as of late 2016, is $4 million, acquired through her vivid multimedia career which is now spanning more than six decades.
Charlotte Rae Net Worth $4 million
Charlotte was born the middle of three daughters in a family of Russian Jewish immigrants, Esther and Meyer Lubotsky. She attended Shorewood High School before enrolling at Northwestern University where she studied communications, but from which she never graduated. Charlotte’s interest in acting and performing in general dates back to her teenage years, when she became engaged in some radio work and joined Wauwatosa Children’s Theater. At the age of 16, she joined a professional theater company – Port Players – as their apprentice. In 1948, Charlotte relocated to New York City, where she began performing in nightclubs and acting, including in The Big Apple’s prestigious and posh clubs at that time – Village Vanguard and Blue Angel, the home of Elaine May and Barbra Streisand. These engagements provided the basis for Charlotte Rae’s net worth.
Charlotte’s real acting career began in the early 1950s when she was cast in Broadway musicals including “The Threepenny Opera”, “Li’l Abner”, “Three Wishes for Jamie” and “Pickwick”; for the latter engagement, she was nominated for a prestigious Tony Award. These were followed by her first and only solo album, “Songs I Taught My Mother” which was released in 1955 and featured several “silly, sinful and satirical” songs, before in 1956 appearing in Ben Bagley’s “The Littlest Revue”. It is certain that all these engagements contributed to the overall wealth of Charlotte Rae.
Parallel to stage, Charlotte was developing her television career. She debuted on the small screen in 1954 when she appeared in one episode of “Look Up and Live” which was followed by appearances in “United States Steel Hour”, “The Pill Silvers Show” as well as “Play of the Week” and “The Colgate Comedy Hour”. However, her more notable role was as Sylvia Schnauser in the police comedy “Car 54, Where Are You?” in which she starred between 1961 and 1963. She also appeared in eight episodes of the third season of “Sesame Street”. Doubtlessly, these ventures increased Charlotte Rae’s overall net worth by a large margin.
In 1974, Charlotte transferred to Los Angeles, California with Hollywood on her mind, aiming to raise her career to a new level. The real breakthrough in Rae’s acting career came in 1978 when she was cast for the role of Edna Garrett, a housekeeper, in “Diff’rent Strokes”. After appearing in all 24 episodes of the first season and over a dozen episodes of the season two, her character became so popular among the audience that producers, alongside Charlotte, came up with the idea of a spin off – “The Facts of Life”, which subsequently aired for nine seasons, between 1979 and 1986. The role of Edna Garrett marked the acting career of Charlotte Rae and is definitely her most notable role so far. It had also brought her a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in 1982. Certainly, besides bringing popularity, these engagements had also brought a massive increment to Charlotte Rae’s net worth.
In the late 1990s, Charlotte acted in “101 Dalmatians: The Series” and in “The Brothers Flub” TV series. In 2008, she played Roxanne Gaines in the popular medical drama TV series – “ER”. Apart from her TV career, Rae had also appeared in over a dozen movies of which most notable are “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan” (2008), “Love Sick Love” (2012) and “Ricky and the Flash” (2015). These roles enriched her professional portfolio as well as her overall wealth.
When it comes to her personal life, Charlotte Rae married composer John Strauss in 1951, with whom she has two sons. After John came out as bisexual, Charlotte filed for divorce in 1976. In 2009, she was diagnosed with early pancreatic cancer; after several years of treatment, in 2015 she was declared cancer free.
