Elaine Strich was born on the 2nd February in Detroit, Michigan USA, and was a Tony and Primetime Emmy Award-winning actress, best known to the world for her numerous Broadway appearances, including in “Bus Stop” (1956), “Sail Away” (1962), and “Elaine Stritch at Liberty” (2002), among others. She passed away in 2014.
Have you ever wondered how rich Elaine Stritch was at the time of her death? According to authoritative sources, it has been estimated that Stritch’s net worth was as high as $20 million, an amount earned through her long and successful career as an actress, which was active from 1944 until 2014. In 1995 she was inducted in the American Theater Hall of Fame.
Elaine Stritch Net Worth $20 Million
Elaine is the youngest child of three born to Mildred and her husband George Joseph Stritch, who worked as an executive at B.F Goodrich. Elaine was of part-Irish and Welsh ancestry. She studied acting at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York City, under Erwin Piscator, along with other students including Marlon Brando, and also Bea Arthur.
Elaine’s career started in 1944, but her Broadway debut came two years later, when she appeared in “Loco”, directed by Jed Harris. Soon she gained a role in “Made in Heaven”, and then appeared in “Angel in the Wings” (1947), in which she sang “Civilization”, and performed comedy sketches.
Little by little, Elaine’s name started becoming more sought on Broadway, and she later starred in the production “Bus Stop”, directed by William Inge, and also was the lead in the musical “Goldilocks”. In 1962 she was selected as the star of the musical “Sail Away”, although in the beginning she was given a minor role, but was then promoted to the lead. This celebrated her as a singer, aside from her already known acting talents, so her net worth was rising from two soutces.
She then featured as Ruth Sherwood in the musical “Wonderful Town” (1966), followed by an appearance in the “Private Lives”. In the early ‘70s, Elaine moved to London, where her reputation followed her, enabling her to immediately make an impact on London’s West End theatre scene. Her first appearance was in “Company”, and then in “Small Craft Warnings” (1973), and “The Gingerbread Lady” (1974), after which she took a break from theater until the early ‘80s.
Elaine moved back to the USA in 1982 after the death of her husband John Bay, and featured in such productions as “Suite in Two Keys” (1982), and “Follies In Concert” (1985). Although she returned to theatre, her career was nowhere near the status she had in the ‘70s but was steadily improving. In 1990 she was a replacement in “Love Letters”, for Kate Nelligan, and then in 1993 appeared in “Show Boat”, while three years later she starred in “A Delicate Balance”, for which she received a Tony Award- nomination in the category Best Actress in a Play. In 2002 she created a one-woman show – “Elaine Stritch at Liberty” – which won her a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance, then she had several more appearances, including in “The Full Monty” (2009), and “A Little Night Music” (2010).
Although renowned for her theatre work, Elaine also had success on-screen; starting in the late ‘40s with her role in the TV series “The Growing Paynes” as Laraine Payne, and in total she appeared in more than 70 film and TV productions until the end of her career in 2014. In 1957 she portrayed Helen Ferguson in the war drama “A Farewell to Arms”, starring Rock Hudson, Jennifer Jones and Vittorio De Sica, while in 1958 she was Liz Baker in the romantic comedy “The Perfect Furlough”, with Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh and Keenan Wynn. From 1960 until 1961 she portrayed Ruth Sherwood in the TV series “My Sister Eileen”, and then the role of Dorothy McNab in the TV series “Two’s Company” (1975-1979), followed by appearing as Helen Wiener in the drama “Providence”, her net worth still rising steadily.
The next decade wasn’t quite so good for Elaine’s on-screen career, but she bounced back in 1992 with the role of Lannie Stiglitz in the TV crime-drama series “Law & Order”, which won her a Primetime Emmy Award in the category Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. She started the new millennium with a role in the comedy crime film “Screwed”, next to Norm MacDonald and Dave Chappelle, and then played Dolly in the romantic drama “Autumn in New York”, starring Richard Gere and Winona Ryder. She made a minor appearance in the romantic comedy “Romance & Cigarettes” (2005), and the same year also featured in the romantic comedy “Monster-in-Law”, with Jennifer Lopez, Michael Vartan and Jane Fonda in the lead roles. Two years later she was selected for the role of Colleen Doaghy in the TV comedy series “30 Rock”, and appeared in several episodes, for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award in the category Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series. Before her death, Elaine also appeared in the film “River of Fundament” (2014), and in the TV series “Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja”, the same year.
Regarding her personal life, Elaine was married to actor John Bay from 1973 until his death 1982. She died in her sleep at her home in Birmingham, Maryland USA on the 17th July 2014 .She was a diabetic and also suffered from stomach cancer, however, neither of health problems were stated as cause of her death. Elaine also had problems with alcohol, but managed to overcome that small hindrance, as her career amply demonstrates.
