James Todd Spader was born on 7 February 1960, in Boston, Massachusetts USA, and is an actor known for a range of television and movie appearances, including ‘Pretty in Pink’, ‘Less Than Zero’, ‘The Pentagon Papers’ ‘Lies’, ‘The Practice’ and ‘Boston Legal’. James Spader is the winner of three Emmy Awards.
So just how rich is James Spader? Authoritative sources estimate that James’ net worth is at 12 million dollars, as of mid-2016, accumulated during his acting career now spanning almost 40 years.
James Spader Net Worth $12 Million
James was born into a family of educators Jean Fraser and Stoddard Greenwood Spader, in fact he was educated at his mother’s The Pike School, and his father’s Brooks School in North Andover, Massachusetts, but finished at Phillips Academy to the age of seventeen before moving to New York City to chase an acting career. James Spader opened his net worth account landing a role in the film ‘Endless Love’ directed by Franco Zeffirelli. Afterwards, he appeared in television films ‘A Killer in the Family’ directed by Richard T. Heffron, and ‘Family Secrets’ directed by Jack Hofsiss, plus on the big screen in films ‘Tuff Turf’ directed by Fritz Kiersch, ‘The New Kids’ directed by Sean S. Cunningham, ‘Pretty in Pink’ directed by Howard Deutch , and ‘Wall Street’ co-written and directed by Oliver Stone, among many others, now totalling over 40 plus 15 TV productions. However, the recognition of critics James gained only in 1988 co-starring with Cynthia Gibb in the horror film written and directed by Rowdy Herrington ‘Jack’s Black’, for which he received a nomination of a Saturn Award for the Best Actor, in this way increasing his net worth.
The following year Spader won a Cannes Film Festival Award for the Best Actor for his leading role in ‘Sex, Lies, and Videotape’ directed by Steven Soderbergh. The next successful role in the horror film ‘Wolf’ directed by Mike Nichols brought James a nomination of a Saturn Award for the Best Supporting Actor in 1994. Since then, for a decade Spader took various roles in films as follows ‘Stargate’ directed by Roland Emmerich, ‘Crash’ directed by David Cronenberg, ‘2 Days in the Valley’ directed by John Herzfeld and other films adding to his net worth.
From 2004, Spader began to dominate major film awards and festivals, this way making James net worth grew faster. He was nominated for a Satellite Award for the Best Actor in Television Series Drama for his role in David E. Kelly’s creation ‘Boston Legal’, and in 2005, he received four nominations and won a Primetime Emmy Award for the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for the same role. In 2006 and 2007 James won a Satellite Award for the Best Actor in Television Series and a Primetime Emmy Award for the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, not to mention the fact that he was nominated for several more awards the same years. It is worth mentioning, that his role of Alan Shore in the ‘Boston Legal’ was the best through his whole career and made the biggest impact on Spader’s net worth.
In 2012, James Spader increased his net worth receiving two nominations by Screen Actors Guild Awards, for the Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series in the comedy series ‘The Office’ and for the for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture for his role in the film ‘Lincoln’ directed by Steven Spielberg.
In his personal life, James Spader was married to Victoria Kheel(1987-2004) – they have two sons. He has been partnered with married Leslie Stefanson since 2002, and they have three children.
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, Cannes Best Actor Award, Satellite Award for Best Actor - Television Series Musical or Comedy
Nominations
Screen Actors Guild Awards for the Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series (2012), Saturn Award
Movies
‘The Office’, ‘Pretty in Pink’, ‘Less Than Zero’, ‘The Pentagon Papers’ ‘Lies’, ‘The Practice’, ‘Boston Legal’, ‘Stargate’ , ‘Crash’ , ‘2 Days in the Valley’
TV Shows
‘A Killer in the Family’, ‘Family Secrets’, ‘Tuff Turf’, ‘The New Kids’, ‘Wall Street'
I've always loved antiheroes. Those were the characters I was drawn to growing up, and if I'm equipped to play a hero at all, it's certainly an antihero!
2
When you're a kid running around playing make-believe, everything is changing from moment to moment - and a TV show is like that too. That's what I got into the business for! I like to know just enough to do the job.
3
[on his menial jobs before acting] I drove a truck for a while for a meat packing plant. I shoveled manure at the Clarmont Riding Academy in New York. Mopped floors for a while. I uploaded railroad cars and trailers at a warehouse. I wasn't really qualified for anything else.
4
[on doing Stargate (1994)] I didn't have a great knowledge of this genre. The only demand I was putting on the picture was that my paycheck came in and that I had fun making it. It seemed like it would be rather light-hearted. And it was. I'm not a big fan of films that take themselves seriously.
5
[1995] I'm not eager at all to present my life out there for public consumption. I like to do one or two films a year and then do what is absolutely obligatory in terms of promoting them. My life outside of films is vital to me.
6
[1990] I had real trouble, actually, for a long time, getting people to hire me. My anxiety used to manifest itself in strange ways. I'd go in to read for some innocent, vulnerable character, and the feedback would be, "Well, we met Jimmy... and he scared us.".
7
[1990] You know, when you choose to make your living as an actor, it's all fine and good to look at it as some kind of artistic endeavor. At its best, it is that. But the fact is, most of the actors out there don't earn $3 million a picture and can't afford to take two years off between films and look for the right thing. Most of us are tradesmen. Acting for me, is a passion, but it's also a job, and I've always approached it as such. I have a certain manual-laborist view of acting. There's no shame in taking a film because you need some money. No shame in taking a film because you have always wanted to visit China. I was thinking about this last night as I was driving home. I started to go back through the different films I've done, and the television movies I've done and I started to think about why I chose them at that time. And I realized, every single film I've ever done I've taken because of the money. Every single one. I'm not ashamed to say that.
8
I grew up a Red Sox fan. I grew up going to Fenway Park and the Museum of Fine Arts and the Science Museum and Symphony Hall and going to the Common, walking around. My whole family at different times lived and worked in Boston.
9
I played cops and robbers and pirates and all the rest when I was a kid, but I didn't want to grow up and be an actor and play cops and robbers and pirates. I wanted to grow up and be that, be cops and robbers and pirates.
10
[2005] I've had a lazy career, sometimes one film a year, sometimes none. I'm walking around in the street and doing this other thing, living, that I'm much more interested in. I just do some acting on the side.
11
Sometimes with people their work is the most important thing to them, and sometimes the work enables you to do other things that are more important to you. I probably am closer to that.
12
Acting is a great way to make a living, especially when I consider what my alternatives were and probably still are. I mean, you are only making movies. It is a lot less pressure than being a surgeon; although it seemed like the only other thing that I was qualified for was manual labour.
13
You just want to work. I like playing character roles and I do not mind being a real son-of-a-bitch, or embarrassing myself. But as you go along you begin to realize that the work has a criterion and as your choices get broader you start cutting out the things that are not worth the time. On the whole I have been lucky; I do not look back with a huge amount of distaste for the work I have done.
14
(on his sadomasochistic scenes in the movie Secretary (2002)): I did something in that scene that I'd never done in a film before but that's been the case with so many of my movies.
15
I have my own artistic sensibilities and Crash (1996) complements them. It is a provocative, challenging, disturbing film made for adults. It's not a skeleton in the closet for me.
16
Studio people are afraid of Crash (1996). It makes a statement about whoever releases the film. Miramax took a lot of flak for releasing Kids (1995). The same will happen for whoever releases Crash (1996).
17
If I don't need the money, I don't work. I'm going to spend time with my family and friends, and I'm going to travel and read and listen to music and try to learn a little bit more about how to be a human being, as opposed to learning how to be somebody else.
18
(Why did he accept the lead in Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)?): I took the film because I was interested in doing that part. Looking at work as stepping stones is something I don't have any time or energy for. It seems a shame to look at your work as some sort of means to an end, because the end is death, you know? The means is the flesh and blood, so you'd better enjoy it. F--- the end.
19
If I don't need the money, I don't work. I don't mind going to somebody and saying, "Okay, this is how much money I need to pay my bills for the next six months. If you pay me that, I'll do the film.".
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Fact
1
Was a close friend of John Kennedy Jr., both having attended Phillips Academy (Andover) high school together. Spader even dined occasionally with John Jr. at his mother Jacqueline Kennedy's Upper East Side apartment in New York.
2
The birth date on the "Ten Most Wanted" poster for Raymond "Red" Reddington on The Blacklist (2013) in February 7, 1960, Spader's actual birth date.
3
He has English, as well as smaller amounts of Scottish, French, Dutch, German, and Swiss-German, ancestry. Many of his ancestral lines trace back to Colonial America of the 1600s. Among James's famous ancestors are Laurent Clerc, an educator of the deaf, mathematician Nathaniel Bowditch, Revolutionary War general Joshua Babcock, and Paul Mascarene, a Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia. James also shares a common "Vanderbilt" ancestor with famous businessman Cornelius Vanderbilt.
Fiancée Leslie Stefanson gave birth to his third son on August 31, 2008.
8
Has a photographic memory. He can look at a script and he remembers what the pages look like. As he films a scene, he "reads" the page. The only reason he screws up a line is if very similar words (e.g. it and is) are written fairly close together.
9
His father died two weeks before he began production on Critical Care (1997).
10
He was working as a janitor at a rehearsal studio in Times Square when he landed his first feature film Endless Love (1981).
11
Auditioned for the role of Cadet Captain Alex Dwier in the drama film Taps (1981), but eventually lost to Sean Penn.
Is quick to point out that, unlike the sleazy, sneaky characters he is best known for playing, he is actually a nice, friendly man in real life.
15
First performer to win Leading Drama Actor Emmy Awards for portraying the same character (Alan Shore) on two different series (The Practice (1997) and Boston Legal (2004)).
16
Has very poor eyesight, and cannot wear contact lenses. Has said that in roles in which he does not wear his eyeglasses, he can barely make out the face of the actor across from him in the scene.
$10 Million
I wonder about some of these numbers. With the amazing career that Spader has had, I cannot believe he is barely worth $10M.