Richard A. “Rick” Baker is a special make-up effects creator, special effects supervisor and make-up artist born on 8th December 1950, in Binghamton, New York State USA. He is best known for his creature effects, and has won the Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyiling seven times.
Have you ever wondered how rich Rick Baker is? According to sources it has been estimated that Baker’s overall net worth is $3 million, as of July 2017. Baker has accumulated his wealth through an extraordinarily successful career which he started in the early ‘70s. During his more than four decades long career, Rick has placed himself among the best make-up effect artists in the entertainment industry, so significantly adding to his net worth.
Rick Baker Net Worth $3 Million
Rick’s father, Ralph B.Baker, was also a professional artist, which influenced Rick in developing his interest in art. In his teenage years, he started creating artificial body parts for fun, and briefly appeared in “The Night Turkey”, a video parody of 1972 “The Night Stalker” film. His first professional job came a year later, in “The Exorcist” film, in which he assisted veteran Dick Smith in prosthetic makeup effects. This catapulted him to supervising the creation of aliens in “Star Wars” in 1977, and another big project four years later when he created the wolfman in “An American Werewolf in London”, a project which earned him an Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. Thanks to his talent and devotion to creating monsters, Baker earned the nickname “Rick Baker, Monster Maker” which he verified once again after working on Michael Jackson’s 1983 music video “Thriller”. Rick was the man who turned all of Jackson’s backup performers and the singer himself into a troupe of dancing zombies. Another big project came in 1987 when he was hired to work on “Harry and the Hendersons” fantasy-comedy film, which he considers one of his proudest achievements.
All these efforts contributed significantly to his net worth, and Rick’s talent is widely recognized as he has been nominated for the Best Makeup Oscar ten more times, received the Jack Pierce – Lifetime Achievement Award title, and awarded a Doctorate from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco in 2008. Some of his other more notable projects include “The Nutty Professor”(1996), “Men in Black” (1997), Tim Burton’s “Planet of the Apes”(2001), “X-man: The Last Stand”(2006) among many others. In November 2012, Baker received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but three years later in May 2015 Rick announced his retirement stating he did not want to give into the demands of those who wanted the job to be done quickly and cheaply, and that it was time for him to step out of the business after such a long time.
Apart from his fascinating career as a make-up artist, Baker also had a minor acting career. He portrayed the main role in the 1976 remake of “King Kong”, and appeared in a cameo role in the film’s 2005 remake. Other appearances include roles in films “Into the Night”, “Men in Black II”, “Men in Black III”, “The Haunted Mansion”, “The Wolfman” and “Rings”.
When it comes to his private life, Rick has married twice, firstly to Elaine Baker from 1974 to 1984, and his second wife is Silvia Abascal who he married in 1987, and with whom he has two children.
