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Chevy Chase Net Worth | How Rich Is The Talented Star?

Are you interested in discovering Chevy Chase net worth and how much he earns? Then, you’re in the right place.

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If you follow the world of comedy, you must have heard the name Chevy Chase at any point. The actor, who comes from the United States, has dedicated his life to making people laugh. Audiences across the globe know him from his numerous comedy movies as well as his involvement in TV shows like Saturday Night Live.

However, details about his personal and professional life aren’t very accessible. So, we compiled everything in one place for you to explore. In the following paragraphs, we’ll dive into what contributes to the high Chevy Chase’s net worth and what makes him memorable. So, enjoy!

Who is Chevy Chase?

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Cornelius Crane Chase or later called Chevy Chase is an American comedian, actor, producer, and writer. Even though he was born in New York and grew up in a wealthy family, he has worked multiple jobs and tried different things before eventually settling for comedy.

He found his passion in it and people recognized his talent in this field, following his performances and watching his movies and TV shows. Actually, he has acted in a lot of them and they were mainly successful. Also, he has tried his chances in music and recorded a few songs, which his fans accepted well.

He didn’t stop there, though. He went on to participate in talk shows and even started his own called The Chevy Chase Show. Unfortunately, he resigned and stopped acting recently due to health issues related to alcohol abuse. This has seriously impacted his personal life as well as the overall Chevy Chase net worth.

Chevy Chase Net Worth Estimate

As you can guess, in general, Chevy Chase net worth is considered to be very high. He precedes many of the famous stars out there when you take into consideration both his earnings and his capital. Moreover, the golden years for Chevy Chase net worth were the 80s, especially in the middle when he was making as much as 7 million USD per movie.

During this time, he built his reputation as one of the most famous actors in Hollywood. And he starred in sixteen movies. Although after all the buzz, his career began to slow down in the 90s, he kept acting and is still in this industry. This ensured a constant flow of earnings.

Currently, Chevy Chase net worth is estimated to be about 50 million USD. Thanks to this, he has a rich lifestyle as the owner of his own golf club as well as big residences, hotels, and restaurants. They are speckled throughout the United States and other large brands like Hyatt recognize and praise them.

Chevy Chase Place of Birth

Chevy was born in New York in the United States. More precisely, he spent his early years in Lower Manhattan and grew up in Woodstock. He can be considered a member of the American high society as he belongs to the 14th generation of citizens of New York and comes from a line of wealthy ancestors. This includes some notable families from the American Revolution, as well.

The ancestors on his mother’s side came to Manhattan in New York in the distant 1624 and since then have established their high position in society. Therefore, from an early age, Chase was put in the Social Register.

However, New York wasn’t the only place where he spent his youth. He was often spending time in Massachusetts on his family’s summer estate in Ipswich, too.

Chevy Chase Early Life

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Cornelius Chase was born on October 8, 1943. As we mentioned, his birth city is New York but he spent his childhood in numerous places. Among other things, this was because of his parents. His father Edward Tinsley Chase was a writer at a magazine and a book editor while his mother Cathalene Parker was a librettist and a pianist whose father fought in World War II.

However, they divorced when Chase was only four years old. After that, his father remarried to a famous family that worked in the coffee industry and his mother got two husbands after him. Of course, this affected Chase, who had to move around and spend his early years in different places. This included Massachusetts and the summer estate that the family had over there.

Chase, himself, has said that he was surrounded by the upper-middle class despite the fact that his grandfather on his mother’s side didn’t leave any capital to his mother after his death. Also, in his biography, he shared that his mother and stepfather abused him psychologically as a child. In 2005, both of his parents passed away, leaving him alone.

As for his education, Chase attended the Riverdale Country School in the Bronx in New York City. But he was expelled from it and continued to study in the boarding school called the Stockbridge School. It was located in Stockbridge in Massachusetts.

During his studies there, the other students knew Chase as a joker that made fun of a lot of things, regularly lifting their spirits. He graduated from there in 1962 and enrolled in Haverford College where he studied from 1962 to 1963. There he became recognized for his absurd humor and physical comedy that involved his well-known pratfalls.

He left this college, too, and transferred back to New York at Bard College. This is where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in the English language degree.

Before he rose to fame, though, he tried working multiple jobs. Among them were a construction worker, cab and truck driver, motorcycle messenger, picker of fruit, busboy, supermarket manager, waiter, audio engineer, and theater usher. So, he had many opportunities to acquire experiences and learn new things about people that later surely influenced his comedy shows.

Chevy Chase Height and Weight

It’s clearly visible that Chevy Chase is a tall guy and during different periods in his life his appearance has changed. This largely includes his weight which went up and down as he got older.

Currently, he looks nice for his age with an expected weight of around 210 pounds or 96 kilograms. Moreover, he’s 6 feet and 4 inches or 1.93 meters tall. Thanks to these measurements, he appears healthy and relatively fit.

 

Chevy Chase Career

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Before Chevy Chase’s net worth reached stratospheric numbers, he was a part of the American underground comedy scene. He co-founded his comedy crew One Channel, which kick-started his career. After doing small comedy-related gigs like writing a spoof of Mission Impossible and writing on the Smother Brothers show, he entered the profession full-time.

It was then that he became a part of the hit radio show The National Lampoon Radio Hour as a writer and cast member. This radio show played a pivotal role in his future comedy career as this was the moment Chase started collaborating with future stars like Bill Murray, John Belushi, and the like.

Moreover, the cast of this show, later on, joined NBC’s Saturday Night. This title may ring a bell even in the ears of younger readers because this show got renamed into the one we all know and love today – Saturday Night Live (or SNL for short). Chase’s early career was marked by an appearance in the film The Groove Tube and the off-Broadway show National Lampoon: Lemmings.

SNL has brought Chase everything you expect. An increase in Chevy Chase’s net worth and lots of popularity in the spotlight. Everyone knows that the show represents a powerful platform for honing the craft and presenting yourself to the public.

In addition, Chase has been there since the show’s inception in 1975. In the episodes of the first season, Chase captured the heart of America by introducing the episodes, often performing acts of physical comedy. One of his most famous impersonations was that of President Gerald Ford.

Practically, the synonym for Chase’s involvement with SNL is the Weekend Update segment of the show. It gave him the opportunity to deliver some iconic lines and make a mark on the show and American comedy, in general.

Chase’s contractual agreement with SNL lasted for just a year. This was more than enough for him to be one of the most recognizable stars in the show’s history. He was even listed as one of the most influential ones among 141 cast members of the show.

His live-action comic acting, as well as comedy writing on the show, has earned Chase a plethora of accolades and prestigious awards. Among them are two Emmy awards and a Golden Globe. At the time he was known as the funniest man in the States.

As it was mentioned, after a year, in 1976, in the middle of the second season, Chase left Saturday Night Live. He was the first of the original cast to depart the show.

Despite not being a cast member, he has sometimes come back to the show as a guest host or through cameo appearances. On the spur of his newfound fame, Chase was involved with a couple of films. He was ready to take the film industry by storm.

Chase joined the crew of movie stars with roles in movies like Tunnel Vision and Oh! Heavenly Dog. Yet, the wider movie-going audiences started noticing him with the box office hit Foul Play – a romantic comedy thriller, which seemed a perfect fit for Chase.

He continued the winning streak by starring in Caddyshack, another comedy movie that is now considered a classic. It was directed by fellow comedian Harold Ramis. Chase’s popularity built up just as Chevy Chase’s net worth.

Caddyshack was followed by another comedy hit called Seems Like Old Times. Then, Chase decided to switch gears and try his chances in the music industry, too. After conquering TV and movies, his self-titled record album was released, featuring covers of popular songs.

Chase and his fans will definitely remember the filming of the movie Modern Problems for the rest of their lives. During its production, he experienced a near-death experience when he was almost electrocuted. This marked a dark period in the star’s life. Moreover, it’s said he was experiencing depression these days, too.

Afterward, he moved on to film National Lampoon’s Vacation, which had several sequels, too. It was the most popular Chase movie at the time and now is one of the highlights of his career.

Another one of his biggest hit movies was Three Amigos with his friends and SNL-alums Steve Martin and Martin Short. The three would attract massive numbers of fans even internationally.

This cemented his comedy and movie star status. What’s more, the three of them would also host SNL later on thanks to the movie’s popularity.

Undoubtedly, the 1980s represented the peak of Chase’s career. These days, Chevy Chase’s net worth and earnings consisted of seven million dollars per movie.

Chase was the host of the Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, two times – once in 1987 and then the following year. Besides that, he appeared in several music videos.

One of them was the video for the song Voices That Care, which was produced for a great cause. Its objective was to entertain and support U.S. troops. The project was supported by the Red Cross, as well.

Furthermore, Chase is globally known for other movies like Fletch, Spies Like Us, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Man of the House, Vegas Vacation, Snow Day, Hot Tub Time Machine, and the like. He also appeared in the commercially- and critically-acclaimed NBC sitcom Community. He starred in the show and then returned for a cameo appearance.

Chase was involved with the week-night talk show The Chevy Chase Show on FOX, but it was shortly canceled and wasn’t widely accepted by the audience. Like all movie stars out there, he has had successes and failures in his career. Yet he is one of the stars that are still popular and a name that brings a smile to people’s faces even today.

Most notable proof of his amazing career includes his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which he earned in 1993. In the same year, he was proclaimed Hasty Pudding’s Man of the Year. Also, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Harvard Lampoon, which makes perfect sense and is a full-circle moment for the comedian.

Chevy Chase Personal Life and Family

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The popular actor and comedian has had quite a turbulent personal life in parallel with his turbulent career. Together with his wife Jayni Luke, he has three daughters and is living in Bedford, in the U.S. state of New York.

He had two previous failed marriages with Susan Hewitt and Jacqueline Carlin. He divorced very quickly after each of the marriages – with Hewitt after two years and with Carlin after four years.

One of the moments that attracted the media’s attention regarding his relationship is the feud between Chase and Bill Murray. Both of them were involved in a fistfight in a dressing room while filming an SNL episode. The good news is that besides the bad words spoken, the two actors reconciled and later starred together in the massive hit Caddyshack.

Furthermore, allegedly Chase’s off-screen life was marked by rehabilitation and treatment from painkiller addiction and alcoholism.

Besides Chase’s on-screen profession, he is a known philanthropist and environmentalist. His personal political views lean toward liberal. Additionally, he was fundraising for President Bill Clinton and John Kerry. He was openly disapproving of President George W. Bush.

Chevy Chase Net Worth & Bio Summary

Everything that we previously shared indicates that Chevy Chase is an interesting person who’s had many ups and downs throughout his life. Yet as it seems, he managed to rise above all of them and become famous in his field – comedy.

Actually, when it comes to his popularity, his original sense of humor together with his ability to present it through acting and writing has brought him far in Hollywood and opened a lot of doors. This only made Chevy Chase net worth go up and his name got recognized around the world. Especially, the 80s and the beginning of the 90s were fruitful for him and his career.

Winning the Golden Globes awards and the Emmys contributed to Chevy Chase’s net worth, as well. Not to mention that he even received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Basically, he moved to Hollywood at exactly the right time in his life and was able to get roles that were suitable for him, and that made him widely successful among different audiences.

So, those that are curious to uncover Chevy Chase net worth and other details about him in one place can check out the table below:

NameChevy Chase
Real NameCornelius Crane Chase
Age78
Place of BirthNew York, United States
OccupationComedian, actor, writer, musician
Net Worth Estimate50 million USD