Fred MacMurray Net Worth

What Was Fred MacMurray's Net Worth and Salary?

Fred MacMurray was an American actor and businessman who had a net worth of $150 million at the time of his death in 1991. MacMurray appeared in more than 100 movies during a career that stretched from the early days of sound cinema through the 1970s. He was equally convincing as a romantic leading man, a comedy star, a film noir antihero, and the dependable father at the center of one of television's longest-running family sitcoms.

MacMurray delivered his most celebrated dramatic performance as insurance salesman Walter Neff in Billy Wilder's 1944 classic "Double Indemnity." He later worked with Wilder again in "The Apartment," playing a married executive who uses Jack Lemmon's apartment for extramarital affairs. Younger audiences came to know MacMurray through Walt Disney films including "The Shaggy Dog," "The Absent-Minded Professor," "Son of Flubber," and "The Happiest Millionaire."

From 1960 to 1972, MacMurray starred as widowed father Steve Douglas on "My Three Sons." Although he earned an enormous fortune from acting, much of his wealth came from decades of disciplined investing. He bought apartment buildings, office properties, income-producing real estate, and a large Northern California ranch. By the time of his death, his property portfolio was worth between $100 million and $150 million.

Early Life

Frederick Martin MacMurray was born on August 30, 1908, in Kankakee, Illinois. His father was a concert violinist, and Fred began performing music as a child. He was raised primarily in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, where he excelled academically and participated in football, baseball, basketball, and track.

MacMurray attended Carroll College on a scholarship and studied music while playing saxophone in local bands. He eventually left college and moved to Chicago, where he performed with dance orchestras and studied art at night.

After traveling to California with his mother, MacMurray found work as a movie extra and musician. He played saxophone with the California Collegians and later performed with the Gus Arnheim Orchestra, whose singers included Bing Crosby. MacMurray also appeared on Broadway in "Three's a Crowd" and served as Bob Hope's understudy in the musical "Roberta."

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Paramount Pictures and Movie Stardom

A Paramount Pictures talent scout noticed MacMurray onstage and arranged a screen test. He signed with the studio and achieved his breakthrough opposite Claudette Colbert in the 1935 romantic comedy "The Gilded Lily."

MacMurray and Colbert became a popular screen pairing and appeared together in films including "The Bride Comes Home," "Maid of Salem," "No Time for Love," "Practically Yours," and "The Egg and I." He also worked opposite some of Hollywood's biggest actresses, including Carole Lombard, Marlene Dietrich, Barbara Stanwyck, Madeleine Carroll, and Rosalind Russell.

His approachable personality made him a natural fit for romantic comedies and stories about ordinary men placed in unusual situations. During the late 1930s and early 1940s, he appeared in a rapid succession of films, including "Hands Across the Table," "Swing High, Swing Low," "True Confession," "Remember the Night," and "Dive Bomber."

"Double Indemnity" and Dramatic Roles

MacMurray initially resisted playing Walter Neff in "Double Indemnity" because the character was so different from the likable men he generally portrayed. Neff conspires with Barbara Stanwyck's Phyllis Dietrichson to murder her husband and collect an insurance payout.

Several actors reportedly rejected the part before director Billy Wilder persuaded MacMurray to accept it. The resulting performance became one of the defining roles of MacMurray's career and helped establish "Double Indemnity" as a landmark of film noir.

MacMurray later played Lieutenant Thomas Keefer in "The Caine Mutiny." He reunited with Wilder for 1960's "The Apartment," portraying personnel director Jeff Sheldrake, a polished but deeply dishonest executive. The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Disney Films

Walt Disney personally selected MacMurray to star in the 1959 family comedy "The Shaggy Dog." The movie became a major success and began a long relationship between the actor and the studio.

MacMurray played absent-minded inventor Professor Ned Brainard in "The Absent-Minded Professor," which earned him a Golden Globe nomination. He reprised the role in "Son of Flubber."

His other Disney films included "Bon Voyage!," "Follow Me, Boys!," "The Happiest Millionaire," and "Charley and the Angel." In 1987, MacMurray became the first performer to be named a Disney Legend.

"My Three Sons"

In 1960, MacMurray began starring as Steve Douglas on "My Three Sons." The sitcom followed a widowed aeronautical engineer raising his children with assistance from the family's live-in housekeeper.

MacMurray initially resisted committing to a weekly television series because he did not want to surrender his film career or spend most of the year working on a television set. Producers accommodated him with an unusual production schedule that allowed him to film all of his scenes in concentrated blocks.

The rest of the cast frequently filmed around MacMurray's schedule, sometimes performing scenes with a stand-in while his close-ups were recorded separately. The arrangement allowed him to complete an entire season's work in roughly two or three months.

"My Three Sons" aired on ABC before moving to CBS and remained on television for 12 seasons. MacMurray continued playing Steve Douglas until the series ended in 1972.

Salary and Real Estate Fortune

By 1943, MacMurray was earning $420,000 per year from Paramount Pictures. That was equal to around $6.5 million per year in today's money and made him the highest-paid actor in the world. He was also one of the five highest-paid Americans that year.

Despite his enormous salary, MacMurray became famous within Hollywood for his frugality. He avoided extravagant parties, brought his own lunch to work, watched his expenses closely, and invested much of his income rather than spending it.

MacMurray began buying real estate while property values were still depressed during the 1930s and 1940s. His holdings included apartment buildings, office properties, income-producing units, and other commercial investments. In 1944, he paid $600,000 for the Bryson Apartment Hotel in Los Angeles and held interests in several other apartment buildings.

He also invested in businesses including a knitting mill, a cold-storage operation, and a golf and tennis club. MacMurray sometimes negotiated a percentage of a film's gross revenue in addition to his regular salary.

At the time of his death in 1991, MacMurray's real estate portfolio was worth between $100 million and $150 million.

MacMurray Ranch

In 1941, MacMurray purchased the historic Porter ranch in Sonoma County's Russian River Valley as an escape from Hollywood. He expanded the property into a working agricultural operation spanning approximately 1,750 acres.

The ranch produced fruits, vegetables, and other crops and supplied surplus food to the military during World War II. MacMurray later raised prize-winning Black Angus cattle on the land.

The property remained an important retreat for MacMurray and his family throughout his life. It was sold in 1996 and converted into MacMurray Estate Vineyards, which produces wines bearing the family name.

Personal Life and Death

MacMurray married dancer Lillian Lamont in 1936. They adopted two children, Susan and Robert. Lillian died from cancer in 1953.

In 1954, MacMurray married actress June Haver. They adopted twin daughters, Katherine and Laurie, and remained married until his death.

MacMurray underwent surgery for throat cancer during the 1980s and later developed leukemia. He died from pneumonia on November 5, 1991, at the age of 83. He was survived by June, his four children, seven grandchildren, and a great-grandchild.

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