G.W. Bailey Net Worth

What is G. W. Bailey's Net Worth?

G. W. Bailey is an American actor who has a net worth of $2 million. G. W. Bailey first gained widespread attention for his role as Staff Sergeant Luther Rizzo in the final four seasons of the television series "M*A*S*H." He gained further recognition for playing Captain Thaddeus Harris in the "Police Academy" film franchise. Later in his career, Bailey played Detective Lieutenant Louie Provenza on the TNT series "The Closer" and its spinoff series "Major Crimes." He appeared in 109 episodes of "The Closer" and 105 episodes of "Major Crimes."

Early Life and Education

George William Bailey was born on August 27, 1944, in Port Arthur, Texas. There, he attended Thomas Jefferson High School. For his higher education, Bailey attended Lamar University in nearby Beaumont before transferring to Texas Tech University in Lubbock. He left college in the mid-1960s, but returned in the 1990s to earn his BFA degree in theater from Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos.

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Television Career

Bailey had his first significant television role in 1974, as the supporting character Officer Remsen in the first season of the ABC detective drama series "Harry O." In the years after that, he had guest roles on such shows as "Charlie's Angels," "How the West Was Won," "Starsky & Hutch," "Laverne & Shirley," and "Happy Days." Bailey landed his breakout role in 1979, as cigar-chomping southerner Staff Sergeant Luther Rizzo on the hit CBS sitcom "M*A*S*H," then in its eighth season. He played the character through the show's eleventh and final season, which wrapped up in early 1983. Meanwhile, in the early '80s, Bailey appeared in episodes of "Benson," "Flo," and "St. Elsewhere," and also had roles in the television films "Murder in Texas," "Bitter Harvest," and "The Capture of Grizzly Adams." Later in the decade, he was in the ABC miniseries "War and Remembrance" and the NBC television film "The Gifted One."

Bailey mostly appeared in television films in the 1990s, starting with "Fine Things" and "Love and Lies." He was subsequently in "A Mother's Justice," "Before the Storm," "Bed of Lies," "Dead Before Dawn," "No Child of Mine," and "The Siege at Ruby Ridge," among other TV films. Bailey also appeared on the short-lived ABC series "Under Cover" in the early '90s. In the latter half of the decade, he played Big Jim Foxworthy on the sitcom "The Jeff Foxworthy Show," and appeared in the TNT miniseries "Solomon" and "Jesus," both part of the network's "Bible Collection" series. Bailey was in a third miniseries from the collection, "St. Paul," in 2000. He went on to have one of the biggest roles of his career starting in 2005, as LAPD Detective Lieutenant Louie Provenza on the TNT police procedural series "The Closer." Bailey appeared in all seven seasons of the show through 2012, and subsequently reprised his role in all six seasons of the spinoff series "Major Crimes" from 2012 to 2018.

(Photo by Gary Miller/FilmMagic)

Film Career

Bailey made his big-screen debut in the 1979 Chuck Norris action thriller "A Force of One." Five years later, he debuted his most famous film role: Thaddeus Harris in the comedy "Police Academy." The film was a huge commercial hit, spawning six sequels. Bailey reprised his role as Captain Harris in four of the sequels: "Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol" (1987), "Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach" (1988), "Police Academy 6: City Under Siege" (1989), and "Police Academy: Mission to Moscow" (1994).

After the first "Police Academy" film, Bailey reunited with that film's writer-director Hugh Wilson for the comedy Western "Rustlers' Rhapsody," co-starring Tom Berenger. That film came out in 1985, the same year Bailey appeared in the science-fiction horror film "Warning Sign." He went on to have major roles in the science-fiction comedy "Short Circuit" (1986), the romantic comedy "Mannequin" (1987), and the heist comedy "Burglar" (1987). Bailey didn't act much on the big screen in the 1990s. He was slightly more prolific in the '00s, with roles in such films as "Scorcher" and "Cake: A Wedding Story."

Personal Life

Bailey was married to Eleanor Goosby from 1966 until their divorce in 1999. He has two children. From 2001 to 2019, he served as the executive director of the Sunshine Kids Foundation, a Texas-based nonprofit that provides free programs and events to child cancer patients.

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