Jill Clayburgh Net Worth

What was Jill Clayburgh's Net Worth?

Jill Clayburgh was an American actress who had a net worth of $4 million at the time of her death in 2010. Jill Clayburgh is known for her performances in such films as "Silver Streak," "An Unmarried Woman," "La Luna," "Starting Over," "First Monday in October," and "I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can." She also starred on stage in the Broadway musicals "The Rothschilds" and "Pippin" and appeared on such television series as "Ally McBeal," "Leap of Faith," "Nip/Tuck," and "Dirty Sexy Money."

Early Life and Education

Jill Clayburgh was born on April 30, 1944 in New York City to Protestant mother Julia, an actress, and Jewish father Albert, a manufacturing executive. She has a brother named Jim who is a scenic designer. Growing up, Clayburgh clashed with her parents and had a rebellious streak that landed her in therapy. She was raised on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where she attended the all-girls Brearley School. As a teenager, Clayburgh underwent two back-alley abortions. For her higher education, she attended Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, followed by acting training at the HB Studio.

Film Career

In 1969, Clayburgh made her screen debut playing the bride-to-be in the farcical film "The Wedding Party," which was a joint directorial effort between Sarah Lawrence College theater professor Wilford Leach and his students Brian De Palma and Cynthia Munroe. In the first half of the 1970s, Clayburgh appeared in such films as "Portnoy's Complaint," "The Thief Who Came to Dinner," and "The Terminal Man." She had bigger roles in the latter half of the decade, starting with her portrayal of Hollywood legend Carole Lombard in the 1976 biopic "Gable and Lombard." Later that year, Clayburgh played the love interest of Gene Wilder's character in the box-office hit "Silver Streak." She had another hit with the 1977 football comedy "Semi-Tough," co-starring Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson. Clayburgh's critical breakthrough came the following year when she starred as divorcée Erica Benton in Paul Mazursky's "An Unmarried Woman." The film was a major success, earning Clayburgh the Best Actress Award at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival and her first Academy Award nomination. She gave two more lauded performances in 1979, playing opera singer Caterina Silveri in Bernardo Bertolucci's "La Luna" and nursery-school teacher Marilyn Holmberg in Alan J. Pakula's "Starting Over." Clayburgh received Golden Globe Award nominations for both, as well as an Academy Award nomination for "Starting Over."

In 1980, Clayburgh starred opposite Michael Douglas in Claudia Weill's "It's My Turn." The next year, she starred opposite Walter Matthau in "First Monday in October," for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination. In 1982, Clayburgh portrayed drug-addicted documentary filmmaker and author Barbara Gordon in the biopic "I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can," based on Gordon's memoir of the same name. She followed that by playing the titular character in Costa-Gavras's 1983 drama "Hanna K.," which was such a commercial failure that it stalled her career. Clayburgh returned to the big screen in 1986 as the star of the mystery thriller "Where Are the Children?" The year after that, she starred in Andrei Konchalovsky's "Shy People." Clayburgh went on to have mostly supporting roles in the 1990s, with credits including "Whispers in the Dark," "Rich in Love," "Naked in New York," "Going All the Way," and "Fools Rush In." In many of these films, she was typecast as a concerned mother. Clayburgh was less prolific on the big screen in the 2000s, although she did have notable roles in "Never Again," "Falling," and "Running with Scissors." Her final two films were posthumous releases: 2010's "Love & Other Drugs," in which she played the mother of Jake Gyllenhaal's character, and 2011's "Bridesmaids," in which she played the mother of Kristen Wiig's character.

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Television Career

Clayburgh first appeared on television with a bit part in a 1968 episode of "N.Y.P.D." The following year, she played Grace Bolton on the soap opera "Search for Tomorrow." In the first half of the 1970s, Clayburgh had guest roles on "The Snoop Sisters," "Medical Center," "The Rockford Files," and "Maude." She starred in her first television film, "Hustling," in 1975, and earned an Emmy Award nomination for her performance as a prostitute named Wanda. Clayburgh gave another acclaimed performance in the 1976 television film "Griffin and Phoenix," co-starring Peter Falk. She didn't appear much on the small screen in the 1980s, with her few credits including the television films "Miles to Go" and "Fear Stalk." In the early 1990s, Clayburgh portrayed English actress and singer Jill Ireland in the television biopic "Reason for Living: The Jill Ireland Story." She also played the mother of Tracey Gold's protagonist in the 1994 television film "For the Love of Nancy." Clayburgh was subsequently the mother of Kellie Martin's protagonist in the 1995 television film adaptation of the novel "The Face on the Milk Carton." In 1997, she played the mother of Keri Russell's main character in the television film "When Innocence is Lost."

After years of acting in television films, Clayburgh returned to acting in television series in the late 1990s. She had a guest role on "Law & Order" in 1998 and main roles on the short-lived shows "Trinity" and "Everything's Relative" in 1999. Between 1999 and 2001, Clayburgh played the mother of Calista Flockhart's titular character on "Ally McBeal." After that, she played Cricket Wardwell on the short-lived NBC sitcom "Leap of Faith." In 2004, Clayburgh guest-starred as Bobbi Broderick on the FX medical drama series "Nip/Tuck," a role that garnered her an Emmy Award nomination. The same year, she played Victoria Stewart in three episodes of the ABC legal drama series "The Practice." Clayburgh's final television role was also her biggest: wealthy socialite and matriarch Letitia Darling on ABC's "Dirty Sexy Money." She starred alongside Donald Sutherland, Peter Krause, William Baldwin, Natalie Zea, Glenn Fitzgerald, and Seth Gabel, among others. "Dirty Sexy Money" ran for two seasons from 2007 to 2009.

Theater Career

Clayburgh began her professional theater career with the Charles Street Repertory Theater in Boston. In 1968, she made her off-Broadway debut in the double bill of "The Indian Wants the Bronx" and "It's Called the Sugar Plum" before making her Broadway debut in "The Sudden and Accidental Re-Education of Horse Johnson." The next year, Clayburgh was in an off-Broadway production of "Calling in Crazy." She had her Broadway breakthrough in 1970 when she began starring in the new musical "The Rothschilds." The show ran for over 500 performances until 1972 and earned Clayburgh a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.

Clayburgh had another major success on Broadway in the original production of the musical "Pippin," which ran for 1,944 performances from 1972 to 1977. Meanwhile, in 1974, she acted on Broadway in Tom Stoppard's "Jumpers." Clayburgh didn't return to Broadway until 1984, when she appeared in previews of the revival of "Design for Living." Having mostly focused on film and television in the 1990s, Clayburgh resumed her theater career in the 2000s with roles in the off-Broadway play "The Exonerated" and the Broadway play "A Naked Girl on the Appian Way." Her final major theater appearances were in the Broadway revival of Neil Simon's "Barefoot in the Park" and the off-Broadway play "The Clean House," both in 2006.

Personal Life and Death

From 1967 to 1972, Clayburgh dated fellow actor Al Pacino. The two appeared together in some plays and on television. In 1979, Clayburgh married playwright and screenwriter David Rabe, with whom she had a son named Michael and a daughter named Lily Rabe, who became an actress.

In the late 1980s, Clayburgh was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. She privately battled the disease for over two decades before she passed away on November 5, 2010 at her home in Lakeville, Connecticut.

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