You’ve all heard about Morgan Freeman and you probably associate his name and voice with some of the greatest movies of these last decades. Morgan Freeman is a respected and very popular American actor, producer and narrator, and one of the living legends of Hollywood.
Film titles such as Million Dollar Baby, The Shawshank Redemption or Invictus brought Freeman world wide recognition, numerous awards and good revenues to add to his net worth of over $250 million in 2021. He’s ranked as the 4th highest box office star, with many box office hits under his belt.
Early Life
Morgan Freeman was born on June 1, 1937 in Memphis, Tennessee as the youngest of four children. His parents weren’t rich or famous and they were struggling to make a living. To find jobs, they had to move frequently before finally settling to Chicago, Illinois.
During his childhood, Morgan had a passion for movies and admired actors like Gary Cooper, Spencer Tracy and Sidney Poitier. He got into acting at school when he was just nine and at twelve he won a drama competition at Broad Street High School in Greenwood, Mississippi.
Though he was good at acting, his biggest dream was to become a fighter pilot in the US Air Force, so he gave it a shot. He didn’t get to fly, but he was assigned to ground radar work. After realizing that the reality was a lot more different than what he dreamed of, in 1959, after four years of service, he left the Air Force and decided to try his luck with acting.
He then moved to Los Angeles, California and started taking dancing and acting classes besides working some trivial jobs to support his living. During the early 60’s, he moved to New York City, where he worked as a dancer at the 1964 World’s Fair. He made his off-Broadway debut in 1996 in The Nigger Lovers, but also continued to be involved with theater until later.
Acting Career
Before getting to be known on the big screen, Morgan Freeman first shot to fame came in the 70’s in the children’s show The Electric Company. Later on, in the 80’s, he became popular by playing supporting roles in a couple of feature films. His big break came in 1985 with Marie and 1987 with Street Smart. The latter got him an Oscar nomination and served as a launchpad to stardom.
In 1989 Freeman was cast in the acclaimed civil war drama Glory and the comedy-drama Driving Miss Daisy. The 90’s saw him in big budget movies like 1994’s The Shawshank Redemption, Seven (1995) and Deep Impact (1998).
The next period brought Morgan Freeman on the big screen in more successful titles such as Bruce Almighty (2003), The Bucket List (2007), Wanted (2008), The Dark Knight (2008), Invictus (2009), Red (2010). He received an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for 2004’s Million Dollar Baby.
During the last years, Freeman played in The Dark Knight Rises (2012), the action thriller Olympus Has Fallen (2013), the science fiction Oblivion (2013), Last Knights (2015) and Ted 2 (2015).
Across the years he earned a reputation for depicting wise, fatherly characters, from the redeemed convict Red in The Shawshank Redemption to South African president Nelson Mandela and even God himself.
Other Work and Endorsements
Besides acting, Morgan Freeman lent his powerful, distinctive voice to do narrative work for other projects or movies. You can hear him on the award winning documentary March of The Penguins, Discovery Channel’s Through the Wormhole or the CBS Evening News.
He also used his voice in endorsements for brands like Visa Debit or some old cigarette commercials. Reports claim that he makes up to $2 million yearly from endorsements alone.
Apart from that, in 1997 he co-founded the movie production company Revelations Entertainment.
He also owns a blues club in Clarksdale, Mississippi, titled Ground Zero. In the past he also had Madidi, a fine dining restaurant, also in Clarksdale.
And don’t be scared if you will hear the voice of God speaking to you when you’ll use the US version of the navigation app Waze. It’s going to be him. No, no, not God. I mean Morgan Freeman.
Houses and… Planes
Morgan Freeman lives in Charleston, Mississippi, in a comfortable estate but also owns a condo in New York. He prefers his home state of Mississippi where he also purchased a 124-acre ranch, converted into a bee sanctuary.
We couldn’t find out if he still drives after the car accident he had with his Nissan Maxima, but we do know that he fulfilled his old dream of flying.
After earning his private pilot license at 65 years old, Freeman acquired three private planes, two of them being a Cessna Citation 501 jet and a Cessna 414.
The third one is the SJ30, known as the world’s fastest, longest-range and highest flying light jet. He purchased it in 2007 for $7 million.
Morgan Freeman Net Worth Over Time
As you might expect, Morgan Freeman didn’t have a very fast rise in the beginning of his career. The first movie roles weren’t very well paid, but after a few years when the world got to know him better, he started having paychecks of up to $5 million per film in the 90’s.
Later on, in 2012, his regular annual income rose up to $12 million and then it got to $30 million from his latest movies.
His net worth in 2010 was $75 million, in 2013 it broke the mark of $100 million and peaked at $150 million in 2015. Some sources estimate his net worth to be as high as $250 million today.
Morgan Freeman doesn’t show any sign of slowing down so his net worth will surely increase more.
Last update: January 2021.
