What is Jack Klugman Net Worth in 2022?
Jack Klugman had a net worth of $ 20 million when he passed.
American actor Jack Klugman worked on stage, in cinema, and on television. Klugman was the picture of the commoner in his role as a character actor.
He was a television acting pioneer in the 1950s, but he is best known for his roles as Oscar Madison on The Odd Couple (1970) and the medical examiner on Quincy M.E. in the 1970s (1976).
At the time of his death, it was estimated that with a net worth of $ 20 million, his salary was above $ 200 K, and his annual income was $ 2 million.
Jack Klugman Biography:
Jack Klugman was born on April 27, 1922, in Philadelphia. The sixth child of Rose, a hat manufacturer, and Max Klugman, a house painter, Klugman was born in Philadelphia.
His parents were immigrants who were Russian Jews. Klugman participated in World War II as a member of the American Army. He studied at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Institute of Technology, now Carnegie Mellon University.
His theatre teacher told him there, “You’re not cut out to be an actor, young man. You are qualified to operate a truck.” He lived in an apartment with a buddy, and fellow ex-GI turned actor Charles Bronson after the war and pursued acting gigs there.
He started his career in 1950 and appeared in Cry Terror and 12 Angry Men in 1957, respectively (1958). He appeared as a guest star on many television shows in the 1960s.
Klugman was a guest appearance on The Defenders in 1964, earning him his first Primetime Emmy Award. In addition, between 1960 and 1963, he made four appearances on The Twilight Zone.
Klugman took over for Walter Matthau as Oscar Madison in the Broadway production of The Odd Couple in 1965. He played Tony Randall’s part in the television adaption of The Odd Couple five years later.
The TV program aired from 1970 until 1975. Klugman earned his second and third Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe for his work on the series.
He played the title character in Quincy, M.E. from 1976 to 1983, for which he received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations.
Personal Life:
In 1953, Klugman wed the actress Brett Somers. Adam and David, the couple’s two children, were born. Leslie Klein, a stepdaughter from Somers’s previous marriage, was his stepdaughter. Jim Fyfe, an actor, and theatrical director was married to Klein.
The couple split up in 1974 and divorced in August 1977, but they kept it a secret. Somers passed away at age 83 from cancer in 2007.
It was falsely believed that Klugman and Somers remained married but separated for the remainder of Somers’ life because Klugman did not remarry until after Somers’s passing, and Somers never did.
Barbara Neugass, an actress, and Klugman dated for 18 years before their relationship ended in 1992. Neugass filed a palimony lawsuit, which she ultimately lost.
In 1988, Klugman moved in with Peggy Crosby. Soon after Somers’ passing, in February 2008, they got married.
Klugman was a devoted follower of Thoroughbred racing. Jaklin Klugman, a horse he owned, came in third in the 1980 Kentucky Derby, trailing only the outstanding filly Genuine Risk and the Grade 1 races victor Akinemod.
El Rancho De Jaklin was the name of his farm, where he kept up to 100 horses, which was named for his horse.
Career:
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Klugman participated in several theatres, television, and film productions. He played a supporting role in a Mr. Roberts Road Company play at the Colonial Theatre in Boston in 1950.
Later that same year, he made his television debut in an Actors Studio program. He portrayed Jim Hanson in the 1954 episode of The Greatest Gift, a soap opera.
With his performances in four episodes of The Twilight Zone from 1960 to 1963, “A Passage for Trumpet” (1960), “A Game of Pool” (1961), “Death Ship” (1963), and “In Praise of Pip,” Klugman and Burgess Meredith held the record for the most appearances in a lead character (1963).
In the original Broadway production of The Odd Couple in 1965, Klugman took over Walter Matthau’s starring role as Oscar Madison.
When the play was turned into a television series, which ABC aired from 1970 to 1975, he played the part again. Klugman earned two Primetime Emmy Awards for his efforts on the series throughout its five-year, 114-episode run.
Klugman returned to television in 1976 with Quincy, M.E., which was first televised as a part of the NBC Mystery Movie umbrella series before becoming a weekly program.
This was after The Odd Couple was canceled in 1975. Dr. Quincy, a forensic pathologist who solved crimes for the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office, was portrayed by Klugman.
Klugman also had an appearance on Broadway in I’m Not Rappaport during the run of a sitcom. The program ended in 1988. The following year, he co-starred in the television miniseries Around the World in 80 Days.
He filed a claim against NBC Television in 2008 for unpaid fees for his program Quincy M.E. Klugman asked NBC to show him the original contract after filing the complaint in state court in California.
Klugman alleged that 25% of the show’s net proceeds should have gone to his production firm, Sweater Productions. In August 2010, NBC Universal and Klugman reached an undisclosed agreement to end their legal dispute.
He played his final on-screen performance in the horror movie Camera Obscura in 2010.
Death:
In 1974, Klugman received a diagnosis of throat cancer. Despite having a faint, raspy voice after having surgery for throat cancer in 1988, he continued to act on stage and on television. After his operation, he gradually regained some voice strength in the following years.
On December 24, 2012, Klugman, 90, passed away from prostate cancer at his home in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles. He was regarded as an “outstanding performer ennobling the mundane” in a New York Times profile.
The Huffington Post described him as a “character acting titan” in their obituary. Klugman’s ashes were buried in a columbarium at the Los Angeles cemetery Westwood Memorial Park.