Ask yourself who the richest celebrity in the world is and you’ll likely immediately think of some of the most famous stars still alive today. But fame doesn’t always correlate to money, leaving the real rich list of celebrities looking quite different from how you might expect.
Kim Kardashian and The Beatles icon Sir Paul McCartney are certainly up there with the other high-earners in show business, but surprisingly there are also quite a few names above their’s.
So who is the richest celebrity in the world? See below for the 20 most valuable celebs across the globe.
George Lucas, Star Wars creator and Indiana Jones mastermind, is the richest celebrity in the world.
The filmmaker, who founded Lucasfilm before selling it to Disney, has a net worth of $10billion. In his career so far, he has been nominated for four Academy Awards and directed or conceived 10 of the 100 highest-grossing movies in the history of the box office in North America.
Following after Lucas is another filmmaker in Steven Spielberg. The director, known for his work on films like Jaws and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, has a net worth of $8billion.
Further down the list are Oprah Winfrey ($3.5billion), the world’s richest actor Jami Gertz ($3billion), Jay-Z ($2billion) and more.
1.George Lucas (Net worth: $10billion)
2. Steven Spielberg (Net worth: $8billion)
3. Oprah Winfrey (Net worth: $3.5billion)
4. Jami Gertz (Net worth: $3billion)
5. Jay-Z (Net worth: $2billion)
6. Rihanna (Net worth: $1.7billion)
7. Kim Kardashian (Net worth: $1.4billion)
8. Sir Paul McCartney (Net worth: $1.2billion)
9. Slavica Ecclestone (Net worth: $1.2billion)
10. J.K. Rowling (Net worth: $1billion)
11. David Copperfield (Net worth: $1billion)
12. Jimmy Buffett (Net worth: $1billion)
13. Peter Jackson (Net worth: $1billion)
14. Jerry Seinfeld (Net worth: $950million)
15. P Diddy (Net worth: $900million)
16. Jacqueline Gold (Net worth: $860million)
17. Herb Alpert (Net worth: $850million)
18. Madonna (Net worth: $850million)
19. Celine Dion (Net worth: $800 million)
20. Ivanka Trump (Net worth: $800million)
In 2020, Lucas explained why he sold Lucasfilm to Disney eight years prior. Author Paul Duncan shared an excerpt from his behind-the-scenes book The Star Wars Archives: Episodes I-III 1999-2005 on Twitter.
“At that time, I was starting the next trilogy; I talked to the actors and I was starting to gear up,” Lucas said in the passage. “I was also about to have a daughter with my wife. It takes 10 years to make a trilogy – Episodes I to III took from 1995 to 2005.
“In 2012, I was 69. So the question was, ‘Am I going to keep doing this for the rest of my life? Do I want to go through this again?’ Finally, I decided I’d rather raise my daughter and enjoy life for a while. I could have not sold Lucasfilm and gotten somebody to run the productions, but that isn’t retiring.”