Jonathan Peter Goldsmith was born on 26 September 1938, in The Bronx, New York City USA, to Jewish parents of Russian descent. He is a retired actor perhaps best known for his various roles in the 1970s Westerns, but most famous for his role of The Most Interesting Man In The World in the hit Dos Equis beer ad campaign.
So how rich is Jonathan Goldsmith at present? Sources state that Goldsmith has acquired a net worth of over $8 million, as of early 2016. His wealth started to rise during his acting career which included a number of western movies and also many television series, however the main source of his net worth has come from his appearance in the Dos Equis commercials.
Jonathan Goldsmith Net Worth $8 Million
Goldsmith’s parents divorced when he was six years old. He attended 22 different schools, but at the age of 17, he left home to enroll in Boston University, and also started his acting career under the stage name of Jonathan Lippe, which was his stepfather’s last name. When he was 28 he moved to California. As he wasn’t earning much in the early stages of his career, he took a job driving a garbage truck and worked in construction.
Goldsmith started his career with New York stage productions, and soon entered the television and movie industry. In 1968 he appeared in the Clint Eastwood western “Hang ‘Em High”, and the same year in the movie “Ice Station Zebra”, based on the same-titled book written by Alistair MacLean, portraying Cold War events. In 1974 Goldsmith took the role of a villainous cowboy killed by the character of John Wayne in Wayne’s final western “The Shootist”. Goldsmith’s net worth was at its start.
He continued his career with similar roles, largely playing the bad guy who gets killed; he has appeared in 25 westerns. After performing a number of roles as Jonathan Lippe, Goldsmith took back his birth name after becoming an established actor in the western genre. However, he appeared in many television series of the time, such as “Adam-12”, “ChiPs”, “Eight Is Enough”, “The Rockford Files” and “Charlie’s Angels” to name a few, making his longest run in the 1978 series “Dallas”. The same year he was cast in the major role of a soldier in the movie “Go Tell the Spartans”, the movie based on Daniel Ford’s book “Incident at Muc Wa” and portraying the lives of US soldiers during the Vietnam War. Goldsmith’s other movies of the time include “One is the Lonely Number”, “Blood Voyage”, “Shadow of the Land”, “The New Healers”, “A Case of Rape” and “Helter Skelter” among other.
During the 1980s, Goldsmith retired from his acting career, and later started to teach theater at New York’s Adelphi University. In 2006, his then agent and fiance Barbara arranged audition for the Dos Equis ad – upon arriving at the location, Goldsmith was sure that he would not get the role, as the producers were searching for a Latino actor, but while improvising at the audition, Goldsmith was inspired by his late friend, actor Fernando Lamas. Seven months later, much to his surprise, he was informed that he had the role. With the campaign he became “the most interesting man in the world”, his popularity came to its highest level and his net worth was boosted. The commercial increased the brand’s sales by 15.4 %. Goldsmith has now been Dos Equis’s spokesman for six years.
When talking about the private life of Goldsmith, he has been married to Barbara since 2006. The couple lives on a sail boat near downtown Los Angeles. Goldsmith is involved in many charities, such as Free Arts for Abused Children that involves helping abused or homeless children, S.A.B.R.E. which provides the protection of Siberian Tigers, Morris Animal Foundation which provides the treatment for cancer in dogs, and the Stella Link Foundation which fights against the exploitation of Cambodian children for illicit sex.
