Known for: M*A*S*H*
Net worth: $20 million
Brooklyn native Elliott Gould made his stage debut in 1962 starring in I Can Get it For You Wholesale. It was a significant time in his life as he starred in the Broadway musical with his future wife, Barbara Streisand. The recognition brought starring roles in Drat! The Cat! And Little Murders . By 1969 he formed his own film production company, and, more notably, signed a contract to play Trapper John in Robert Altman’s seminal film M*A*S*H* . It was a smashing hit.
He flopped with Move, and I Love My Wife, but then rebounded in The Long Goodbye. He played opposite Diane Keaton in both, I Will, I Will…for Now, and Harry and Walter Go to New York. More flops. His portrayal of an aging mobster in Warren Beatty’s Bugsy brought him showers of accolades. In American History X starring Edward Norton, Gould delivered a remarkable appearance. He’s hosted Saturday Night Live a total of six times and guest-starred on Friends. He and Barbara Streisand didn’t stay married. They divorced in 1971. He went on to marry and divorce Jennifer Bogart two times.
Christopher Walken
Known for: The Deer Hunter
Net worth: $50 million
Christopher Walken snagged his first showbiz gig as a circus lion tamer when he was 16. Next, he liked to dance, so he trained as a dancer before moving on to stage performance. He broke into showbiz proper as a stage actor in an off-Broadway musical starring alongside Liza Minnelli. The next thing he knew, he was starring opposite Sean Connery in The Anderson Tapes .
Walken played the deranged and homicidal brother of Annie (Diane Keaton) in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall. He would develop a catalog of similar character roles. He won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor playing a psychologically unstable steelworker returning home from Vietnam in The Deer Hunter. Walken starved himself for a week to develop a gaunt appearance for the role. He’s played epic villains, most memorably in Batman Returns and as James Bond’s villain, Max Zorin. However, George Lucas considered casting Walken as good-guy Han Solo and he played Madonna’s guardian angel in her “Bad Girl” music video. He’s also loved for his seven SNL appearances. He’s responsible for delivering the epic, “I gotta have more cowbell” line.
Candy Clark
Known for: American Graffiti
Net worth: $3 million
At 18, Candy Clark moved to N.Y.C. to become a fashion model. The sky was the limit. When she landed a starring role in the raucous rock ‘n roll coming-of-age movie American Graffiti (1973) she worked with budding Hollywood legends, George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola. That year, Screen World declared her one of the most promising movies stars in the industry. She turned out to be more like a one-hit-wonder. Well, two.
It was an exciting time. By 1975, Clark and Jeff Bridges hooked up and shared a pad for a couple of years. In 1976, she fell in love with director Nicolas Roeg when they were filming his stellar project The Man Who Fell to Earth. Clark starred in the movie and famously played David Bowie’s part the day he was too ill to film.
Michael Caine
Known for: Alfie and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Net worth: $75 million
British film icon Michael Caine was born in South London. As a young lad with a certain idealism about communism, he was sent off to fight during the Korean War. He returned to England loathing the ideology, hating combat, and searching for a new vocation. He decided to try his hand at theatre procuring a job as an assistant stage manager. More than 130 films later, Michael Caine is a master at his craft and holds the rare distinction of earning an Oscar nomination for five consecutive decades. Recognized by his cockney accent, his films have collectively grossed over $7.4 billion worldwide.
Caine received his first Oscar nomination for playing a heartless heartthrob in Alfie. It cemented his Hollywood career, Gambit, Play Dirty and Get Carter followed. In the 1990s, Hannah and Her Sisters snagged him his first Oscar win. He played a respectable Scrooge in The Muppet Christmas Carol, and audiences liked him in the Batman trilogy as Alfred, the fatherly butler. As a rare conservative among the ranks of Hollywood liberals, Caine’s politics include a protest on paying taxes. He once left the U.K. until Margaret Thatcher cut the tax rate for top-earners.
Rob Lowe
Known for: The Outsiders and the “Brat Pack”
Net worth: $60 million
Rob Lowe was catapulted to fame as a teen idol in the ’80s with the rest of the “Brat Pack.” The group starred in one insanely popular coming-of-age flick after another, truly defining a generation. Sixteen Candles , St. Elmo’s Fire , and, of course, The Breakfast Club featured these young men and women, most of whom became serious Hollywood legends in their own right. Our heartthrob, Mr. Lowe, ran into a dab of trouble on the way up, but he’s been recovering as an alcoholic for over two decades. Oh, and that sex-tape scandal-thing? Just think of it as a blip on the map that helped him hit his bottom.
He’s arguably more popular now than ever. His Twitter following is impressive, and fans love him on Parks and Recreation and Grinder. West Wing gave his career the lift it needed after Wayne’s World rescued him from the sex scandal thing. Lowe’s never shied away from politics. In fact, his first sex scandal incident occurred on the night before the 1988 DNC nomination of Michael Dukakis, a man he was endorsing at the convention. Operative word: “was.” Currently, he backs a Homeowners Defense Fund for government transparency in Santa Barbara and is a spokesman for the breast cancer awareness organization, Lee National Awareness Day.