To say James Spader is a versatile actor is an understatement, though his most recent project, The Blacklist is most responsible for his net worth. The actor first made a name for himself playing sleazy villains in ’80s Brat Pack vehicles like Pretty in Pink and Less Than Zero while the ’90s and 2000s saw Spader take on memorable roles in Crash and Secretary. However, Spader has found the most the most success on TV, and has become known for playing Alan Shore in The Practice and Boston Legal, and of course, Raymond “Red” Reddington in The Blacklist.
James Spader’s Net Worth
The Blacklist Star Is Worth $30 Million
James Spader has a net worth of approximately $30 million, with a large portion of his wealth coming from his work on The Blacklist. Celebrity Net Worth reports that the actor received a salary of $160,000 per Blacklist episode from seasons 1-7, and a whopping $300,000 per episode throughout seasons 7-10. With Spader appearing in all 218 Blacklist episodes, he made millions off the series.
While it seems like Spader was having the time of his life playing the unscrupulous yet charming Red Reddington, finances may have been his main reason for signing on to The Blacklist. In an interview with The Guardian, he admitted to not being great with money:
There are some actors who are very good at developing things. Who have… ‘things in the pipeline’. I am abysmal at that kind of thing, loathe it and am a terrible planner. Unless I’m showing up on the set and acting I prefer to have nothing to do with the actual business of being an actor… I have a history. I am not very responsible economically. I have a history working on films for years and years, and by the time I was starting the next film I was starting from zero again. Television is the best earner. So the idea of knowing that the bills are going to be paid…
This may explain Spader’s other stints on television, playing lawyer Alan Shore on both The Practice and Boston Legal from 2003-2008, and of course, the eccentric Robert California in The Office from 2011-2012. Spader’s MCU appearance as Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron likely gave the actor a hefty paycheck too. And though some, if not all of these roles may have been financially motivated on Spader’s part, he knocked them out of the park every time.
James Spader’s Age & Height
As A Creative Aquarius, Spader Fits His Zodiac Sign
Born on February 7, 1960, James Spader turned 64 years old in the winter of 2024. Those with birthdays in early February fall under the Aquarius sign, the final air sign in the zodiac, represented by the water bearer. Aquarians are highly creative and rebellious people (via Allure), and this perfectly describes the unpredictable actor. His array of projects, from ’80s teen movies to indie cult classics to network television, scream Aquarius.
The eleventh zodiac sign is also considered “larger than life” which is true for Spader in personality, though not necessarily in height. His IMDb page lists him at 5′ 9¾”, though other sites round him up to 5′ 10″. This is slightly above average for a man, which means that Spader’s characters aren’t defined by how tall they are. The actor has played everyone from a lawyer with unconventional sexual proclivities in Secretary to one of television’s wittiest criminals in The Blacklist, with the focus entirely on his screen presence, not his height.
James Spader Dropped Out Of School At The Age Of 17
He Worked Odd Jobs In NYC As He Tried To Launch His Acting Career
In his youth, James Spader attended various private schools in Massachusetts, including the Pike School (where his mother was an art teacher), the Brooks School, (where his father was an English teacher), and the Phillips Academy. But despite being from an academic family, education wasn’t a priority for Spader, though it was at the Phillips Academy where he was bitten by the acting bug. There, he enjoyed performing in stage plays and thus, the 17-year-old Spader decided to drop out of school and try to make it is an actor in New York City.
To pay his way, Spader worked a series of odd jobs and was everything from a stable boy to a yoga teacher. This is hardly a unique origin story for an actor, but when Hollywood did come calling, James Spader launched a career that was truly unlike anybody else’s, and audiences are all the better for it
