Bruce Vilanch Net Worth 2024

What is Bruce Vilanch’s Net Worth?

Bruce Vilanch is an American actor, songwriter and comedy author who has a net worth of $6 million. Bruce Vilanch is finest recognized to mainstream audiences for his four-year stint as a panelist on the 1998 revival of the tv sport present “Hollywood Squares.” He can be well-known for his lengthy tenure writing for the annual Academy Awards from 1989 to 2014. Among his performing work, Vilanch created and carried out in his personal one-man stage play, “Bruce Vilanch: Almost Famous,” and starred as Edna Turnblad within the first nationwide stage tour of the musical “Hairspray.”

Early Life and Education

Bruce Vilanch was born on November 23, 1948 in New York City, and was introduced up in Paterson, New Jersey by his adoptive mother and father Henne and Jonas. It was his mom who helped push him towards a profession in present enterprise, serving to to get him signed with Lane Bryant’s Charming Chub division as a chubby little one mannequin. In Paterson, Vilanch was educated at Eastside High School. He went on to attend the Ohio State University, the place he studied theater and journalism and wrote opinions of reveals.

Writing Career

Vilanch started his skilled writing profession penning leisure options for the Chicago Tribune. Through that gig, he met quite a few celebrities, together with then-fledgling singer Bette Midler. In 1974, Vilanch wrote comedy materials for Midler’s Broadway present “Clams on the Half Shell”; he would go on to write down materials for a lot of of her later reveals. After shifting to Los Angeles, Vilanch served as a co-writer for “The Donny & Marie Show,” the “Star Wars Holiday Special,” and “The Brady Bunch Hour.” He additionally wrote comedy materials for an array of comics, together with Billy Crystal, Roseanne Barr, Paul Reiser, Lily Tomlin, and Rosie O’Donnell. In 1978, Vilanch co-wrote the e-book for the Broadway musical “Platinum.” Two years later, he started writing each humorous and critical columns for the LGBTQ journal the Advocate.

Vilanch had considered one of his longest-running gigs as a author for the annual Academy Awards, which he wrote for from 1989 to 2014. He served because the present’s head author from 2000 to 2014. In his position, Vilanch turned recognized for arising with new jokes on the spot primarily based on sudden occasions that had occurred throughout the telecast, similar to Jack Palance’s one-armed push-ups on the 1992 ceremony. He gained six Emmy Awards in whole for his contributions to the Oscars. Vilanch additionally contributed materials to varied Emmy, Tony, and Grammy telecasts. Elsewhere, as a songwriter, he co-wrote “Where is My Man” and “Sex Over the Phone” with Fred Zarr and Jacques Morali. In 2010, Vilanch wrote for his longtime buddy Florence Henderson’s stage present “An Evening with Friends.”

Acting Career

Vilanch made his skilled performing debut within the 1975 romantic drama movie “Mahogany,” starring Diana Ross. He performed a costume producer within the movie. Later, within the Nineteen Eighties, Vilanch performed Wendon within the science-fiction comedy “The Ice Pirates.” He additionally appeared in an episode of the tv sitcom “Bosom Buddies” and in a scene of Jim McBride’s movie “Breathless.” In the Nineties, Vilanch confirmed up on “Law & Order.”

Moving to the stage within the early twenty first century, Vilanch created and carried out in his personal one-man present, “Bruce Vilanch: Almost Famous.” It was held off-Broadway on the Westbeth Theatre Center in 2000. Later, in 2005, Vilanch starred on Broadway as Edna Turnblad within the musical “Hairspray,” a task he had performed for the earlier two years within the present’s first nationwide stage tour.

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Vilanch turned best-known to mainstream audiences as an everyday panelist on the 1998 revival of the tv sport present “Hollywood Squares,” hosted by Tom Bergeron. He appeared alongside different common panelists Gilbert Gottfried, Caroline Rhea, and Martin Mull. Vilanch additionally served as head author on the sequence by 2002. He went on to take part within the third season of the fact sequence “Celebrity Fit Club” in 2006. Two years after that, Vilanch appeared as himself within the Adam Sandler motion comedy movie “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan.” In 2011, he served as a visitor decide within the third season of the fact competitors sequence “RuPaul’s Drag Race”; he would go on to look as a coach within the fifth season and as a visitor decide once more in season six.

Among his different appearances, Vilanch performed himself within the 2011 homosexual body-switching romcom “Walk a Mile in My Pradas” and in a 2015 episode of the Disney animated sequence “Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero.” In 2012, he portrayed Arnold Schwarzenegger in an episode of the sketch comedy sequence “The Eric Andre Show.” Vilanch has additionally appeared in some documentary movies, together with 1999’s “Get Bruce!,” of which he was the topic, and 2007’s “Laughing Matters,” which featured him alongside a number of different homosexual comics. Additionally, he appeared as a commentator within the 2010 documentary “The Adonis Factor,” about homosexual male physique picture.

Charity Work

Vilanch is considerably concerned in charity work, significantly associated to LGBTQ points. He beforehand served because the MC of the annual fundraiser Quest for the Crown, organized by Aid for AIDS in Los Angeles. Vilanch additionally emceed an occasion for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS in 2009 and 2010. In 2017, he hosted a star roast of Michael Musto to boost cash for the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center in New York City.