Who Is the Highest Paid Actor in History?

If you’re curious about which actor brought home the biggest check for one single flick, you’ll get a different answer than you will if you’re asking about all-time earnings, or even annual earnings, for example. You also have to take inflation into consideration, and ask yourself if you’re wondering about “highest paid” in terms of numbers, or salary value according to the value of the dollar.

So, what are some answers to who is the highest paid actor in history, based both in terms of individual paycheck and lifetime earnings? To break it down into basic numbers, it can safely be said that:

• In terms of payment for one single movie, Johnny Depp tops the list of highest-paid actors in history. He earned over $56 million dollars for his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film. It just goes to show that the fourth movie in a series simply can’t go forward without its most popular character, and when that series is making so much money, producers want to keep it going and the actor can pretty much sign his own check.

• In terms of who made the most money over the course of a career, or over the course of a year, it can be safely stated that as of 2010, Will Smith holds the position for biggest annual salary, bringing in an average of $80 million a year.

Other Contenders

Before Depp, the highest-paid position for a single movie was held by Tom Hanks, who raked in over $50 million for the Da Vinci Code.