Walton Goggins has long been one of those prolific B-list actors who everyone recognizes from the countless side characters they’ve played but who few know by name.
That all changed with the third season of White Lotus, Mike White’s dark-comedy/drama about the intertwining lives of problematic friends and families on high-end resort vacations around the world.
On the show, Goggins plays Rick, a middle-aged and always-irritable holidaymaker with a gaunt, leathery look and a shady background. He is accompanied on a Thailand resort vacation by his young, kind, and effortlessly adorable girlfriend, Chelsea (played by Aimee Lou Wood), who balances his negativity with her own relentless optimism.
With baggy, Tommy Bahama-style shirts, slicked-back receding dark hair, sunglasses, and a chip on his shoulder, Rick became an instant fan favorite, and Goggins became an unexpected heartthrob among the show’s legions of dedicated devotees.
💰💸 Don’t miss the move: SIGN UP for TheStreet’s FREE Daily newsletter 💰💸
Now that the series has catapulted him further into the limelight — and revived interest in many of his past roles — both new and existing fans are looking back at his long and varied career in Hollywood and wondering what’s next for the talented actor.
Here’s a look at Goggins’ net worth in 2025, how much he makes as an actor, how he spends his money, and some of his biggest roles to date.
View the original article to see embedded media.
What is Walton Goggins’ net worth in 2025?
As of mid-2025, most sources agree that Goggins’ net worth sits somewhere in the ballpark of $12 million.
The eight digits on his bottom line put him in the top 1% of Americans in terms of wealth, although his net worth pales in comparison to that of some of his better-known Hollywood peers, like longtime-certified A-lister George Clooney (Gravity, Ocean’s 11), whose wealth is estimated at around $500 million.
Will Ferrell (Barbie, Step Brothers), another A-lister, is estimated to be worth around $160 million. Sam Rockwell, who also appears in White Lotus’ third season as Rick’s old friend, is worth a reported $20 million.
How much did Walton Goggins make from White Lotus?
Goggins made a reported $320,000 for acting in season 3 of White Lotus. This comes out to $40,000 per episode across eight episodes.
The pay structure for White Lotus stars is interestingly equitable. Rather than negotiating individual contracts with the show’s stars or paying each actor based on their perceived level of Hollywood notoriety, the show pays each of its regulars an equal flat fee, meaning that Aimee Lou Wood, Goggins’ on-screen sweetheart, took home the same amount.
So did Parker Posey, Patrick Schwarzenegger, and the rest of the show’s main cast. According to producer David Bernard, “They get paid the same, and we do alphabetical billing, so you’re getting people who want to do the project for the right reasons … It’s a system we developed in the first season because there was no money to make the show.”
Related: Val Kilmer’s net worth: Building a fortune through triumph and tragedy
Who is Walton Goggins?
Goggins is a prolific film and television actor whose career began in early 90s when he moved to LA at just 19. And while his notoriety has certainly seen a major resurgence since the debut of season 3 of White Lotus, fans of shows like The Righteous Gemstones and Vice Principals saw his so-called second-act stardom become apparent in the years prior.
To be clear, Goggin never stopped acting, but something about his middle-aged grace and ever-growing talent as a highly versatile actor has captivated audiences in a way that has, over recent years, finally cemented him as a household name.
Goggins’ early life
Walton Goggins was born in 1971 in Alabama but spent most of his youth growing up in an Atlanta suburb called Lithia Springs, where he attended the town’s eponymous high school. According to Goggins, he was a “latchkey kid” who had more independence and responsibility than some of his peers, often heading home alone after class to fend for himself until his mom arrived home later on.
After graduating, he attended Georgia Southern University for a year before deciding to pivot and move to LA — a risky move given his humble means and lack of big-city experience. Had he continued his collegiate education, he said he likely would have pursued philosophy or political science.
More celebrity net worth:
- Jake Paul’s net worth as new ‘Paul American’ reality show airs
- Drake’s net worth in 2025: Has Kendrick Lamar hurt his career?
- Céline Dion’s net worth: The pop star’s triumphant comeback
Goggins’ early acting career
Goggins’ origin story is the quintessential “moved to LA to try to make it big” tale, but unlike 99% of these stories, his worked out more or less as planned.
When Goggins moved to LA, he was only 19 years old and had $300, which he called “enough to last a month” in a 2024 interview with Business Insider. He quickly got a job at an LA Fitness, and he also ran a valet business while he took acting classes and tried to land auditions.
His first real role was that of Lyle in Murder on the Mississippi, a 1990 made-for-TV movie about civil rights workers murdered by the KKK. Throughout the rest of the 90s, Goggins landed a string of side roles, some recurring and some one-offs, on a number of TV shows and movies, including Beverly Hills 90210, Forever Young, The Next Karate Kid, and NYPD Blue.
Goggins’ big break and major acting roles
The role most consider to be Goggins’ “big break” is his portrayal of crooked cop Shane Vendrell in The Shield, a wildly popular FX series that aired for seven seasons from 2002 to 2008.
Goggins continued to book more mainstream roles in the aughts and 2010s, playing criminal Boyd Crowder in Justified, a bandit called Hunt in Cowboys & Aliens, and a sadistically evil slave overseer in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained. Tarantino tapped Goggins once again just three years later to play Chris Mannix in The Hateful Eight.
Next, Goggins captivated television audiences with central roles in two HBO series, Vice Principals (2016–2017) and The Righteous Gemstones (2019–2025). In 2024, he played the Ghoul, a dark and somewhat immortal character in Amazon’s TV series adaptation of the video game franchise Fallout.
Despite all of his recent success with these series, however, Goggins’ role as the lovable but cranky Rick in White Lotus seems to have captivated audiences more than any other.
Related: Jennifer Lopez & Ben Affleck’s net worths: What’s at stake in their divorce
How does Walton Goggins spend his money?
In 2020, Goggins spent a considerable sum (relative to his net worth) — reportedly $1.6 million — on a large property in Hillsdale, New York, which he shares with his wife Nadia Connors, and their son Augustus. They immediately began renovations on the 8,000-square-foot home that sits on the property, and in early 2025, the pair welcomed Architectural Digest into the abode for an exclusive tour.
Ten years earlier in 2010, Goggins bought a home in the LA area for $1.5 million, holding onto it for around a decade before selling it in 2021 (after the purchase of his New York property) for a reported $3.66 million.
Goggins has also invested some of his wealth into Mulholland Distilling, a whiskey brand he started with friend and cameraman Matthew Alper. When asked about his choice to go into the whiskey business instead of some other industry, he told Garden & Gun, “I think people from the South by and large have to sign a contract when you’re born that when you’re of age, you have to have a sundowner at night.”
Related: How to track stock price changes from 52-week highs on Google Finance
