Award-winning American producer Richard Anthony "Dick" Wolf has an estimated net worth of $550 million.

Best known as the producer of Law & Order - for which is reported to command $200,000 per episode - Wolf started his career in his early twenties as a copywriter for advertising firm Benton & Bowles, coming up with memorable and successful slogans such as "You can't beat Crest for fighting cavities" for Crest toothpaste, and "I'm Cheryl, fly me," for National Airlines. Although he found success as an advertising copywriter, he harbored dreams of working in the film industry and was writing screenplays in his spare time - even collaborating with Oliver Stone, a struggling screenwriter at the time.

He moved to Los Angeles in 1977 and had three screenplays produced - including Masquerade starring Rob Lowe and Meg Tilly. Masquerade was well-received and Wolf landed a job as a staff writer on police procedural Hill Street Blues - the beginning of his TV career.

An episode of Hill Street Blues penned by Wolf, "What Are Friends For?" gained Wolf his first Emmy nomination. He soon moved to a writing and co-production role at Miami Vice, which he worked on for its third and fourth seasons.

Dick Wolf created and produced Law & Order, which first aired on NBC in 1990, and ran until 2010 - tying with Gunsmoke for the longest-running scripted series on TV. It became a successful franchise, spawning many spin-off series including Law & Order: SVU which is still running and remains a real cash cow for Wolf. It's reported that advertisers spent $64 million on Law & Order: SVU in 2020. He's paid as a producer and makes additional money in residuals when Law & Order shows air as reruns on TNT or USA.

Other shows he's produced include Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, Chicago Med, and Chicago Justice - all centered around the emergency services in Chicago, Illinois. The shows ran until 2017. In 2018, Wolf became an executive producer on CBS's FBI, starring Law & Order regulars Jeremy Sisto and Alana de la Garza.

Born Richard Anthony Wolf on December 20, 1946, in New York City to Marie and George Wolf, his mother was an Irish Catholic homemaker, and his father a Jewish advertising executive. As a child, he attended prestigious New York schools including Saint David's School, The Gunnery and Phillips Academy. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1969, where he had been a member of the Zeta Psi fraternity.

He's been married three times - firstly to Susan Scranton, daughter of the former governor of Pennsylvania, William Scranton. The pair met at a Halloween party when Dick was still an advertising copywriter, and they divorced in 1983. His second marriage took place just a few months later, to Christine Marburg. Dick and Christine went on to have three children together - Olivia, Serena, and Elliott - and divorced in 2005. The divorce was complex and Christine was awarded $17.5 million, plus $2 million per year of spousal support payments, as well as the couple's house in Maine. However, she claimed that Wolf had concealed parts of his contract with NBC - allegedly worth $1.6 billion - during the divorce process. It wasn't until 2019 that the case was entirely settled, by which time Dick had been married to Noelle Lippman for 13 years. The couple had two children together - Zoe and Rex - and split in 2019. A prenuptial agreement was in place, which allows Lippman to receive $100,000 per month as maintenance.

Throughout his career, Dick Wolf has won several awards including an Emmy Award and the Award of Excellence from the Banff Television Festival and the 2002 Creative Achievement Award from NATPE. On March 29, 2007, Wolf was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7040 Hollywood Boulevard. In 2013 Wolf was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.

It's estimated that Wolf has earned over $830 million from the Law & Order franchise, after taxes and payment to creative staff. In February 2020, Universal extended his production deal for another 5 years, worth upwards of $250 million for Wolf. He'll also see a large share of the profits from a $400 million deal with NBCUniversal for the rights to stream more than 1,000 episodes from his library on the new Peacock streaming service.

His current projects include developing a US version of the UK psychological legal drama Injustice, and a series on the subject of a Satanic cult, provisionally entitled The Church. 

Sources: Forbes, Wikipedia, IMDB, Hollywood Reporter, People

This article was updated on April 1, 2021 by Poppy O'Neill

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