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While he can't be categorized as most other child stars who didn't transition into being successful adult actors, Shia LaBeouf's life has nonetheless been a bit of a roller coaster ride. There have been moments of extreme highs as well as moments of tremendous lows that he has experienced in his acting career. The actor, performance artist, and filmmaker got his start on the Disney Channel series Even Stevens in the early 2000s before his film career actually took off. Some of his greatest movie collaborations include actress Megan Fox, British actor Hugo Weaving, actor/singer Tyrese Gibson, Harrison Ford, Jon Voight, and Sigourney Weaver. At age 37, he has appeared in at least 41 movies, from which he has made a sumptuous living. Let's discover how Shia LaBeouf built his $30 million net worth as an actor.
The Struggles Before Stardom
Although he began acting at a young age, LaBeouf is anything but a spoiled Hollywood brat. The Disturbia actor was born in Los Angeles, California on June 11th, 1986 to parents that he described as "pretty weird people." His father, Jeffery LaBeouf, was a professional clown from Louisiana and his mother, Shayna Saide, was Jewish and worked as a professional dancer, jewelry designer, and visual artist. Because of his mother's Jewish heritage and his father's Christian beliefs, LaBeouf claimed that he was able to experience both lifestyles.
Because of their unorthodox ways, LaBeouf would describe his parents as having "a hippy lifestyle," but they divorced when he was at a tender age, mainly due to financial difficulties. As a result, he moved to Echo Park with his mother where they lived in meager conditions. It was in those moments that acting came naturally to the talented boy when he would perform for his parents by mimicking his father as a way of uplifting them.
As if life wasn't tough enough for LaBeouf, at the age of ten, his father became addicted to heroin and was placed in a drug rehabilitation center. According to Celebrity Net Worth, around the same time, while he was attending Alexander Hamilton High School, he was also performing stand-up comedy at local comedy clubs, although he never became the next Jim Carrey. With his father recovering from drug addiction and his mother barely able to financially support them, LaBeouf would do whatever it took to improve their financial situation - which is the main reason he got into acting. It was also around this time that he was cast as Louis Stevens in the Disney Channel series, Even Stevens.
LaBeouf's Big Break
By the age of twelve, LaBeouf became a regular on the Evens Steven Show, which ran between 2000 and 2003, winning him a Daytime Emmy Award for his character's role. Right around the end of his tenure with the Even Stevens, he made his acting debut in the neo-Western comedy-drama, Holes, starring the Academy Award winning actor Jon Voight and actress Patricia Arquette, which turned out to be a success at the box office with $71 million in sales. LaBeouf was only twenty-one at the time, but his acting debut was impressive enough to open even greater doors of opportunity. By 2005, his next film would be Constantine, a horror film starring the Matrix trilogy star, Keanu Reeves, and Rachel Weisz, and grossing $230.9 million at the box office.
With not even a decade of acting experience, the ambitious Shia LaBeouf made his directorial debut in 2004 with a short film based on a neighborhood plagued by racial tension titled Let's Love Hate. While fans appreciated the good message in the movie, there were mixed reviews over its overall production. But the young rising star remained focused on his acting career, starring in the drama film A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints as author, filmmaker, and musician Dito Montiel, alongside legendary film stars Robert Downey Jr. and Channing Tatum. The film received decent ratings and grossed a little over $2 million worldwide.
Making The Big Bucks
Still at the start of his professional acting career, LaBeouf had just begun making his mark in the entertainment industry. In 2007, he would take the leading role in the psychological thriller, Disturbia, where he portrays a teenager who is put on house arrest for assaulting a school teacher, and uses the down time to spy on his neighbors, one of which he thinks is a serial killer. The film grossed $118 million at the box office and also features actor David Morse and actresses Carrie-Anne Moss and Sarah Roemer.
In the same year, he also lent his voice to the lead character in the computer-animated movie, Surf's Up, which grossed $152 million. It's estimated that he earned $400,000 each for his roles in both movies in 2007. And he was just getting started!
Again, in the same year of 2007, LaBeouf starred in the science fiction action film, Transformers, which was the first installment of the billion-dollar movie franchise. He shared the screen with a cast of other stellar entertainers, such as Megan Fox, Tyrese Gibson, Hugo Weaving, and fashion model-turned-actor Josh Duhamel, and the gross box office earnings were a whopping $707 million. Shia took home a $750,000 paycheck out of that massive figure. And for the second installment, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009), he received a pay increase of $5 million, as well as $15 million for reprising his role in the third installment, Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011).
Shia also joined Harrison Ford and Cate Blanchett in director Steven Spielberg's 2008 action adventure film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which grossed $790 million worldwide. In 2008, he also starred in Eagle Eye opposite Michelle Monaghan which grossed $178 million. LaBeouf's pedigree as an actor was refined, and it showed through the vast range of roles he could adapt to. His role in the 2010 drama film, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps showed the young actor as an ambitious Wall Street trader named Jacob Moore. The film grossed $134 million and LaBeouf walked away with a cool $8 million for his efforts.
Shia's Recent Projects
As an established actor in Hollywood, LaBeouf used his influence in other avenues of entertainment, such as in Rob Cantor's music video in 2012. In the same year, he starred in the crime drama, Lawless, starring English actors Tom Hardy and Gary Oldman, which grossed a decent $54 million. He also found time to write three graphic novels and a webcomic series titled Cheek Up's, which were regarded more as passion projects. Then, in 2013 he joined the cast of the erotic art film, Nymphomaniac, alongside Kill Bill actress Uma Thurman, Christian Slater, and legendary actor Willem Dafoe, which grossed $18.5 million.
He then co-starred with film star Brad Pitt in the 2014 war film, Fury, which did well at the box office earning $211 million in ticket sales globally. In 2020, he starred in the action thriller, The Tax Collector, opposite Bobby Sotto and Mexican comedian/actor George Lopez. However, this proved to be one of the major flops of his career, grossing only 1.3 million in VOD (video-on-demand) sales and $5 million in running digital sales against a $30 million budget.
But despite the legal issues and abuse allegations that were made against Labeouf in 2020, he managed to bounce back. According to Media Mass, he took the number one spot on People With Money's annual list of the highest-paid actors of 2023, stating that he raked in an impressive $58 million between May 2022 and May 2023. Taken from CA Knowledge, he now has an estimated net worth of around $30 million as a result of his recent earnings.
Sources: CA Knowledge, Media Mass, Celebrity Net Worth
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