A few days ago, Forbes posted an article highlighting twenty-nine billionaires under the age of forty. The elite list includes 28-year-old Dustin Moskovitz and Mark Zuckerberg, the boys who made hunting down people we went to pre-school with that much easier via Facebook, 32-year-old Marie Besnier Beauvalot, who inherited a French dairy company and Ayman Hariri, a 34-year-old heir of the deceased Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Honestly, the only thing I find notable about this article is that most of these rich individuals either dropped out of college to invent the next best way to stalk people on the internet, or they inherited a ton of money or a company from their billionaire parents. Which is great – who doesn’t hope that one day they will find out their great-great-aunt they never knew left a pile of blood diamonds for them in a safe deposit box?
But since most of us probably find this list a little bit tedious, let’s talk about rich people that we know, rich people that we have had deep connections with. These are characters that, over the last few seasons, we’ve really started to understand, or develop gigantic crushes on. These people are portrayed in films and have found a way to get under our skin. Perhaps they are classic icons that we immediately associate with being filthy freaking rich. Yes, I’m talking about fictional characters here. We have lived vicariously through them, whether they are admirable individuals or the most evil villains in town, I’ve compiled a list of 20 billionaires (or around there, these guys never really reveal how much is in their bank account) from both television and film that really stood out to me. The list is a combination of characters who either vigorously work(ed) for their dough, or had the world handed to them. Some even through magic.
Rich TV Characters:
- Gus Fring from Breaking Bad: The Chicken Man made his billion or two from producing meth in large quantities.
- Regina Mills from Once Upon A Time: Wealthy by magic and inheritance from the king, who she killed.
- Eric Northman from True Blood: Although not exactly under 40, this vampire does not look a day over 32. Wealth by sheer infinite existence and a lucrative bar.
- Sybil Crawley from Downton Abbey: Wealth by inheritance
- Blair Waldorf from Gossip Girl: Wealth by inheritance
- James Van Der Beek from Don’t Trust The B— In Apartment 23: James, played by James cashed in a ton of money from all six seasons of Dawson’s Creek.
- Samantha from Sex and the City: This lady earned her dough by owning her own PR company and later takes a hefty commission from jump-starting underwear model Smith’s career.
- David Wallace from The Office: Became wealthy overnight by his invention of “Suck It”, a children’s toy, after leaving Dunder Mifflin.
- Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother: Barney’s career is ambiguous but we know he has a lot of cash since he can clearly afford a suit made out of diamonds.
- Mindy Lahiri from The Mindy Project: This girl lives in a fabulous New York apartment and can buy bunk beds on a whim because she is a hardworking doctor who constantly sacrifices her social life for her career.
Rich Movie Characters:
- Patrick Bateman from American Psycho: Uber rich, thanks to business connections from his Wall Street father.
- Lisbeth Salander from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo: Hacked and schemed her way to wealth because she is a genius.
- Edward Cullen from Twilight: Once again, this vampire is technically super ancient, but appears to be a high-schooler. He drives fancy Volvos and Audis due to his Cullen inheritance.
- Bruce Wayne from Batman: This superhero is filthy rich due to a fat inheritance and his company, Wayne Enterprises.
- Kathryn Merteuil from Cruel Intentions: This bitch is rich due to inheritance.
- Michael Corleone from The Godfather: This blood-thirsty man has inheritance money AND he is the head of a mafia.
- Elle Woods from Legally Blonde: Wealth by inheritance and being a badass lawyer.
- Calvin Candie from Django Unchained: Wealth by presumably inheritance, owning a plantation and profiting off of evil activities, such as slave fights.
- Lara Croft from Tomb Raider: Wealth due to inheritance.
- Catherine Tramell in Basic Instinct: Earned a lot of money from her best-selling crime novels, for which she did a lot of hands-on research.
Who is your favorite rich character?
Featured images via Bouquet of Bee, Black Comic Guy, Fanpop
Ok, just finished reading this article. Here is the wonder; good sentence structure, ( I don’t think I can ever get my three minutes back from reading this) and proper use of punctuation.
Definition of the wonder; wonder bread, a sandwich made better by taking the bitter meat and surround it with the sweet goodness of soft appealing bread to make it easier to taste. Or in this case; bad info given in between compliments.
Thanks, Timothy. I take pride in my punctuation as well as my good sentence structure. I’ve never had my “content” described as “bitter meat” before; that’s pretty intense and creative on your part. Are you by any chance a regular contributor to http://www.douchebag.com? I think I’ve seen your writing there.
Ummmm……………….. Tony Stark aka Iron man, owner of Stark Industries?????????????????
Sybil Crawley isn’t rich because she doesn’t receive any of the money. Mary gets it because she marries the heir, Matthew.
Edward Cullen is not super ancient, he’s barely 100 years old.
Chuck Bass – Gossip Girl
Derek Shepherd – Grey’s Anatomy
Addison Montgomery-Shepherd – Private Practice (not really sure how old the Shepherds are now)
Damon/ Stephan Salvatore – Vampire Diaries
Cullens – Twilight
Klaus Michaels – Vampire Diaries
Tony Stark!!!
Elle Woods
and Cher Horowitz from Clueless!
Temperance “Bones” Brennan – rich from being a best selling author and a world renowned forensic anthropologist
Richard Castle – rich from being a best selling author
Oliver Queen (Arrow) – rich from inheritance
Chuck Bass – inheritance of Bass Industries and also from The Empire Hotel
Don’t forgot Hodgins. He is (well, *spoiler alert* was) way richer than Bones.
I debated including him but with the recent events changing his circumstances decided not too. Also, the Grey’s Anatomy peeps that got the settlement money from the plane crash but I’m not sure if they are still under 40??
Although, I’m not sure how old Castle is, so he may not qualify.
Chuck is amazing.
What about Richie Rich? She asks, refusing to let go of her childhood.
Well you left out Tony Stark from Iron Man/The Avengers lol
Yeah but there’s no way RDJ can pass for under 40.
I love Tony Stark! But yeah, I wasn’t sure if he was under 40. Not that Gus Fring is definitely under 40 either, but I had to include him!