Peter Dinklage's Net Worth Proves He's a 'Game of Thrones' Winner
Peter Dinklage Net Worth
Peter Dinklage made a killing on Game of Thrones, eventually becoming one of the highest paid actors on television for his portrayal of Tyrion Lannister on the hit HBO series. But his net worth hasn’t always been the stuff of fantasy. As a struggling actor, he remembers living in a New York City apartment that barely had heat (but did have at least one rat).
“I would not be able to live in those environments now and I am glad my comfort level is higher, but that is part of being young,” Dinklage said in a 2015 interview with The Talks. “For me it was part of this struggle. It sort of fed your hunger. And it made you fight harder to get better.”
Get better he did. Dinklage earned four Primetime Emmys for his role on GoT and spun his success on that show into a bonafide movie-star career, with roles in X-Men: Days of Future Past, Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri and the new Hunger Games prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, among many others.
Read on for more about Peter Dinklage’s net worth and how he built it.
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How did Peter Dinklage become famous?
Dinklage showed an interest in acting from a young age, when he and his brothers would put on puppet shows for people in their neighborhood in New Jersey. His first lead role of any sort was in his fifth-grade musical production of The Velveteen Rabbit. But his first professional role came in 1995, in an independent meta-film called Living in Oblivion directed by Steve Buscemi. Shot on a micro-budget in New York City, the movie starred Dinklage as a frustrated actor who's tired of getting clichéd parts. In many ways, the role reflected his own real-life struggles as an actor with dwarfism (he stands at 4’5” inches).
Dinklage vowed early in his career to refuse roles that typecast or insulted him. "You can say no," he told The New York Times in 2012. "You can not be the object of ridicule.” With that in mind, he spent most of the '90s and 2000s focusing on challenging parts in independent comedies and dramas, like 2003's The Station Agent. He performed in theater (Richard III), low-budget movies (Find Me Guilty, The Baxter) and direct-to-video productions (TipToes). In 2008, he took on a role in the second installment of the big-screen adaptation of C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008), a project that helped raise his profile in Hollywood.
Three years later, Dinklage made his debut on HBO’s Game of Thrones as the horny, wine-drinking and underachieving sibling of the powerful Lannister family. He was perfect in the role and instantly became a fan favorite.
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What is Peter Dinklage’s net worth?
Peter Dinklage’s net worth is estimated to be about $25 million.
How much did Peter Dinklage get paid for Game of Thrones?
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the show's five leads, including Kit Harington (Jon Snow), Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen), Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister) and Dinklage, banded together and negotiated $1.2 million per episode for the final season of the show. If true, that would mean Dinklage's salary for that season alone was $7.2 million. For the previous Season 7, the top-billed cast was reportedly earning about $500,000 to $600,000 per episode, which would mean Dinklage raked in anywhere from $3.5 million to $4.2 million for that season's work.
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How much did Peter Dinklage get paid for Elf?
Dinklage’s salary for the Will Ferrell-led comedy hasn’t been released publicly. Given that he had a rather small role (one scene where he attacks Ferrell’s Buddy the Elf for mistaking his dwarfism for him being a fellow elf), he probably didn't make much for it. But, hey, the part was memorable.
How much did Peter Dinklage get paid for X-Men: Days of Future Past?
Dinklage’s inclusion in the fifth installment of the X-Men film series, X-Men: Days of Future Past, saw him playing military scientist Dr. Bolivar Trask. Dinklage described his character as being one who “likes to talk… very Shakespearean. He likes a platform and an audience.” His salary for the film has not been disclosed.
Related: 'Game of Thrones' Star Kit Harington's Net Worth Is as Impressive as His Roles
How much did Peter Dinklage get paid for Transformers: Rise of the Beasts?
For voicing the villain Scourge, one of the Terrorcons in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, Dinklage was reportedly paid a cool $400,000, putting him him in a similar salary range as his co-stars Ron Perlman and Peter Cullen.
How much did Peter Dinklage get paid for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri?
Salaries for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Fox's indie Oscar Best Picture nominee starring Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell, have not been released. As an independent production, the movie had a small budget of around $12 million to $15 million. Dinklage had a supporting role and modest screen time, which means he likely commanded a much lower salary than the movie's leads, and certainly well below his $1.2 million per episode GOT payday.
What movies has Peter Dinklage been in?
Although he's still best known for his role on Game of Thrones, Dinklage has starred in many movies. To name just a handful:
A Case of You (2013)
The Boss (2016)
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
I Care a Lot (2020)
Cyrano (2021)
He can currently be seen in his latest project, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, in theaters now.