Highlights
- Viola Davis grew up in poverty and faced immense financial struggles as a child, but has managed to overcome them and accumulate an impressive fortune.
- Despite her success and wealth, Davis remains humble and values the simple things in life.
- Davis' journey from rags to riches serves as an inspiring example of the power of hard work, determination, and dreaming big.
Over the last several years, Viola Davis has become so respected that her peers and young actors like NaSwana Moon talk about how much they want to work with her. For that reason, it is nice to know that, unlike other stars who've recently lost money including Pamela Anderson who went broke, Davis has accumulated an impressive fortune.
Of course, almost everyone dreams of becoming rich someday. However, it must be especially meaningful for Davis that she has amassed such an impressive fortune. The reason for that is Davis once revealed how much she struggled to just get the basics when she was growing up.
How Much Money Did Viola Davis Have When She Was A Child?
When people look at today's Hollywood landscape, it seems like the vast majority of stars had idyllic childhoods. For example, there are stars like Rooney and Kate Mara whose parents are unbelievably rich, to say the very least.
If it wasn't enough that many celebrities grew up with rich parents, some stars have parents that were famous too. In fact, there are so many stars with parents who were famous first that the term nepo baby was coined and has become hotly debated.
Unlike her peers that grew up with rich and/or famous parents, Viola Davis was born into a very different situation. According to reports, Davis' father was a horse trainer and her mom worked several different jobs including maid, factory worker, and homemaker.
While all of those professions are worthy of respect and should be financially rewarding enough for people to raise a family, Davis' family had money problems. In fact, according to what Davis has said in the past, it sounds like financial stress was a constant for Davis, her parents, and her five siblings.
In 2014, Davis was selected to be one of Variety's Power Of Women honorees. While Davis has won many awards for her acting talents, she was chosen for Variety's honor due to her work with the charity Hunger Is.
When Davis took to the stage to accept the honor, she proceeded to give a truly powerful speech. While talking to the crowd in attendance, Davis explained how food insecure she was growing up and what she had to do at the time to make sure she had food to eat.
At the beginning of Davis' speech, she took a moment to make clear that she has fond memories from when she was growing up. From there, Davis immediately went on to explain how hard things were for her and her siblings during their childhoods.
"Although my childhood was filled with many happy memories, it was also spent in abject poverty. I was one of the 17 million kids in this country who didn't know where the next meal was coming from. And I did everything to get food."
When some people say things like they did everything to get food, they are being overdramatic. Based on what Davis explained next about her childhood, she truly did go to extremes simply to be able to eat.
"I've stolen for food, I've jumped in huge garbage bins with maggots for food, I have befriended people in the neighborhood who I knew had mothers who cooked three meals a day for food. And I sacrificed a childhood for food... and grew up in immense shame."
In 2017, Davis spoke to the press after she won an Oscar for her performance in the movie Fences. During that press conference, Davis elaborated on how difficult her childhood could be. Davis then went on to reveal that the hard times she dealt with as a child inspired her to become as accomplished as she is now.
"I grew up in poverty, you know? I grew up in apartments that were condemned and rat-infested, and I just always sort of wanted to be somebody. I just wanted to be good at something. So this is sort of like the miracle of God, of dreaming big and just hoping that it sticks and it lands, and it did. Who knew? So I'm overwhelmed."
What Is Viola Davis' Net Worth Now?
Considering how Viola Davis has described struggling to find food as a kid, simply not having to worry about her next meal must be a relief for her on some level. However, given how motivated Davis was to "be somebody", it makes sense that she has accomplished much more than that in life.
Thanks to the fact that Davis has become one of the most acclaimed actors of the modern era, it seems like virtually everyone wants to work with her. Davis has also proven that she can be a part of big budget movies like Suicide Squad and its sequel.
As a result of those two aspects of Davis' career, she has been able to demand some truly impressive paydays over the years. With that in mind, it makes sense that according to Celebrity Net Worth, Davis has a $25 million fortune as of this writing.
Once fans learned that Davis truly had a rags-to-riches story, they must have been interested to know how much her life has changed.
Of course, there are obvious things like Davis no longer having to go searching for food in a dumpster or stealing to get her next meal. On top of that, Davis obviously has a gorgeous home now instead of the rat-infested place she laid her head down to sleep as a child.
However, based on what Davis told the press after her Oscars win, just because she is rich and famous now doesn't mean that she has become a snob. Instead, Davis told the press that as soon as she was done celebrating her Oscars win, she was going to go back to enjoying the simple things in life that bring her joy.
"I'll have some mac and cheese and I'll go back to washing my daughter's hair tomorrow night."
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