Roseanne, The Big Bang Theory
Advertisements:
$50 Million
Television is a great way to make a living as an actor, especially if you can find yourself in a series that was massively popular and ran for many years. In the case of Johnny Galecki, he did that twice. For more than a decade, Galecki was most known for playing Leonard Hofstadter in “The Big Bang Theory”, which made him among the highest paid actors in television, and long before that was on the cast of “Roseanne”. Now that both shows have ended, Galecki is focusing his attention on other productions.
Galecki’s parents are from the United States, but gave birth to the actor on April 30, 1975 in Belgium. His father was in the military and was stationed there, and eventually moved to the Chicago area when they made their way back to the United States. Talking about his upbringing, Galecki said that “I was the sibling that kind of kept it all on a level when life at home got tough. I did it through comedy, sarcasm and distraction. All families are complicated, but my home life was glaringly uncomfortable much of the time, and it was me that took the onus.”
“I was a huge theater geek growing up,” Galecki added. “And that was not the easiest thing in the world, especially growing up in Chicago, where sports are really the norm. I was always off to the theater at night, from seven years old on. Friends there in the midwest who could talk to you about the idiosyncrasies of ‘Pippin’ were few and far between.”
Galecki began his interest in acting for himself, and was not yet a teenager when he started to land roles for the first time. Galecki got his start in 1987 with the films “Time Out for Dad” and “Murder Ordained”. He added several more film roles to end the 1980s, which included taking over the role of Rusty Griswold in “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”. When the 1990s started, Galecki landed on television for the first time, starring in the short lived “American Dreamer” which was followed by “Billy” in 1992.
After appearing in the film “Backfield in Motion”, Galecki had his first long-running role by starring as David Healy in “Roseanne”. The series had been airing for several years by the time Galecki joined, and he remained on the cast from 1992 until its conclusion in 1997. The series was even revived for a brief period in the late 2010s, with Galecki reprising his character and also did so on “The Conners”.
“When I started on ‘Roseanne’, it was a great achievement for me at the time,” Galecki said. “But I wasn’t part of building it; I wasn’t a carpenter in creating that juggernaut.”
For the rest of the 1990s, Galecki had just one other TV appearance, focusing more on his film career. During that time, Galecki was in films such as “Bean”, “Suicide Kings” and “I Know What You Did Last Summer”. For the first half of the 2000s, Galecki had made several guest appearances on television such as “LAX” and “My Name is Earl”, and added movies such as “Vanilla Sky”, “Bookies” and “Chrystal”.
Then, in 2007, Galecki landed what would be his most memorable and profitable role in television. That’s when he became Leonard Hofstadter, an experimental physicist that received a bulk of the show’s screen time. Galecki portrayed the character throughout the show’s entire run, and earned both a Golden Globe and Emmy nomination for his work. After many successful seasons and high ratings, “The Big Bang Theory” wrapped up in 2019.
Galecki said that it was the right time to bring the show to an end, but that doesn’t mean it was easy to say goodbye to the cast and crew. Talking about the departure, he said that “No one’s looking to do anything different, specifically. I think (Jerry) Seinfeld said, ‘You have to treat it like a good dinner party where you could stay longer, but you want to leave the table with the best memories of the evening that you could possibly have and not push your luck by staying for another cappuccino.’”
The show was also credited with helping more people get into science. “I don’t know if we can take credit for that,” Galecki siad, however. “I think it was time for people to understand that these are the type of people that are molding our culture and even our fashion, in some ways, as technology is looked at as part of our fashion accessories at this point. But I’m glad we were able to shine a light on those folks because they do deserve attention.”
During “The Big Bang Theory”, Galecki had guest starred on shows like “Entourage”
And added films with “Hancock”, “Table for Three” and “CBGB”. Most recently, Galecki appeared in the 2019 film “A Dog’s Journey”. Overall, it’s estimated that Galecki is worth $50 million, with a good bulk of that coming from his long-running shows.
Galecki was described as being the “straight man” in his comedy roles, which is fine with him as it still pays the bills. “Comedy is similar to hockey,” Galecki said. “In only one way. You get a lot of credit for assists. So I try to serve whatever the intention is, be it the joke or the story or the scene or the moment or the kiss, even if it’s not my joke or moment.” He added that “In a series, you really need to stay open-minded. It’s not like a play or a film, where you can create and fully commit to your character’s back-story.”
Galecki wants to remain busy for the rest of his career, saying that it’s a bit of an addiction to always be acting. “I’m not at my best when I’m not working,” Galecki said. “I’m certainly not at my happiest. Acting will always be my first love.”
->
