Jerry Mathers Net Worth 2026: What the Beaver Earned and Kept

Jerry Mathers has a net worth of about $3 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth (checked September 2026). Almost all of it traces back to one role: Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver on Leave It to Beaver, which he played in all 234 episodes from 1957 to 1963 and again in a 1980s revival. Savings from that job also paid for a second career in banking and real estate development.

Where Jerry Mathers' money comes from

Leave It to Beaver

Mathers started the show on a weekly salary of $500, according to Wikipedia. That was a meaningful sum for a child in the late 1950s, but small next to modern sitcom pay. The more unusual part of his deal was merchandising: Celebrity Net Worth reports he was the first child actor to get a percentage of merchandise revenue from a TV series.

The show has had a very long afterlife in reruns. Celebrity Net Worth says it has aired in more than 80 countries and 40 languages. How much of that reaches Mathers is not public. Actors of his era often had limited or no rerun payments under their original contracts, and no reliable outlet has published what he receives today.

The 1980s revival

He returned as the Beaver in the 1983 TV movie Still the Beaver. Its ratings led to a series that began on the Disney Channel in 1984, moved to TBS and syndication as The New Leave It to Beaver, and ran for 101 episodes until 1989, per Celebrity Net Worth. That gave him a second, adult paycheck from the same character. The pay was not reported.

Real estate and banking

After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, with a philosophy degree in 1973, Mathers worked as a commercial loan officer at a bank. He then used savings from his acting years to start in real estate development, Wikipedia says. The size and results of those projects have not been reported.

Stage, appearances and endorsements

• Theater. He toured with co-star Tony Dow in Boeing, Boeing and So Long, Stanley around 1978-1980, and made his Broadway debut on June 5, 2007, as Wilbur Turnblad in Hairspray at the Neil Simon Theatre.
• Spokesman work. After a type 2 diabetes diagnosis in 1996, which he has discussed publicly, he lost more than 40 pounds on a Jenny Craig program and became its first male spokesperson. In 2009 he became national spokesman for the drug-industry group PhRMA's Partnership for Prescription Assistance.
• Book. He published a memoir, And Jerry Mathers as The Beaver, in 1998.
• Fan events. He still appears at nostalgia shows and festivals. In February 2026 he announced he would appear at the Missouri Cherry Blossom Festival in Marshfield that April, Yahoo reported.

None of these deals has a published price.

Career timeline

Gerald Patrick Mathers was born on June 2, 1948, in Sioux City, Iowa, and grew up in the San Fernando Valley. He was modeling in a department store ad by age two.

Celebrity Net Worth says he got the Beaver part partly because he told the producers at the audition that he would rather be at his Cub Scout meeting, and they liked his frankness. In the 1990s he guest-starred on Married... with Children, Parker Lewis Can't Lose and Diagnosis: Murder.

Recent changes (2025-2026)

Nothing in 2025 or 2026 has changed his finances in a reported way. He turned 78 in June 2026 and has no announced acting projects. His public work consists of interviews about the show and convention and festival appearances such as the April 2026 Missouri event. His longtime co-star Tony Dow died in 2022, which leaves Mathers as the most visible face of the original series.

Assets

Only one property of his has been reported. In October 1985 he paid $163,000 for a home in Santa Clarita, California, which Celebrity Net Worth says is now worth about $1 million. That single house could account for roughly a third of the $3 million estimate.

He has been married three times: to Diana Platt (1974-1981), to Rhonda Gehring (they had three children and divorced in 1997), and since 2011 to Teresa Modnick. Two divorces are the kind of event that typically splits assets, though no settlement terms have been published.

Jerry Mathers' net worth compared

Celebrity Net Worth figures for the main Leave It to Beaver cast, checked September 2026. For those who have died, the figure is their estimated net worth at death.

Other long-lived TV names on this site show how differently a famous early role can play out. Linda Blair became famous as a child and built a later career around it, and Wayne Newton is another entertainer from the same generation whose income has come from decades of live performance. Ray Romano is the modern contrast: a family sitcom star who also owned a share of the show.

Why estimates differ

Celebrity Net Worth says $3 million. A 2025 Yahoo article from Reality Tea put him at $4 million, and a 2021 McDonough Voice profile repeated $3 million. Some sites go as high as $7 million to $15 million without saying where the number comes from.

The gap exists because so little is on the record. What is known: a $500 starting weekly salary, a share of 1950s merchandising, 101 revival episodes in the 1980s and a house bought for $163,000 that is now worth around $1 million. What is not known: how much he still receives from reruns and merchandise, how his real estate development ventures did, what his divorces cost and what he earns from appearances. Given those unknowns, $3 million to $4 million is the range supported by named sources.