Ronald Reagan had a very successful career as an actor. For over 30 years, he acted in movies, narrated documentaries, and hosted shows. His first role was in 1937's Love is on the Air and he continued to land lead roles for many years. By the 1960s and 1970s, he was also working a lot for TV, appearing in episodes of General Electric Theater and Death Valley Days (via the Reagan Library).
According to Too Much Online, Reagan was earning up to $400,000 per movie at the peak of his career. He would eventually join the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Board of Directors and, in the 1960s, he helped introduce residual payments. Up until then, actors were only receiving one-time payments for appearing in a film, but introducing residual payments meant that actors would receive money forever for reruns (and in today's world, things like streaming, pay-per-view, and cable). This decision meant that Reagan himself would also continue to receive these payments for the rest of his life, adding to his ever growing net worth (via The Atlantic).
By the time Reagan became president, his net worth was already $10.6 million, according to Town and Country. Sources estimate that over his lifetime, he also accumulated about $22 million in investments and an additional $25 million in other assets. Additionally, he earned an annual $200,000 while he was president, helping grow his net worth significantly (per CA Knowledge).
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