Today, Kyle Richards is best known to audiences for her time on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” but her screen career actually dates back to childhood. How did Richards make her money?
Kyle Richards has made her money from acting, her reality show career, and occasional behind the scenes work. She and her husband, Mauricio Umansky, have also invested successfully in properties. Celebrity Net Worth estimates that Richards is worth $100 million, with most of this coming from real estate.
For more on Kyle Richards and her lucrative screen career, read on.
Kyle Richards
Kyle Egan Richards was born in Hollywood, California on January 11, 1969. Her parents were Kenneth Edwin Richards and Kathleen Mary Dugan.
Both of her parents had been married previously, with Kyle inheriting three half-siblings from his father’s previous marriage.
Kathleen had been married to Lawrence Avanzino and had a daughter, Kathy, ten years before Kyle’s birth. Kathy would grow up to marry Richard Hilton and is the mother of Paris and Nicky Hilton, making them Kyle’s half-nieces.
Kyle’s parents had a daughter together five years before Kyle was born, Kim, who also went on to be a cast member of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”.
Acting Career
Richards began acting when she was just five years old. Her first screen role came in 1974 when she was cast as Alicia Sanderson Edwards in “Little House of the Prairie”, appearing in 18 episodes. Her older sister, Kim, also had a guest appearance in the show a year before Kyle joined it.
Kyle and Kim were united on screen in 1977, playing sisters in “The Car”. Kyle received steady TV work throughout the 1970s, with guest appearances in many shows such as “Fantasy Island” and “Time Express”.
Her most famous role came in 1978 when she played Lindsey Wallace in the genre-defining slasher film “Halloween”. Lindsey is the young girl who Laurie, Jamie Lee Curtis’ character, is made to look after.
The film was one of the most influential horror films of all time and Richards appeared in another horror, “The Watcher in the Woods”, two years later.
As an adult, she appeared in 21 episodes of “ER” as Nurse Dori Kerns between 1998 and 2006. Otherwise, her acting career after childhood was mostly restricted to minor roles in films and guest appearances in TV shows.
After achieving her greatest fame in the 2010s as a cast member of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”, it was announced that Richards would be returning to her most iconic acting role. Richards was cast as Lindsey Wallace in “Halloween Kills”, reuniting her with Jamie Lee Curtis in a role that she first performed more than four decades ago.
RHOBH
In 2011, Kyle Richards was chosen as one of the initial cast members for “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”, becoming the longest-serving member as others left the show throughout its decade on air.
There have been conflicting reports regarding Richards’ salary for the show. It has been claimed that Richards makes $270,000 per season of “RHOBH”, a little more than $10,000 per episode.
However, former cast member Camille Grammer, who accused Richards of using influence behind the scenes to have Grammer removed from the show, presented some of her complaints on social media. Grammar claimed that Richards was given special treatment by the show’s management and was paid $134,000 while the other cast members at the time were paid $36,000.
It’s possible that neither of these numbers is accurate but it’s also likely that Richards has enjoyed a very lucrative decade on the show.
In 2018, she also executive produced “American Woman”, which was loosely based on her own life and starred Alicia Silverstone. The show ran for one season but was not renewed by Paramount.