Roald Dahl Net Worth | Celebrity Net Worth

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What was Roald Dahl’s net worth?

Roald Dahl was a British novelist, poet, screenwriter and fighter pilot who had a net worth of $20 million at the time of his death. At the time of this writing, Roald Dahl’s books have sold over 250 million copies globally. Known for writing deeply comical, insensitive children’s books, his titles include “James and the Giant Peach,” “The BFG,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” and “Matilda.” Dahl is often regarded as one of the greatest British writers of the 20th century, although he has also received criticism for anti-Semitism and misogyny.

Early life and education

Roald Dahl was born on September 13, 1916, in Cardiff, Wales, to affluent Norwegian immigrant parents Harald and Sophie. He had four sisters named Astri, Alfield, Elsa and Esta. Astri died of appendicitis at the age of seven, while Dahl’s father died of pneumonia several weeks later. With his first language being Norwegian, Dahl went to the country’s Lutheran state church, the Church of Norway. He attended Cathedral School in Llandaff, Wales, and then transferred to St Peter’s Boarding School in Weston, Somerset, England. At the age of 13, Dahl began attending Repton School in Derbyshire. There, he was tormented by an atmosphere of ritualistic cruelty among the students and corporal punishment by the headmaster. During his school years, he played golf, cricket and football and developed an interest in literature and photography.

After his schooling, Dahl crossed the Atlantic and traveled with the Public School Exploring Society through Newfoundland, Canada. He then joined the Shell Petroleum Company, which appointed him to positions in Kenya and Tanganyika, where he lived in luxury at the company’s Shell House.

second World War

While in Africa in 1939, Dahl was commissioned as a lieutenant in the King’s African Rifles, where he commanded a platoon of indigenous soldiers serving in the colonial army. Thereafter, Dahl joined the Royal Air Force, rising to the rank of wing commander before becoming first a fighter pilot and then an intelligence officer. Wounded in a flying accident in 1940, Dahl was eventually disqualified for further service, and was dropped from the Royal Air Force in 1946.

Beginning of writing career

In 1942, Dahl published his first written work, which focused on his wartime adventures and was inspired by a meeting with the English novelist CS Forrester. It was bought by the Saturday Evening Post for $1,000 and published under the title “Shot Down Over Libya”. The next year, Dahl published “The Gremlins,” his first children’s book about small creatures who served in the Royal Air Force. The author also wrote adult short stories, which were included in early collections such as “Someone Like You” and “Kiss Kiss”.

children’s book

Starting with “James and the Giant Peach” in 1961, Dahl became known as a leading author of children’s fiction. He penned many other children’s classics such as “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” “The Twits,” “The BFG,” “The Witches,” and “Matilda,” among others. In the process, he became one of the best-selling authors in the world, and won several awards for literature. In addition, many of his works have been adapted into feature films.

Dahl’s books for children are often told from the point of view of their child protagonist. They usually include adult villains who despise and abuse children, a trope that reaches back to the author’s experiences at boarding school. His books also include fantasy, dark humour, quirky or magical characters, and an undercurrent of emotion, though they are never insane. Dahl also examined classroom themes, such as “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and “Danny, the Champion of the World.” In 1983, he received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement for his contribution to literature.

script writing

Sometime in the ’60s, Dahl wrote screenplays. He wrote the screenplays for the James Bond film “You Only Live Twice” and the musical fantasy film “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”, both of which were based on novels by Ian Fleming. Additionally, Dahl began to adapt his own novel “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”; However, after failing to make it to the deadline, it was completed by David Seltzer and transformed into “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”. Dahl hated the results, and rejected the film. As a result, he declined any further adaptations of the book during his lifetime.

Among Dahl’s other screenplay credits are the BBC children’s television series “Jackenory” and the 1971 thriller film “The Night Digger”. From 1979 to 1988, he wrote 26 episodes of the British anthology series “Tales of the Unexpected”.

controversies

Throughout her career, Dahl received much criticism for written and spoken words that were racist, anti-feminist or anti-Semitic. The latter allegation came to him for a 1983 review in which he wrote about the picture book “God Cried”, in which he claimed that the Jewish people had changed from “victims to savage killers” after the Holocaust. He denounced the “Jewish financial institutions” that “dominated” the United States, and insisted that the Jewish people have a characteristic that provokes protests. Dahl also claimed misogyny due to the portrayal of female characters, which he often wrote of as evil, ugly and tyrannical.

personal life

In 1953, Dahl married actress Patricia Neal. They had been married for 30 years, and had five children: Olivia, Chantal, Theo, Ophelia, and Lucy. When he was only a few months old, Theo was hit by a taxi in his baby carriage, and briefly suffered from hydrocephalus. Dahl later became involved in the development of the WDT valve, which is designed to improve the cerebral shunt used to treat the condition. A few years later, Dahl’s daughter Olivia died of measles at the age of seven. Later, in 1965, his wife suffered three brain aneurysms; She eventually recovered.

In 1972, Dahl began an 11-year affair with filmmaker Felicity D’Bru Crosland, whom he married in 1983 after divorcing Neil. Later, in November of 1990, Dahl died at the age of 74 from a rare blood cancer. His charitable contributions to hematology, neuroscience and literacy continue through Roald Dahl’s Marvelous Children’s Charity, which cares for sick young people across the UK.

Property

After his death in 1990, Ronald’s widow Felicity inherited the majority of his estate after taxes and other bequests. Felicity and her three children oversee the Roald Dahl Story company, which has generated billions in royalties and other revenue over the years.

netflix deals

In November 2018, Netflix paid $1 billion to acquire the animated rights to 16 of Dahls’ books.

In September 2021, Netflix completed the set by acquiring the Roald Dahl Story Company outright for $500 million.