William Ragsdale Net Worth Estimate and How It’s Calculated

William Ragsdale's estimated net worth as of April 2026 is in the range of $8 million to $13 million, with a confidence level best described as moderate. That range reflects a career built on a cult-classic horror film, a four-season network sitcom, a meaningful recurring role on a prestige cable drama, and steady stage and screen work spanning four decades. No single source has locked this down with verified financial records, so the range matters more than any single headline figure.

Who William Ragsdale is (and why that context shapes the estimate)

William Ragsdale's full name is Robert William Ragsdale. He was born on January 19, 1961, and built his career as an American stage and screen actor over more than 40 years. Most people searching his name know him from one of three touchstones: Charley Brewster in the horror-comedy Fright Night (1985) and its sequel Fright Night Part 2 (1988), the lead role of Herman Brooks in the Fox sitcom Herman's Head (which ran from 1991 to 1994), or Gary Hawkins, his recurring character across 12 episodes of the FX drama Justified between 2010 and 2012.

Why does this biographical setup matter for a net worth estimate? Because actors' wealth is almost entirely a function of their career trajectory. Ragsdale is not a name that crossed into blockbuster territory or A-list franchise work, which immediately caps the upper bound of credible estimates. He is, however, a working professional actor with consistent credits across film, television, and theater over four decades. That career arc puts him in a very different financial category than a one-hit actor who disappeared after a single role or a fleeting reality TV personality. His career longevity is the single biggest factor justifying the lower end of the range, and his notable credits are the biggest factor justifying the upper end.

The quick answer: net worth range and how confident we are

The working estimate here is $8 million to $13 million, centered around $10 million as the most reasonable midpoint. Multiple third-party sites that aggregate celebrity financial data have published figures in this zone: one widely cited source pegs him at $13 million, while several others from the 2019-2023 window clustered between $8 million and $10 million. The $10 million figure published by Moonchildrenfilms as of 2023 sits comfortably in the middle of those ranges and aligns with what a sustained 40-year acting career at his career level might plausibly accumulate.

One source that should be excluded entirely from serious consideration is CelebWorth, which lists William Ragsdale's net worth at $100 million with an annual income of $20 million. Those numbers are fabricated. No credible evidence supports either figure for an actor at Ragsdale's career tier, and they are almost certainly the result of an automated data error or a deliberate inflation strategy common on low-quality celebrity wealth aggregator sites. Ignore that number completely.

How net worth estimates like this are actually built

Net worth is a snapshot calculation: total assets minus total liabilities at a specific point in time. For a private individual like William Ragsdale, who has no publicly filed financial disclosures, no known bankruptcy, and no celebrity-level tabloid scrutiny of his finances, the estimate has to be constructed from proxies rather than verified records.

The methodology works roughly like this: identify the career credits (film, television, theater), estimate compensation ranges for each type of credit based on industry standards, factor in residuals and royalties where applicable, subtract reasonable living expenses and taxes over the career duration, and then add potential asset appreciation from real estate or investments if any public records exist. For Ragsdale, there are no publicly documented real estate transactions, lawsuits, or liens that meaningfully adjust the number up or down, so the estimate leans heavily on career income modeling.

It is worth noting that a Ragsdale Foundation appears in ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer records (EIN 74-2862267), but there is no public evidence connecting this foundation to William Ragsdale the actor. Readers doing their own due diligence should verify any such record before attributing assets or liabilities to a specific individual, since name similarities in nonprofit databases are a common source of confusion. Similarly, IRS public statistics exist but they never identify specific individuals, so they cannot directly inform this kind of estimate.

Where his money likely came from

Film work and residuals from Fright Night

Ragsdale's film career starts with the Fright Night franchise. The original 1985 film became a cult horror classic and has maintained an active commercial life through home video, streaming, and physical media sales. Residuals from studio films typically flow to actors through union (SAG-AFTRA) agreements for the duration of those films' commercial lives. For a cult film with genuine staying power, those residuals can trickle in for decades, though at diminishing rates over time. The sequel in 1988 would add a smaller but additional residual stream. These are not life-changing sums, but they are real and ongoing.

Herman's Head and television income

The four-season run of Herman's Head (1991-1994) on Fox is where the most substantial television income likely came from. Ragsdale was the lead of a network sitcom at a time when network television contracts were considerably more lucrative relative to the broader entertainment economy than they are today. A lead actor on a network sitcom in the early 1990s could expect base compensation in the range of tens of thousands per episode, escalating with each season. With Herman's Head running approximately 72 episodes over four seasons, this represents a significant income event even if individual episode fees were modest compared to later-era sitcom salaries.

Justified and recurring TV roles

Recurring roles on prestige cable dramas pay differently than one-off guest spots. Ragsdale's 12-episode run as Gary Hawkins on Justified (March 2010 through March 2012) is the kind of credit that net worth estimators treat as meaningful recurring income rather than a single appearance. Recurring TV contracts typically guarantee episode minimums and can include backend participation depending on negotiation leverage. For a well-established actor with credits like Ragsdale's, those negotiations would have been conducted from a position of credibility.

Theater and stage work

Theater income is real but rarely wealth-building in a significant way. Ragsdale's documented stage credits include the Neil Simon touring companies of Biloxi Blues and Broadway Bound, as well as an Off-Broadway appearance in 2017 in Man from Nebraska at Second Stage Theatre. Union theatrical contracts provide stable income, but theater rarely accumulates the kind of residual or backend value that film and television do. His stage background speaks more to professional longevity and craft than to financial accumulation.

Recent and ongoing credits

Ragsdale appeared in the 2023 film Renfield, which keeps his screen credits active into the current decade. Continued working status matters for net worth not just as income but as a signal that residual and licensing income from older work likely continues to be managed and maintained. An actively working actor is more likely to have industry representation, contracts under management, and financial structures in place than someone who left the industry entirely.

Career timeline highlights that shape the earnings picture

1. 1985: Fright Night released, establishing Ragsdale as a recognizable face in genre film and beginning a residual stream that continues today.
2. 1988: Fright Night Part 2 extends the franchise and his association with a cult property.
3. 1991-1994: Herman's Head on Fox, his highest-profile television lead role and likely his peak earnings period in television.
4. 1998-1999: Brother's Keeper, a sitcom role he chose over the Charmed pilot, demonstrating active career navigation and ongoing television income.
5. 2010-2012: 12 episodes of Justified as Gary Hawkins, a prestige cable role that renewed his screen visibility.
6. 2017: Off-Broadway in Man from Nebraska at Second Stage Theatre, maintaining active working status.
7. 2023: Role in Renfield, confirming continued industry activity into his early 60s.

The pattern across this timeline is consistent: Ragsdale has never disappeared from working in the industry, but he has also never crossed into the kind of franchise or blockbuster territory that produces the nine-figure estimates you see for top-tier celebrities. That sustained, mid-tier professional consistency is exactly what the $8 million to $13 million range reflects.

Why estimates differ so much depending on where you look

This is one of the most common follow-up questions people have after seeing wildly different numbers across websites, and the answer comes down to a few compounding issues. First, most celebrity net worth sites do not publish their methodology. Sites like TheRichest describe editorial standards in general terms but do not provide specific calculation steps for individual profiles. Net Worth Spot uses a proprietary algorithm applied to publicly available data. Neither approach is transparent enough for independent verification.

Second, net worth is a time-sensitive snapshot. A figure published in 2019 reflects a different calculation than one published in 2023, and neither gets automatically updated unless someone actively revisits the profile. The cluster of estimates for Ragsdale between 2019 and 2023 shows a gradual upward drift from $8 million to $10 million, which likely reflects a combination of genuine career activity (Justified syndication, Renfield) and organic inflation in how sites revise figures over time.

Third, some sites simply copy and inflate numbers from other sites. The $100 million CelebWorth figure is the most extreme example, but smaller inflation errors (rounding $9 million to $13 million without additional evidence) are common across the aggregator ecosystem. This is why comparing multiple sources and discarding clear outliers is essential, and why understanding the methodology matters as much as the number itself. For comparison, you can see similar estimation challenges in profiles like Brent Ragsdale's net worth, where overlapping surnames can further confuse automated data collection, or in the Corey Ragsdale net worth profile, which faces similar data quality constraints.

Factors that could push the number higher or lower from here

• Continued acting work: Each new film or television credit adds income and keeps residual negotiations active. A significant role in a streaming series, for instance, could meaningfully shift the estimate upward.
• Fright Night licensing and remakes: The 2011 Fright Night remake renewed interest in the original, and any future reboot or franchise extension would likely trigger renegotiated residual arrangements for original cast members.
• Real estate and investments: There are no publicly documented real estate holdings for Ragsdale, but like most long-career professionals in their 60s, capital allocation to assets outside of acting income likely plays a role that simply is not visible from public records.
• Liabilities and expenses: Unknown personal liabilities, legal expenses, or lifestyle costs could reduce net worth significantly without any public visibility. This is the biggest source of downside uncertainty in any private individual's estimate.
• Industry shifts: The ongoing restructuring of residuals and streaming compensation in Hollywood (the SAG-AFTRA strikes of 2023 were partly about this) affects all working actors' income streams.

How to verify this figure or update it yourself

If you want to go beyond this estimate and do your own verification, here is the practical path. Start with IMDb (identifier nm0706619) to get a complete, up-to-date list of Ragsdale's credits. Every credit is a potential income event, and the volume and type of credits (lead vs. recurring vs. guest) give you the raw material for an income estimate. IMDb's credit list is the most reliable public record of a working actor's professional output.

Next, check county-level property records in any states where Ragsdale is known to have lived or worked. Real estate is one of the few asset classes where public records can give you a real data point rather than an estimate. No specific property holdings for Ragsdale are documented in publicly available research, but that search is worth running if you want to ground-truth the estimate.

For nonprofit or business involvement, ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer is the right tool for checking whether any foundations or nonprofit entities are connected to him. As noted earlier, the Ragsdale Foundation record in that database requires careful verification before attribution. PACER (the federal court records system) is the right tool for checking whether any lawsuits, liens, or bankruptcies are on record, which would be the most significant potential downward pressure on any estimate.

Finally, cross-referencing multiple celebrity wealth databases while weighting recent, sourced estimates more heavily than older or unsourced ones is the most practical approach for most readers. The same principles apply whether you are researching someone like Ragsdale or a lesser-known public figure. For example, the Jerry Ragland Frankfort KY net worth profile demonstrates how local public records can sometimes provide more grounding than national aggregator sites. Similarly, profiles for individuals like Joe Ragland or Richard Rigney of Louisville, KY show how regional data and public filings can sharpen estimates that would otherwise rely entirely on career modeling.

For actors whose income derives primarily from content creation rather than traditional acting, the methodology shifts somewhat. The Adam Ragusea net worth estimate is a useful comparison point because Ragusea built his audience through YouTube and digital media, where platform analytics provide a semi-public income proxy that traditional actors simply do not have. Ragsdale's career predates that era entirely, making career credit modeling the dominant methodology here.

One more note on verification: readers sometimes wonder whether industry professionals like long-career actors generate meaningful income from brand endorsements or business ventures. For Ragsdale, there is no publicly documented evidence of either. His wealth profile appears to be a clean acting career story, which actually makes the estimate somewhat easier to model and also means there are fewer hidden variables that could dramatically change the number. The Eric Ralls net worth profile offers an interesting contrast, covering a public figure whose wealth comes from a combination of media and entrepreneurial ventures rather than a single industry, which illustrates just how much the income source mix complicates estimation.

The bottom line on William Ragsdale's net worth

William Ragsdale is a working actor with a four-decade career anchored by cult horror films, a network sitcom lead, and a prestige cable recurring role. The most defensible net worth estimate as of April 2026 is $8 million to $13 million, with $10 million as a reasonable midpoint. The confidence level is moderate: the range is grounded in multiple aggregator estimates, consistent career evidence, and standard industry income modeling, but it is not verifiable from public financial records. Discard the $100 million figure entirely. Treat any estimate below $8 million as likely outdated. And if you want to refine the number yourself, IMDb credits plus county property records plus a PACER search is the most productive three-step approach available to anyone without access to private financial data.