
olly Parton net worth: Dolly Parton is an American singer, songwriter, actress, author, entrepreneur and philanthropist who has a net worth of $650 million dollars. Dolly Parton has been writing and performing hit country songs for over 40 years. She has released 41 top-10 country albums, and has had 25 number one singles. She is most widely recognized for her songs, “9 to 5” and “I Will Always Love You”, which Whitney Houston covered for the feature film, The Bodyguard. During her career, she has sold more than 100 million albums as a solo artist alone. That does not include the hundreds of millions of albums that other artists have sold using her songs. Dolly has invested large portions of her fortune in her native Tennessee through philanthropy and entrepreneurial efforts. Her theme park Dollywood is the 24th most-visited theme park in the US, welcoming 3 million visitors a year. She had donated and/or raised hundreds of millions of dollars to support a variety of charities.
arly Life: Dolly Rebecca Parton was born in 1946 in Sevier County, Tennessee as the fourth of twelve children. Her father was a tobacco farmer. She would later describe her family as being dirt poor and remembers hearing that her father paid the doctor who helped deliver her with a bag of oatmeal. Music always played an important role in her life, and many of her early performances were in church. By the age of 9, Parton was appearing on The Cas Walker Show and later was signed on the small Louisiana label, Goldband Records. The day after Dolly graduated from high school in 1964, she moved to Nashville. She found success as a songwriter very quickly. She teamed up with an uncle named Bill Owens in writing several charting singles.
Success: In 1965, at age 19, Dolly signed with Monument Records. She was initially marketed as a bubble gum pop singer. Her early pop songs were not successful. After one of her country songs hit #6 on the country charts as performed by another artist (Bill Phillips – with Dolly on harmony), Monument Records finally saw the light and gave up their pop dreams for Dolly.
Dolly’s first single as a country artist, “Dumb Blonde”, reached #24 on the county chart. Ironically, she did not write this song. It’s one of just a few non-self-composed songs that Dolly recorded during this era. Her second single “Something Fishy” hit #17.
These two songs were featured on Dolly’s debut studio album, 1967’s “Hello, I’m Dolly”. The album also featured her own versions of several songs she had written that had become famous by other artists. The album peaked at #11 on the Billboard Hot Country Albums chart.
Porter Wagoner: That same year, Dolly was invited to begin making regular appearances on Porter Wagoner’s weekly syndicated show “The Porter Wagoner Show”. Seeing her talent and untapped potential, Wagoner would soon convince his label RCA Victor to sign Dolly. Porter also became her producer and purchased 50% of Owe-Par, the publishing company she founded with her uncle Bill Owens. As such, Porter was heavily invested in Dolly’s success.
Her first single on her second studio album, 1968’s “Just Because I’m a Woman”, was a duet with Porter.
Porter and Dolly would go on to release 13 studio albums as a duo between 1968 and 1980. Their albums produced 21 singles on the country chart, including the #1 single “Please Don’t Stop Loving Me”.
Unfortunately, Dolly’s solo career was struggling to takeoff for several years. Finally, in 1973 she had an enormous hit with the song “Jolene”. The song hit #1 on the country chart in February 1974 and did very well on the non-country charts around the globe. Rolling Stone would later rank the song as the 217th of 500 on its list of the Greatest Songs of all Time. Dolly herself would reveal that “Jolene” is the song that would be most-recorded by other artists, out of all the songs she has written.
For her solo work, Dolly moved on from Porter Wagoner in April 1974, though he produced her songs through 1975.
op Stardom and Acting Career: Between 1974 and 1980, Dolly continued to chart country hits, with eight singles hitting #1. She hosted her own variety show between 1976 an 1977. Her 1977 self-produced album “New Harvest… First Gathering” featured pop songs and prodcution. On the album she covered R&B classics “My Girl” and “Higher and Higher”.
In 1980, Dolly starred in the movie “9 to 5” with Jane Fonda and Lilly Tomlin. She also wrote and sang the title track to the movie. The song “9 to 5” earned Dolly an Academy Award nomination and four Grammy nominations. She ended up winning the Grammys for Best Country Song and Best Country Vocal Performance.
Other notable Dolly films include 1982’s “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas”, 1984’s “Rhinestone”, 1989’s “Steel Magnolias” and 2012’s “Joyful Noise”.
ersonal Life: In 1966, Dolly married Carl Thomas Dean. Dean shuns publicity. He spent much of his life running an asphalt road-surface-paving business in Nashville. He rarely accompanies his wife to public events. According to Parton, Carl has only seen her perform publicly ONCE.
Parton and Dean helped raise several of Parton’s younger siblings, and although she has no children of her own, she is active in the lives of her nieces and nephews, and is also the godmother of performer, Miley Cyrus.
Dolly Parton
Net Worth: | $650 Million |
Date of Birth: | Jan 19, 1946 (75 years old) |
Gender: | Female |
Height: | 4 ft 11 in (1.524 m) |
Profession: | Businessperson, Author, Singer-songwriter, Actor, Musician, Composer, Multi-instrumentalist, Record producer, Film Producer, Philanthropist |
Nationality: | United States of America |
Last Updated: | 2021 |