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What Is John Milius' Net Worth?

John Milius is an American screenwriter, director, and producer who has a net worth of $5 million. John Milius earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium for the 1979 film "Apocalypse Now." He wrote and directed the films "Dillinger" (1973), "The Wind and the Lion" (1975), "Big Wednesday" (1978), "Conan the Barbarian" (1982), "Red Dawn" (1984), and "Farewell to the King" (1989). John also directed "Flight of the Intruder" (1991), wrote the screenplays for "The Devil's 8" (1969), "Evel Knievel" (1971), "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean" (1972), "Jeremiah Johnson" (1972), "Magnum Force" (1973), "Geronimo: An American Legend" (1993), "Clear and Present Danger" (1994), and "Texas Rangers" (2001), and came up with the story for "Extreme Prejudice" (1987). Milius made uncredited script revisions on the screenplays for "Dirty Harry" (1971), "Jaws" (1975), "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" (1984), "The Hunt for Red October" (1990), "Eraser" (1996), "Saving Private Ryan" (1998), and "Behind Enemy Lines" (2001). John has served as a producer on the films "Hardcore" (1979), "1941" (1979), "Used Cars" (1980), and "Uncommon Valor" (1983) as well as the HBO series "Rome" (2005–2007), which he co-created withBruno Hellerand William J. MacDonald.

Early Life

John Milius was born John Frederick Milius on April 11, 1944, in St. Louis, Missouri. He grew up in a Jewish household with mother Elizabeth, father William, and two older siblings. William worked as a shoe manufacturer, and he sold Milius Shoe Company (which his grandfather founded in 1923) and retired when John was 7 years old. The family subsequently moved to Bel Air, California, where Milius became interested in surfing. At the age of 14, John began attending the Lowell Whiteman School, a private school in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, because, as Milius told CNN, "I was a juvenile delinquent." He started writing short stories, and in a 2003 interview with IGN.com, he stated, "I had learned very early, to write in almost any style. I could write in fluent Hemingway, or in fluent Melville, or Conrad, or Jack Kerouac, and whatever."

John studied kendo and judo during his youth, and he has said that he "felt more comfortable with things Japanese and with Japanese people than [he] did with Europeans." He tried to join the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, but he was rejected because of his asthma. He said of being rejected by the Marine Corps, "I was devastated, I felt like I'd been rejected as a human being." In 1962, Milius fell in love with movies after stumbling upon a cinema that was showing Akira Kurosawa films. John attended the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television, where he was classmates withGeorge Lucas. His thesis film, "Marcello," won the Best Animation award at the National Student Film Festival.

(Photo by Paul Harris/Getty Images)

Career

Milius landed a summer job at American International Pictures in the story department with the help of his classmate Willard Huyck, and the two read scripts under producer Larry Gordon. John and Willard later teamed up to rewrite the screenplay for the 1969 film "The Devil's 8." Milius co-wrote 1971's "Evel Knievel" with Alan Caillou," followed by "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean" and "Jeremiah Johnson" (which he co-wrote with Edward Anhalt) in 1972. He co-wrote 1973's "Magnum Force" withMichael Cimino, and that year he made his feature film directorial debut with "Dillinger," which he also wrote. John wrote and directed 1975's "The Wind and the Lion," then he directed and co-wrote (with Dennis Aaberg) 1978's "Big Wednesday," which was inspired by his love of surfing. His screenplay for 1979's "Apocalypse Now" earned him an Academy Award nomination. The film was directed and co-written byFrancis Ford Coppola, and in 2000, it was preserved in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant."

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Disclaimer: All net worth figures are estimates based on public data.