Celebrity lifestyles and intrigues have always mad us interested in their lives. We strive to know more about our popular celebrity, because this makes us feel as though we get to know them better as human beings. In today’s article we will talk about the net worth and biography of a famous American TV persona and painter, Bob Ross.
One of the most unmistakable characters of television at the end of the last century was Bob Ross, conductor and protagonist of the series the pleasure of painting. If it does not sound familiar, think of an ASMR video where a curly and bearded man, with a cowboy look or spiritual leader, teaches you landscape painting techniques in oil while narrating stories that are left engraved on the canvas, with names as “autumn beams”, “blue winter” or “northern lights”. For many, it was an addiction.
Early years
Robert “Bob” Ross was born on October 29, 1942, the son of a carpenter in Daytona Beach in Florida. In the ninth grade, he gave up the school and went with 18 to the US Air Force in which he committed for 20 years and was active in the medical field. He hoped to get around the world through the Air Force and get to know places other than Florida.
Later, in one of his “The Joy of Painting” episodes, he was amused that he had been based in Florida for the first time. Twelve of the 20 years he spent in Alaska. Bob Ross later recounted and painted about these landscapes in his program called The Joy of Painting.
He took his first painting lessons at the Alaska UC Organizations Club in Anchorage, southern Alaska. Later on, Bob Ross told and painted about these landscapes in his program called The Joy of Painting. Among other things, he often mentioned with a smile that he was transferred there just in January.
Despite the hard work at the Air Force, Bob took a lot of time to learn and improve in painting classes by instructors or universities.
One day Bob saw the painting of William “Bill” Alexander on TV. He was immediately captivated by the charm and charisma of Bill Alexander, as well as his painting technique and his unusual tools. Bob immediately realized that he had found the “technology for the impatient” he had been looking for all the time. He later jokingly called this “the lazy man’s technique”.
Later he learned the “wet on wet technique” from William Bill Alexander and copied his painting knife (later they became rivals). This technique allowed him to apply layers of oil directly to each other, making it possible to take complete pictures within an hour.
In 1981, his service at the Air Force ended. Bob Ross accepted an offer from William Alexander to work in his company in Salem, Oregon. With only $ 1,000 in his pocket, he left his wife Jane and son Steve in Alaska to travel to Oregon, where he saw the dream of traveling around the area as a traveling artist to offer courses for himself. When none of Bob Ross booked courses, he worked with William Alexander and filled in Magic White in cans.
But because he was able to draw fine techniques with which one could draw the finest details too long, he developed a method with which one could produce good details despite large brushes. One year after Bob joined the Magic Company, Annette Kowalski attended one of his seminars in Florida (Clearwater). She talked him into a seminar called Paint with Bob in the Washington area, D.C. To their great disappointment remained the droves of students.
The next big city for further trials was Philadelphia in the north. They stopped on their way to Philadelphia in Cherry Hill to take a student out of their last workshop. This came with a video camera in hand. They thought he wanted to film Bob so he could have his own tutor at home Bob gave him his permission to film.
This camera gave them an idea – they bought a video gear and tried to make a video. When they turned a tiny hotel room into a mini-studio, they first had to convince the curious hotel manager that they wanted to film landscape-painting techniques here and not produce any dirty films, as he first thought.
Time passed, but the big breakthrough did not come. One day, Bob & Annette received $ 1 million in seed money from a student. However, this wanted to have 25% of every profit. Annette’s husband Walt advised against them and they beat the offer.
In 1983 she moved to Chicago. There was the local station PBS. There they bought 60 seconds advertising during the famous Phil Donahue Show that was very popular at the time and one of the first late night talk shows. While filming the sixty-second spot at WNVC-TV’s PBS station in North Virginia, Bob mesmerized the broadcaster’s technical staff.
More and more station staff came to the end, including the manager of the station. Walt took advantage of this opportunity to get the station executives to produce a full series with Bob. 13 episodes of 26 minutes each were planned.
Endless samples were required to finish all the pictures in the set time, with Bob on the brush and Annette on the stopwatch. But after many “takes” the series was finally finished. Bob and Annette were very proud of their work, even if it was not technically perfect yet. Bob’s dreams were finally coming true.
With his friendly nature and his pleasant voice, he managed very quickly a large fan base build. His easy and fast way to paint pictures was just as popular as his sayings (everyone needs a friend, God’s little creatures also need a place to live,) and stories he told besides painting. Bob Ross shot a total of thirty-three series of The Joy of Painting and painted about twenty thousand images
Bob Ross died of cancer on July 4, 1995 at only 52 years of age in New Smyrna Beach in Florida. His wife, Jane, died in 1993. He has a son, Steven, who appeared on several occasions and is an instructor. Despite his death, his show has never lost popularity. One of his best friends (Annette Kowalski) even developed his method to paint flowers.
Career development
One of the most unmistakable characters of television at the end of the last century was Bob Ross, conductor and protagonist of the series the pleasure of painting. If it does not sound familiar, think of an ASMR video where a curly and bearded man, with a cowboy look or spiritual leader, teaches you landscape painting techniques in oil while narrating stories that are left engraved on the canvas, with names as “autumn beams”, “blue winter” or “northern lights”. For many, it was an addiction.
One of the biggest fans of Bob Ross began as his student and ended up building the character that many have in mind. Her name is Annette Kowalski, who tells in an interview with NPR that Bob did not really have curly hair: after leaving the air force, young Bob Ross tried to make a career as a painter, but nobody bought his work. He decided to give classes and save some money from hairdressing salons by becoming permanent, which he would even hate.
Kowalski met Ross at one of his painting seminars in a Florida hotel, where he could never have left if Kowalski had not seen the character’s commercial potential: in his way of teaching the techniques of painting, in his way of enumerating the colors, the textures and the forms, in addition to those “bobrossismos” like “the errors do not exist, only the happy accidents”, the student saw a talent capable of serving as a balm to the daily sufferings, a form of pleasure turned not both to imitate what Ross paints, but simply to listen to it.
The first idea was to make a 01800-BOBROSS, but soon they went to the TV screen to reach a larger audience. The pleasure of painting had 400 episodes and was broadcast from 1982 to 1994, with countless retransmissions in dozens of languages, and recently re-released on Netflix.
However, according to Kowalski, although Ross had a charismatic and peaceful air on camera, behind her was “a tyrant”:
It makes you think it’s very easy. Well, let me tell you something: they are not as spontaneous as you think. Bob stretched out in bed at night, he told me, and he rehearsed every word. I knew exactly what I was going to say in each of those programs. You understand without a doubt that we do not make mistakes here. We only have happy mistakes.
At the beginning of the 90s, Ross was diagnosed with lymphoma and died at age 52, on July 4, 1995. He spent his last days contemplating a lake from a bench near the hospital, accompanied by Kowalski and her husband Walter.
The pair is still run by Bob Ross Inc., a company that includes the production and distribution of art materials, certified instructors, and the administration of the Rossian legacy.
Even though he is no longer with us, Bob’s legacy lives on. His estimated net worth is around 6$ million and most of the money comes from the rights on the content he filmed during his life. Bob also made sure that he invests in real estate in time and most of his money is wisely spent.
Considering that he is no longer alive, his net worth is quite admirable, and if he had lived longer it would surely reach a staggering amount.
The most recent use of bob’s talent was for an app that will be used for meditation, since his voice is known as a soothing and calming voice that helps people relax. His talent and his charisma was something that would have won over even the newer generations, but sadly, he never got the chance to do so.
Personal life
He was born on October 29, 1942, in Daytona Beach, Florida. Son of Jack, carpenter, and Ollie, waitress. He had a half-brother, Jim. He grew up in Orlando, Florida. He left high school in the ninth grade. Working as a carpenter with his father, he lost part of his left index finger.
With 18 years he enlisted in the Air Force of the United States.? As a sergeant he first served at the United States Air Force Clinic at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska. During his breaks, he developed a quick painting technique creating works that he later sold. After twenty years in the army, he left his career in 1981.
After seeing the program of the joy of painting with Bill Alexander (The pleasure of painting with Bill Alexander), he contacted the artist and became his favorite student, coming to replace him in some of the classes that Alexander taught.
Creator and presenter of The Joy of Painting, which had 403 episodes, is a television program in which he painted scenes of nature using various techniques, in half-hour episodes. Issued from 1983 to 1994 on PBS in the United States, and also had broadcasts in Canada, Latin America and Europe.
With his first wife, Vivian Ridge, he had his first son, Steven, also a painter. He divorced in 1977. With his second wife, Jane, he did not have children together. In 1992, Jane died of cancer. In 1995, two months before his death, he remarried for the third time with Lynda Brown.
He was diagnosed with a lymphoma in the early 1990s that forced him to leave The Pleasure of Painting with Bob Ross, whose last episode aired on May 17, 1994. He died at the age of 52 on July 4, 1995 in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. He was buried at Woodlawn Memorial Park in Gotha, Florida.
Quick summary
Full name: Robert “Bob” Ross
Date of birth: October 29, 1942
Birthplace: Daytona Beach, Florida
Age: 52
Profession: Painter, TV personality
Height: 1, 88 m
Weight: 63 kgs
Net Worth: $6 million