If the actors' strike of 2024 proved anything, it's that sometimes the biggest names in the industry aren't paid as such. Actors lined up for days to complain about low wages, and many people who are out of the entertainment cycle thought this was just millionaires complaining about their wages. But in most cases, those on the picket line were living paycheck to paycheck.
Including some from Star Trek. While many actors get paid well, the majority don't, and this isn't a new thing. This has been going on for as long as there have been movies and television. William Shatner once revealed he was homeless, living out of an RV after Star Trek went off the air.
Now, you may wonder how that's possible, as he was the leading man on a television show in the 1960s. Well, it turns out TV shows didn't pay all that much, as Shatner's co-star Walter Koenig revealed. Speaking to IGN, Koenig revealed that times were tough after Trek ended for him, and prior to the films starting up. How hard it was for him to land a role, but what made things worse was how little he was actually getting paid for an entire season of television.
According to Koenig, he only made $10,000 for his work on the second season of Star Trek, $11,000 on the third season of Star Trek, and apparently he was only making the "minimum" for the first season. We're assuming he meant minimum wage.
“Everybody thinks if you're an actor, and certainly if you're an actor and on a television series, you must be doing very well. Well, I was barely making more than minimum the first season. The second season I was on the show … I had a contract. I was paid a week's wage whether I worked a day or a week. So I made a little bit more. Whereas I made $10,000 for the whole year in 1967, I made $11,000 in 1968. Well, that'll only go so far.”
Now, adjusted for inflation, that's $92k and some change today, not a small amount by any means but far from the multi-millionaire image that fans sometimes think of these actors as. It's still more than many get paid, but he's still only considered upper-middle class by today's standards.
Just something to think about when you hear the term "Working Actor".