Hetty Green might challenge Scrooge, though some of the stories about her miserly nature may be apocryphal.
For literary characters, Mary Kathleen O’Looney from Vonnegut’s Jailbird lives like a bag lady, despite having control of a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate, in part because of her (justified) paranoia about kidnapping and assault.
And Superman lives somewhat modestly compared to the wealth he could accumulate.
Judith is remarrid, so Alan is not paying alimony, only child support.
Hetty Robinson Green was an ancestor of mine. From what I heard about her in my childhood, all the tales are true. Her son lost his leg as she took him from free clinic to free clinic for an infected sore, not wanting to pay a doctor. HER SON, DAMMIT!!!
After she died, her son and daughter just ran through the family fortune.
Which mom? Kathleen Turner or Morgan Fairchild?
Nora Bing, Chandler’s mother, is a successful romance novelist. Portrayed by Morgan Fairchild.
Charles Bing, Chandler’s transvestite father, is a Vegas entertainer. Portrayed by Kathleen Turner.
With two such gorgeous parents, Chandler sure got gypped in the gene pool.
Thanks for the reminder, Annie. Too lazy to look it up.
Yeah, you could almost use his name as a synonym for “cheap bastard.”
Another real life miser was Lizzie’s fther, Andrew. As a captalist, he felt that he should make a lot of money; as a Christian, he felt that he shouldn’t spend money on anything unnecesary–no indoor toilet, no electricity, no new clothes. The day of his murder, he insisted that last night’s lamb soup be served for breakfast on a scorching hot August day in a house with no refrigeration.
Would have made me want to kill him.
Hodgins from Bones.
Largest donor to the Jeffersonian and drives a Prius.
That’s my point! She’s remarried now, but she wasn’t for the first few seasons. And even after she remarried Alan was apparently paying her so much money that he was utterly broke.
Correction: Transexual, not transvestite.
I’m not sure that counts. He still doesn’t have the money coming in; he’s not sitting on it like Jed Clampett.
That said, the versions of Superman who have access to Kryptonian tech are, in fact, obscenely wealthy (and not paying taxes on that wealth). The pre-Crisis, Earth-1 Kal-El is particularly so. I always had the impression that he spent more of his off-time in the Fortress of Solitude than in Clark’s apartment, which was as much for appearances as anything else. Even the Batcave was nothing compared to that place.
Of course, if you’re a Kryptonian under a yellow sun, you probably don’t feel any need for most material things. Or even wants. Clark’s needs are mostly emotional.
First, Alan Harper had a second ex-wife to whom he owed alimony. Second, why are you assuming that he’s a successful chiropractor? It would be consistent with the overall story if he were a mostly unsuccessful one.
As soon as Kandi got a TV role (a fornesic scientist) and realized she’d be making *more money *than Alan she signed the divorce papers.
His second ex-wife only came after he was no longer paying alimony to his first wife (just child support).
There’s never anything in the show to indicate that he’s unsuccessful, and quite a few scenes at his work indicate that he’s probably doing pretty well. I’m sure he even mentions a few times that he’s doing well work-wise.
Anyway, if he weren’t a successful chiropractor, then he’d be paying less child support.
Even the worst lawyer wouldn’t let a divorce court take so much of his income that he can’t afford a place to live (it comes up several times when Charlie throws him out; he even goes to stay at Judith’s because he just doesn’t have rent money), especially considering that his son’s supposed to live with him part of the time.
There were episodes of Murphy Brown in which Corky’s apartment and Frank’s house were seen and I remember thinking they weren’t what you’d expect from TV anchors who would have multimillion dollar incomes. Murphy herself lived in a very comfortable Georgetown townhouse but it would have been more believable she’d live under her means since her main pleasures were politics and journalism rather than material things.
Ralph Kramden wouldn’t have gotten rich or anything near as a busdriver, but it’s a city job and NYC was a lot cheaper to live in (even adjusted for inflation) in the 1950s and he lived in the most miserable apartment on TV. Part of it perhaps was that neither he nor Alice had ever heard of decorating- a few pics on the wall, a little fabric here and there and perhaps some paint- none would have been expensive and would have done wonders.
Another famous case of real life misers: Andrew & Abby Borden. Andrew wasn’t Hetty Green rich or anywhere close but he was very well to do with an estate that would easily have been worth in the 7 figures in today’s money but he lived in a very plain housethat was uncomfortably hot and stuffy, in need of repairs, and far less than he could afford, and he constantly berated his daughters for their expenditures. (He did send them on a tour of Europe, but with money from the trust their mother had left for them.) Andrew and Abby were so cheap they got food poisoning from eating spoiled food rather than throwing it out, and in an era when Irish maids worked so cheap that practically everybody had one they went through several due to overwork and underpay.
Andrew’s fortune and the fact he was considering leaving the bulk of it to his wife (who did not get along with her stepdaughters and would have left it to her own relatives) was the big motive in the “Lizzie done it” theories. As soon as her trial was over Lizzie and her sister moved from the “murder house” to a much larger and fancier housein the wealthy part of town.
On Hannah Montana, the father Robby Ray Stewart, was a succsessful musician and song writer. He retired after the death of his wife to raise the two children , Jackson and Miley. He moved from a ranch in Tennessee (which he still owns) to a Malibu beach house to further Miley’s carreer as Hannah Montana. Apparently he lives off his savings and banks Hannah’s money. The son ,Jackson, works odd jobs to end spending money to supplement his allowance and goes to community college.
As Zach pointed out he has a huge house. He is not that interested in cars.
No, I think it has been stated that Charles Bing is a transvestite homosexual with all of his original equipment intact.
Chandler’s Dad: “Aren’t you a little bit too old to wear that dress?”
Chandler’s Mom: "Don’t you have a little bit too much penis to wear that dress?"
Those cat fight scenes between Fairchild and Turner were the highlight of the whole Friends series for me:
Fairchild: I saw the groom in my wedding dress.
Turner: But it was after the ceremony. That’s not bad luck.
Fairfield: Well, believe me, it’s not good luck.
Pretty much everyone in the Star Trek universe. For people who can have their every desire fulfilled through replicator, transporter, and holotechnology, they lead pretty spartan lives - scientists and military personnel on spaceships, vinyard owners, restaurantuers, etc.
