Zsa Zsa Gabor had stunning good looks, a relatively charming personality, and very little acting talent. She married nine times and joked that every time she got divorced, she kept the house. She died at 99, so she might have outlived her fortune, but she was doing well for quite some time.
Prince Phillip got further with probably less going for him, but I think most of the assets are in his wife’s name.
To continue the hijack about radio personalities like Howard Stern or Rush Limbaugh, many of them have programs that last two or three hours, and during much of that time, they’re talking. it’s really not that easy to be entertaining for that long, and to do it night after night. (Note that I don’t listen to these programs but people do, and they keep them on for an hour or two. Something in what or how they talk clearly appeals to a lot of people.)
Bill Gates
Surely; but Yoko’s not an example of what the OP is looking for, was my point.
One of the more ridiculous answers. You may not like her music, but she is a talented singer and is extremely talented at getting attention.
Hubbard was extremely talented at scamming the rubes.
Also not an example of what the OP is looking for.
I nominate the woman in South Carolina who recently won $877,784,124 (lump sum, and also, I believe, before taxes) in the lottery, who did nothing more talented than buying a ticket “on a whim” – this despite the fact that any intelligent person knows that lotteries are a “fool’s bet” which is (except, of course, this time) just throwing away your hard earned money.
Was Jimmy Durante at least a good comedian? Watching Mr. Lucky shows he’s a terrible actor and a pretty bad singer.
I’m going to go with someone most people wouldn’t even think of: Ralph Lauren.
He was the first, if I’m not mistaken, to basically cash in on the selling of a logo. I’m pretty sure most of his money came from the sales of shirts that were in NO way any better than an identical shirt for half the price, other than having his logo on them. It’s not like I think his clothes are BAD. They’re not; I’ve owned plenty of them. But they’re unbelievably bland. Any company with the equipment to produce garments could make virtually anything in the history of Ralph Lauren’s catalog.
He brought nothing new to the table except for that logo. His net worth is 6.9 billion. That’s a LOT of money for being the purveyor of such a mediocre product.
I have to give him some credit for having a legendary collection of cars, though.
Durante was a vaudevillian and his comedy (and singing) were extremely popular. He wasn’t a technically good singer, but knew how to sell a song and was very entertaining.
Not a particularly good actor, since he was only playing his vaudeville shtick.
L. Ron Hubbard was a prolific and successful writer before going off on Dianetics. How successful is hard to say, since his followers call him a major writer of the 40s, while others just call him a hack (which he was, though a very successful one). Looking at his ISFDB entry (and paying attention to his work before 1950, when he started Dianetics). Two stories, “Fear” and “Typewriter in the Sky” are considered classics in the field and he was a regular in for John Campbell in the 40s, along with Asimov, Heinlein, and Van Vogt.
Rupert Grint is excellent in the dark comedy Sick Note (on Netflix).
Some conceptual artists. like for instance Niele Toroni, who spent his life making “imprints of a n. 50 brush” that is small squares regularly spaced on a white background. His “paintings” sell for a fortune. Or this other guy whose name escapes me who sell concepts like “25 cm blue square on a white background”. I said “sell concepts” rather than “paints” because if you want one of his paintings, you select the concept on a catalogue, do it yourself, pay him and he sends you a certificate of authenticity. Not as costly as Toroni, but not cheap, either.
You’re right. When I posted her name I figured she supposedly was already a successful artist when she met John. But I forgot about the “made the most $” qualifier, and since John was very obviously the reason for whatever big-time success she had, I respectfully withdraw her name.
Jimmy Durante was a very talented self-taught pianist - he was in one of the first white bands to record jazz music.
But he did a brilliant job of creating the persona of a comically unsophisticated schlep, sort of like Jack Benny being known as a vain tightwad, or Dean Martin a drunk.
Bennett Cerf once described Durante conversing with a society lady about his recent trip to Europe.
“Dat day in Rome was fanTAStic!”, he beamed.
“How could you possibly do Rome justice in one day?”, the lady replied.
Durante sheepishly admitted, “Actually, I dint know what to do in the aftanoon”.
I think the people criticizing Stern and Limbaugh really need to listen to the attempts others have made to emulate them and failed. They both are extremely charismatic and are naturally quick-witted; there is hardly ever any dead air on their shows. As someone who is neither charismatic and quick-witted I definitely can tell you it takes some level of talent for what they do so I don’t think either of them would qualify for this list.
As a pro wrestling fan I’d nominate Sid Vicious(the wrestler not the musician) to this list. He was 6 feet 8 inches and weighed 300 pounds; he had the stereo-typical heavy muscled bodybuilder that a lot of wrestling promoters liked. Except he couldn’t cut a promo and he had very limited in-ring ability.
I think that honor goes to Lacoste.
Not sure why. He allegedly wrote Altair BASIC in a day and a half, though I am skeptical. His primary skill has been as a huckster who had a major lucky turn. I am not seeing much in the way of real talent anywhere near proportional to his wealth. Steve Jobs may have been slightly more talented, but mostly as a showman.
Mary Kate and Ashley Olson.They got their start on a bad sitcom when they were still babies. No talent needed. Their franchise was developed by savvy managers before they were old enough to spell “franchise.” Today they’re worth over $400 million.
Bob Kane, “inventor” of Batman. IIRC only really created the concept of Batman, Bill Finger and an army of ghost writers were responsible for making him the iconic image we have today off Batman. Pretty much after the first six months of the first comic run all Kane did from then on was just market and take credit for others work. Still made him tens of millions of dollars.
He did pretty much suck. He’s not the only no talent wrestler ever but he did make some decent money simply based on his appearance.