Inside Andy Rooney's Fortune: Andy Rooney ( Updated) Net Worth 2026: Career Earnings & Assets

As one of the most talked-about figures, Andy Rooney has built a significant fortune. In this article, we dive deep into the assets and career highlights.

What Was Andy Rooney's Net Worth and Salary?

Andy Rooney was an American radio and television writer, producer, director, and author who had a net worth of $15 million at the time of his death in 2011. Andy Rooney was best known for his weekly segment "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney," which aired on the CBS News program "60 Minutes" from 1978 to 2011. Andy began his career as a writer for the "Stars and Stripes" newspaper while he was in the U.S. Army. Rooney joined CBS in the late 1940s when he was hired to write for "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts." He was a writer and producer on the 1968 docuseries "Of Black America" and the 1976 special "Mr. Rooney Goes to Dinner," and he also directed "Mr. Rooney Goes to Dinner" and the 1974 "CBS News Special Report" segment "In Praise of New York City." Andy wrote numerous books, including "A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney" (1981), "Word for Word" (1988), "Not That You Asked …" (1989), "My War" (1995), "Sincerely, Andy Rooney" (1999), "Out of My Mind" (2006), and "60 Years of Wisdom and Wit" (2009). Andy's final regular "60 Minutes" appearance aired in October 2011. He died a month later on November 4, 2011, at the age of 92.

60 Minutes Salary

In April 1987 Andy publicly complained about CBS' cost-cutting efforts which resulted in 215 people being laid off. Publicly complaining, Andy stated: "CBS News has been turned into primarily a business enterprise and the moral enterprise has been lost." He then refused to appear on an upcoming episode of "60 Minutes," to show solidarity with his striking and laid-off colleagues. As a result, CBS suspended Andy's pay, which was revealed to be $7,700 per week. That worked out to around $400,000 per year in 1987, which is the same as around $1.1 million in today's dollars. His salary was actually revealed in a statement made by Rooney's CBS producer Don Hewitt, who in reaction said:

"You don't move across the street to another CBS building that for a technical reason is not struck, and sit in an office and draw almost$8,000 a weekfor doing nothing while his fellow writers are out in picket lines in the cold and wind and rain and snow. 'I would respect Andy a lot more had he gone out there and walked out on the picket line, and if he'd turned those checks back."

Andy's salary at the end of his career before he retired in 2011, is not officially known, but was likely in the $1-2 million per year range.

Early Life

Andy Rooney was born Andrew Aitken Rooney on January 14, 1919, in Albany, New York. He was the son of Ellinor and Walter Rooney, and he had a sister named Nancy. Andy graduated from The Albany Academy in 1937, then he attended Colgate University, where he joined the Sigma Chi fraternity. In August 1941, Rooney was drafted into the U.S. Army during World War II, and the following year, he began writing for the military newspaper "Stars and Stripes" in London. Andy and five other correspondents flew with the Eighth Air Force on a February 1943 U.S. bombing raid over Germany. After the 9th Armored Division captured Germany's Ludendorff Bridge in March 1945, Andy was the first journalist to reach the bridge. Rooney was one of the first journalists from the U.S. to visit and write about Nazi concentration camps near the end of the war. Andy earned an Air Medal and a Bronze Star Medal for serving in combat zones as a war correspondent.

Ultimately, Andy Rooney's financial journey is a testament to their success.

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