Which actor paid $30,000 for their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame?

Trivia 19 of 30

Which actor paid $30,000 for their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame?

The first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame went to Actress Joanne Woodward in 1960 (Wikipedia.org). There were no associated fees for the honour at the time. However, it wasn’t all glitz and glamour from Day 1. A period of urban decay settled into the area in the 1960s as residents moved to nearby suburbs. After the initial installation of approximately 1,500 stars in 1960 and 1961, eight years passed without the addition of a new star (Wikipedia.org).

You might say that the Walk of Fame needed some marketing magic to lift it out of its funk. One of the ways this was accomplished was by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce (who administers the Walk of Fame) requiring each recipient to personally attend his or her star’s unveiling ceremony. Great idea in principle, although it was tough to get celebrities to attend their event until the neighborhood finally began its recovery in the 1980s (Wikipedia.org).

It was at this point that the Chamber of Commerce also started instituting a fee for each star. This fee was meant to pay for the Walk of Fame’s upkeep and minimize the burden on taxpayers. When the fee was introduced in the 80s, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame cost $2,500. By 2002, it cost $15,000. The price kept going up from there, so that by 2012, a star cost $30,000, and by 2022, it cost $50,000. As of 2023, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame costs $55,000 (Wikipedia.org).

How much did each actor pay?

Each of the actors included in this trivia challenge were inducted into the Walk of Fame at different times. Those who were inducted in the 1980s paid significantly less than the stars inducted in the past decade, even taking inflation into account.

• Arnold Schwarzenegger received a star on the Walk of Fame in 1987 (Walkoffame.com), when it cost $2,500—or $7,000 in today’s dollars.
• Kevin Bacon received his star in 2003 (Walkoffame.com), when it cost $15,000—or $24,000 in today’s dollars.
• Jennifer Aniston received her star in 2012, when it cost $30,000—or $39,000 in today’s dollars (Walkoffame.com)
• Zac Efron received his star in 2021, when it cost $50,000 (Walkoffame.com)

Number of Stars

Every year, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce selects 20-24 recipients to get a star out of around 300 applications (Mashable.com).

As of March 2023, there are 2,751 stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (Wikipedia.org).