Vicki Lawrence, an accomplished actress, comedian, and singer, boasts a net worth of $8 million. She is best known for her iconic role as Mama on the CBS television variety show “The Carol Burnett Show” and its spinoff, “Mama’s Family.” Lawrence has also made numerous appearances on game shows and hosted her own talk show in the early 1990s. As a singer, she achieved a number-one hit with her 1972 song “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia.”
| Vicki Lawrence Net Worth | $8 Million |
| Date of Birth | March 26, 1949 |
| Place of Birth | Inglewood, California |
| Nationality | American |
| Profession | Actress, Comedian, and Singer |
Early Life
Vicki Lawrence was born Vicki Axelrad on March 26, 1949, in Inglewood, California, to parents Anne and Howard. She is of Austrian Jewish and German Jewish descent. The family legally changed their surname to Lawrence when Vicki was a child. She attended Morningside High School, graduating in 1967, and performed with the Young Americans musical group. Lawrence then attended UCLA for two years before deciding to leave college.
The Carol Burnett Show
During her senior year of high school, Lawrence entered the Miss Fireball of Inglewood contest. A local newspaper article about the contest highlighted her resemblance to a young Carol Burnett. Encouraged by her mother, Lawrence wrote a letter to Burnett, who attended the contest and crowned Lawrence as the winner. Burnett was looking for an actress to play her younger sister on a new television show, and Lawrence landed the role. She joined “The Carol Burnett Show,” where Burnett and co-star Harvey Korman mentored her in sketch comedy.
Lawrence’s most memorable character on “The Carol Burnett Show” was Mama, introduced in a sketch called “The Family” during the show’s seventh season. Mama was the cold-hearted, purse-lipped, elderly widowed mother of Burnett’s neurotic daughter character, Eunice. Lawrence also played various other characters, including Chris in the “Carol and Sis” sketches. She was the only continuous cast member alongside Burnett for all 11 seasons of the show from 1967 to 1978, earning an Emmy Award and multiple Golden Globe nominations for her work.
Further Television Career
Lawrence’s Mama character became so popular that she starred in the sitcom “Mama’s Family” in the 1980s. The original run of the series was from 1983 to 1984, and it was revived from 1986 to 1990. She also reprised the role in the 1982 television film “Eunice,” earning an Emmy nomination. Lawrence made guest appearances on shows like “The Love Boat” and “Laverne & Shirley,” and frequently appeared as a celebrity contestant on game shows such as “The $25,000 Pyramid,” “Password Plus,” and “Super Password.” From 1987 to 1989, she hosted the daytime NBC version of “Win, Lose or Draw,” earning two Daytime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Game Show Host. She also received multiple Daytime Emmy nominations for her talk show “Vicki!,” which aired from 1992 to 1994.
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Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Lawrence continued to appear on television, with roles in “Hart to Hart,” “Diagnosis: Murder,” “Yes, Dear,” and as Mamaw Stewart on the Disney Channel’s “Hannah Montana” from 2006 to 2011. In 2017, she had a recurring role on the NBC sitcom “Great News,” and in 2018, she starred in the Fox sitcom “The Cool Kids,” which ran for one season. More recently, she has appeared in episodes of “The Resident,” “Call Me Kat,” and “The Really Loud House,” and reunited with Carol Burnett in the 2023 special “Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love.”
Music Career
In late 1972, Lawrence scored a number-one hit with “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia,” written by her then-husband Bobby Russell. The single’s success led to her debut album of the same name. Subsequent singles included “He Did With Me,” a number-one hit in Australia, and “Ships in the Night,” the title track of her second album released in 1974. Lawrence’s third and final album, the disco-themed “Newborn Woman,” came out in late 1979.
Personal Life
Vicki Lawrence married singer-songwriter Bobby Russell in 1972, and they divorced in 1974. She later married makeup artist Al Schultz, with whom she has two children, Courtney and Garrett. The couple has lived in Long Beach, California, for many years. Their five-bedroom, 4,000-square-foot home, with direct bay views, is valued at $3-4 million today.
Vicki Lawrence Net Worth
Vicki Lawrence net worth is $8 million.
