The Familiar Faces of TV Commercials and Their Salaries

By: Lisa Lee | Published: Sep 01, 2023

T.V. commercials have created a whole new kind of celebrity. Who hasn’t heard of Flo from Progressive or Jake from State Farm? We’ve seen these faces grace our television screens for years, but we have to wonder… how much money do these ad stars really make?

As it turns out, T.V. pays well! But how well do we really know our favorite commercial actors? Learn a little more about these famous faces; you might be shocked to find out what they really make from all those ads.

Isaiah Mustafa as The Old Spice Guy

Real Name: Isaiah Mustafa

Salary Deal: Five Million Dollars

Isaiah Mustafa, better known as “The Man You Could Smell Like, “is an American actor, and former football player. He starred as the main actor for a series of television commercials for Old Spice.

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Source: Alamy Stock Photo

Isaiah has had small roles on television series including Days of Our Lives and Ugly Betty. Isaiah also played a part in the film Horrible Bosses alongside Jamie Foxx, Kevin Spacy, Collin Farrell, and Jason Sudeikis. For his role as the Old Spice Guy, he signed a deal worth five million dollars.

Charles Stone, The “Whassup?" Guy

Real Name: Charles Stone

Salary Deal: $8 Million

Charles Stone is an American film director best known for creating the “Whassup?” Budweiser campaign back in 1999. He directed projects such as Drumline, Mr. 3000, and Paid in Full. He’s also produced numerous tv shows, including Black-ish, Greenleaf, and Bigger.

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Source: YouTube

Stone has made music videos for various artists, including A Tribe Called Quest, Collin James, and Living Colour. Stone graduated from Central High School, Philadelphia, in 1984. For the Budweiser campaign, Stone took home eight million dollars.

Jesse Heiman as The GoDaddy Guy

Real Name: Jesse Heiman

Salary Deal: $900,000

Jesse Heiman is an American comedian and actor best known for kissing Bar Refaeli on the Super Bowl XLVII commercial for GoDaddy. Jesse went on to star in movies, including American Pie 2, The Social Network, and multiple TV series, such as Heroes, Criminal Minds, and The Big Bang Theory.

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Source: YouTube

Even though Jesse is quite a bit older, most of Jesse’s roles are young adults and teenagers. Jesse Heiman made nine hundred thousand dollars for the GoDaddy Super Bowl XLVII commercial.

Jonathon Goldsmith as “The Most Interesting Man in the World”

Real Name: Jonathon Goldsmith

Salary Deal: $1 Million

With over three hundred television appearances, Jonathon Goldsmith is an accomplished American actor. He has appeared in multiple Western films, including The Shootist, alongside John Wayne. He appeared in various TV series, including Dallas and Knight Rider.

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Source: YouTube

Jonathon Goldsmith portrayed Dos Equis Beer’s The Most Interesting Man in the World between 2006 and 2018, where he made one million dollars.

Terry Crews as The Old Spice Guy 2

Real Name: Terry Crews

Salary Deal: $6 Million

Terry Crews is an American actor, artist, TV host, comedian, and bodybuilder. He played pro football for a while before venturing into acting. Terry is best known for his role as Julius Rock on the sitcom Everybody Hates Chris. He’s acted in numerous tv shows and movies, including White Chicks, The Expendables Series, Idiocracy, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

Source: Pinterest

Terry hosts many TV shows, including Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and America’s Got Talent. Terry made about six million dollars in salaries for the Old Spice Commercials.

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Carly Foulkes as The T-Mobile Girl

Real Name: Carly Foulkes

Salary Deal: $1 Million

Carly Foulkes is a Canadian model and actress who rose to fame after appearing in T-Mobile’s TV advertisements.

Source: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images Photo

Carly started modeling at 13 and eventually moved to New York, where her modeling career flourished. From 2010 to 2013, Carly worked as the T-Mobile spokeswoman and regularly appeared in their advertisements.

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Billy Mays for OxiClean

Real Name: Billy Mays

Salary Deal: $1 Million

If there ever was a famous commercial actor of the 2000s, it was Billy Mays. The Australian actor was a salesman at heart and his distinctive voice and high energy made him pretty unforgettable. He is most well-known for his OxiClean commercials.

Source: Wikipedia

He tragically passed away in 2009 from an airplane accident in which the plane landed really hard and he hit his head. But he was an infomercial superstar that none of us can forget! His net worth was estimated to be about $10 Million so he was bringing in an annual salary of about $1,000,000 for his famous OxiClean ads.

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Reid Maclean as 47 Partnership for a Drug-Free America’s Bad Dad

Real Name: Reid Maclean

Salary Deal: $10,000

Reid Maclean played the bad dad in one of the anti-drug commercials in the ’90s. His other notable accolades include playing Private Jim Merrill in Gettysburg and The Winter of The Beard.

Source: IMDb

He is also an accomplished singer, having released an album titled Bright Fading Star. He didn’t resurface in commercial acting after this one but it was a very popular ad in the ’90s. For his work in the Drug-Free America campaign, he made ten thousand dollars.

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“Air Jordan” and “Hare Jordan”

Real Name: Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny

Salary Deal: $1 Million

When arguably the best basketball player in the world, Michael Jordan, released his Nike Air Jordan 7s sneakers in 1992, he needed a little help from Bugs Bunny. This collaboration happened way before Space Jam became a cult classic.

Source: Facebook

At the time, Michael was working on his first three-peat with the Chicago Bulls. Michael made one million dollars from the commercial but would make a lot more money from his collaborations with Nike on their Air Jordan line.

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Melanie Paxson as The Red Robin Lady

Real Name: Melanie Paxson

Salary Deal: $50,250

Melanie Paxson is an American actress best known for playing Jaclyn in Cupid. In the early 2000s, she appeared in TV Commercials for Gladware before landing the TV commercial spokeswoman gig at Red Robin. She has also starred in films including Ready to Rumble, Saving Mr. Banks, and The Outfield.

Source: YouTube

Melanie has starred in numerous TV shows and sitcoms, including The Exes, Joey, and Medium. Currently, she has a recurring role as Sara Brennan in the NBC series Happy Family. Melanie Paxson made a little over fifty thousand dollars in her deal with Red Robin Burgers.

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John Vanous as Hot Construction Worker Drinking Diet Coke

Real Name: John Vanous

Salary Deal: $1 Million

John Vanous became famous after appearing shirtless in a diet coke commercial. He is an actor and model with roles in tv series including Pacific Palisades and 18 Wheels of Justice.

Source: YouTube

John served in the military before becoming a model. Now at 59, he has worked with Coke for many other advertisements. He played a construction worker who drinks a Diet Coke shirtless, distracting ladies in the office block nearby. The commercial was a play on the overdone hot girl campaigns of the day. For his role in the Coke commercial, John Vanous made one million dollars.

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Maria Bamford as The Target Lady

Real Name: Maria Bamford

Salary Deal: $300,000

Maria Bamford is an American standup comedian and actress. She rose to prominence by doing voice-over work for various cartoons and advertisements.

Source: Pinterest

Her first album was Unwanted Thoughts Syndrome, released via Comedy Central Records. She worked with Target during the 2009-2010 shopping seasons to depict an ambitious shopper determined to be first in line. From these commercials, Bamford made three hundred thousand dollars. She’s voiced characters in American Dad, BoJack Horseman, and CatDog, among others.

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Farrah Fawcett as The Noxema Girl

Real Name: Farrah Fawcett

Salary Deal: $10,000

Farrah Fawcett was an award-winning American artist, actress, and fashion model. She worked on numerous award-winning shows in her lifetime, including Charlie’s Angels, Harry O, and The Six Million Dollar Man. She also did multiple films, including Cannonball Run, Burning Bed, and Small Sacrifices.

Source: Facebook

With Joe Namath, she appeared as the girl for Noxema Shaving Cream in the seventies. Her blue eyes and lovely hair made her one of the most idolized women in the world.

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John Moschitta as FedEx’s Fast-Talker

Real Name: John Moschitta

Salary Deal: $3 Million

John Moschitta is a fast talker, literally. John was the Guinness world record holder for the world’s fastest talker in the 1980s, but that record has been broken twice. John is an actor, director, singer, and spokesperson and is sometimes referred to as Motormouth because of his fast-talking.

Source: YouTube

Before working with FedEx, John Moschitta was the fast talker on the over one hundred Micro Machines commercials. He voiced Blurr in the TV animated series Transformers and Transformers: Animated. He has directed two films that went straight to video. With FedEx, Moschitta made three million dollars.

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Morgan Smith-Goodwin as The Wendy’s Girl

Real Name: Morgan Smith-Goodwin

Salary Deal: $3 Million

From 2012 to 2016, Morgan Smith-Goodwin played Red, the Wendy’s Girl in their Now That’s Better campaigns. She gained national attention for playing Red, for which she dyed her blonde hair a reddish-orange hue.

Source: YouTube

For the role of Red, The Wendy’s Girl, Morgan Smith-Goodwin made three million dollars. She has acted in various stage plays in her native Alabama and New York, including Freckleface Strawberry and Sweet Charity.

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Lil' Sweet for Diet Dr. Pepper

Real Name: Justin Guarini

Salary Deal: $250,000

Justin Guarini didn’t get his start in Dr. Pepper ads but that is sure how he made a name for himself. The infamous “Lil’ Sweet” from the Diet Dr. Pepper ads that started in 2015 actually got his start on another show.

Source: Facebook

He happens to be a former American Idol runner-up! He finished second to Kelly Clarkson in the season of Idol. We’re glad to see he could apply those singing skills to his work with Dr. Pepper! And the paycheck isn’t too shabby either!

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Ben Curtis as The Dell Computer Dude

Real Name: Ben Curtis

Salary Deal: $50,000

Ben Curtis became famous because of his portrayal of the Dell Dude in a series of successful commercial campaigns for Dell Computers made in the late nineties. Before this, he was doing magic and had won magic competitions on the national stage.

Source: YouTube

His contract with Dell ended after he was arrested for attempting to buy drugs. Dell has a strict no-drugs policy for all its employees. He performed in stage plays in New York after the contract with Dell ended and starred in Racoon, a short film alongside Jonathan Togo. He also produces. Ben Curtis made fifty thousand dollars for work on Dell commercials.

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The Geico Gecko

Real Name: Jake Wood

Salary Deal: $3 Million

Geico spends more than just about any other insurance company on their advertising. In fact, it is estimated that in one year alone they spent more than $1.5 billion on advertising fees! The famous Geico Gecko has graced hundreds of Geico ads over the years. The actor behind the British Gecko is none other than Jake Wood, at least it used to be.

Source: YouTube

The Geico Gecko has been in ads for more than 20 years! And Jake was the voice behind it all for about a decade, which earned him a hefty $3,000,000. While this is a lot of money, it’s speculated that his rate was actually fairly low considering the amount of ads he did for Geico. In 2015 he was replaced, and the actor tweeted that this was a result of him refusing to take a major pay cut.

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Adam Devine as Captain Morgan’s Chief Party Officer

Real Name: Adam Devine

Salary Deal: $3 Million

Adam Devine took on the role of Chief Party Officer, a play on the Chief Petty Officer’s naval rank. In the Captain Morgan commercials, he surprises partygoers by showing up to their parties, bringing years of (responsible) party experience.

Source: Bau-Da

Adam has worked on numerous films, including Pitch Perfect, Pitch Perfect 2, and The Intern. He has multiple recurring roles on TV sitcoms, including Modern Family and Workaholics. For the role of Chief Party Officer, Adam signed a deal for three million dollars.

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Cindy Crawford as The Gas Station Pepsi Girl

Real Name: Cindy Crawford

Salary Deal: $5 Million

Cindy Crawford is arguably the world’s most recognizable supermodel. From this Pepsi campaign alone, she made an equivalent of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars every second of the advertisement. She has dabbled in acting and has a few films to her credit, including Awwal Number, Unzipped, and Fair Game.

Source: YouTube

Cindy recreated the advertisement for the 2018 Super Bowl twenty-six years after shooting the original. For this advertisement, Cindy Crawford made five million dollars.

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Pete Gardner as The Beard Guru for James Harden

Real Name: Pete Gardner

Salary Deal: $10,000

Pete Gardner is an American actor famous for playing Whitefeather in the comedy series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. He also has a few film credits, including Good Advice, Son of Zorn, and Labor Pains.

Source: YouTube

He plays a bearded guru for the NBA 2K15 ad, giving James Harden advice on his beard game. He has done ads for companies like Juicy Fruit, Castrol, and USPS. Pete earned ten thousand dollars for this advertisement.

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Dennis Haysbert for Allstate: "Are You in Good Hands?"

Real Name: Dennis Haysbert

Salary Deal: $3 Million

Sometimes, actors become more famous for their voice than anything else. We would all recognize Morgan Freeman’s voice with our eyes closed in a second! Similarly, Dennis Haysbert became enormously famous for his voice, especially while quoting Allstate’s famous tagline: “Are you in good hands?”.

Source: YouTube

The actor became synonymous with the slogan and while he has been in multiple films over the years, chances are most people would know his famous voice from these commercials. And he was paid a pretty penny for them! He reportedly made between $3,000,000 and $4,000,000 every year for the infamous ads.

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Tobey Maguire as The Doritos Kid

Real Name: Tobey Maguire

Salary Deal: $5,000

Before becoming the friendly neighborhood masked superhero we call Spiderman, Tobey Maguire was famous for asking people, “Who’s Bob?” Tobey has numerous films to his credit, including the Spiderman trilogy, The Great Gatsby, and Brothers.

Source: YouTube

For his performance in the Doritos advert, Tobey made five thousand dollars. Fun fact: Tobey hates Doritos because he had to eat a lot of them during takes.

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Diane Amos as The Pine-Sol Woman

Real Name: Diane Amos

Salary Deal: $250,000

Diane Amos is an Indianapolis-born actress best known for her roles in films including Sweet November and Copycat. She starred in many TV shows and TV films. Aside from TV and movies, Diane performs standup comedy.

Source: Reddit

Diane has served as the Pine-Sol commercial spokesperson since 2002, bringing her two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in earnings.

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Paul Marcelli as the “Can You Hear Me Now?” Guy

Real Name: Paul Marcelli

Salary Deal: $9 Million

From 2001 to 2011, Paul Marcelli played the Verizon Guy with the famous phrase “Can You Hear Me Now?” For the role, He made a total of nine million dollars. Verizon was able to capitalize on the tagline and turn it into a vast industry.

Source: AdWeek

Nowadays, he works for Verizon’s Direct competitor, Sprint, using the tagline “Can you hear that?”

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Harlan Sanders as Colonel Sanders

Real Name: Harlan Sanders

Salary Deal: $40,000

Colonel Sanders was an American businessman credited with inventing the beloved Kentucky Fried Chicken. While he began serving chicken during the depression on a small stand, the business had grown to be worth two million dollars (sixteen million dollars in today’s money) when he sold it in 1974. For his iconic look, he wore a white suit and a black bowtie.

Source: YouTube

Harlan Sanders continued to act as the company’s brand ambassador and symbol for an annual salary of forty thousand dollars until the time of his passing. KFC still uses his image and name for branding to this day. The “Colonel” in his name was an honorary title bestowed upon him by the Commonwealth of Kentucky and is not a military title.

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Vince Offer as The InVinceable Guy

Real Name: Vince Offer

Salary Deal: $2 Million

Vince Offer is an Israeli-American infomercial pitchman and director. He writes and stars in infomercials for his products, including ShamWow!, SlapChop, and InVinceable. Vince starred in the 1999 film The Underground Comedy Movie.

Source: YouTube

Vince has stared in infomercials for other products he does not own, like Quicky Grass. He has a salary deal of two million dollars but it could be much higher as he owns the companies.

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Wendy Kaufman as The Snapple Lady

Real Name: Wendy Kaufman

Salary Deal: 100,000

Wendy Kaufman was the only employee at Snapple that answered fan mail. The ad agency was impressed by this and created a role based around her bubbly personality: The Snapple Lady. Sales of Snapple soared in part due to Wendy’s efforts.

Source: Sylvain Gaboury/Getty Images Photo

She has also appeared as a contestant on Celebrity Fit Club. She made one hundred thousand dollars a year for her efforts as The Snapple Lady.

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Alyssa Milano as Sandra Savealot

Real Name: Alyssa Milano

Salary Deal: $1 Million

Alyssa Milano is an American actress famous for playing Phoebe Halliwell in Charmed. Aside from acting, Alyssa also dabbles in production, singing, writing, and activism. She is known for Charmed, Melrose Place, My Name is Earl, and Mistresses, among others.

Source: YouTube

In the commercial, she saved payphone users who did not have enough money to pay for phone calls. She brought a lot of business to the company and earned every one of the one million dollars she was paid for the role.

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Milana Vayntrub as The AT&T Woman

Real Name: Milana Vayntrub

Salary Deal: $500,000

Milana Vayntrub is an American actress and activist known for portraying Lily Adams, the AT&T Saleslady. Milana has had minor roles in TV and film, including Life Happens and Silicon Valley.

Source: Imgur

Vayntrub started acting at the early age of five to help her struggling family, who three years earlier had emigrated to West Hollywood from Uzbekistan to escape anti-Semitism. For the AT&T commercials, Milana Vayntrub made five hundred thousand dollars.

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John Travolta as The Safeguard Singer

Real Name: John Travolta

Salary Deal: $70,000

Before swapping faces with Nicolas Cage on Face/Off, John Travolta was a shower-singing basketball player for Safeguard Bath Soap. John Travolta has been in numerous films, including Grease, Pulp Fiction, The Punisher, and Swordfish. He also owns four airplanes and loves flying.

Source: YouTube

For his role as a Safeguard singer, he made seventy thousand dollars. This was the first time the world was introduced to John Travolta’s singing ability.

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Michael Vale as Dunkin Donuts’ Fred the Baker

Real Name: Michael Vale

Salary Deal: $1 Million

Michael Vale made the phrase “time to make the donuts” popular as Fred the baker, a role he played for fifteen years. Michael also did commercials for Dunkin Donuts cereal. He is credited with a couple of films, including Guerilla Girl, A Hatful of Rain, and Marathon Man. Michael also acted in a George Bernard Shaw production of Androcles and the Lion, which was one of the first times he performed.

Source: YouTube

He made one million dollars from working for Dunkin Doughnuts. For his send-off, Dunkin Doughnuts gave away six million doughnuts, and Boston gave him a parade.

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Orlando Jones as The 7Up Guy

Real Name: Orlando Jones

Salary Deal: $500,000

From 1999 to 2002, Orlando was the spokesperson for 7UP, the lemon soft drink. Orlando is a standup comedian, producer, and actor. He has been involved with The Sinbad Show, MadTV, Woo, and Liberty Heights to his credit.

Source: YouTube

Recently, Orlando Jones has been in the American Gods TV series and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. 7Up chose him because of his writing prowess and comedic skills. For the advertisement deal, Jones made five hundred thousand dollars.

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Beck Bennett as the “It’s Not That Complicated” Guy

Real Name: Beck Bennett

Salary Deal: $250,000

Beck Benner is a regular cast member on Saturday Night Live. He rose to prominence through his commercials for AT&T with the tagline “It’s not complicated.” In the advertisements, he interviewed children who gave hilarious responses to his questions.

Source: YouTube

Beck started acting at the children’s theatre in his hometown of Winnetka, Illinois. He has appeared on Arrested Development and voices a character on the 2017 reboot of DuckTales. For the “It’s Not That Complicated” commercial series with AT&T, he made two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

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Stephanie Courtney as Flo, The Progressive Insurance Woman

Real Name: Stephanie Courtney

Salary Deal: $8 Million

Stephanie Courtney is an actress and standup comedian who rose to prominence by playing Flo, the insurance woman for TV and radio. She has starred in multiple films, including Blades of Glory, Girlfriend’s Day, and The Brothers Solomon.

Source: YouTube

Her TV appearances include Cavemen, Madmen, and The Goldbergs. Courtney made a whopping eight million dollars for portraying Flo.

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Laurel Coppock as The Toyota Girl

Real Name: Laurel Coppock

Salary Deal: $1 Million

Actress and comedian Laurel Coppock is best known for playing Jan, the Toyota Lady. Laurel has had roles in TV and film, including Crazy, Stupid, Love, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Sarah attended Circle in the Square Theatre School, where she learned acting, and later moved to Chicago to take improv classes.

Source: YouTube

As Jan, Laurel Coppock wanted to help Toyota’s customers find the best cars. Toyota was accommodating enough to allow her to work while pregnant for some of the series of commercials. Laurel made one million dollars for her work with Toyota.

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Dean Winters as Mr. Mayhem from the Allstate Commercials

Real Name: Dean Winters

Salary Deal: $4,750 per aired commercial

Dean Winters is Mr. Mayhem from the Allstate commercials. He has various roles on TV and film, most notable being Ryan O’Reily in the TV Drama OZ. He has a recurring role on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, where he plays a villain named Vulture.

Source: Bobby Bank/Getty Images

For the Allstate commercials, Mayhem is the personification of the worst-case scenario in every situation. For his role as Mayhem, he was paid four thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars per commercial aired.

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Colin Furhason as The Maytag Man

Real Name: Colin Furgason

Salary Deal: $1 Million

Colin Furhason started by playing a cop on Eureka. His character’s personality soon switched up when he acted in Vampire Diaries and Christmas Paradise.

Source: YouTube

In 2014, he became the Maytag man, where he signed a $1 million contract to be their mascot. And while he’s been on a break for a while, we can still expect him to appear on our screens again soon.

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Stu Williams as Mr. Du'mass

Real Name: Stu Williams

Salary Deal: $50,000

Stu Williams appeared in the most famous Superbowl Commercial in 1990 as Mr. Dumass, not pronounced as Doo-mas. A&W financed the project to come up with this ad, and the number of resources they poured into the commercial was quite substantial.

Source: YouTube

Stu describes his time in character fondly. He earned $50,000, which might seem less now but was quite a significant amount then. He has a YouTube channel where he uploaded this commercial, and since Stu is still under contract with A&W, he is still earning from it.

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Donna Loren as Dr. Pepper Girl (1960)

Real Name: Donna Loren

Salary Deal: $500

Before she started getting noticed for her powerful vocals, Donna Loren was a model. She got to combine her magical voice with acting in a commercial for Pepsi, earning $500. That amount was a little low, but Donna took it as a lesson to look out for corporations who might take advantage of her.

SourceL Wikimedia Commons

From then on, she could skip through roles that paid little money, which turned out to shape the rest of her career.

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Paul Frees as The Pillsbury Doughboy

Real Name: Paul Frees

Salary Deal: $1 Million

The voice behind your favorite adorable lump-of-dough character was Paul Frees. He did the Pillsbury Doughboy commercials in the 1960s, and his part in this commercial was proceeded by other voice-acting gigs.

Source: Facebook

For example, he was the voice of both Rudolph and Frosty in Rudolph and Frosty. Also, he voiced Santa in Santa Claus is Coming to Town and Jack Frost in Jack Frost. For his role as Pillsbury Dough Boy, he got one million dollars.

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Nick Offerman & Megan Mulley as The Slingers

Real Name: Nick Offerman & Megan Mulley

Salary Deal: $50,000

Nick Offerman was in the Sling TV ads with his wife, Megan Mulley. They played the role of an easy-going family whose goal was to orient fellow slingers into their way of life. They only got $50,000 from the gig.

Source: YouTube

That amount was fairly low, considering that Sling TV used their likeness on social media, radio, and print ads. The only reason Offerman agreed to take the meager pay was so that he could work on set with his wife, and he felt that he could help rescue the failing Sing TV franchise.

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T.J. Jagodowski as The Sonic Guy

Real Name: T.J. Jagodowski

Salary Deal: $300,000

T.J. Jagodowski is a graduate of Syracuse University, an actor from Chicago, and an improv comedian. Sonic picked him to be in their commercials after seeing his application tape. When he received news that he got the gig, he got his improv friend Pete Grosz to do it with him, and that is how the legendary Sonic commercials came to be.

Source: Pinterest

Apart from commercials, he got called for roles in Get Hard, The Ice Harvest, Stranger than Fiction, and Prison Break. He garnered over $300,000 for the Sonic project.

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Farris Patton as The Orbit Gum Girl

Real Name: Farris Patton

Salary Deal: $500,000

All Farris Patton had to do was wear attractive outfits, smile, and tell the camera to chew Orbit Gum to earn $500,000. Currently, she is a skit actor on Jimmy Kimmel.

Source: YouTube

Apart from the Orbit ad campaign, she starred in Famous Faces, which was a movie about people who make commercials.

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John Gilchrist as Little Mikey

Real Name: John Gilchrist

Salary Deal: $10 Million

Millennials may not recognize him, but Little Mickey was an advertiser for Life Cereal. In the ad, Little Mickey’s brother tries to convince him to try the cereal.

Source: YouTube

John Gilchrist, who played Little Mikey, got to build a career out of the ad. He earned $10 million from the commercial.

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Jay Bush and Duke Jay as The Bush's Baked Beans Guy and Dog

Real Name: Jay Bush and Duke Jay

Salary Deal: Undisclosed

Jay Bush is a part owner of the Bush’s Baked Beans franchise and does his commercials with his dog, Duke Jay, a golden retriever.

Source: YouTube

Their latest commercials have Jay’s son, who is popularly known as Bean Boy. Jay’s grandfather came up with the beans’ recipe, and Jay has taken up the custodian’s role.

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Dick Wilson as Mr. Whipple

Real Name: Dick Wilson

Salary Deal: $300,000

In this commercial, Dick Wilson played the role of a clerk who wanted to know everything that didn’t concern him. His character was a grumpy guy who hated it when his Charmain toilet paper got squeezed in the commercial.

Source: YouTube

He was surprised at the commercial’s simplicity but went ahead to take part in 500 more commercials after that first one proved to be such a hit. He earned $300,000 from the commercials, which is peanuts considering he filmed over 500 of them.

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Charles C. Welch as The Pepperidge Farm Guy

Real Name: Charles C. Welch

Salary Deal: $200,000

Although his name appeared in the popular adult animated series Family Guy, you may fail to realize that Charles C. Welch was a pitchman for Pepperidge Farm’s bakery for at least 16 years. He worked with renowned theatre actors such as Sammy Davis, Mary Tyler Moore, and Angela Lansbury in his lifetime.

Source: Pinterest

All Welch had to do was say, “Pepperidge Farm remembers” for him to earn $200,000. Apart from the commercial, he made appearances on General Hospital and Days of our Lives.

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Timothy Williams as The Trivago Guy

Real Name: Timothy Williams

Salary Deal: $20,000

Trivago is well-known for its extremely effective travel-based website, and the brand rose to fame in part due to Timothy Williams as The Trivago Guy.

Source: Pinterest

Although he has roots in Germany, he was born in Texas. Timothy acted for a while in German movies but later moved to Hollywood for film and commercials. Although Trivago wasn’t one of his biggest gigs, he earned $20,000 from it.

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Jack Somack in Alka-Seltzer "That's A Spicy Meatball"

Real Name: Jack Somack

Salary Deal: $10,000

Jack Somack was the main character in the famous Alka-Seltzer commercial. It The ad has a unique set of jokes performed by the commercials’ actors, generation after generation.

Source: YouTube

Apart from shooting commercials, Somack also appeared in feature films. Although the commercial is very well-known, Somack only got $10,000 from the gig.

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