Lee Major’s Net Worth, early life, and successful career

Lee Majors is an American actor with a net worth of $15 million. Lee Majors is best known for his roles as Heath Barkley in the 1960s television series The Big Valley and Colonel Steve Austin in the 1970s series The Six Million Dollar Man. He also hit pay dirt in the ’80s with his role as Colt Seavers in The Fall Guy.
Lee Major’s Early Life
Lee Majors was born Harvey Lee Yeary on April 23, 1939, in Wyandotte, Michigan. Majors’ father was killed in a work-related accident before he was born, and his mother was killed in a car crash before Lee reached the age of two.
He was adopted by his aunt and uncle and moved to Kentucky, where he lived until he completed high school in 1957. While in school, he was an accomplished athlete, excelling in both track and football.
Lee Major’s Successful Career
After graduation, Majors was offered the opportunity to try out for the St. Louis Cardinals football team but instead moved to Los Angeles to become a Recreation Director for North Hollywood Park.
While in Los Angeles, he met James Dean’s agent, who suggested he take classes and try acting. Soon after, he changed his name from Harvey Lee Yeary to Lee Majors in honor of professional football player and collegiate coach Johnny Majors, who was his childhood hero. Majors got his first big break when he was selected over hundreds of other auditioning actors for the role of Heath Barkley in the hit television western The Big Valley on the ABC network, a role that would last for almost four years.
While still on the payroll for The Big Valley, Lee began starring in made-for-television films. He was also offered the lead in the big-screen production Midnight Cowboy with Dustin Hoffman. However, the filming of Midnight Cowboy conflicted with the production schedule for The Big Valley, and he had to decline. The role was eventually given to Jin Voight and earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. When The Big Valley was canceled in 1969, Majors appeared in a series of small television roles. Still, in 1973, he began work on the show that would become synonymous with his name, The Six Million Dollar Man. Lee played the role of former astronaut and U.S. Air Force Colonel Steve Austin, who was injured in a NASA test flight. In a life-saving operation, his character was outfitted with bionic limbs, which gave him superhuman strength and speed, and a robotic eye with infrared and zoom capabilities, which came in handy in his work as a secret agent. The show was hugely popular and ran from 1973 to 1978. It was a merchandising monster, selling everything from action figures and t-shirts to children’s lunchboxes. Not content to fade into retirement after the massive success he experienced with The Six Million Dollar Man. Majors scored another win with The Fall Guy. Lee played the lead role of Colt Seavers, a Hollywood stuntman who also doubles as a bounty hunter.