What is Samantha Mathis’s Net Worth?
Samantha Mathis is an actress and trade union leader who has a net worth of $4 million. Samantha Mathis is known for her roles in such films as “Pump Up the Volume,” “The Thing Called Love,” “American Psycho,” and “The Punisher.” She has also appeared in numerous television series, including “Knightwatch,” “First Years,” “The Strain,” and “Billions.” From 2015 to 2019, Mathis served as Vice President, Actors/Performers of the labor union SAG-AFTRA.
Early Life
Samantha Mathis was born on May 12, 1970 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City to Donald Mathis and Austrian-born actress Bibi Besch. Her parents divorced when she was two, and she was subsequently raised by her mother. At the age of five, Mathis moved with her mother to Los Angeles, California.
Film Career
Mathis had her first major feature film role in the 1990 coming-of-age film “Pump Up the Volume,” starring Christian Slater. She next appeared alongside Gaby Hoffmann and Julie Kavner in Nora Ephron’s “This is My Life,” released in 1992. Also that year, Mathis voiced the character Crysta in the animated film “FernGully: The Last Rainforest.” She went on to star in three films in 1993: “The Music of Chance,” “Super Mario Bros.,” and “The Thing Called Love.” In the lattermost film, directed by Peter Bogdanovich, Mathis played an aspiring Nashville singer named Miranda Presley. Her next role was as the adult version of Amy March in the 1994 adaptation of “Little Women.” The following year, Mathis was in “Jack & Sarah,” “How to Make an American Quilt,” and “The American President.” Her credits during the latter half of the decade included John Woo’s action thriller “Broken Arrow” and the independent drama “Sweet Jane,” in which she starred as an HIV-positive prostitute opposite Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
At the beginning of the new millennium, Mathis appeared in the improvisational film “The Simian Line” and the satirical psychological horror film “American Psycho.” She next played Maria Castle, the wife of the titular protagonist, in the 2004 vigilante action film “The Punisher,” based on the Marvel Comics character. The year after that, Mathis was in the comedy “Kids in America.” Her subsequent credits were the sports film “Believe in Me,” the drama “Local Color,” and the horror film “The New Daughter.” In 2010, Mathis voiced the offscreen wife of Ryan Reynolds’s main character in the survival thriller “Buried,” and appeared in the drama “Lebanon, PA.” She went on to star in “Good Day for It,” “Camilla Dickinson,” and “Atlas Shrugged: Part II,” in which she played Dagny Taggart. Mathis appeared in another literary adaptation, “American Pastoral,” in 2016. Her credits since then have included the romance “Ray Meets Helen,” the comedy “Being Frank,” the horror film “Boarding School,” and the supernatural thriller “The Georgetown Project.”
(Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)
Television Career
Mathis began her television career in 1988 with main roles on two short-lived shows: NBC’s “Aaron’s Way” and ABC’s “Knightwatch.” She subsequently appeared in the television film “Cold Sassy Tree,” based on the novel by Olive Ann Burns. Mathis was in three more television films at the start of the 1990s: “Extreme Close-Up,” “83 Hours ‘Til Dawn,” and “To My Daughter.” She returned to the small screen at the end of the decade with guest roles on the shows “The Outer Limits” and “Harsh Realm.” Mathis continued appearing in television films throughout the 00s, with credits including “Mermaid,” “Salem’s Lot,” “A Stranger’s Heart,” and “For One More Day.” She also starred in the TNT miniseries “The Mists of Avalon” and in the short-lived NBC legal drama series “First Years,” and appeared in episodes of such series as “Night Visions,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “House,” “Lost,” and “Grey’s Anatomy.”
In 2010, Mathis appeared in the television film “Unanswered Prayers.” The next year, she was in an episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” In 2013, Mathis played the recurring role of psychiatrist Alice Calvert in the first season of “Under the Dome,” an adaptation of Stephen King’s novel. She had her next substantial television role from 2015 to 2016, playing Staten Island councilwoman Justine Feraldo in the second and third seasons of the horror series “The Strain.” Mathis didn’t return to television until 2019, when she landed the recurring role of Sara Hammon in the fourth season of the Showtime series “Billions.” Also that year, she appeared in episodes of “Into the Dark” and “Bull.” Among Mathis’s other credits is the 2023 Lifetime television film “12 Desperate Hours,” based on the “Last Chance, Last Dance” true crime collection by Ann Rule.
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Stage Career
Beyond the screen, Mathis has acted on stage. In 1992, she appeared in the play “Fortinbras” in New York. Later, in the 00s, she played the daughter of Jane Fonda’s character in the Broadway show “33 Variations.” Mathis has since acted in such productions as “Love, Loss, and What I Wore” and “Make Believe.”
Personal Life
In the 1990s, Mathis dated actors Christian Slater, John Leguizamo, and River Phoenix, all of whom she had been costars with in films. She was with Phoenix when he died of an accidental drug overdose on Halloween in 1993.
