Cary Grant died on November 29, 1986, from a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 82. At the time, he was on tour with his one-man show, “A Conversation with Cary Grant,” his first gig since retiring from acting to focus on his role as a father at the age of 62. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Grant’s net worth at the time of his death was around $60 million, a pretty penny both back then and now. However, to put that into perspective, his fortune would be worth around $130 million in today’s economy.

Having earned such a substantial fortune, Cary Grant was able to work as an independent actor, i.e., not on contract with a film studio, and he is known as the first actor to do so. As Cheat Sheet reports, he made good money working as a free agent, pulling in around $300,000 a gig. He ended up becoming one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood at the time. While his daughter Jennifer considered him generous but not extravagant with his money, others accused Grant of being a cheapskate. He was rumored to go so far as to cut all the buttons off his old shirts before tossing them out — for all those pressing button emergencies — and even defended the practice when asked about it by the media.