RICHARD WOLF: THE KING OF CRIME DRAMAS
Richard Anthony Wolf is an American film and television producer, best known for his Law & Order Franchise. Wolf has authored four books, including the non-fiction work “Law & Order: Crime Scenes,” which is related to the TV series. He also has a trilogy of fiction thrillers – “The Intercept,” “The Execution,” and “The Ultimatum” – that he co-wrote with NYPD detective Jeremy Fisk. He stands at a net worth of $600 Million as of January 2023. In 2012 Wolf earned around $70 million according to a number of public reports. In January 2019, a court filing as part of his divorce from Noelle Lippman revealed that Dick Wolf earns between $10 and $15 million every month from his TV empire. That’s $120 – $180 million per year.
EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION
Richard Wolf grew up in Manhattan with a Jewish father and an Irish Catholic mother. He was an altar boy. Wolf attended Saint David’s School, The Germany, and Philips Academy. He subsequently attended the University of Pennsylvania (class of 1969), where he was a member of the Zeta Psi fraternity.
PERSONAL LIFE
Dick Wolf was first married to Susan Scranton from 1970 to 1983, and then to Christine Marburg from 1983 to 2005, with whom he has three children: Olivia, Sarina, and Elliot. The divorce between Wolf and Marburg started in the early 2000s and was legally settled in 2005. Not surprisingly, a big part of their settlement talks was the value of “Law & Order”. Since they created it during their marriage, Marburg legally had a right to half the value of the show. He then married Noelle Lippman on June 17, 2006, and they have two children: daughter Zoe Amelia, born in 2007, and son Rex, born in 2010. Currently, Dick and Noelle are living apart.
CAREER LIFE
While working as a copywriter for Benton & Bowles, Wolf wrote commercials for Crest toothpaste and pursued a career in film writing, collaborating briefly with future filmmaker Oliver Stone. He later moved to Los Angeles and had three screenplays produced, one of which was the well-received film “Masquerade” featuring Rob Lowe and Meg Tilly. He commenced his television career as a staff writer with ‘Hill Street Blues’ and was nominated for his first Emmy for a solo-written episode. Later, he became a supervising producer on “Miami Vice.” Other projects produced by Dick Wolf were the police drama “New York Undercover” which ran from 1994 to 1998, NBC’s courtroom reality series “Crime & Punishment”, a documentary about the rock group The Door, called “When You’re Strange”, “Twin Towers” (2003), “Chicago Fire” (2012)
FUTURE PROJECTS
Richard Wolf has upcoming projects with NBC, including an American adaptation of the UK legal drama “Injustice” and a drama series about a satanic cult called “The Church,” which he is co-writing with Howard Franklin. He also has a pilot for an insurance investigator series for USA Network. In May 2021, NBC ordered a docuseries called “LA Fire and Rescue,” which will follow the firefighters of the Los Angeles County Fire Department and will be executive produced by Wolf.
AWARDS
Throughout his career as a television producer and screenwriter, Dick Wolf has received numerous awards, including an Outstanding Series Drama award for “Law & Order,” a Governor’s Award, an Edgar Allan Poe Award for “Law & Order” in 2003, the Founders Award, a Gold Medal at the Monte Carlo TV Festival, and the RGA Award for Outstanding Producer.