Albert Uderzo Net Worth

What was Albert Uderzo's Net Worth?

Albert Uderzo was a French comic book artist and scriptwriter who had a net worth of $50 million at the time of his death. Albert Uderzo was born in Fismes, Marne, France in April 1927. Uderzo was best known for his Asterix series. He chose the location for Asterix's village based on Brittany, France where he spent a year as a teenager. After World War II he started his career as an artist in Paris. He created comics such as Flamberge, Clopinard, Belloy, and Arys Buck.

In 1951 Albert met Rene Goscinny. The pair worked together at World Press in Paris. They created the characters Jehan Pistolet, Luc Junior, and Oumpah-pah. In 1959 Albert became artist director of Pilote magazine. The first issue of the magazine introduced the character Asterix. The pair decided to dedicate their careers to Asterix and not the other characters. In addition to Asterix Uderzo wrote what was turned into the TV series The Aeronauts, which aired from 1967 to 1970. Albert is color blind and would frequently draw himself and Goscinny into the Asterix comics, usually as anonymous Roman soldiers. He was awarded the Knight of the Legion of Honour and the Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion. In 2005 he was inducted into the Eisner Award Hall of Fame.

Early Life

Albert Uderzo was born on April 25, 1927 in Fismes, France. He is the fourth child of Italian immigrants Silvio Uderzo and Iria Uderzo. His parents had met in La Spezia, Italy where his father had been recovering after he had been wounded in his service for the Royal Italian Army during World War I. The couple got married and moved to France with their first two children and then had their other children in France. One of Uderzo's brother's, Marcel, also became a cartoonist. They settled in the suburbs of Paris and suffered from some racism against Italians immigrants in France at the time.

Uderzo was interested in the arts from a young age. While in primary school, his talent for drawing was noticed. He also came into contact with American comics and animated cartoons like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. He did not do particularly well in school except in areas related to sketching and the arts. He later finished his basic education at the age of 13 and decided to pursue aircraft engineering. However, he ultimately did not pursue this path, instead choosing to focus on his drawing.

Career

Uderzo spent the early years of his career working on various projects and travelling. In 1951, he met René Goscinny. The two men became good friends and began to work together in 1952 at the newly opened Paris office of the Belgian company, World Press. Their first creations together were the characters Oumpah-pah, Jehan Pistolet, and Luc Junior. In 1958, they adapted "Oumpah-pah" for serial publication in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine, "Tintin." It ran there until 1962. Additionally, in 1959, Goscinny and Uderzo became editor and artistic director, respectively, of "Pilote" magazine, a new magazine aimed at older children. The magazine's first issue introduced the character of Astérix to the French world. It was an instant hit.

Astérix was serialized in "Pilote" and in 1961, the first story "Astérix le Gaulois" was published as an individual album. Over the next 16 years, new albums of "Astérix" were regularly published by the duo. This continued until Goscinny's sudden death in 1977. Afterward, Uderzo continued to write and illustrate the books on his own. He published them using his own publishing house, Albert René, though he worked at a significantly slower pace than he had when collaborating with Goscinny. He published around one edition every three to five years while he had previously published two editions per year while working with Goscinny.

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Uderzo also worked with his brother, Marcel, on Astérix. Marcel did some of the drawing and coloring on about twelve of the cartoon's albums. Uderzo continued working until his retirement in 2011 at which time Astérix was taken over by Jean-Yves Ferri, who wrote the script, and Didier Conrad, who created the art.

Over the course of his career, Uderzo earned a number of awards and accolades. In 1985, he was awarded the Knight of the Legion of Honour. In 1999, he was awarded the Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême. In 2004, he was acknowledged for outstanding life's work and won the Max & Moritz Prize. The following year, he was inducted into the Eisner Award Hall of Fame in the United States. In 2006, he was awarded the Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion. In 2013, he was awarded the Officer of the Legion of Honour. According to the UNESCO's Index Translationum, Uderzo is the 10^th most often translated French language author and the third most often translated French language comics author.

Personal Life and Death

In 1953, Uderzo married Ada Milani. They had a daughter, Sylvie, in 1956. Uderzo and his daughter later worked together as Sylvie began managing his estate along with her husband. In 2007, he fired the two as managers of his estate and instead agreed to sell his share of Editions Albert Rene, which included the Astérix comics, to Hachette Livre. While Uderzo had previously stated that Asterix would end upon his death, the sale to Hachette permitted the company to continue producing Asterix indefinitely even if Uderzo did not participate. His daughter then sued but the two ultimately settled out of court amicably.

On March 24, 2020, Uderzo died in his sleep at his home in Neuilly-sur-Seine after he suffered a heart attack. His death was not linked to COVID-19, as he had reportedly been feeling ill for several weeks prior to his death.