Top-earning actor
Gary Cooper
$482,819
U.S. Treasury salary listReported
About $11.2 million in 2025 dollars
The Treasury named Cooper the highest wage earner in the United States, ahead of the head of IBM.
The Studio Era · 1930s
1939
Top-earning actress
Claudette Colbert
≈ $426,944
Repeats her 1938 salaryEstimate
About $9.9 million in 2025 dollars
The 1939 list was reported only for its top earners, and no woman made that cut. Colbert was still Paramount's top-paid star; the figure repeats her 1938 salary.
The pictures that paid
Box office champions of 1939
By U.S. theatrical rentals, the studios' share of ticket sales
- 1
Gone with the Wind
$20 million
- 2
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
$3.5 million
- 3
Jesse James
$2.3 million
Neither top earner was in one of the year's three biggest films.