In 2007, a profile of Sam Simon on “60 Minutes” revealed the TV producer was still raking in money from his work on “The Simpsons,” even though he had stepped away from the show in 1993. The program reported that Simon made $10 million a year from the animated series and that a chunk of that was paid out to Jennifer Tilly because of the former couple’s divorce settlement. A couple of years later, Simon set the record straight and said during a 2008 interview with Stanford Magazine that his earnings from the show were underreported and were closer to “tens of millions” per year.
While the exact amount of Simon’s “The Simpsons” annual residuals is unknown, there’s no doubt that it’s a substantial sum. Due to a favorable divorce settlement, Tilly took home one-third of those earnings. The “Bullets Over Broadway” actor discussed how this gave her freedom in Hollywood. “I used to do a lot of movies because the roof was leaking or to pay for the plumbing, and now I don’t have to,” she said while appearing on “The Originals” podcast in 2021.
For years, acting took a backseat to poker for Tilly — who played professionally — but she decided to rededicate herself to the craft. “I’d thought, I’m so past that where I need validation from strangers. But I realized, no, I really do need validation from strangers,” she explained. It is also worth noting that her income from Simon changed following his death.
