'How It Really Happened with Hill Harper’ Season 5: What was Siegfried & Roy's net worth at the peak of success?
Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn were flamboyant, German-born illusionists and magicians who stole the spotlight with their disappearing white tigers and lions on the Las Vegas Strip. In 2003, Roy Horn suffered a fatal accident when a tiger named Mantacore sank his teeth into his neck before dragging him off stage during a sold-out performance at The Mirage Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, NV leading to quite a bit of scandal.
An hour-long episode of ‘How It Really Happened with Hill Harper’ titled 'Siegfried & Roy, Part 1: The Tiger Attack' dips its toes into the controversy that erupted after Roy's tiger attack and looks at how the wildly successful careers of Siegfried & Roy came to a shockingly abrupt end. "For decades, Siegfried and Roy dazzled millions of visitors to Las Vegas with their spectacular and unique brand of magic, co-starring with some of the world’s most dangerous wild animals," the summary reads.
"These master illusionists who could seemingly make elephants, lions and tigers disappear into thin air, were the undisputed kings of the Las Vegas Strip. Their show brought in millions of dollars a year and the eccentric duo were beloved celebrities, showcasing the white tigers they raised from cubs and who lived on their property. But on October 3, 2003, their wildly successful run came to an abrupt and shocking end. In the middle of a show, one of their prized white tigers, a 380-pound male named Mantacore, bit Roy in the neck and dragged him offstage in front of a horrified live audience."
It further continues: "The world held its breath as Roy fought for his life. He made it back from the brink of death, but the marquee show was shuttered, never to open again. Since then, Siegfried and Roy have stuck to their version of what occurred that night, telling the world that the tiger was not attacking Roy, rather he was trying to save his best human friend from a medical emergency by grabbing him by the neck and pulling him backstage to safety."
So what was the net worth of the magicians when they were at the zenith of success?
Known as “The Masters of the Impossible” and “The Magicians of the Century” in 2000 by the International Magicians Society, the duo usually performed their spectacle in the custom-designed, 1,504-seat Siegfried & Roy Theater, which was attended by almost 700,000 people a year, as per an NNY360 report. Their manager Bernie Yuman said they performed more than 30,000 live shows over 44 years to close to 50 million people.
Initially, they signed their original $57.5 million, five-year contract with The Mirage hotel but in 2001, they signed a “contract for life” for their elaborate show which cost $50 million to produce, featured complex stagecraft, liquid smoke, lasers, dozens of dancers and more than 30 exotic cats, as per the same report.
Barely eight years later, Forbes reported they had clinched the title of highest-paid entertainers in Las Vegas history with an estimated $58 million wealth in 1996-97 and their combined net worth was said to be more than $100 million. The two lived in a Moroccan-Mission-style compound in West Las Vegas dubbed the Jungle Palace that also included an eight-acre park with a cascading waterfall named Garden of the White Tigers — that served as a habitat and breeding ground for their exotic cats. Roy told People magazine in 1993, “We live in completely different parts of the house and go on vacations alone.”
After their final performance, they opened Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat — a wildlife sanctuary in a 100-acre estate bought for $10 million — which was inclusive of several mansions, almost a dozen football fields, and a private aquatic park. In May 2020, Roy, the dark-haired one-half of the German magician duo died at 75 due to Covid-19 complications. If the reports of Celebrity Net Worth are to be believed, Siegfried & Roy's extravagant shows garnered more than $60 million per year in revenue in the early '90s and they had a combined net worth of $120 million by the end of their careers.
Catch the episode as it airs on Sunday, September 6, from 9 to 10 pm ET/PT.