The world top of Hollywood man Charlie Sheen is the 10 men on our list of Hollywood's Highest-Paid TV Actors earned a total $147 million between May 2010 and May 2011, but next year's edition could look radically different. Five of the 10 left successful TV shows this year, putting a question mark on their future earnings.
Actors quit shows for many reasons: public breakdowns, burgeoning movie careers, or a breakdown of contract negotiations (Chris Meloni). While TV shows provide a certain amount of stability, they can also be wearing on actors who play the same role year after year. Meloni's show, "Law & Order: SVU," has been on the air since 1999.
By his own account, frustration was a big part of the reason Sheen cracked last year and started a very public fight with Chuck Lorre, the creator and producer of Sheen's successful show "Two and a Half Men." At one point Sheen called his boss a "turd" and a "contaminated little maggot." Not surprisingly, Sheen was fired from the show. He sued Lorre and Time Warner's Warner Bros. for $100 million for firing him. The two sides reportedly just settled for $25 million.
Despite all that, Sheen was still the highest-earning actor on TV in the year to May. We estimate he brought in $40 million. The actor will continue to earn from "Two and a Half Men's" syndication but he'll be hard pressed to reach $40 million again. Sheen has a new show in the works called "Anger Management" based on the Adam Sandler film of the same name. The show has yet to be picked up by a network though. Sheen will have an ownership stake in the show which could prove lucrative down the line if it's a hit.
Ranking fourth on our list is the first actor who will actually still be on TV this season: Mark Harmon. The actor scored big in 2003 when he landed the lead role on the decidedly unhip "NCIS." The show has been a huge hit and eight years later it can still attract a whopping 20 million viewers. Harmon earned $13 million for his work on the show and will probably continue to do so as long as he wants to stay on TV.
Rounding out the top five are Jon Cryer and Laurence Fishburne, who tie with $11 million each. Cryer may not earn as much as his former co-star Sheen, but at least he still has a steady job. Fishburne is yet another actor who earned big but has now left TV. He was recently replaced on "CSI" by Ted Danson.
