Dean Koontz is an American author who has a net worth of $200 million. He is known for his suspense thrillers and for his frequent incorporation of elements of horror, science fiction, mystery and even satire. Many of his novels are set in and around Orange County, California. Several of his books have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List with 14 hard-covers and 14 paperbacks reaching the number one position, making him one of only a handful of authors to attain that status.
As of this writing Dean Koontz has sold more than 450 million books worldwide. He is one of the richest authors in the world.
Dean Koontz was born July 9, 1945 in Everett, Pennsylvania. Koontz wrote under a number of pen names earlier in his career, including David Axton, Leigh Nichols and Brian Coffey. From the time Dean Koontz won an Atlantic Monthly fiction competition as a senior in college he wanted to be a professional writer.
Koontz graduated from Shippensburg State College (now Shippensburg University), and his first job after graduation was with the Appalachian Poverty Program, where he counseled and tutored underprivileged children one-on-one. He wrote nights and weekends, which he continued to do after leaving the poverty program and going to work as an English teacher in a suburban school district outside Harrisburg. After putting in a year and a half at that position, his wife Gerda made him an offer he couldn’t refuse – she would support him for five years while he tried to make it as a writer. By the end of those five years, Gerda had quit her job to run the business end of her husband’s writing career.
Real Estate: In 2000 Dean and Gerda paid $9 million for a 2.5-acre undeveloped hilltop property in an exclusive gated community in Newport Beach, California called Pelican Hill. They proceeded to spend an unknown, but presumably ungodly, amount of money over several years building what eventually became a 30,000 square-foot palatial mansion. It’s the largest home in Pelican Hill. In 2014 Dean told the Wall Street Journal that building the house was “an insane undertaking” but worth the effort because he “had been waiting my entire life to build a house that I would never want to leave.” Well, never say never because in June 2020 Dean and Gerda sold the home for $50 million to businessman/reality star Glenn Stearns. That is the most amount ever paid for a home in Newport Coast, California, as of this writing. It is the second most ever paid for a home in Orange County, behind the $55 million paid by an Arizona billionaire for a home in Corona Del Mar in 2018.
Gerda and Dean own two homes in a nearby gated community called Shady Canyon. They paid $10.5 million for one of the homes right around the time of the sale of their Pelican Hill mansion. In 2019 they paid $11.6 million for their first Shady Canyon home.
| Net Worth: | $200 Million |
| Date of Birth: | Jul 9, 1945 (76 years old) |
| Gender: | Male |
| Profession: | Novelist, Writer, Film Producer, Screenwriter, Poet |
| Nationality: | United States of America |