Wayne Newton: A Life in Song and Wealth
Wayne Newton today: Age, net worth, family, children
In Vegas, Elvis Presley rose to fame. He will never be “Mr. Las Vegas,” though, as Wayne Newton is the rightful owner of the moniker.
Newton continues to enjoy playing in his beloved Vegas, where he has been one of the most popular entertainers for the past fifty years. But he has had a difficult few years for a variety of reasons.
So how did 81-year-old Wayne Newton start off as a celebrity? This is his tale!
“Mr. Las Vegas” Wayne Newton
Adolescence is a time when anything seems conceivable. Though achieving your goals in life requires going to school and graduating in your 20s, you still have aspirations.
But what if someone informed you that you had already started your career as a Vegas entertainer, performing six days a week, when you were sixteen? Although it sounds like a dream job to me, Wayne Newton had this position in real life.
For more than 40 years, Newton has been providing the “Sin City” audience with an experience by playing multiple times a night for several days in a row.
The Virginia native went by the moniker “Mr. Las Vegas,” and it’s true that the moniker is appropriate. Newton, at seventy-nine, has no intention of slowing down. And he still has a terrific appearance.
So how did he ever land a job in Las Vegas in the first place? And why has he lingered here for this long? You now know everything there is to know about Wayne Newton, aka “Mr. Las Vegas.”
Early life of Wayne Newton
Born in Roanoke, Virginia, on April 3, 1942, Newton was reared by his mother Evelyn, who was a homemaker, and his father Patrick Newton, an auto mechanic.
Newton didn’t always have a nice childhood: he was often unwell while growing up on the family farm. Due to his bronchial asthma, he frequently missed school.
He knew at an early age that he was meant to be in show business. At the age of four, he was able to glimpse into the future and learn how to play the piano, guitar, and steel guitar by ear.
Wayne Newton’s parents took him to Roanoke, Virginia, to witness Hank Williams and Kitty Wells perform at the Grand Ole Opry. As he observed the two performing, he knew precisely what he was going to do.
Newton informed his mother, “I want to do that.” What, she questioned. “That,” he replied, gesturing toward the stage.
Newton’s talent increased as he gained proficiency with the instruments. People were impressed when, at the age of six, he and his older brother Jerry hosted their own morning radio show on Roanoke’s WDBJ.
Before seeing a movie, they gave multiple performances at neighborhood theaters. Newton and his brother even participated in a USO presentation for President Truman when they were in first grade. They advanced to the US’s largest amateur event after winning a local talent competition two years later.
But things didn’t go as to plan.
“I know of two people who failed Ted Mack’s Amateur Hour auditions: Elvis Presley and me,” Wayne Newton remarked.
For Wayne and his older brother Jerry, it was undoubtedly a disappointment and a setback. But the truth was, he had more pressing problems.
Health Issues
Due to Newton’s severe health issues, including asthma, the family was forced to relocate from Virginia.
In his memoir Once Before I Go, Wayne recalls, “The minute winter would set in, I would get sick.” Maybe that’s when my brother started receiving more attention from my parents. Considering how much time they spent caring for me, they might have thought it was appropriate to give my brother more notice.
They relocated to Arizona, where he recovered completely and carried on with his entertainment career. However, Newton felt bad for his parents because of the relocation, despite the fact that he had been given a fantastic chance.
“I felt the hurt, even though it was never expressed. I felt like a burden at that point. He wrote, “At night, I would lie in bed and consider how they were sacrificing everything they had ever desired because of me.” “It meant uprooting their roots and leaving behind everything they had known for my parents.”
First performance in Vegas at age fifteen
As part of The Lew King Ranger Show, Wayne Newton and his brother Jerry had their first appearances in Arizona at supermarkets. They continued to get more and more bookings after making an appearance on the Lew King Rangers Saturday night show on television.
Lew King emerged as a key player in Wayne Newton’s ascent to prominence. However, as time went on, Wayne and his brother grew to be too big for Arizona alone.
Newton secured an engagement with his brother to perform at the Fremont Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas during his junior year of high school. Originally scheduled to play for two weeks, they ultimately decided to stay for a full year. He soon proceeded to perform six nights a week for five years.
Dreams come true in Las Vegas, sometimes. But it can also be a poisonous atmosphere, particularly for a small child. Being as young as he was the first time Wayne Newton visited there was probably a very good thing.
“I needed a work permit at age 15 because you had to be 21 to do anything in a casino,” he said to Closer. “I was raised by people who genuinely cared about me, kept me out of trouble, and prevented me from going down the wrong path.”
There was a lot of competition in Las Vegas at this time. Alongside legends like Elvis Presley and Bobby Darin, “The Rat Pack,” which included Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and Sammy Davis Jr., played in Las Vegas.
Why was he dubbed “Mr. Las Vegas”?
Newton had the best instructors he could have ever had because he was so much younger than Vegas’ other elite players.
Wayne Newton once stated, “What I learned from people that befriended me like Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Dean Martin, Bobby Darin, and on and on is that your ability to adjust to life is the one thing that will make you happy.” “And you have to have self-control and approach each performance as though it’s your last, because it will be one day!”
Wayne Newton became addicted to Las Vegas after his first trip there. Although some people may believe that Frank Sinatra or Elvis Presley is the king of Vegas, that isn’t actually the case, or at least Wayne Newton didn’t earn the moniker “Mr. Las Vegas” for himself.
Indeed, that is perhaps the most appropriate moniker for someone who has truly experienced the Las Vegas entertainment lifestyle. Wayne Newton established himself as a Vegas mainstay, performing nonstop for up to 36 weeks.
The moniker originated from a writer who visited Vegas for a theatrical review. Newton remembered that he wrote, “‘Wayne Newton is truly Mr. Las Vegas'” at the conclusion of his evaluation. “Suddenly, when I was performing in Chicago or Denver, people would tell me, ‘Mr. Las Vegas opens tonight.'” That one truly resonated, and I’m overjoyed about it.
Newton put out some fantastic music in addition to his fantastic live performances.
Wayne Newton’s career on his own
With Bobby Darin’s assistance, he began his solo career in the early 1960s and achieved his first Top 20 hit in 1963 with “Danke Schoen.” The song “Red Roses for a Blue Lady” reached number one on the charts two years later, while “Daddy Don’t You Walk So Fast,” another massive smash, came out in 1972.
If Newton’s LP recordings didn’t elevate him to the status of greats, his showmanship during his Las Vegas performances undoubtedly did. While still performing in “Sin City,” he had a brief career in movies, making an appearance with Timothy Dalton in the James Bond movie License to Kill (1989).
He had a few more on-screen appearances, but the stage was his true love.
Wayne Newton has received recognition for his personality and work ethic ever since he first started out. The audience is always left with a memorable performance by the modest celebrity.
He remarked, “I really don’t know any other way to work.” Therefore, I believe that when some of the younger talent that is coming on today asks me about the work ethic, it is something that they should be concerned about.
“I tell them that’s actually true, that if anything has supported not only my career but also my voice and performance ability, it’s the discipline I developed working those six nights a week, six days a week of shows.”
New program canceled
In 2019, it was revealed that Wayne Newton, who has performed live over 30,000 times, was preparing a new show in Las Vegas to commemorate his 60th birthday. Wayne Newton’s amazing life and career were honored at Wayne Newton: Up Close and Personal. The Covid-19 epidemic, however, caused disruption.
It was stated in May 2021 that his performance at Caesars Palace’s Cleopatra’s Barge had been cancelled. Newton, though, was to stay on with Caesars Entertainment, albeit at a new location.
In addition to having a fantastic stage career, Wayne Newton is a parent. He married Elaine Okamura for the first time in 1968, but the two parted ways in 1985.
Kathleen McCrone is an attorney that he met five years later at one of his gigs in Las Vegas. Following their courtship, the pair married in 1994 at Newton’s Casa De Shenandoah property in Paradise, Nevada.
Ashley Newton was born in 2002 to Newton and McCrone. Erin, his 1976-born daughter from a previous marriage, is another of his children.
Wayne Newton’s estimated net worth
Over the years, Newton has amassed a substantial fortune. His estimated net worth is $50 million, based on Celebrity Net Worth.
Newton is determined to pursue his passion, even if it means spending the rest of his life lounging by the pool.
Most significantly, he never considers a time when he won’t be giving performances.
“I truly don’t, no. Just to the degree that I took the vacation, which amounted to a few years off,” he clarified. “Because I opened up my ranch to the public, and it was enjoyable to accomplish that even if it required my whole attention and effort.
“I can still perform as I like to perform, sound the way I want to sound, sing the way I want to sing, and on and on and on,” he said. “I think what keeps me waking up in the morning is being able to walk out and see the happiness that those songs bring to people.”
Wayne Newton is an absolute icon in the music industry, and he still looks fantastic! We sincerely hope that he would carry on performing for a very long time.
