Ellen Barkin: Relationships, Animal Kingdom, Net Worth, and More

Few Hollywood careers deliver a sharper before-and-after than Ellen Barkin’s, from indie-film favorite to tabloid fixture after her marriage to billionaire Ron Perelman, then to Smurf, the terrifying matriarch of TNT’s Animal Kingdom. A 2018 admission about Johnny Depp and a bitter exit from that hit series kept her in headlines, but here’s what’s actually known about the woman behind the noise.

Born: April 16, 1954 (age 70) ·
Net Worth: $50 million (estimated) ·
Height: 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m) ·
Notable Role: Smurf Cody in Animal Kingdom ·
Spouse: Ron Perelman (2000–2006)

Six facts anchor her biography, and only one figure wobbles: published net-worth estimates for Barkin diverge by as much as $60 million depending on which tracker you trust.

Did Ellen Barkin have a relationship with Johnny Depp?

Barkin and Johnny Depp crossed paths in Terry Gilliam’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), and for years the rumor mill insisted something happened off screen. Barkin settled the question herself on the Howard Stern Show in 2018: yes, they had a relationship.

Who did Ellen Barkin date?

• Gabriel Byrne, Irish actor — married 1988, divorced 1999 (TheRichest)
• Ron Perelman, Revlon chairman — married 2000, divorced 2006 (CompareTV)
• Johnny Depp — late-1990s relationship, confirmed by Barkin in 2018; his representatives denied it (ScreenRant (film and TV news site))

Barkin’s on-record dating history is short but consequential: two marriages and one famous on-set romance. The Depp admission drew the most attention because it was the first time she had addressed the rumor in her own voice.

Ellen Barkin and Johnny Depp timeline

• 1998: Barkin and Depp co-star in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (IMDb)
• Late 1990s: The relationship happens, per Barkin’s Stern interview account (ScreenRant)
• 2018: Barkin confirms the relationship publicly on the Howard Stern Show

The pattern is familiar from Barkin’s playbook: she states what she remembers and lets the chips fall. Depp’s camp denied it, but Barkin never walked the comment back.

Was Ellen Barkin married to a billionaire?

Yes. Ronald O. Perelman, described in Barkin’s film-industry biography as a billionaire and chairman of Revlon, married her in 2000, and the marriage ended in 2006 (IMDb). The union put Barkin in a different kind of spotlight — society-page coverage, red-carpet appearances, and a divorce that made headlines.

Who is Ron Perelman?

• Billionaire financier and Revlon chairman at the time of the marriage (IMDb)
• Barkin’s reported divorce settlement: around $20 million (CompareTV)

Barkin has two children, Jack and Romy (TheRichest); her earlier marriage to Irish actor Gabriel Byrne ran from 1988 to 1999 (TheRichest).

How did Ron Perelman lose his money?

• Perelman’s fortune declined over the years due to business troubles and legal issues (TheRichest)
• His estimated net worth, once clearly in the billions, is now far below the peak it reached while Barkin was married to him (Southern Monitor)

The divorce settlement is sometimes blamed for his losses. In reality, a $20 million payout is a rounding error next to a fortune once measured in the billions — the damage came from business deals and litigation, not Barkin’s lawyers.

The implication: Barkin married into extreme wealth at its peak and exited just as the financial slide began. The settlement, whatever its real size, bought her independence — which she has used since to choose projects and public battles on her own terms.

Why did they get rid of Ellen Barkin on Animal Kingdom?

Animal Kingdom gave Barkin the kind of role actresses rarely get after 60: the lead, the matriarch, the villain. Her Smurf ran the Cody crime family with alternating love and terror. So when Smurf was killed in season 4, the exit was both a story beat and a business decision — and Barkin made sure everyone knew she wasn’t happy.

Why did they replace Smurf on Animal Kingdom?

• Smurf was killed off in season 4 (TVLine)
• Producers said the show moved in a creative direction that made her death part of the narrative (Looper (entertainment explainer site))
• Barkin used social media to vent frustration over how the exit was handled (TVLine)
• Barkin publicly suggested ageism and sexism may have played a role (CBR)

Barkin’s frustration exploded in September 2019, when the show’s official Twitter account posted a picture of Smurf and she fired back, saying the account had “vanished” her for four years (CBR).

Why did Baz quit Animal Kingdom?

• Baz, another key character, died in season 4 as part of the same cast reset (Looper)
• His death shifted the balance of power among the Cody brothers and closed out the original family configuration

Baz’s exit drew less attention because Smurf was the role audiences attached to the show. But two deaths in one season told viewers the old order was gone and the show was entering a new chapter without its founding characters.

What disorder does Smurf have in Animal Kingdom?

• The show never gives Smurf a clinical diagnosis (Looper)
• Commentary on the series describes her manipulation, favoritism, and violence as consistent with narcissistic or antisocial patterns (CBR)

Smurf was written as a particular kind of parent: she turns her sons into criminals and then punishes them for being what she made them. Whether a clinician would pin a formal label on her is beside the point — the portrait of maternal narcissism is what made the character so uncomfortable to watch.

The takeaway: “creative reasons” and “bad treatment” can both be true. Showrunners get to kill characters; actors get to feel disrespected. Barkin’s only error, if there was one, was saying the quiet part out loud.

Did Ellen Barkin get along with anyone in Animal Kingdom?

The polite answer: there is no public evidence of running feuds with the younger cast members. The messy answer: Barkin’s own comments, plus unnamed set accounts, describe a tense working environment.

Is Ellen Barkin nice in real life?

• Barkin claimed she was screamed at on the Animal Kingdom set (Best Life)
• Unnamed reports described her as difficult to work with (Looper)
• Barkin defended herself in interviews, pointing to her professional track record and the show’s treatment of her (CBR)

Note the asymmetry: the “difficult” label comes mostly from anonymous sources, while Barkin’s defense is on the record. That is a classic celebrity-journalism pattern — a named woman fighting unnamed accusers for control of her own reputation.

The fair judgment: Barkin is not built for Hollywood politeness. She says what she thinks, fights back when attacked, and treats her anger as information worth sharing. That makes her a publicist’s headache and a viewer’s favorite — sometimes in the same news cycle.

How old was Ellen Barkin during Animal Kingdom?

Barkin was 62 when Animal Kingdom premiered in 2016, and 64 when season 4 aired in 2019 — an age range that made her a rarity: a woman over 60 leading a prestige drama as an unambiguous villain.

What is Ellen Barkin’s age?

• Born April 16, 1954 (IMDb)
• 70 years old as of 2025
• Was 62 at the Animal Kingdom premiere and 64 when the show killed off her character (TVLine)

Ellen Barkin birthday

• Birthday: April 16, 1954, in the Bronx, New York (IMDb)
• Raised in the South Bronx and Queens; parents came from Russian Jewish families; she studied at Hunter College and the Actors Studio

That biography fed her screen persona: New York grit, theater training, and a directness that later made Smurf so unsettling.

The significance is not the number but the rarity. Women over 60 rarely get cast as the lead of a TV drama, let alone as a crime boss. Barkin used her 60s to prove that the industry’s age bias is a choice, not a law.

What is Ellen Barkin doing now?

Barkin has not retired; she has become more selective. Her current profile mixes occasional acting, loud political commentary, and the kind of independence that comes from decades of working — and from a reported divorce settlement that gave her financial breathing room.

Ellen Barkin upcoming movies

• Starred in the independent film Catharsis, released in 2025 (Southern Monitor)
• No ongoing series-regular role is listed in her current filmography (IMDb)

Catharsis fits a pattern: Barkin’s recent work leans toward independent productions rather than studio franchises. With reported net-worth estimates between $20 million and $80 million, she does not need franchise paychecks to stay busy.

Ellen Barkin social media activism

• Posts regularly on Instagram about politics (Southern Monitor)
• Her social media presence made national headlines during the Animal Kingdom exit (TVLine)

Barkin uses Instagram the way she used talk shows: no filter, direct engagement, and a willingness to take a side. Her political posts draw both support and backlash — which appears to be exactly the response she wants.

The trajectory: Barkin turned 70 in 2025 with more professional freedom than most actors ever achieve and no apparent interest in softening her image. The same self-directed late-career pattern shows up in Maria Bello: Career, Coming Out, Children, Net Worth and Jamie Lee Curtis: Sobriety, Family, and Oscar Legacy, two profiles of actresses who also rebuilt their public narratives on their own terms.

Ellen Barkin’s career timeline

Nine milestones, one pattern: Barkin alternates career peaks with personal dramas, and every reboot makes her more interesting than the last.

The pattern: each personal upheaval — divorce, public feud, exit from a hit show — was followed by a professional reinvention. Barkin does her best work when people count her out.

What’s confirmed vs. what’s still murky

Stack the lists and the editorial challenge becomes clear: Barkin’s biography is well documented, but the money and the set drama depend on who is telling the story.

The split explains why Barkin is hard to write about cleanly: the career is documented, the fortune is not, and the set conflicts exist mainly as competing versions of the same events.

In her own words: key quotes

“We had a relationship. I don’t know what he says, but we did.”

— Ellen Barkin, on the Howard Stern Show in 2018, recapped by ScreenRant

“The show was not going in a direction I was happy with.”

— Ellen Barkin, on leaving Animal Kingdom, per her 2019 comments recapped by TVLine

“The show moved in a creative direction that made Barkin’s exit part of the story.”

— The producers’ explanation, as summarized by Looper

Read together, the three quotes capture the entire Animal Kingdom controversy: Barkin says the job was the problem, the show said the story was the problem, and the audience was left to decide which version sounded more like the truth.

The takeaway

Barkin’s career is a case study in surviving Hollywood on your own terms: she took risky roles, married and divorced loudly, confirmed a rumor other stars would have dodged, and turned a network exit into a public argument about age and power in television. For anyone following her today, the implication is direct — she kept working, kept talking, and kept the receipts. And for viewers deciding whether to revisit Animal Kingdom, the choice is clear: watch the first four seasons for one of the great recent TV performances, or skip ahead and accept a show that changed visibly once its anchor left.

Frequently asked questions