With his signature red shirt, Amish hat, and large-rimmed glasses, Mark Hall-Patton quickly became a well-known expert on Pawn Stars. Rick Harrison himself nicknamed Hall-Patton “the Beard of Knowledge,” telling the Los Angeles Times in 2014, “The guy knows so much stuff; he must have a Xerox machine inside his eyeballs.”
Since fellow experts like Danny Koker and Rick Dale got their own spin-off series, fans may have wondered what Hall-Patton got out of appearing on the show. Well, apparently not much — at least financially. Harrison told the Las Vegas Sun in 2010, “We don’t pay the experts and most live right here in Las Vegas.” In lieu of a personal business to promote on Pawn Stars, Hall-Patton’s day job is curating the Clark County Museum — a gig that has doubtfully earned him any of the millions the others have accumulated over the years. While we don’t know exactly what Hall-Patton is worth, we do know that the museum saw an almost 70 percent increase in attendance since 2012 (via the Los Angeles Times). Perhaps this earned him a bonus or at the very least a thank you card?
While shooting the pilot episode of Pawn Stars, Hall-Patton admittedly wondered, per the Los Angeles Times, “Who on earth is going to watch this?” Still, he hasn’t taken his rise to fame too seriously, telling the publication, “I’ve seen the Beatles; I know what real celebrity is. I’m just a bloody museum director.”
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