Featured Image Credit: Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images/Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage
Jess Battison
When it comes to the richest actors in the world, there’s probably some big names that come to your mind.
Although you’ve probably never heard of the one who actually is, she has hit back at criticism over how she became so wealthy.
Yep, she. Look, it’s fine to admit that those big names that you thought of included the likes of Tom Cruise, Adam Sandler or Robert De Niro.
But the person who often gets tipped with the title is actually The Lost Boys actor Jami Gertz. Ok, ok, she’s been pretty inactive in the TV and film industry recently, but she’s still had a career as an actor.
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With a crazy net worth of $3 billion, or £2.45 billion to us UK lot (estimated in 2023), Gertz is said to be the richest actor across the globe.
On social media, users have previously been left baffled by this as they had to ‘Google’ her with one writing: “How come I hardly see Jami Gertz in movies? Did she make it from acting, or does she have other incomes?”
Well, her notable film roles include Twister, Crossroads and Sixteen Candles. She's also popped up on the small screen in Seinfeld, The Neighbours, Modern Family and This is Us. Most recently, she appeared in the 2022 film, I Want You Back.
But it’s fair to say her impressive wealth didn’t all come from acting, as Gertz and her husband are part owners of NBA team Atlanta Hawks.
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And she admits her life from the screen to owning a basketball team with her husband is ‘not your everyday Hollywood actress tale’.
The 59-year-old married billionaire investor Tony Ressler back in 1989.
Gertz previously told The Hollywood Reporter that ‘everyone thinks she married a rich guy’.
However, she added that this isn’t quite the case: “But I made more money — way more money — than Tony when I met him.
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“I paid for our first house. I paid for our first vacation. I married him because I fell in love with him.”
When they met in their 20s, Ressler knew she ‘was a working actress’ but didn’t quite know her credits
“He was a nice guy with a job,” added Gertz. “Which is what any Jewish girl from Glenview would want. It would have been nice if it was a doctor or a lawyer, but a banker was OK, too.”
And sure, the pair are loaded, but they’re well known for their charitable endeavours.
In 2012, the Giving Back Fund named Gertz and her husband as the number one donor to charity of any other celebrity after a record $10 million donation to the Ressler-Gertz Foundation, which primarily focuses on the arts, education, health and Jewish organisations.