How Sixteen Candles ' Jami Gertz Became the Richest Woman in Hollywood
Few can hold a candle to Jami Gertz's evolution."I get it," the Sixteen Candles alum told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018. "It's not your everyday Hollywood actress tale."It's a tale that saw Gertz transition from an '80s film and television star to the owner of an NBA team she purchased with her billionaire husband Tony Ressler.The actress was discovered at age 16 when she attended a talent search and landed a role on the early '80s sitcom Square Pegs costarring Sarah Jessica Parker."I was found at a search, thrown right in, that was it," the 59-year-old recalled on a 2024 episode of Resilience with Richard Cabral, "and I never looked back. It was an usual path."Unusual, but lucrative. "When I was 16, I made more money than my dad," she continued. "That changes the dynamic. That changes a lot of things in your life."
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Gertz's career continued to change as she racked up credits on shows like The Facts of Life and Dreams as well as in movies like Sixteen Candles, The Lost Boys and Less Than Zero. And her personal life did too when she crossed paths with Ressler in 1986.As Gertz recalled to The Hollywood Reporter, the two were introduced through her publicist and hung out at a dinner party at Ressler's L.A. apartment. And while the businessman didn't know Gertz from her roles, he did know that he wanted to get to spend more time with her."Everyone thinks I married a rich guy," Gertz continued. "But I made more money—way more money—than Tony when I met him. I paid for our first house. I paid for our first vacation. I married him because I fell in love with him."
They wed in 1989 and continued to make power moves throughout the '90s and early 2000s. For Gertz, this included starring in movies like Jersey Girl, Twister and Gilda Radner: It's Always Something as well as TV shows like Sibs, Still Standing and Ally McBeal—earning an Emmy nomination for her guest role in the latter. As for Ressler, he cofounded Apollo Management in 1990 before launching Ares Management seven years later. Forbes' latest estimates place his net worth around $13.8 billion.However, these weren't their only new ventures. The couple also entered parenthood—they're mom and dad to sons Oliver, Nicholas and Theo—and Gertz opened her own production company Lime Orchard Productions in 2007. Though the company achieved success through the release of its movie A Better Life—a film that earned Demián Bichir an Oscar nomination in 2012—Gertz has admitted it wasn't a profitable business.
Fast-forward to 2015 and Gertz and Ressler entered a new arena—literally—by becoming the owners of the NBA team the Atlanta Hawks, a purchase that, per The Hollywood Reporter, cost $720 million."I was walking in and out of the closet,' Gertz recalled to the publication, noting the space was where Ressler negotiated the deal. "And he looked at me, and I looked at him, and he's like, 'Jami, are we going to do this?' I'm like, 'I don't know. I'm so scared.' And he's like, 'It would be so much fun!' And then we were jumping and screaming, 'Oh my God — we just bought a basketball team!'"While her role as team owner has kept her plenty busy, Gertz has still made time for acting—though her most recent roles including parts in 2017's Difficult People and 2022's I Want You Back. However, she seems content living a more private life.'It just seemed like a natural moment for me to take a break from acting,' Gertz told The Hollywood Reporter. 'It's hard to even say it out loud because I love what I do. It's given me so many beautiful things in my life, taught me so many things about myself and the world around me.'To see more child stars then and now, keep reading.
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