From ‘Lost Boys’ to NBA billions: How Jami Gertz transformed from ’80s star to Hawks owner.
Jami Gertz rose to fame as an ’80s star before quietly building a billion-dollar fortune.
The 59-year-old “Lost Boys” actress is the public face of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, which she co-owns with her husband, businessman Tony Ressler — who, according to Forbes, has a net worth of over $12 billion.
Before she began her path to fame, Gertz was raised in a working-class family in Glenview, Illinois. She launched her career as a child actress in 1982 when she starred on the CBS sitcom “Square Pegs.”Gertz went on to land roles on TV shows like “The Facts of Life,” “Diff’rent Strokes” and “Family Ties” and appeared in movies including “Sixteen Candles,” “Endless Love” and “Crossroads.”
In 1987, Gertz established herself as a leading actress when she landed starring roles back to back in the hit movies “The Lost Boys” and “Less Than Zero.”While filming “The Lost Boys” in 1986, Gertz met Ressler, who was then a banker with the now-defunct multinational investment firm Drexel Burnham Lambert. The pair, who were introduced by her publicist, tied the knot two years later.During a 2018 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the actress opened up about her journey to becoming an NBA team owner and quashed any speculation that it was a “girl-meets-billionaire” tale.
“Everyone thinks I married a rich guy,” she said. “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
In 1990, Drexel Burnham Lambert went bankrupt due to illegal dealings in the junk bond market. Ressler subsequently founded the private equity firm Apollo Global Management and made much of his fortune after he launched the investment firm Ares Management.
Gertz continued acting, appearing on TV series and in movies including “Ally McBeal,” “Seinfeld,” “ER,” “Renegades,” “Jersey Girl” and “This Can’t Be Love.” Gertz gained wider fame when she played Dr. Melissa Reeves, the fiancée of Bill Paxton’s character Bill Harding, in the 1997 mega-hit disaster movie “Twister.”
She later starred in the sitcom “Still Standing” from 2002 to 2006. In 2010, Gertz launched her own production company, Lime Orchard Productions.
You reach an age, and you slow down, and the jobs are a little hard to come by,” she told THR. “So I decided to put money into a project of my own.”
While Lime Orchard Productions produced one successful movie, 2011’s “A Better Life,” the actress told the outlet that she had lost millions trying to get the company’s other projects off the ground.
“I tried for five years and was not very successful,” Gertz admitted.
