Before she could vote, Jami Gertz was already outearning her father.
When she married Tony Ressler, she was the established earner, paying for their first house while his biggest successes still lay ahead.
Decades later, headlines would call her the world’s richest actress, but behind that dazzling label was a financial reversal that challenged everything outsiders assumed about fort…
Raised in Glenview, Illinois, Gertz found her opening through a nationwide talent search rather than family connections. Roles in films including The Lost Boys helped establish a career that gave her independence while she was still young.
By her 1989 wedding, she had built something substantial of her own. She has recalled covering an early vacation alongside the couple’s first home purchase—details that complicate the assumption that she simply married into money.
The scale of their wealth changed as Ressler co-founded Apollo Global Management and Ares Management. Those businesses, rather than acting salaries, became the foundation of the family’s multibillion-dollar fortune.
Together, they became involved in Atlanta Hawks ownership and supported education, healthcare, the arts, and Jewish organizations.
Gertz also serves on the Melanoma Research Alliance board. The “richest actress” label may attract attention, but it obscures an important distinction: her Hollywood earnings and their shared family wealth are not interchangeable.
