Jami Gertz makes rare public appearance at LACMA gala with husband Tony Ressler
Jami Gertz made a rare public appearance on Thursday, April 16, when she attended the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s opening gala for the new David Geffen Galleries. Gertz appeared at the event with her husband, Tony Ressler, the private equity executive with whom she owns the Atlanta Hawks. The actress, once a familiar face in films such as Sixteen Candles, The Lost Boys, and Twister, has kept a relatively low public profile in recent years, which made the appearance stand out.
According to the report, Gertz, 60, wore a coat dress with floral embellishments along with heels, socks, dangling earrings, glasses, and a structured white handbag. Ressler, 65, wore a tuxedo. The event centered on the museum’s new David Geffen Galleries and brought together major names from the art and philanthropy worlds. Gertz’s appearance was tied not only to her public profile as an actress, but also to the couple’s involvement with the museum and the broader cultural community in Los Angeles.
The report said Gertz and Ressler donated $50 million to help fund the new galleries, citing The New York Times, and added that the museum’s south wing will be named the Ressler Family Wing in recognition of the donation. It also said Ressler joined LACMA’s board more than two decades ago. Those details placed the event in a larger context, showing that the appearance was connected to long-term institutional support rather than a one-night celebrity stop.
Gertz first became known as a young actress in the early stages of her career. She appeared in single-episode and early-series roles on Diff’rent Strokes and The Facts of Life, then starred in Square Pegs from 1982 to 1983 alongside Sarah Jessica Parker and Amy Linker. Her film profile rose further in the 1980s through titles such as Sixteen Candles, Less Than Zero, and The Lost Boys, all of which helped establish her as a recognizable screen presence during that period.
She married Ressler in 1989, and the couple later had three sons: Oliver, Nick, and Theo. As her family life expanded, Gertz increasingly shifted her focus away from the center of Hollywood. The report cited earlier interviews in which she said she had been working since she was 16 and welcomed the chance to build a home life. In another interview, she said her first question about any acting role had become where the project would be filmed, underscoring how strongly location and family considerations shaped her career choices.
Even after stepping back from major film roles, Gertz did not disappear from acting entirely. She was cast in Twister in 1996 after several years away from feature film auditions. Later, she continued working on television, including a recurring role on Ally McBeal from 2000 to 2002, which brought her an Emmy nomination for outstanding guest actress in a comedy series. She then starred in the CBS sitcom Still Standing from 2002 to 2006 and later appeared on Entourage, Modern Family, and This Is Us. The report said her most recent acting role came in the 2022 film I Want You Back.
Her public identity gradually widened beyond acting. In a 2018 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, cited in the report, Gertz spoke candidly about the common assumption that she had simply married into wealth. She said she had earned more money than Ressler when they first met and even paid for their first house and first vacation together. The same report noted that Forbes currently estimates Ressler’s net worth at $10.8 billion. Over time, the couple’s profile expanded from entertainment and finance into professional sports ownership through their involvement with the Hawks.
Gertz also recalled the moment the family decided to buy the NBA team, describing a conversation with Ressler that quickly turned into excitement. The report said the family relocated to Atlanta in 2017. Her comments in that same period suggested that stepping back from constant acting work was not the result of disinterest, but of a broader shift in priorities. She said it felt like a natural moment to take a break from acting, even though she still loved the profession and valued what it had given her.
This latest appearance at LACMA brought several parts of Gertz’s public life together in one moment: her old Hollywood visibility, her later role in philanthropy, and her identity as part of an NBA ownership family. For readers who knew her mainly from 1980s and 1990s film and television, the event served as a reminder that her public story did not end when her acting output slowed. It simply moved into different arenas, including art patronage, family life, and sports ownership.