Known for: The Lost Boys
Net worth: $2 billion
Jami Gertz was discovered as a child actor who landed roles on epic 1970s sitcoms like Diff’rent Strokes and The Facts of Life . After studying drama at NYU, she began picking up significant parts in substantial films like Less Than Zero and The Lost Boys . Another blockbuster she starred in was Twister . She landed Crossroads and Jersey Girl also.
Gertz played that girl who wouldn’t share even “one square” of toilet paper with Elaine on Seinfeld. She could have played that girl Rachel Green on Friends but passed up the part. She did play Judy Miller on TV sitcom Still Standing. In 1989, Jami Gertz married executive Antony Ressler. Her billionaire hubby is a co-founder of a multi-billion-dollar private equity firm. The couple part-owns the MLB Milwaukee Brewers team. It’s not all fun and games. In 2012, Gertz and Ressler have named the #1 Most Generous Celebrities in the world, and in 2010, they were the top-donor of any celebrity couple.
Kurt Russell
Known for: Silkwood
Net worth: $70 million
Constant lover and forever companion to knock-out Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell is a strapping gent who once had a shot at a professional baseball career. Sidelined by a torn rotator cuff, his showbiz career went front and center. Russell was busy as a youngster. He’s one of those rare childhood stars who survive in the industry to enjoy a lucrative film career. He landed one of his first roles in the Elvis Presley movie, It Happened at the World’s Fair (1963) when he was eleven. In 1966, he starred in a Disney TV show. He met his future love, 21-year-old Goldie, on another film set, but at 16, he was a little young. It should be no surprise that he was voted “Best Looking” by the Class of 1969 at Thousand Oaks High School.
He found his way into several box office hits. In the Seventies and Eighties, Russell starred in amazing hits like Silkwood and Overboard . He played Lt. Bull McCaffrey in the hugely popular firefighter movie, Backdraft . Wyatt Earp, in Tombstone , was also a very popular role. And he’s well-loved in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 and the Stargate franchise. Goldie and Kurt share a double star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The honor was celebrated at the May 2017 ceremony.
Harrison Ford
Known for: Star Wars and Indiana Jones
Net worth: $230 million
Star Wars . Raiders of the Lost Ark . Two of the best movies of the Seventies and Eighties. Respectively. The mass appeal of those two mega-franchises made Harrison Ford one of the most in-demand actors ever (practically inventing the concept of a movie franchise, alongside George Lucas, in the process). Five of his flicks are all-time box office top-grossing films. The man’s a legend. Every dude wanted to be cool like him. Every gal swooned in the presence of the silver screen king. A collective sigh released when Princess Leia finally broke the romantic tension by kissing him in The Empire Strikes Back .
All this has led to substantial net worth. However, Ford had all but quit acting to support his wife and kids by becoming a carpenter when he got set up with George Lucas. It started with American Graffiti and climaxed with the mega-franchises Star Wars and Indiana Jones. It was like a godsend collaborating with Lucas. When he landed Han Solo on Star Wars, who knew he’d become an American demigod? The friendship of Hans and Chewbacca remains one of the most indelible memories of any summer movie release.
Linda Blair
Known for: The Exorcist
Net worth: $16 million
Linda Blair starred in The Exorcist , one of the all-time scariest movies. Playing a possessed demon child, the success of the classic 1973 horror film catapulted the child model and actress to international fame. She was just 14 years old when she won a Golden Globe Award and an Oscar nomination for the performance. She also won several roles and starred in Born Innocent and Airport 1975 . In Born Innocent , she played a sexually abused runaway teenager. The National Organization for Women and other organizations protested it for its depiction of female-to-female sexual abuse.
Fame wasn’t easy for Blair. A drug bust at 18 found her blacklisted in Hollywood. She managed it with B-movies. The experience produced lead roles in two cult classics. Chained Heat is a 1983 women-in-prison flick, and Savage Streets is an action movie in which she portrayed a vigilante femme fatale. In 2006, she showed up on the CW hit series Supernatural. She also hosted the 2000 Fox TV series, The Scariest Places on Earth.
Robert Duvall
Known for: The Godfather , The Apostle and Lt. Col. Kilgore
Net worth: $70 million
Another iconic film legend is Robert Duvall. He delivered one of the most definitive lines of the Vietnam era. The mythic phrase was victoriously belted out by the ruthless Lt. Col. Kilgore in Apocalypse Now (1979): “I love the smell of Napalm in the morning!” The war may have ended in 1975, but Duvall’s line lives on. The ’70s were prolific for Duvall, primarily in the production of malicious characters we love to hate. In The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, the phenomenal character-actor played the attorney for the Corleone mafia family. That role in Francis Ford Coppola’s classic mob film earned him an Academy Award nomination.
In MASH he played the vicious Major Frank Burns, and on Network he played the repugnant television executive Frank Hackett. He even played the contemptible Josef Stalin in Stalin. It’s his comedic nuances, the way he inserts a bit of humor into the bad guys that make his portrayals so epic. Are we surprised he was considered for Dr. Hannibal Lecter? Out of seven Oscar nominations, he was awarded an Oscar for Best Actor in Tender Mercies. Duvall’s big breaks included appearing on The Twilight zone and making his screen debut in To Kill a Mockingbird. His career has spanned six decades. And at 84, he became the oldest actor ever to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.