Daniel Pritzker (born 1959) is an American billionaire heir, musician, film director, and member of the

Pritzker family The Pritzker family is an American family engaged in entrepreneurship and philanthropy, and List of wealthiest families, one of the wealthiest families in the United States of America (staying in the top 10 of ''Forbes'' magazine's "America's Riche ...

Early life

Pritzker was born to a Jewish family, the son of Marian (née Friend) and

Jay Pritzker Jay Arthur Pritzker (August 26, 1922 – January 23, 1999) was an American entrepreneur, conglomerate organizer, and member of the Pritzker family. Early life and education Pritzker was born in Chicago, Illinois to Jewish parents who emi ...

. He is the grandson of

A. N. Pritzker Abram Nicholas Pritzker (January 6, 1896 – February 8, 1986) was an American businessman and member of the Pritzker family. Early life and education Abram was the son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, Annie P. (née Cohn) and Nicholas J. Pritzk ...

. He is a 1981 graduate of Tufts University and earned a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

from Northwestern University Law School in 1986.

Career

Daniel and his wife Karen are trustees of the Jay Pritzker Foundation, a philanthropic fund that created the Pritzker Challenge at Tufts with gifts of $10 million. The Pritzker Challenge is designed to encourage members of the Tufts community to establish endowed or term scholarships for underprivileged minority students. Pritzker was the founder, guitarist and songwriter for the Chicago band Sonia Dada. Pritzker is ranked 353 in the 2020 list of "The 400 Richest Americans" by '' Forbes'' magazine, with a net worth of $2.4 billion. He purchased

Jerry Garcia Jerome John Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995) was an American musician best known for being the principal songwriter, lead guitarist, and a vocalist with the rock band Grateful Dead, which he co-founded and which came to prominence ...

's "Wolf" guitar for $790,000 in 2002. In 2017, he donated it to a charity auction, where Brian Halligan placed the winning bid totaling $1.9M. After many years, he directed a film about jazz pioneer Buddy Bolden which was released to theaters in May 2019. Originally titled ''Bolden!'' before being renamed to just ''

Bolden ''Bolden'' is a 2019 American drama film based on the life of cornetist Buddy Bolden (1877–1931). One of the seminal figures in jazz history, Bolden left no surviving recordings, having been committed in 1907 at age 30 to the Louisiana State I ...

'', he funded the project from first draft to theatrical release because he felt the life of Buddy Bolden "was American history and tragedy of mythical proportion. From the outset I saw this as an opportunity to make an allegorical story about the soul of America."

Personal life

Pritzker is married to Karen Edensword and has five children. The couple lives in Kentfield, California.

Filmography

* ''

'' (2019) - Director and writer

References

Living people Place of birth missing (living people) 1959 births Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law alumni Tufts University alumni American male guitarists American philanthropists American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent

Daniel Pritzker Daniel Pritzker (born 1959) is an American billionaire heir, musician, film director, and member of the Pritzker family. Early life Pritzker was born to a Jewish family, the son of Marian (née Friend) and Jay Pritzker. He is the grandson of A ...

Jewish American philanthropists American billionaires People from Kentfield, California Film directors from California 21st-century American Jews {{US-musician-stub