Liesel Pritzker Simmons (born Liesel Anne Pritzker),

stage name A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...

Liesel Matthews, is an American heiress and former

child actress The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting on stage or in movies or television. An adult who began their acting career as a child may also be called a child actor, or a "former child actor". Closely associated t ...

. She starred as

Sara Crewe ''A Little Princess'' is a children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, first published as a book in 1905. It is an expanded version of the short story "Sara Crewe: or, What Happened at Miss Minchin's", which was serialized in '' St. Nicholas M ...

in '' A Little Princess'', a 1995 film adaptation of the Frances Hodgson Burnett classic, and as Alice Marshall in ''

Air Force One Air Force One is the official air traffic control designated call sign for a United States Air Force aircraft carrying the president of the United States. In common parlance, the term is used to denote U.S. Air Force aircraft modified and used ...

''. She is a member of the wealthy

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 ...

. She is now known as a leader in

impact investing Impact investing refers to investing, investments "made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return". At its core, impact investing is ...

and founded the

Blue Haven Initiative Blue Haven Initiative (BHI) is an impact investment organization based in the United States and is one of the largest investment funds in the world dedicated solely to impact investing. Blue Haven's venture capital fund invests in early-stage, in ...

in 2012 to that end.

Early life and education

Liesel Anne Pritzker was born in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, into the wealthy

, the daughter of Irene (née Dryburgh) and Robert Pritzker. Her father founded The Marmon Group with his brother

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 ...

. She is of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

origin on her father's side and her mother is Australian. Her mother met her father while working at a Pritzker-owned Hyatt hotel in Australia; they married in 1980 and divorced in 1989. She has one brother,

Matthew Pritzker Matthew Pritzker (born May 28, 1982) is an American investor and businessperson based in Chicago, Illinois. In 2008 he founded the Matthew Pritzker Company. The company’s focus is on building businesses across a variety of industries—includin ...

, and three half-siblings from her father's first marriage to Audrey Gilbert Pritzker:

Jennifer N. Pritzker Jennifer Natalya Pritzker (born James Nicholas Pritzker; August 13, 1950) is an American investor, philanthropist, and member of the Pritzker family. Pritzker retired as a lieutenant colonel from the Illinois Army National Guard (ILARNG) in 200 ...

;

Linda Pritzker Linda Pritzker (born September 1953) also known by the name Lama Tsomo is an American lama in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. She is a spiritual teacher, author, philanthropist, and co-founder of the Namchak Foundation and Namchak Retreat Ranch ...

; and Karen Pritzker Vlock. She was named after the ''

Sound of Music ''The Sound of Music'' is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp, ''The Story of the Trapp Family Singers''. Set ...

'' character Liesl von Trapp, the eldest daughter of the seven von Trapp children. She is one of twelve surviving grandchildren of patriarch

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 ...

, a financier and industrialist who died in 1986. Her uncle,

, is the founder of the Hyatt Hotel chain, and owned Braniff Airlines from 1983–1988. Her cousin is J. B. Pritzker, the 43rd

Governor of Illinois The governor of Illinois is the head of government of Illinois, and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is a directly elected position, votes being cast by p ...

. The family controls the

TransUnion TransUnion is an American consumer credit reporting agency. TransUnion collects and aggregates information on over one billion individual consumers in over thirty countries including "200 million files profiling nearly every credit-active consum ...

Credit Bureau and the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. The Pritzker family has been near the top of ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'' magazine's "America's Richest Families" list since the list began in 1982. Pritzker graduated from

New Trier High School New Trier High School (, also known as New Trier Township High School or NTHS) is a public four-year high school, with its main campus for sophomores through seniors located in Winnetka, Illinois, United States, and a campus in Northfield, Illinoi ...

outside of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and enrolled at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, from which she graduated in 2006.

Acting career

Liesel Pritzker uses the name "Liesel Matthews" as an actress on stage and screen, first to honor her brother Matthew, and second to avoid conflict between her divorced parents about whether she should incorporate her stepfather's name and be known as Liesel Pritzker-Bagley. Pritzker made her professional stage debut as

Scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement **Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom **Scouts BSA, sectio ...

in a production of ''

To Kill A Mockingbird ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' is a novel by the American author Harper Lee. It was published in 1960 and was instantly successful. In the United States, it is widely read in high schools and middle schools. ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' has become ...

'' in Chicago. She won a Theatre World Award for her performance in ''

Vincent in Brixton ''Vincent in Brixton'' is a 2002 play by Nicholas Wright. The play premiered at London's National Theatre with Jochum ten Haaf in the title role. It transferred to the Playhouse Theatre and later to Broadway. It focuses on artist Vincent van G ...

''. She starred in two major films,

Alfonso Cuaron Alphons (Latinized ''Alphonsus'', ''Adelphonsus'', or ''Adefonsus'') is a male given name recorded from the 8th century (Alfonso I of Asturias, r. 739–757) in the Christian successor states of the Visigothic kingdom in the Iberian peninsula. ...

's '' A Little Princess'' and Wolfgang Petersen's 1997 action thriller ''

''. In 2002, Pritzker played the character Jenn in

Neil Labute Neil N. LaBute (born March 19, 1963) is an American playwright, film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is best-known for a play that he wrote and later adapted for film, ''In the Company of Men'' (1997), which won awards from the Sundance Fi ...

's play ''The Distance from Here'' at the Almeida Theatre at King's Cross in London, England with Enrico Colantoni, Ana Reeder,

Amy Ryan Amy Beth Dziewiontkowski, known professionally as Amy Ryan, is an American actress of stage and screen. A graduate of New York's High School of Performing Arts, she is an Academy Award nominee and two-time Tony Award nominee. Ryan began her pr ...

, Jason Ritter, and Mark Webber in the cast. David Leveaux was director.

Lawsuit

In 2002, Pritzker, then a

first-year student ''First-Year Student'' (russian: Первоклассница) is a 1948 Soviet film directed by Ilya Frez. Plot The film tells about a girl named Marusya Orlova, who went to school. A teacher and new friends will help her to become a discipline ...

, filed a $6 billion lawsuit against her father and eleven older cousins, claiming they had misappropriated money from

trusts A trust is a legal relationship in which the holder of a right gives it to another person or entity who must keep and use it solely for another's benefit. In the Anglo-American common law, the party who entrusts the right is known as the "settl ...

established for her and her brother

. In early 2005, the parties settled the lawsuit, which followed another suit that had begun the process of splitting the family fortune eleven ways. That result placed eleven Pritzkers into the Forbes 400, the most from any single family. Under the settlement, Liesel and Matthew each received roughly U.S. $280 million in cash and were given more control over other trusts valued at about U.S. $170 million each.

Philanthropy and projects

Liesel Pritzker is the founder of Young Ambassadors for Opportunity (YAO), a network of young professionals who aim to inspire, educate, and involve others in

microfinance Microfinance is a category of financial services targeting individuals and small businesses who lack access to conventional banking and related services. Microfinance includes microcredit, the provision of small loans to poor clients; savings ...

and the work of Opportunity International. In June 2009, she donated $4 million to Opportunity International to help expand microfinance services in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. She is the co-founder of the IDP Foundation, Inc., and

Personal life

Pritzker is married to Ian Simmons; they live in the Boston, Massachusetts area.

Filmography

References

External links

*
Young Ambassadors for Opportunity

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pritzker Simmons, Liesel Actresses from Chicago American child actresses American film actresses Philanthropists from Illinois American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Living people New Trier High School alumni Liesel 20th-century American actresses Columbia College (New York) alumni American stage actresses American people of Australian descent 1984 births 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American women