Liesel Matthews (born March 14, 1984) is an American former child actress and heiress to the Hyatt Hotels fortune. She starred as Sara Crewe in A Little Princess, a 1995 film adaptation of the Frances Hodgson Burnett classic.
Liesel uses the stage name "Matthews" first, to honor her brother Matthew, and second, to avoid the battle between her parents that came to pass as 'Liesel Pritzker-Bagley' (Bagley being her stepfather's name) vs. 'Liesel Pritzker.'
Other than appearing in some movies, Matthews made her professional stage debut as Scout in a production of To Kill A Mockingbird in Chicago. She was also seen in Vincent in Brixton, and won a Theatre World award for her performance.
Matthews was born Liesel Anne Pritzker in Chicago, Illinois into the wealthy Pritzker family. Her parents are Irene D. and Robert Pritzker. She is one of twelve surviving grandchildren of patriarch Abram Nicholas Pritzker, a financier and industrialist who died in 1986. Her uncle, Jay Pritzker, is the founder of the Hyatt Hotel chain, and owned Braniff Airlines from 1983-1988. The family controls the TransUnion Credit Bureau and the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. The Pritzker family has been near the top of Forbes magazine's "America's Richest Families" list since the magazine began in 1982.
Matthews graduated from New Trier High School outside of Chicago and enrolled at Columbia University.
In 2002, Matthews, then an undergrad at Columbia University, filed a U.S. $6 billion lawsuit against her father and 11 older cousins claiming they had misappropriated money from trusts established for her and her brother Matthew Pritzker. In early 2005, the parties settled the lawsuit which led to the family fortune being split 11 ways, resulting in 10 more Pritzkers joining the Forbes 400; the most members of any 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.
