Chris Gardner Biography
Chris Gardner is an entrepreneur and motivational speaker from the United States. Gardner suffered from homelessness in the early 1980s while raising a toddler kid. He became a stockbroker and, in 1987, started Gardner Rich & Co, his own brokerage firm.
How old is Chris Gardner? – Age
He is 68 years old as of 9 February 2022. He was born in 1954 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. His real name is Christopher Paul Gardner.
Chris Gardner Family – Parents
Gardner was born to Thomas Turner and Bettye Jean Gardner in Los Angeles, California. He was Bettye Jean’s only son and the second of her two children. Ophelia, his older half-sister, is from a previous marriage. Sharon and Kimberly, his younger sisters, are the result of his mother’s marriage to Freddie Triplett.
Gardner grew up without any strong male role models because his father was away at the time of his birth in Louisiana, and his stepfather was physically violent to both his mother and sisters. Gardner and his sisters were continually scared of Triplett’s outbursts. Bettye Jean was imprisoned in one incident after Triplett fraudulently reported her for welfare fraud; the children were placed in foster care. Gardner and his sisters were placed in foster care for the second time when their mother was convicted of attempting to kill Triplett by setting fire to the house while he was inside when Gardner was eight years old.
Gardner first met his three maternal uncles, Archibald, Willie, and Henry, while he was in foster care. Henry had the greatest impact on Gardner of the three, entering his life at a time when he most needed a supportive father figure. When Chris was nine years old, Henry drowned in the Mississippi River. When their mother arrived at Henry’s burial escorted by a prison guard, the children learned that she had been imprisoned.
Who is Chris Gardner’s wife? – Marriage
Chris married Sherry Dyson, a Virginia native, and mathematics educator, on June 18, 1977. Gardner appeared to have his medical career ambitions lined out in front of him, based on his knowledge, experience, and contacts in the industry. With ten years of medical school ahead of him and significant changes in health care on the horizon, he understood that the medical profession would be significantly different by the time he was ready to practice. Gardner was persuaded to seek more lucrative job possibilities, and he informed his wife, Sherry, of his plans to forego his goals of becoming a physician just days before his 26th birthday.
His relationship with Sherry was strained, partly due to his decision to forego a medical profession and partly due to behavioral differences. He began an affair with a dental student named Jackie Medina while still living with Sherry, and she became pregnant with his child only a few months later. He left Sherry after three years of marriage to move in with Jackie and prepare for fatherhood. In 1986, he and Sherry were formally divorced after nine years of marriage. On January 28, 1981, his son Christopher Jarrett Gardner Jr. was born. Gardner reconnected with Jackie after finding a home and had a second child with her in 1985, a girl called Jacintha. Gardner declined Jackie’s offer to rekindle their romance, although he did arrange for Chris Jr. and Jacintha to stay with Jackie during his long shifts at work.
How accurate is the Pursuit of happiness?
After an extraordinary national response to an interview he gave with 20/20 in January 2002, Gardner recognized his story had Hollywood potential. He released his autobiography on May 23, 2006, before becoming an associate producer on Gabriele Muccino’s big motion picture The Pursuit of Happiness, which was released on December 15, 2006 by Columbia Pictures. Gardner got the unique spelling of the film’s title from a sign he saw while homeless. Outside the daycare center that Gardner’s son attends, the word “happy” is misspelled. The picture earned $163 million in the United States and more than $300 million internationally. Will Smith was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance. In the film’s last scene, Chris Gardner makes a cameo appearance, passing by Will and Jaden.
Is Chris Gardner A Millionaire? – Net Worth
His net worth is $70 million. Chris left Dean Witter to create his own firm, Gardner Rich, in 1987. He also sold a minority stake in a multimillion-dollar sale in 2006.
Chris Gardner Career
Gardner opted to enlist after finishing secondary school after being inspired by his Uncle Henry’s globe travels in the US Navy. He served as a hospital corpsman at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina for four years. Gardner met Dr. Robert Ellis, a well-known San Francisco cardiac surgeon, who offered him a job aiding him with cutting-edge clinical research at the University of California Medical Center and the San Francisco Veterans Administration Hospital. Gardner took the job and relocated to San Francisco after his Navy discharge in 1974. He learned how to run a laboratory and perform numerous surgical methods over the course of two years. By 1976, he had been assigned full responsibility for a laboratory and had co-authored many articles in medical journals with Dr. Ellis.
Gardner founded Gardner Rich & Co, an “institutional brokerage firm specializing in the execution of debt, equity, and derivative products transactions for some of the nation’s largest institutions, public pension systems, and unions,” in Chicago, Illinois, in 1987. His new business began in his little Presidential Towers flat, with a $10,000 start-up capital and only one piece of furniture: a wooden desk that also served as the family dinner table. The name “Rich” was chosen to honor commodities trader Marc Rich, who had no ties to the company and whom Gardner had never met but whom Gardner regarded as “one of the world’s most successful futures traders.”
Gardner became CEO and founder of Christopher Gardner International Holdings, with offices in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, after selling his minority part in Gardner Rich in a multimillion-dollar deal in 2006. Gardner met with Nelson Mandela to discuss possible investments in South African emerging markets during a visit to South Africa to observe elections around the time of the 10th anniversary of the end of apartheid. Gardner was planned an investment endeavor in the country, which he anticipated would generate hundreds of employees and millions of dollars in foreign money. Gardner has refused to discuss the project’s specifics, claiming securities regulations as an excuse.