Jerry Sterner
Jerry Sterner (September 15, 1938 – June 11, 2001) was an American businessman and playwright best known for Other People's Money, which later became a 1991 film.
Born in the Bronx, Sterner attended the City College of New York. He worked nights selling tokens for the New York City Transit Authority, and over nearly six years he wrote seven plays in the token booth. In 1984, at age 46, he left his real estate job as president of David C. Gold & Company to write full-time. His early plays included Tit for Tat and Be Happy for Me.
His breakthrough came with Other People's Money, which opened at the Minetta Lane Theatre in 1989 and ran for several years. The play, written for three men and two women, starred Kevin Conway, Mercedes Ruehl, James Murtaugh, Arch Johnson, and Scotty Bloch. It was later adapted into a 1991 film.
Sterner also worked on musicals, including one with Jerry Bock called 1040. He contributed to the business sections of The New York Times and Fortune magazine. He married Jean Sterner in 1966, and they had two daughters, Emily James and writer Kate Shaffar.
He is buried in Washington Cemetery in Brooklyn; his headstone reads, "Finally, a plot."
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 18:12 (CET).