Who Is the Walmart Heiress Who Hosted Leo DiCaprio’s 50th Birthday?

Sybil Robson Orr has been rubbing elbows with some of the most famous people in the world for decades, even hosting Leonardo DiCaprio’s 50th birthday party — but who exactly is the Walmart heiress?

Robson Orr, 62, hosted DiCaprio’s milestone birthday celebration at her and husband Matthew Orr’s home in Los Angeles on Saturday, November 9. While the nature of Robson Orr and DiCaprio’s friendship is unclear, it is clear that they run in the same circles, as the party’s guest list featured a slew of A-list celebrities including Paris Hilton, Katy Perry, Robin Thicke, Tyga and Damson Idris, among others. DiCaprio’s party was preceded by a private dinner between the actor and his immediate family and friends.

Robson Orr has been described as a philanthropist and a producer, but she is notably the niece of Walmart founders Sam Walton and Bud Walton, the brothers-in-law of her father, Nick Robson, a rancher in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She is also the founder of Robson Orr Entertainment, which has produced a handful of movies since the ‘90s, including her first film Gordy, which was released in 1995.

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Her Career Began in Journalism

Robson Orr began her career as a news reporter after graduating from Southern Methodist University, located in Texas. She went on to work as a television anchor for network affiliates in the United States before she went to ABC News in Paris.

Film Producer

Robson first partnered with producer Harvey Bernhard to create Robson/Bernhard Entertainment for Universal Pictures, before striking out on her own and founding her own production company in 1993 called Robson Orr Entertainment. It was through this production company that Robson Orr produced her first film, Gordy, released in 1995.

”I’ve known about the project for quite a while,” Robson said of Gordy in a 1993 interview with Variety. “It was a terrific idea that stayed with me all this time.” At the time, she added that “family-oriented films are going to be the backbone” of her production company, adding, “even though we intend to be doing mainstream films as well.”

After Gordy, Robson Orr produced four more movies, including Seven and a Match in 2001, the award-winning documentary Blindsight in 2006, First in Flight in 2012 and Rules Don’t Apply in 2016.

Patron of the Arts

Beyond her work in film, Robson Orr founded the Robson Orr TenTen Award in 2018 alongside her husband, British investor Matthew Orr. The TenTen Award is a 10-year project originally conceived in collaboration with the Government Art Collection and the Outset Contemporary Art Fund.

Each year, from 2018 until the project’s end in 2027, an “outstanding British artist” is selected to create a piece for the Government Art Collection, with the support of Sybil and her husband. The project is intended to bring “exciting new artwork to government buildings around the world,” according to the official website. The winning artist every year makes a special, limited-edition print that is displayed in UK government buildings around the world.

“While talent is everywhere in our country, we are aware that opportunity is not,” Labour minister Lisa Nandy of the U.K. told The Independent of the TenTen Award in October 2024. “It is down to people like Sybil today that that is beginning to change, because not only do they support emerging artists, but they also work tirelessly to take us back into our schools and into our classrooms where they move it along to a whole new generation of young people.”