Gary Barber
Gary Barber ( born 1957 in Johannesburg) is an American film producer of South African origin.
Life
Gary Barber studied economics at the University of Witwatersrand. After completing his studies, he first worked as an auditor.
The horse sports fan won a trip to the 1982 Arlington Million horse race in Illinois. In the same year he emigrated to the United States, where his brother Cecil Barber lived since 1979. Together with his brother he acquired numerous horses that participated in several races. The mid-1980s took Barber an American citizen.
In 1998 he founded with his business partner Roger Birnbaum production, finance and distribution company Spyglass Entertainment in Los Angeles. He had his greatest success in 2010 with the production of the film The Tourist, which grossed 280 million dollars at the box office worldwide.
In December 2010, Barber took over the post of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the bankrupt movie production company Metro -Goldwyn- Mayer. Under his leadership, co -funded MGM together with Eon Productions and Sony Pictures the highly successful spy thriller James Bond 007: Skyfall, which was a worldwide box office of more than 1.1 billion U.S. dollars to the hitherto most successful film of the Bond series. MGM financed then also hit films such as The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey, 21 Jump Street and Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. Barber succeeded by these successes and rigid austerity measures, again for the first time to present a healthy balance sheet for the previously heavily indebted MGM.
Barber has three daughters and lives in Los Angeles.