Gary Barber (born 1957) is a South African and American film producer. Barber was the chairman and CEO of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He is also co-founder of Spyglass Media Group.
Barber was born to a Jewish family[1] in Johannesburg, South Africa.[2][3] He was educated at King David School, Linksfield, in Johannesburg. He then received an accounting degree from the University of the Witwatersrand, also in Johannesburg.[4][5]
In 1982, he won a trip to the Arlington Million horse race in Illinois.[5] In the same year, he moved to the United States, where his brother Cecil had been living since 1979. In the mid-1980s, Barber became a U.S. citizen.[2] In 1998, he and Roger Birnbaum founded Spyglass Entertainment in Los Angeles.[4] His highest-grossing film as producer was The Tourist (2010), which grossed close to US$280 million at the worldwide box office.[6]
In December 2010, Barber became Chief Executive Officer of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).[4] Under his leadership, MGM together with Eon Productions and Sony Pictures financed the successful James Bond film Skyfall, which grossed US$1,1 billion. MGM then also financed The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012), 21 Jump Street (2012) and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013). MGM then moved forward with remakes of RoboCop and Poltergeist.[7][8] In March 2018, Barber was ousted from MGM, coming five months after the renewal of his contract with the studio to 2022; he received a $260M settlement.[9][10]
Barber has three daughters and lives in Los Angeles.[5]
Barber is also a Thoroughbred racehorse owner. The Deputy, owned in partnership with Team Valor, won the 2000 running of the Grade II Santa Catalina Stakes and the Grade I Santa Anita Derby at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California. In 2006, Becrux, also owned in partnership with Team Valor, won the Grade I Woodbine Mile at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Canada.[11] In 2014, his filly Lexie Lou won the Queen's Plate and was named the Canadian Horse of the Year.[12] His horse War of Will won the 2019 Preakness Stakes.[13]
Executive Producer
Producer
Special thanks
