Menahem Golan | |
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Menahem Golan, photographed in 2007.
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Born |
May 31, 1929 Tiberias, British Mandate of Palestine (now Israel) |
Died | August 8, 2014 Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Israel |
(aged 85)
Nationality | Israeli |
Other names | Joseph Goldman |
Occupation | Director, producer |
Known for | Founder of Golan-Globus/The Cannon Group |
Menahem Golan (Hebrew: מנחם גולן; May 31, 1929 – August 8, 2014) was an Israeli director and producer. He is best known as the co-owner, with his cousin Yoram Globus, of The Cannon Group, a company that specialized in low-to-mid budget American films during the 1980s after Golan and Globus achieved significant success as filmmakers in their native Israel during the 1970s.
Golan produced movies featuring such stars as Sean Connery, Sylvester Stallone, Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Charles Bronson, and was known for a period as a producer of comic book-style movies like Masters of the Universe, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Captain America, and his aborted attempt to bring Spider-Man to the silver screen. Using the pen name of Joseph Goldman, Golan also wrote and "polished" film scripts. Golan produced about 200 films, directed 44, and won eight Violin David Awards as well as The Israel Prize in Cinema.
Menahem Golan was born on May 31, 1929, in Tiberias, then Mandate Palestine. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Russian Poland. He spent his early years in Tiberias, then studied directing at the Old Vic School and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and film making at New York University. During the 1948 Palestine war, Golan served as a pilot in the Israeli Air Force.