Yoram Globus is a long-time Israeli film producer. Upon completing his military service in the IDF, Globus teamed up with his cousin, director and producer Menahem Golan. Together, the two founded Noah Films – a production company named after Golan’s father. Throughout the 1960s and ‘70s, the company produced some of the most important and successful features in Israeli film history, including I Love you Rosa (Moshé Mizrahi, 1972) that was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and was featured at that year’s Cannes Film Festival; The House on Chelouche Street (Moshé Mizrahi, 1973), another Oscar nominee; as was Operation Thunderbolt (1977), directed by Menahem Golan. The film Lemon Popsicle (Boaz Davidson, 1978) made the official selection for the Berlin International Film Festival and clinched a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Film.
In 1978 Golan and Globus packed up and moved to the US where they bought a small production house named The Cannon Group. Before long, The Cannon Group grew into a commercial powerhouse and became the biggest small-scale production company in Hollywood. During Golan and Globus’s reign, The Cannon Group (now Cannon Films) stood out for its razor-sharp intuition in terms of identifying public taste and giving audiences just what they wanted. During the 1980s, the company made a range of relatively low-budget albeit massively successful action films, in no small part thanks to their leading men, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Chuck Norris, both of whom Golan had discovered and championed.
Highlights of Cannon Films’ big screen credits include: The Apple (1980), Enter The Ninja (1981), Death Wish II (1982), American Ninja (1985), Cobra (1986), Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), and two films directed by Golan himself – The Delta Force (1986), and Over The Top (1987).
Alongside their action catalogue, Cannon Films also tried to venture into highbrow filmmaking. Some of those forays included collaborations with highly reputable directors such as John Cassavetes, Jean-Luc Godard, Andrei Konchalovsky, and others. In the nineties, the company found itself embroiled in debt and ended up being sold off. Globus and Golan dissolved their business partnership soon thereafter, which then turned into a long and bitter public feud.
In 1990, Globus was made president of MGM, a role he would have for the next two years. In 1993, he moved back to Israel and made it the centre of his work, changing his company’s name from Golan Globus to Globus Group. His media empire now included film distribution company Globus United, Multiplex chain Globus Max, and the Neve Ilan TV studios near Jerusalem, In 2014, Globus sold off the vast majority of his business holdings in Israel.
Highlights of his production credits include: My Margo (Menahem Golan, 1969), Lupo! (Menahem Golan, 1970), The Big Break [aka ‘Ha-pritza Hagdola’] (Menahem Golan, 1970), Katz and Carrasso (Menahem Golan, 1971), The Highway Queen (Menahem Golan, 1971), Diamonds (Menahem Golan, 1975), It’s a Funny, Funny World (Tzvi Shissel, 1978), My Mother the General (Joel Silberg, 1979), Going Steady (Boaz Davidson, 1979), Hot Bubblegum (Boaz Davidson, 1981), Private Popsicle (Boaz Davidson, 1982), Baby Love (Dan Wolman, 1983), Forced Testimony (Raphael Rebibo, 1984), Up your Anchor (Dan Wolman, 1985), Million Dollar Madness (Naftali Alter, 1986), The Lover (Michal Bat-Adam, 1986), A Bit of Luck (Ze’ev Revach, 1992), Licking the Raspberry (Uri Barbash, 1992), Buskila Twins (Ze’ev Revach, 1998), Lemon Popsicle: The Party Goes On (Tzvi Shissel, 2001), and The Gospel According to God [aka ‘Ha-Bsora Al-pi Elohim’] (Assi Dayan, 2003).
In 1999, Globus earned a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Israeli Academy of Film and Television.
