Keith Barish

Keith Barish (born November 11, 1944) is an American businessman and film producer. He is known for the creation of Gramco, an ill-fated offshore fund, and for being the former restaurateur of Planet Hollywood, which he co-founded with Bryan Kestner and Robert Earl joined in later in 1991. He also served as the producer of such films as Sophie's Choice, The Running Man (1987) and The Fugitive (1993). Barish also produced the film Ironweed (1987).

Life and career Barish was born in Los Angeles. He moved to Miami at the age of three, when his parents divorced. In 1967, Barish was already wealthy and had gained fame as a "financial whiz kid around Miami" when he started a mutual fund offshore company with investments in American real estate known as Gramco. It was structured as a holding company with GRAMCO International S.A. at the top, which was registered in Panama. Otherwise, Gramco's advertising literature quoted Barish as saying that "we are engaged in a system that uses money for social good… to prevent economic injustice, and make the world a better place" and it also assured that Barish had "larger goals than merely making a lot of money." Gramco was also criticized for conducting operations that would have been illegal in the United States and Great Britain. For a while, Gramco was very successful, as it accumulated net assets amounting to $278 million and its shares climbed to $38. Shortly afterwards, Gramco's shares fell precipitously to $1.50 as the result of a cash drain that was attributed to its unorthodox financial practices, the impact of a sales ban in West Germany, and a loss of investors' confidence in offshore funds. On October 8, Gramco halted the redemption and sales of its stock, essentially freezing the assets of 23,000 shareholders whose investments amounted on average to $12,000. Even then, Gramco's management made further profits as it kept charging fees for managing the funds' assets. In 1971, profits from the Gramco venture allegedly enabled Barish to move to 740 Park Avenue and pursue an affluent lifestyle. In contrast, Barish has stated that his fortune was made in Florida land deals. In 1973, a $40 million class action lawsuit was filed against Barish and company by two Gramco shareholders. However, the action was dismissed in 1975 due to the court's lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

Barish officially became a film producer in 1979 and first produced the film Endless Love (1981), followed by Sophie's Choice (1982). He then subsequently set up a nine-picture production deal at 20th Century-Fox through a three-year alliance via the Keith Barish Productions banner.

Barish then served as chairman of Taft Entertainment/Keith Barish Productions, which he co-founded in 1984 with a subsidiary of Taft Broadcasting, with 20th Century-Fox intended as film distributor, then Tri-Star Pictures took over Fox's duties.

On December 31, 1985, Taft-Barish Productions signed an agreement with Producers Sales Organization (later the duties were assumed by J&M Entertainment after PSO went bankrupt) to handle worldwide sales of its own films, with Tri-Star Pictures handling film distribution. On August 13, 1986, film director Taylor Hackford, filed a lawsuit against Keith Barish's production company for breaching an agreement to co-develop the film At Play in the Fields of the Lord, with Barrish getting a development option from MGM/UA. At one point, Barish was attached to produce The Flintstones (1994).

On August 20, 1986, Taft/Barish Productions signed a $200 million agreement with Tri-Star Pictures to handle four to six films per year, with production and distribution costs to be funded entirely by Taft/Barish, a joint venture of Taft Motion Pictures and Keith Barish Productions. On October 8, 1986, Rob Cohen was appointed vice chairman of Keith Barish's production company, and served as executive producer on most of the Taft-Barish projects. In August 1987, Taft-Barish Productions and Tri-Star Pictures decided to scale down projects from four-to-six to two-to-three projects yearly, with a new emphasis on higher budgeted, high quality films, rather than having a previous mixture of various product that the original agreement had to offer. In October 1987, ahead of MIFED , the international film rights to the Taft-Barish projects in a group package were picked up by J&M Entertainment, a foreign sales distributor, after the collapse of defunct film distributor Producers Sales Organization, and certain sales of the Taft-Barish projects were assigned to another Taft Broadcasting subsidiary Worldvision Enterprises, which will retain film and television rights on the four Taft-Barish group pictures.

In 1991, Barish and Robert Earl co-founded Planet Hollywood. Barish left Planet Hollywood in 1999.

Barish is married to socialite Ann Barish.

Filmography He was a producer in all films unless otherwise noted.

Film Year Film Notes 1981 Endless Love Executive producer 1982 Sophie's Choice Kiss Me Goodbye Executive producer 1984 Misunderstood Executive producer 1986 9½ Weeks Executive producer Big Trouble in Little China Executive producer 1987 Light of Day The Monster Squad Executive producer The Running Man Executive producer Ironweed 1988 The Serpent and the Rainbow Executive producer 1989 Her Alibi 1990 Fire Birds Executive producer 1993 The Fugitive Executive producer 1998 U.S. Marshals Executive producer

As an actor

Year Film Role 1993 Last Action Hero Himself

Thanks

Year Film Notes 1997 The Brave Special thanks 2015 Little Loopers The producers wish to thank Ghost Squad Special thanks Christmas Trade Direct-to-videoSpecial thanks to

Television Year Title Notes 1984 A Streetcar Named Desire Television filmExecutive producer

As an actor

Year Title Role 1984 The Fall Guy Himself