Gary Khammar
May 4, 2024
Gary Khammar, a key figure in the early days of the home entertainment industry, died May 2 at 73.
Khammar was best known for his long run at Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment and RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video, the precursors to Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, where over a decade he rose to EVP before resigning in June 1989.
Khammar entered the video business at a time when the studios were still fighting video retailers over the right to rent movies on videocassette. Video rental dealers cited the so-called “first sale” provision to the Copyright Act of 1976, which gives the owner of a copyrighted work the right to sell, rent, or lease that copy without permission from the copyright owner. The studios tried to suffocate the burgeoning rental business by placing restrictive warning labels on cassettes, and even presented the issue to Congress for resolution through a series of bills that would have effectively overturned the first sale doctrine. But none of these efforts succeeded.
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In 1981, a year after he joined what was then Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment, Khammar was moved from the East Coast to Los Angeles by the division’s head, Jonathan Dolgen, who would later become studio chief at Paramount Pictures. Dolgen recognized home video’s potential and wanted the business to be closer to the studio decision makers in Hollywood and Burbank. Joining Khammar on the move west were fellow executives Rob Blattner, who would go on to head MCA/Universal Home Video before his untimely death in a plane crash in October 1992, and Fritz Friedman, who would remain with Columbia Pictures through various ownership and name changes until retiring in 2014 as SVP of worldwide publicity and corporate communications for Sony Pictures Entertainment.
“Gary, Rob and I were like brothers,” Friedman recalls. “As young executives, we navigated the strange new world of the entertainment industry and life in Southern California after our move from New York City in 1981. He was a warm, loyal and intelligent colleague and friend who brightened any room with his wit and charm. I — and countless other friends and colleagues — will miss him terribly. Gone too soon.”
“Gary was an extraordinary human being,” said Eric Doctorow, a former president of Paramount Home Entertainment who met Khammar in 1980 when they both worked for RCA/Columbia, Doctorow on the video disc side. “He was kind, thoughtful, and devastatingly funny. He was basically my best friend for nearly 45 years.”
After presiding over one of the major home video suppliers during the heyday of the rental business, Khammar turned to filmmaking and in 1990 formed Light Source & Imagery, a production and post-production company creating content for global entertainment companies and other businesses.
The company produced dozens of video shorts used as extras on DVDs and Blu-ray Discs, including the documentaries Jerry Lewis: No Apologies, included on the 50th anniversary release of The Nutty Professor, and Kubrick Remembered, which was included on Stanley Kubrick: The Masterpiece Collection.
Most recently, Light Source & Imagery created video shorts for such TV series as “Fire Country,” “NCIS Los Angeles,” “Criminal Minds: Evolution,” “Seal Team” and “CSI Vegas.”
Khammar also was working on a documentary on the home video business.
Khammar was born in Watertown, N.Y., to Fred and Catherine Khammar. He graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and began working in the record industry. Like many music business executives, he later transitioned to home video.
He is survived by his wife, Nancy, son Jordan, daughter Ashley, and three grandchildren.
In keeping with Khammar’s wishes, there will be no services. A memorial will be scheduled at a later date.
