Garth Howard Drabinsky, OC (born October 27, 1949) is a former Canadian film and theatrical producer and entrepreneur. He is now a convicted person awaiting a prison term, pending his appeal of the sentence.

[edit] Biography

Born in Toronto, Ontario, Drabinsky graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1973. He was the producer for a number of films, including The Disappearance (1977), The Silent Partner (1978), The Changeling (1980), Tribute (1980), The Amateur (1981), Losin' It (1983), The Gospel of John (2003), Half Light, (2004). In 1979, he and Nat Taylor co-founded Cineplex Odeon, a predecessor company of Cineplex Entertainment. In 1995, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

He also helmed the publicly traded theatre production company, Live Entertainment Corporation of Canada, Inc., also known as Livent. Livent made a splash in New York City after acquiring the Lyric and Apollo Theatres and remodelling them into what was originally called the Ford Center for the Performing Arts (later renamed the Hilton Theatre). Drabinsky and Livent produced the inaugural production at the theatre, the 1996 musical version of E. L. Doctorow's Ragtime, which had a long run but was not financially successful.

Drabinsky's productions won 19 Tony Awards.

In November 1998, Livent sought bankruptcy protection in the US claiming a debt of $334 million, and securities regulators in both Canada and the US began investigating Livent's books.

On March 25, 2009, Drabinsky and Livent co-founder Myron Gottlieb were found guilty of fraud and forgery in Ontario Superior Court for misstating the company's financial statements between 1993 and 1998.^[1][2]

Garth Drabinsky was sentenced to seven years in jail on Wednesday August 5, 2009 for his role in a half-billion-dollar fraud in the 1990s at their theatre production company, Livent.^[3]

Garth Drabinsky filed an appeal in the Ontario Court of Appeal of his sentence on September 3, 2009.^[4]

[edit] External links

• Order of Canada Citation
• Biography of Livent Entertainment Group
• Garth H. Drabinsky at the Internet Movie Database

[edit] References