Arnon Milchan

Arnon Milchan was born in 1944 in Rehovot

Milchan was born in Rehovot in 1944 to a Jewish family. On his mother's side he is the eighth generation of his family in the country. He grew up in north Tel Aviv and has a sister, Dalia.

He attended a boarding school in England for high school. He then studied at the London School of Economics and later at the University of Geneva.

When his father died, Milchan inherited the family fertilizer company and expanded it into a chemical business. He also became an arms dealer and was recruited by Shimon Peres to Lekem, where he helped obtain materials for Israel's nuclear program. In 2013 he confirmed this work on the program Uvda.

He moved to Paris in 1975 and entered film production. He founded Regency Enterprises in 1982 and has produced over 130 films, including Pretty Woman, Fight Club and 12 Years a Slave. Two films he worked on, 12 Years a Slave and Birdman, won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

In 2018 Israeli police recommended charging him and Benjamin Netanyahu with bribery in Case 1000. In 2023 he testified as a prosecution witness by video from Brighton. He is married to Amanda Coetzer and has not been in Israel since 2016.