Marshall Naify (March 23, 1920 – April 19, 2000) was a

motion picture A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, since ...

and media tycoon who was a long-term chairman of the board of

United Artists United Artists (UA) is an American film production and film distribution, distribution company owned by Amazon MGM Studios. In its original operating period, it was founded in February 1919 by Charlie Chaplin, D. W. Griffith, Mary Pickford an ...

and later became founder and co-chairman of the board of

Todd-AO Todd-AO is an American post-production company founded in 1953 by Mike Todd and Robert Naify, providing sound-related services to the motion picture and television industries. The company retains one facility, in the Los Angeles area. Todd-AO ...

, the largest independent post-production sound studio in the United States which worked on ''

Apollo 13 Apollo 13 (April 1117, 1970) was the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo program, Apollo space program and would have been the third Moon landing. The craft was launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 11, 1970, but the landing was abort ...

'' and other major films.

Biography

Marshall Naify worked in the theater business nearly all his life. Marshall Naify and his brother

Robert Naify Robert Naify was an American businessman and motion picture and media tycoon known for his ownership of the movie theaters chain United Artists Theatres, the largest and most geographically diverse theatre circuit in the United States, today part o ...

were members of The

Forbes 400 The ''Forbes'' 400 or 400 Richest Americans is a list published by ''Forbes'' magazine of the wealthiest 400 American citizens who own assets in the U.S., ranked by net worth. The 400 was started by Malcolm Forbes in 1982 and the list is ...

beginning in 1987 with an estimated combined net worth of $4.3 billion. They merged the family's theater chain with United Artists Theater Circuit and eventually became the majority shareholders. They sold that company in 1986 to John Malone's Telecommunications Inc. (TCI) for cash and stock. The Naify brothers were also pioneers in the

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

industry, entering the business in the 1950s. Marshall Naify also invested in

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

gold stocks. An

art Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...

lover, Naify became an art sponsor, contributor and collector. In 1999, Marshall Naify married Lily Cates, widow of director/producer Joseph Cates and mother of

Phoebe Cates Phoebe Belle Cates Kline (born July 16, 1963) is an American businesswoman and retired actress and model. She appeared in the films '' Fast Times at Ridgemont High'' (1982), '' Gremlins'' (1984), '' Gremlins 2: The New Batch'' (1990), '' Drop D ...

Marshall Naify was married to Valerie Naify, a former actress, for 32 years with whom he had two children.

Thoroughbred horse racing

Marshall Naify owned and raced

Thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a list of horse breeds, horse breed developed for Thoroughbred racing, horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thorough ...

horses. In 1991 he acquired a farm near

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city coterminous with and the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census the city's population was 322,570, making it the List of ...

. Formerly known as Pillar Stud, he renamed it 505 Farms and raced under that name. Among the best-known of his horses were Manistique and Bertrando, the latter owned in partnership with Edward Nahem. Bertrando was a multiple

Grade I In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

winner and the 1993

American Champion Older Male Horse The title of American Champion Older Dirt Male Horse is an American Thoroughbred horse racing honor awarded annually to a stallion or gelding, four years old and up, for performances on dirt and main track racing surfaces. In 1971, it became part of ...

Following his death, his daughter, Marsha, sold the property and the horses through a Barretts Equine Ltd. dispersal sale

The farm was eventually acquired by its current operator, Horse trainer, trainer, Kenneth McPeek but Marsha Naify remains involved in racing as an owner.

References

Marshall Naify/505 Farms at the NTRA

*

List of billionaires ''The World's Billionaires'' is an annual ranking of people who are billionaires, i.e., they are considered to have a net worth of US$1 billion or more, by the American business magazine ''Forbes''. The list was first published in March 1987. ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Naify 1920 births 2000 deaths American billionaires American people of Lebanese descent American racehorse owners and breeders 20th-century American businesspeople