Yoram Jerzy Gross was a Polish-born, Australian film and television producer, animation director, and writer of children's and family entertainment.
18 Facts About Yoram Gross
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Yoram Gross was known for his adaptation of children's characters from books and films, and best known for the production of the films Dot and the Kangaroo and Blinky Bill: The Mischievous Koala.
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Yoram Jerzy Gross was born on 18 October 1926 in Krakow, Poland to a religious Jewish family and was the brother of the film director Natan Gross.
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Yoram Gross's family was on Oskar Schindler's list, but chose to make their own risky escape, moving hiding places 72 times.
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Yoram Gross first entered the film industry in 1947 at the age of 20 when he became one of the first students of Jerzy Toeplitz.
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Yoram Gross began his career as an assistant to Polish directors Eugene Cenkalski and Leonard Buczkowski as well as the Dutch director Joris Ivens and studied script writing under Carl Foreman.
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In 1950 Yoram Gross moved from Poland to Israel, where he worked as a newsreel and documentary cameraman.
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Yoram Gross then became an independent film producer and director and began winning prizes at international film festivals.
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Yoram Gross continued to make experimental films and to win awards.
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Yoram Gross originally produced film clips for the popular weekly television music program Bandstand for such artists as John Farnham.
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Yoram Gross wrote a book on making animated films, titled The First Animated Step and produced a film of the same title.
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Yoram Gross went on to produce, direct, and script a total of 16 feature films for 19 children.
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Yoram Gross's 1991 animated film The Magic Riddle was based on an original story and is a mixture of fairy tales from Hans Christian Andersen, the Brothers Grimm, and others.
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In 1992 Yoram Gross released Blinky Bill: The Mischievous Koala, based on the Australian children's classic by Dorothy Wall.
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Yoram Gross died in Sydney at the age of 88 on 21 September 2015.
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Yoram Gross won more than 80 international awards for his various films.
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Yoram Gross was honoured in the 1995 Australia Day Honours with a Member of the Order of Australia for his services to the Australian film industry, particularly in animation techniques.
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Yoram Gross celebrated his 60th anniversary in the film industry in May 2007.