History

Harold Greenberg was born in 1930 in downtown Montreal. He was the eldest of eight children, and left school at the age of 13 to work for his uncle. Young Harold soon transformed his uncle's clothing store into a camera shop.

Along with his brothers Ian, Harvey and Sidney, the Greenberg family business soon took off in 1967 when they acquired the exclusive rights to sell photo products at Expo 67, as well as Expo souvenir slides worldwide.

Their business soon grew to include several laboratories, a post-production centre, a sound studio and a film distribution company, Astral Communications. Harold was the President and CEO of Astral Communications until his death in 1996.

Throughout his career, he was involved with the development of over 100 feature films.  These included Maria Chapdelaine, one of the most important works in the history of Quebec cinema, and In Praise of Older Women, Robert Lantos' first production success.

Harold was well recognized by top American film moguls. His charismatic, larger-than-life personality was backed by his ability to produce incredibly successful films. Porky's (1981) is still one of the highest grossing Canadian films in international box offices.

Harold identified that there was a demand for well-written Canadian scripts, but not enough resources to fund them into production. So in April 1986, he established The FUND (Foundation to Underwrite New Drama). In 1996, upon his passing, it was renamed The Harold Greenberg Fund. The French-language program, Le Fonds Harold Greenberg, was also established.

Harold Greenberg was also a great philanthropist. For his achievement of outstanding merit and distinguished service, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Québec and Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur de France.

What started with a camera shop and a family's dream is now one of Canada's largest media companies. Today, Astral has 100 of the country's most popular pay and specialty television, radio, out-of-home advertising and digital media properties. Astral's 2,800 employees share Harold Greenberg's passion and vision for the Canadian media industry.