Yoram Kahana Dies: Longtime HFPA Member Was 82

Yoram Kahana, an Israeli journalist long associated with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, died peacefully in Los Angeles on June 15. He was 82.

The Golden Globes organizer reported Kahana’s passing on their website, publishing an obit penned by his daughter, Tal.

“Yoram’s wit, intelligence, culture, and humor will be irreplaceable at the HFPA,” a spokesperson for the organization wrote, in the heading. “We will always remember him with love.”

Born in Tel Aviv on January 1, 1939, Kahana joined the HFPA in 1963, holding numerous positions on the org’s Board and in the Association, over the last seven decades. Regularly covering the Golden Globes from the red carpet, he was said to have “remained committed,” through his final days, to steering the embattled Association towards reform.

Kahana’s career in media began to take off during his time as a student at UCLA during the early 1960s. There, he met his partner Peggy, who he married in 1962. While at UCLA, the pair began making educational films and film strips, through their company Kahana Film Productions, which went on to win numerous awards.

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After graduating from UCLA with Master’s degrees in Film and Journalism, Kahana chronicled major historical and cultural events of the 1960s, while working as a photographer for the Los Angeles Free Press. Later, he would shoot celebrity portraits for the international photo agency, Shooting Star International.

In addition to the HFPA, Kahana was a longtime member of the Society of American Travel Writers, whose award-winning travel photography was published worldwide.

Kahana is remembered, as well, for his advocacy on behalf of charities, including the LA Conservancy, Pablove, Doctors without Borders, the ACLU, and Arab-Israeli Peace.

His family requests, in lieu of flowers, that donations be made to the above organizations in his memory.

Kahana is survived by his wife Peggy, daughters Tal and Paz, as well as his grandchildren, Jacob, Goldie, Ben, Nathan, and Noa.

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