Sidney Kimmel was born in 1928 and grew up in Philadelphia. In the 1970s Kimmel ran the apparel division of W.R. Grace & Company, the time when the firm began to diversify into the fashion industry. Kimmel bought the business with partner Gerard Rubin in 1975.
Kimmel orchestrated a fast expansion of Jones Apparel Group by creating new labels and licensing other labels including Christian Dior, Evan-Picone and Ralph Lauren.
Kimmel is also a film producer, bringing out well-known and successful pictures including the Kite Runner and Death at a Funeral. In 2010 Kimmel was listed in the Forbes list of the world’s richest living people as number 655. He is also an active philanthropist, putting much of his resources into cancer research. Kimmel recently donate $25 million to the organization Stand Up to Cancer and is a major supporter of hospital research at Johns Hopkins Hospital and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital where two research centers carry his name: the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Kimmel Cancer Center.
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