Michael Armand Hammer

Michael Armand Hammer (September 8, 1955 – November 20, 2022) was an American businessman. He was the son of Julian Armand Hammer and the grandson of industrialist Armand Hammer. Best known for his ties to Occidental Petroleum, the company of his late grandfather, Hammer oversaw the Hammer International Foundation, the Armand Hammer Foundation, and owned numerous businesses that included Hammer Galleries, and Hammer Productions, a television and film production company located in Los Angeles, California. Hammer sat on the board of directors and the executive committee for the Los Angeles Dream Center, and also served on the Investment Committee and Board of Reference for Oral Roberts University. Hammer was the owner and chief executive of the Knoedler, an art dealership in New York City, which closed in 2011 after purchasing and reselling $80 million in forged paintings bearing the signature of abstract expressionists such as Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock. Early life Michael Armand Hammer was born on September 8, 1955, in Los Angeles, California. He is the son of Glenna Sue ( Ervin) and Julian Armand Hammer, has two siblings, sister Casey Hammer and half-sister Jan Ward, and has two children, actor Armie Hammer and Viktor, a businessman and entrepreneur. Viktor and Armie Hammer are the only great-grandsons of industrialist Armand Hammer. His paternal grandfather's parents were Ukrainian Jewish immigrants. His paternal grandmother, Russian-born actress Baroness Olga von Root, was the daughter of a czarist general. His mother was a native of Texas. Hammer studied at the University of San Diego, where he graduated with a degree in business administration in 1978. He later graduated from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business in 1982 with a Master of Business Administration degree.