Sherry Lansing (born July 31, 1944) is an American former actress and film studio executive. She is a former CEO of Paramount Pictures, and when she was the president of production at 20th Century Fox, she was the first woman to head a Hollywood studio. In 1996, she became the first woman to be named Pioneer of the Year by the Foundation of the Motion Picture Pioneers, and she was the first woman studio head to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2005, she became the first woman studio head to place hand and foot prints at the Grauman's Chinese Theater. In 2001, she was named one of the 30 most powerful women in America by Ladies' Home Journal, and The Hollywood Reporter named her fourth on its Power 100 list in 2003.
William Friedkin (m. 1991), Michael L. Brownstein (m. 1967–1970)
Parents
David Duhl, Margot Heimann
Awards
Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award
Star Sign
Leo
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Quote
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[In a 1989 interview] People see a big period piece and costumes and say, "Oh, my God!" They see Wall Street (1987) and don't realize how difficult it is to make Gordon Gekko look like Gordon Gekko.
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[In a 1984 interview] To anyone, providing they had a passion for it. It's very tough to get a movie made, and you better really love what you're doing, or you'll fall by the wayside. But if you love what you're doing, it is the most thrilling and satisfying profession in the world.
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[In a 1984 "Films in Review" interview] Once you run a studio, you find that as much as you enjoy it, you're getting farther and farther away from making movies. You're involved in a lot of administrative meetings, a lot of decisions about office space and parking lots, meetings with bankers and cash flow and five year plans, which is all stimulating, but you're not on the set that much, and you're two steps removed from movie making. It's the producers who are making the movie, and you're going to see the final cut. And if you go into this business because you loved making movies, the natural evolution of many presidents of film divisions is to form their own company, which means going back to movie making. It was really very orderly. I never leaped from story editor to production VP. It wasn't unusual: I worked and got promoted to the next step, and then worked some more, and got promoted to the next step
She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on July 31, 1996.
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Received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the 79th Academy Awards on December 16, 2006.
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In "Hollywood Animal: A Memoir", Joe Eszterhas claims that Sherry Lansing, the boss of Paramount Pictures, asked him to issue a statement that he supported Paramount's hiring of William Friedkin as director for his Jade (1995) script. Friedkin was Lansing's husband, and she wanted protection from charges of nepotism. He issued the statement. In truth, Eszterhas did not want the former Oscar-winner, whom he considered a washed-up has-been, to direct the picture, but deferred to Lansing's wishes.
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Is a member of the Regents of the University of California. She was appointed in March 1999 to a term expiring in March 2010.
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Received her Bachelor of Science degree from Northwestern University (1966). Was a member of the Sigma Delta Tau Sorority.
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Attended and graduated from the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools (1962).
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Became chairperson of Paramount Pictures in 1992. Stepped down as chief executive officer in 2005.
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Became the first woman to head a major studio when she took control of 20th Century Fox in 1980.
$14 Million
