Sherry Lansing Shares Her Stories

- Stephen Galloway

In early 2005, Sherry Lansing sent shock waves through Hollywood when she stepped down as chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures, bringing an end to one of the most storied careers in entertainment.

Her decision to leave Paramount at age 60 (after greenlighting such classics as Forrest Gump, Braveheart and Titanic) and create a nonprofit foundation was only the latest twist in Lansing’s rollercoaster life.

The Chicago native had gone from being an 8-year-old overwhelmed with guilt at her father’s death, to a teacher in South Central L.A., to an aspiring actress who landed a lead role opposite John Wayne in 1970’s Rio Lobo, to a young woman who hated acting so much it made her physically sick. Changing careers, she became a script reader at $5 an hour and rose to become the first female head of a studio when she was named president of 20th Century Fox in 1980.

She went on to become a major film producer (Indecent Proposal, The Accused) before running Paramount for 12 years.

Despite many offers, she has never told her remarkable story in a book — until now. Here, in an exclusive excerpt from his upcoming biography Leading Lady: Sherry Lansing and the Making of a Hollywood Groundbreaker, THR’s executive features editor Stephen Galloway picks up her story in 1983, just after Lansing had left Fox to produce.