Leading Lady
Sherry Lansing and the Making of a Hollywood Groundbreaker
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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Publisher Description
The definitive biography of movie executive and philanthropist Sherry Lansing traces her groundbreaking journey to become the first female head of a major motion picture studio, sharing behind-the-scenes tales from movie sets and Hollywood boardrooms.
When Sherry Lansing became the first woman ever to be named president of a major studio, the news ricocheted around the world. That was just the beginning of an extraordinary run that saw her head two studios, make hundreds of films, produce classic pictures such as Fatal Attraction and rule for twenty-five years as the most powerful woman Hollywood has ever known.
Award-winning writer Stephen Galloway takes us behind the scenes of Lansing's epic journey—inside the battles; up close with the stars; and into the heart of a creative world populated by the likes of Meryl Streep, Steven Spielberg, Jane Fonda, Angelina Jolie and Tom Cruise. He shows us the velvet touch that masked the iron hand, and the roller-coaster drama behind such movies as Titanic, Forrest Gump, Braveheart and Saving Private Ryan.
Above all, he takes us into the mind of Lansing, creating a revealing portrait of a dynamic, driven woman who overcame unimaginable odds, pushed boundaries and left Hollywood at the peak of her power to achieve the life she wanted.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Galloway, executive features editor for the Hollywood Reporter, provides a fascinating look at Sherry Lansing, whose appointment as head of 20th Century Fox in 1980 made her the first female president of a major Hollywood studio. He follows Lansing from her Chicago childhood, explaining how her father's death and mother's resourcefulness influenced her strengths and insecurities. A gawky teenager, she gained from moviegoing a desire to "reinvent herself" and as a young woman moved to California to follow her acting dreams. Although this first career didn't last long, she found a mentor in producer Ray Wagner, who hired her as a script reader, a move that transformed her life. Galloway captures the personal drive that allowed Lansing to forge a path through sexist Hollywood and shepherd films such as Kramer vs. Kramer, Forrest Gump, and Saving Private Ryan past creative obstacles to eventual success. He also shows how she personally left her mark on many films, such as by helping to craft Fatal Attraction's revised, crowd-pleasing finale. As the book concludes, having worked her way up the corporate ladder, Lansing realized she wanted more out of life, and by 2005 left Hollywood behind to start a cancer research foundation. Galloway has created a colorful page-turner chronicling Lansing's legacy as both a filmmaker and a philanthropist.
