An Evening with Sherry Lansing Hollywood's First Female Studio Head
November 10, 2017
Dodge College invites you to An Evening with Sherry Lansing on Wednesday, November 29 at 7 p.m. in Folino Theater, located inside Marion Knott Studios (283 N. Cypress Street, Orange). During almost 30 years in the motion picture business, Sherry Lansing was involved in the production, marketing, and distribution of more than 200 films, including Academy Award winners Forrest Gump (1994), Braveheart (1995), and Titanic (1997). Throughout her film career, Lansing earned a reputation as a trailblazer, a visionary leader, and a creative filmmaker. In 1980, she became the first woman to head a major film studio when she was appointed President of 20th Century Fox.
Joining Lansing for the Q&A is Stephen Galloway, Emmy Award-winning journalist and author of her biography Leading Lady: Sherry Lansing and the Making of a Hollywood Groundbreaker. Professor Harry Ufland will moderate.
This event is free and open to the public. Seating is first come.
More about Lansing
As an independent producer, Lansing was responsible for such successful films as Fatal Attraction, The Accused, School Ties, Indecent Proposal, and Black Rain. Returning to the executive ranks in 1992, she was named Chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures and began an unprecedented tenure that lasted more than 12 years (1992 – 2005), during which the studio enjoyed enormous creative and financial success.
The Sherry Lansing Foundation (SLF), a nonprofit organization dedicated to cancer research, health, public education, and encore career opportunities, was formed in 2005. Among the SLF’s initiatives is the EnCorps STEM Teachers Program, founded by Lansing to transition corporate professionals and military veterans into top quality California public school math and science teachers. Lansing is also a co-founder of the Stand Up To Cancer initiative, which funds collaborative, multi-institutional cancer research “Dream Teams.”
In addition to serving on the University of California Board of Regents, Lansing is a trustee of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Los Angeles, where she co-founded the Scholarship Fund for deserving “Littles Sisters and Brothers.” In December 2004, Lansing was appointed to the Independent Citizens’ Oversight Committee of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine; she serves as the Cancer Patient Advocate, as well as Chair of the Governance Subcommittee and Co-Chair of the Scientific and Medical Accountability Standards Working Group.
Lansing additionally serves on the boards of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the Broad Center, the Carter Center, the Entertainment Industry Foundation, the W.M. Keck Foundation, the Lasker Foundation, and the Pacific Council on International Policy. She is also Honorary Chair of STOP CANCER, a nonprofit philanthropic organization, which she founded in partnership with the late Dr. Armand Hammer.
Lansing graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science Degree from Northwestern University in 1966.
About Galloway
Stephen Galloway is an Emmy Award-winning journalist who serves as the executive features editor for The Hollywood Reporter. Among his honors, he was named 2013 journalist of the year at the National Entertainment Journalism Awards.
He is the author of the biography Leading Lady: Sherry Lansing and the Making of a Hollywood Groundbreaker, out April 25, 2017.
He has interviewed a who’s who of Hollywood including Steven Spielberg, Denzel Washington, Sean Penn, Brad Pitt and George Clooney. He also created the Reporter’s acclaimed roundtable series, featuring the likes of Peter Jackson, Quentin Tarantino, James Cameron, Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman.
In 2014, he was named the Cosgrove Visiting Artist at Loyola Marymount University, where he now hosts the interview series The Hollywood Masters, which has featured filmmakers such as Clint Eastwood and Sean Penn.
In 2009, he joined forces with Big Brothers Big Sisters to create the Women in Entertainment Mentorship Program. Each year, the program takes between 15 and 20 high school juniors from disadvantaged backgrounds and pairs them with some of the top women in film and TV. More than 120 girls have taken part in the program, and gone on to four-year colleges, supported by more than $4 million in scholarship money that Galloway has helped raise.
Born in the United Kingdom, he holds an M.A. from Cambridge University and is a graduate of the American Film Institute’s Center for Advanced Film Studies. He came to the U.S. on a Harkness Fellowship.