Sherry Lansing

Sherry Lansing is an American film executive and former studio head who was born in Chicago and rose from script reader to the top of major studios. She began with a brief acting stint in 1970, appearing in Loving (1970) and Rio Lobo (1970), then took a job as MGM's head script reader. At Columbia Pictures she became vice president of production and oversaw The China Syndrome and Kramer vs. Kramer. In 1980 she became the first woman to serve as production president at a major studio, 20th Century Fox. Later, with Jaffe-Lansing Productions, she produced Fatal Attraction, which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, and The Accused. She chaired Paramount Pictures' Motion Picture Group from 1992 to 2004, a period that included Forrest Gump, Braveheart, Mission: Impossible and Titanic. She received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 2007 and was named chairman of the board of Universal Music Group in 2023.