Julia Phillips

Julia Phillips (née Miller; April 7, 1944 – January 1, 2002) was an American film producer and author. She co-produced with her husband Michael (and others) three prominent films of the 1970s—The Sting, Taxi Driver, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind—and was the first female producer to win an Academy Award for Best Picture, received for The Sting.

In 1991, Phillips published an infamous tell-all memoir of her years as a Hollywood producer, titled You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again, which became a bestseller.

Early life Julia Miller was born on April 7, 1944 to a Polish-Jewish family in New York City, the daughter of Tanya and Adolph Miller.

Career Film In 1972, Phillips along with her husband Michael Phillips and producer Tony Bill commissioned David S. Ward to write the screenplay for The Sting, for $3,500. Phillips was also a notorious drug user (cocaine especially), which she chronicled in detail in her memoirs. The side-effects of cocaine addiction caused her to be fired from Close Encounters of the Third Kind during post-production. Periods of drug abuse, gratuitous spending and damaging boyfriends took their toll over the next few years.

Phillips's early work in a producing team with her husband continues to receive acclaim within the industry. Twenty-five years after its Oscar success, The Sting was inducted into the Producers Guild of America's Hall of Fame, granting each of its producers a Golden Laurel Award. In June 2007, Taxi Driver was ranked as the 52nd-best American feature film of all time by the American Film Institute. In December 2007, Close Encounters was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Publishing In 1991, Phillips published You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again about her experiences in Hollywood. The book topped the New York Times bestseller list, but its revelations about high-profile film personalities, Hollywood's drug culture, and casting couch sensibilities drew ire from many former colleagues. Her follow-up book, Driving Under the Affluence, was released in 1995. It was mostly an account of how the success of her first book changed her life. In 2000, she helped Matt Drudge write his Drudge Manifesto.

Death Phillips died from cancer at her home in West Hollywood, California, on January 1, 2002, at the age of 57, She had one daughter, Kate Phillips-Wiczyk, who is married to Modi Wiczyk, co-founder of independent film and television studio Media Rights Capital.

Filmography She was a producer in all films unless otherwise noted.

Film Year Film Credit Notes 1973 Steelyard Blues The Sting 1976 Taxi Driver The Big Bus Executive producer 1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1987 The Beat 1988 The Boost Executive producer 1991 Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead Final film as a producer

As an actress

Year Film Role Notes 1977 New York, New York Woman Flirting with Jimmy Uncredited Close Encounters of the Third Kind UFO Watcher at Crescendo Summit