Laura Ziskin

Laura Ellen Ziskin (March 3, 1950 – June 12, 2011) was an American film producer. She was an executive producer of Pretty Woman and a producer of Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 2 (2004), Spider-Man 3 (2007), and The Amazing Spider-Man (2012; posthumous credit).

She was the first woman to produce the Academy Awards telecast alone, producing the 74th Academy Awards (2002) and the 79th Academy Awards (2007).

Early life and education Ziskin was born and raised in a Russian-Jewish family in the San Fernando Valley, California, the daughter of Jay Ziskin and Elaine Edelman. Her father was a psychologist and lawyer who died of prostate cancer, aged 77, on June 14, 1997.

After graduating from the USC School of Cinematic Arts in 1973, As an independent producer, Ziskin produced the thriller No Way Out (1987) for Orion Pictures. Ziskin and partner Ian Sander produced two films featuring Dennis Quaid, the 1988 remake of D.O.A., and Taylor Hackford's Everybody's All-American (also 1988).

Touchstone Pictures Ziskin's largest success came with the release of the comedy Pretty Woman (1990), starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, on which Ziskin served as executive producer for Touchstone Pictures. Ziskin's next project, What About Bob? (1991), proved stressful. She and star Bill Murray had spirited disagreements during production, which involved Murray pushing her into a lake and breaking her sunglasses. During the time, she left Disney in 1990 to join The Guber-Peters Entertainment Company, an affiliate of Columbia Pictures, as Ziskin was a longtime close friend of Jon Peters.

Neither that film nor The Doctor (also 1991) were anywhere near as strong at the box-office as Pretty Woman. A switch to Columbia resulted in Stephen Frears' Hero (1992), a loose remake of Meet John Doe (1941), for which Ziskin both produced and supplied the story. Ziskin directed her first short film Oh, What a Day! 1914, which was released in 1994, and produced the Nicole Kidman tour-de-force To Die For (1995), under the banner of Laura Ziskin Productions.

Fox 2000 Ziskin was appointed president of Fox 2000 in 1994, a newly created division of 20th Century Fox.

Among the films released were Edward Zwick's Gulf War drama Courage Under Fire (1996), the romantic comedy One Fine Day (1996), Pat O'Connor's Inventing the Abbotts (1997), and the big-budget disaster film Volcano (1997). Ziskin and Tom Rothman helped develop the script for The English Patient (1996) before studio head Bill Mechanic returned the rights to director Anthony Minghella, who then got it produced and distributed through Miramax Films.

Ziskin executive produced As Good as It Gets (1997). The film received seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. Its stars, Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt, received the leading role Oscars in the acting categories.

Columbia Pictures After nearly five years in the same job, Ziskin resigned from Fox 2000 in November 1999 and within a month had a production deal at Columbia Pictures.

After serving as the first solo female producer of an Academy Awards telecast in 2002, Ziskin returned to the big screen with the feature version of Spider-Man (2002). The film was released in early May to widespread acclaim from critics and became the highest-grossing film of its year. The success of the film led to two sequels, Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Spider-Man 3 (2007).

In 2002, Ziskin was awarded the Crystal Award by Women in Film for her efforts at expanding the role of women in the entertainment industry.

Activism In February 2004, Ziskin was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer, a disease doctors had repeatedly missed previously because of the diffuse type of cancer she had.

On May 28, 2008, Ziskin, along with Katie Couric, Sherry Lansing, the Entertainment Industry Foundation, the Noreen Fraser Foundation, and Ellen Ziffren, created the charitable organization Stand Up to Cancer.

Personal life When she was about 27, Ziskin married writer Julian Barry, relocating to Connecticut to help him raise his three children from a previous marriage. The couple later had a daughter, Julia Barry. Ziskin was married to writer Alvin Sargent from 2010 until her death in 2011 from complications of breast cancer. Her final films were the franchise reboot, The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) and The Butler (2013). She died a few weeks after principal filming ended on The Amazing Spider-Man but three weeks before filming began on The Butler.

In 2012, the Athena Film Festival created an award to be given in her honor: The Laura Ziskin Lifetime Achievement Award is given annually to a woman in the film industry whose leadership demonstrates vision and courage and sets a standard for other women to emulate.

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

Film Year Film Credit Notes 1978 Eyes of Laura Mars Associate producer 1985 Murphy's Romance 1987 No Way Out 1988 D.O.A. The Rescue Everybody's All-American 1990 Pretty Woman Executive producer 1991 What About Bob? The Doctor 1992 Hero 1995 To Die For 1997 As Good as It Gets Executive producer 2002 Spider-Man 2004 Spider-Man 2 2005 Stealth 2007 Spider-Man 3 2012 The Amazing Spider-Man Posthumous credit 2013 The Butler Posthumous credit

As writer

Year Film 1991 What About Bob? 1992 Hero

Miscellaneous crew

Year Film Role 1976 A Star Is Born Assistant: Jon Peters

Thanks

Year Film Role 2008 Killshot Thanks 2012 Lay the Favorite For The Amazing Spider-Man In memory of 2013 The Butler 2016 Creedmoria Special thanks

Television Year Title Credit Notes 1983 One Cooks, the Other Doesn't Television film 2000 Fail Safe Television film 2001 Dinner with Friends Executive producer Television film How I Learned to Drive Television film 2002 74th Academy Awards Executive producer Television special 2003 Tarzan Executive producer 2007 79th Academy Awards Executive producer Television special 2008−10 Stand Up to Cancer Executive producer Television special 2015 Cancer Executive producer Documentary

As writer

Year Title Notes 2008 Stand Up to Cancer Television special

Miscellaneous crew

Year Title Role Notes 1977 Minstrel Man Assistant to the producers Television film