Sherry Lansing

Sherry Lansing (born July 31, 1944, in Chicago as Sherry Lee Duhl) started as an actress and later became VP of production at Columbia Pictures. This led to an appointment with 20th Century Fox and, in 1980, at age 35, she became the first female production president of a major studio. She resigned in December 1982 and became a partner with Stanley Jaffe in Jaffe-Lansing Productions, based at Paramount Pictures. The company released a consistent string of minor hits through Paramount before achieving box-office success with Fatal Attraction (1987). From 1992 to 2004, she was chairman of Paramount Pictures.