Lynda Obst, the movie producer behind “Sleepless in Seattle,” “Flashdance,” and “Adventures in Babysitting,” passed on Tuesday in Los Angeles. She was 74.
“I was so proud of her. She successfully paved her ways in the profession when few ladies could endure being in the limelight of profession. Her brother, Rick Rosen of WME, said the same to Variety that the actress cherished her family way more than the career.
In the interview she gave the Hollywood Reporter earlier this year, Obst revealed that she has COPD.
I just finished or currently working on The Hot Zone, Good Girls Revolt, Hot in Cleveland, Helix. Obst’s final feature production was the 2014 Christopher Nolan space opera sci-fi film “Interstellar”. The other films that she featured in include How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Hope Floats, Bad Girls and Fisher King.
Obst was the editor of the New York Times Magazine and had a documentary – “The Sixties” which was turned into a mini series. After moving to Los Angeles she was employed by Casablanca Records and FilmWorks headed by Peter Guber; she then scripted Flashdance her first production.
This was from Dawn Steele of Paramount who encouraged her to audition for Debra Hill of one of the first all-female production companies for chosen projects such as “Adventures in Babysitting,” “Heartbreak Hotel,” and “The Fisher King.”
Having had a first encounter with Nora Ephron years earlier through Obst’s husband, David Obst, a literary agent, she directed her first picture This Is My Life. She was the executive producer of “Sleepless in Seattle” and the producer or executive producer of “One Fine Day,” “Contact” directed by Robert Zemeckis, “Hope Floats,” “The Siege,” and ““How to Seducing a Man in 10 Days”.
She was developing “K-Pop: Axis of Eva, “Lost and Found: Surviving as an American in Iraq,” “The Girl with Brickwalls,” The Heart biography series on a best-selling young adult author (John Green), Sally Ride the first American woman astronaut.
Obst received Women in Film organization’s recognition in 2016 for paving a way to success for women producers.
Obst published two popular industry books, “Hello, He Lied & Other Tales From the Hollywood Trenches” and “Sleepless in Hollywood: The Gathered Tales From the New Abnormal in the Movie Business.” He was a former journalist
The Blondes: Obst worked on New York Magazine Oscar columns with David Edelstein.
