Laura Ziskin (b. 3 March 1950) is an American film producer.
Ziskind grew up in the San Fernando Valley in California. She is a 1973 graduate of the University of Southern California USC School of Cinematic Artsblank">http://cinema.usc.edu/alumni/alumni-history/. After graduation, Ziskin started out writing for game shows and then became the personal assistant of _Jon Peters. She quickly became a development executive, moving into feature films with Jon Peters' production company where she worked on the 1976 remake of A Star Is Born, starring Barbra Streisand. In 1978, she was the associate producer of The Eyes of Laura Mars.
Ziskin formed Fogwood Films with partner Sally Field in 1984, and produced Murphy's Romance. As an independent producer, she cast the relatively unknown actors Kevin Costner and Sean Young with veteran Gene Hackman and produced the hit thriller No Way Out for Orion Pictures. In 1988, she and partner Ian Sander produced two films featuring Dennis Quaid, the remake of D.O.A. and Taylor Hackford's Everybody's All-American.
Ziskin's biggest success to date came with the hit comedy Pretty Woman in 1990, starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, which Ziskin executive produced for Touchstone Pictures. The following year was a let-down for Ziskin and Touchstone alike, with What About Bob? and The Doctor failing to find audiences. A switch to Columbia resulted in Stephen Frears' Hero in 1992, a loose remake of 1941's Meet John Doe, for which Ziskin both produced and supplied the story. She directed her first short film in 1994, Oh, What a Day! 1914 and produced the Nicole Kidman tour-de-force To Die For in 1995, under the banner of Laura Ziskin Productions.
By the time that last film was in release she had been appointed president of Fox 2000, one of several off-shoots 20th Century Fox developed to speed up their production and distribution. Since the formation of Fox 2000, Ziskin rounded up an impressive number of directors and writers. Among those released were Edward Zwick's Gulf War drama Courage Under Fire and the romantic comedy One Fine Day and Pat O'Connor's Inventing the Abbotts and the big-budget disaster film Volcano.
In 1996, Fox 2000 also pooled resources with Fox Searchlight to distribute Anthony Minghella's acclaimed, award-winning The English Patient. Ziskin executive produced As Good as It Gets in 1997. The film received seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and three acting nods, and its stars, Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt, took home the leading role Oscars in the acting categories.
After nearly five years on the job, Ziskin resigned from Fox 2000 in November 1999 and within a month had a production deal at Columbia Pictures. After being tapped to serve as the first solo female producer of an Academy Awards telecast in 2002, she returned to the big screen with the highly anticipated feature version of Spider-Man. Thee film was released on May 3, 2002 to good reviews from critics, went on to break box office records, and became the highest grossing film of 2002. The success of the film led to two sequels, Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3.
Graduated from USC School of Cinema-Television (1973)
Started as a personal assistant for Jon Peters.
Sister-in-law of Herbert Sargent (I).
