Kathleen Kennedy (born June 5, 1953) is a six-time
Academy Award nominated American movie
industry executive. She has worked as
producer on many films, especially with
Steven Spielberg and her husband
Frank Marshall. She
is well known for producing the
Jurassic Park films and
E.T. the
Extra-Terrestrial. As of 2008, Kennedy is the most
successful film producer of all time in terms of domestic box
office receipts with totals at just over $5 billion.
Early life
Kennedy
was born in Berkeley,
California
, the daughter of Dione Marie "Dede" (née Dousseau),
a one-time theater actress, and Donald R. Kennedy, a judge
and attorney.
In 1972, Kennedy graduated from Shasta High School in Redding
, California
. She decided to continue her education at
San Diego State
University
where she graduated, majoring in telecommunications
and film. In her final year, Kennedy got a job at a
local San
Diego
TV station, KCST, taking on various roles and posts
including camera operator, video editor, floor
director and finally KCST news production coordinator.
After her
employment with KCST, she then went on to produce a local talk show for the station entitled You're
On for four years before moving to Los Angeles
. In Los Angeles, Kennedy secured her first
film production job working with
John
Milius who at the time was making Spielberg's
1941 (1979). The credits list her as a
production assistant.
Film producer
During the production of
1941, while working for
screenwriter
John Milius, Kennedy came
to the attention of Steven Spielberg. Spielberg hired Kennedy as
his
secretary but it is reported by the
two that she was a terrible typist who was only kept on because of
her good production ideas. Kennedy went on to co-produce
Spielberg's project of
Tobe Hooper's
Poltergeist (1982) and
received her first full producer's credit on the box office smash,
E.T. the
Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Following her work on the
Indiana Jones films
especially
Raiders of the
Lost Ark, she rose to become one of Hollywood's leading
producers. Although working on a variety of projects she continued
her business relationship with Spielberg and became
executive producer for both the
blockbusters of
Jurassic
Park and the historically dramatic
Schindler's List. She went on to
collaborate with a large and important group of filmmakers
including
Martin Scorsese,
Robert Zemeckis,
Barry Levinson and
Clint Eastwood.
In 1981 she helped co-found and run the hugely successful
production company,
Amblin
Entertainment, with
Steven
Spielberg and her husband Frank Marshall. Kennedy took over a
large portion of the running of Amblin and served as president of
the Amblin company until 1992 when she decided to form her own film
company with her husband. She became and still is a partner with
Frank Marshall in
The Kennedy/Marshall
Company, a Santa Monica based film production company with a
deal at
Universal Pictures. She
is also a Governor on the Board of the
Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences. In 2005 she was executive producer
on two of Spielberg's latest films -
War of the Worlds and
Munich.
Marshall and Kennedy were announced by
Studio Ghibli producer
Toshio Suzuki as the producers for
the US version of Ghibli's next animated feature,
Ponyo on the Cliff by the
Sea.
Filmography
References
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