Lynda Obst, a pioneering film producer of such crowd-pleasers as Sleepless in Seattle and Adventures in Babysitting, has died. She was 74.
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Her son, producer Oly Obst, shared the news of her death with The Hollywood Reporter. He revealed that Obst passed away peacefully at her home in Los Angeles on Tuesday, October 22nd, surrounded by her loved ones.
“My mom was a trailblazer and a fierce advocate for women,” Oly told the outlet. “Also, she was an amazing mother, sister, and best friend. [My wife] Julie and I are incredibly grateful that she was my mom and that my daughters got to have her as a grandmother. We will miss her.”
Obst, an avid smoker for decades, revealed to The Hollywood Reporter earlier this year that she has been struggling with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease since 2018.
“I very much want people to know that you could be the one hit with the fickle finger of fate,” she warned then. “I want to be clear what the consequences of smoking are. It’s not the way you want to spend your retirement or your last 10, 20 or 30 years.”
She recently produced or executive produced TV series like The Hot Zone, Good Girls Revolt, and Hot in Cleveland. Meanwhile, her last feature film credit was on Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar in 2014. Some of her additional credits also include How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Hope Floats, and The Fisher King.
Lynda Obst Co-Founded One of the First All-Female Production Companies
In the 1980s, Obst relocated to Los Angeles with her then-husband when his employer sought to start a production company. Leveraging her publishing connections, she secured a job with producer Peter Guber in development. Focusing on building her network, her magazine ties helped her produce her first hit, Flashdance, written by Tom Hedley.
Obst then teamed with Halloween producer Debra Hill to create one of the first all-female production companies, Hill/Obst Prods, producing notable films like Adventures in Babysitting and The Fisher King. Later going solo, she produced hits including Sleepless in Seattle.
A former journalist, Obst authored two acclaimed books that delve into the film industry: Hello, He Lied & Other Tales From the Hollywood Trenches and Sleepless in Hollywood: Tales From the New Abnormal in the Movie Business.
She is survived by her son, Oly Obst, a manager and producer at 3 Arts; her brothers, Rick Rosen, a partner in television at talent agency WME, and Michael Rosen, a former television producer; as well as two grandchildren.