Lynda Obst, a seasoned film producer whose work ranged from Oscar winners “Flashdance” and “Interstellar” to rom-com classics “Sleepless in Seattle” and “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” has died. She was 74.
Obst died Tuesday morning in Los Angeles, her son, producer-manager Oliver Obst, confirmed to The Times. A cause of death was not revealed. “She was one of a kind,” Oliver Obst said.
“My mom was a trailblazer and a fierce advocate for women. Also she was an amazing mother sister and best friend,” he added in a statement to The Times. “[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 deeply.”
Lynda Obst’s brother Rick Rosen, a top television agent with William Morris Endeavor, told The Times on Tuesday that his sister was a force of nature.
“We were so proud of her and what she was able to accomplish when it was so difficult for women in the film industry,” Rosen said. “She blazed a trail for women in the industry. She fought her way through.”
He added: “She was so passionate about her work and her art. But more than anything, family was most important. She was so proud of her son, Oly, and her granddaughters. Family was everything to her.”
Lynda Obst died months after she revealed to the Hollywood Reporter in February that she had been living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD, for years. “Spanish for ‘I f— up my lungs, ’” she joked to the magazine at the time, as she reflected on her storied career and detailed her various treatments.
“I’m past the point where there’s any official treatment, so I troll the edges and study everything. I’m a science geek, and now is a good time for that,” she told THR. “I’m going to have two more treatments and see if it helps. I believe in putting in the effort.”
Obst’s producing career can be traced back to the early ‘80s when she landed her first associate producer credit for Adrian Lyne‘s “Flashdance.” The film earned multiple Academy Award nominations and won the original song prize in 1984 for Irene Cara‘s infectious “Flashdance … What a Feeling.”
The following years had more Oscar winners and contenders in store for Obst, who would go on to produce the Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges-starrer “The Fisher King” and eventually help bring friend Nora Ephron‘s “This Is My Life” and “Sleepless in Seattle” to the screen.
Released in 1993, “Sleepless in Seattle” starred Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan as long-distance love interests and earned two Oscar nominations, for original screenplay and original song. While romantic comedies — also including “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” “Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging” and “One Fine Day” — were notable entries in Obst’s resumé, she also applied her skills to thrillers and sci-fi films including “Contact,” “The Siege” and most notably Christopher Nolan’s Oscar-winning “Interstellar,” released in 2014.
Obst, one of the most prominent female producers in Hollywood, explained to the Golden Globes in a 2022 interview why she thinks women make good producers.
“I think that women are extremely nurturing because we’re mothers,” she said, highlighting women’s independence, multi-tasking skills and compassion.
Lynda Rosen Obst was born April 14, 1950. She was raised in Harrison, N.Y., and graduated from Pomona College in Claremont, where she studied philosophy. She had also studied at Columbia University.
Before her pivot to producing, Obst had worked as a journalist, serving as an editor at the New York Times Magazine.
After moving to Los Angeles with her then-husband, Obst began her Hollywood career at Casablanca Records and FilmWorks, according to THR, where she tapped into her knowledge of the editorial world to amplify writers — including “Flashdance” co-writer Tom Hedley. She also worked with the Geffen Co. under David Geffen’s mentorship before beginning her solo producing career in the late ‘80s, her website said.
Obst’s film credits also include “Adventures in Babysitting,” “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Hope Floats” and “Someone Like You.” In recent years, she served as an executive producer on TV series including “Helix,” “Hot in Cleveland,” “Good Girls Revolt” and “The Hot Zone.”
Also an Emmy-nominated producer, she channeled her experiences in Hollywood in the books “Hello, He Lied” and “Sleepless in Hollywood.”
Months before her death amid her COPD battle, Obst said “being creative gives me energy.”
She told THR: “I would be bored out of my wits if I didn’t work, and I’m still doing good work.”
Times staff writer Meg James contributed to this report.