Dawn Leslie Steel (August 19, 1946 – December 20, 1997) was an American film studio executive and producer. She was one of the first women to run a major
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood, ...
film studio,
rising through the ranks of merchandising and production to head
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...
in 1987.
Early life
Steel was born to a
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
family in
the Bronx, New York to Nathan "Nat" Steel (né Spielberg), a zipper salesman to the military and semi-professional weight lifter called the "Man of Steel,"
and Lillian Steel (née Tarlow), a businesswoman.
Lillian Tarlo Steel, Dawn's mother, died from lung cancer at age 55. She was the daughter of Nathan and Rebecca Tarlo, Polish immigrants. She had two brothers named Abraham and Paul. Their name became spelled T-A-R-L-O-W when Abraham joined the US military during World War I. Paul and Abraham's children reside in NYC and Georgia, while Lillian's children live in California.
Dawn grew up in Manhattan and in
Great Neck, New York,
according to her autobiography. She had one sibling, a brother, Larry Steel.
Both of her parents were of
Russian-Jewish
The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest pop ...
descent. When she was nine years old, Steel's father suffered a nervous breakdown, so her mother was the family's sole support.
Steel attended the School of Business Administration at
Boston University
Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...
from 1964 to 1965, but left due to financial problems.
She attended
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
from 1966 to 1967, studying marketing, but did not graduate.
Career
In 1968, Steel worked as a sportswriter for ''Major League Baseball Digest'' and the NFL in New York.
In 1968, after starting out as a secretary, Steel became merchandising director for
''Penthouse''.
In 1975, she founded a merchandising company that produced novelty items such as designer logo toilet paper called Oh Dawn! Inc.
One of the products she created was Gucci-logo embellished toilet paper. Within months the Gucci family sued Steel for trademark infringement.
Steel hired attorney
Sid Davidoff
Sidney Davidoff (born July 18, 1939) is an American lawyer who was one of 20 people on Nixon's Enemies List.
Life and career
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Davidoff graduated with a bachelor's degree from City College of New York in 1960 and earn ...
, a former top aide to Mayor
John Lindsay.
The case was in the news as "toilet paper caper" and was the subject of an editorial cartoon.
The case was settled out of court.
In 1978, Steel moved to Los Angeles, working as a merchandising consultant for ''
Playboy
''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother.
K ...
.''
Paramount Pictures
In 1978, Steel sold her interest in the Oh Dawn! merchandising business to her ex-husband and asked Davidoff to place a call to Hollywood. Davidoff made an introduction to Richard Weston, who ran
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
' merchandising unit.
In 1978, Steel joined Paramount Pictures as Director of Merchandising and Licensing, where she planned marketing tie-ins for ''
Star Trek: The Motion Picture.'' She was promoted to vice president, and then vice president of production in 1980, senior vice president of production in 1983. She was a protégé of
Barry Diller, the CEO of Paramount at the time.
While at Paramount, Steel's support for ''
Flashdance'' (1983) and the movie's massive success, helped secure her the position of president of production for the studio in 1985. She also oversaw ''
Top Gun
''Top Gun'' is a 1986 American action drama film directed by Tony Scott, produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, with distribution by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay was written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr., and was inspired by an a ...
'' (1986), ''
Fatal Attraction
''Fatal Attraction'' is a 1987 American psychological thriller film directed by Adrian Lyne from a screenplay by James Dearden, based on his 1980 short film '' Diversion''. Starring Michael Douglas, Glenn Close, and Anne Archer, the film centers ...
'' (1987), and ''
The Accused'' (1988), among others.
Steel was the second woman to head a major film production department (the first being
Sherry Lansing at
Twentieth-Century Fox and the third being
Nina Jacobson
Nina Jacobson (born September 15, 1965) is an American film executive who, until July 2006, was president of the Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. With Dawn Steel, Gail Berman and Sherry Lansing, she was ...
at Buena Vista).
Columbia Pictures
Steel became president of
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...
in 1987.
She was the first woman studio head. The first film she approved as president was ''
Casualties of War
''Casualties of War'' is a 1989 American war drama film directed by Brian De Palma and written by David Rabe, based primarily on an article written by Daniel Lang for ''The New Yorker'' in 1969, which was later published as a book. The film star ...
'';
Pauline Kael said that "whatever else
teeldoes, she should be honored for that decision, because twenty years later this is still risky material."
["A Wounded Apparition" by Pauline Kael. ''The New Yorker''. August 21, 1989. As reprinted in ''The Age of Movies''.] Under her tenure the studio also released ''
When Harry Met Sally...'' which had been developed and produced independently by
Castle Rock productions. Steel's brief two-year tenure was marked by continued turmoil and losses, continuing a string of bad news begun under
David Puttnam
David Terence Puttnam, Baron Puttnam, CBE, HonFRSA, HonFRPS, MRIA (born 25 February 1941) is a British film producer, educator, environmentalist and former member of the House of Lords. His productions include ''Chariots of Fire'', which wo ...
before her appointment. She was asked to leave the studio in 1989 and shortly thereafter Coca-Cola spun off the studio and exited the movie business; Columbia was thereafter sold to Sony Corporation of Japan. She resigned from this position on January 8, 1990.
Independent producing
Steel Pictures
In 1990, Steel formed Steel Pictures in a production deal at
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
. She left Disney in 1993 after making two films, 1993's ''
Cool Runnings
''Cool Runnings'' is a 1993 American sports film directed by Jon Turteltaub and starring Leon Robinson, Doug E. Doug, Malik Yoba, and John Candy. It is loosely based on the true story of the Jamaica national bobsleigh team's debut in competition ...
,'' a comedy about the Jamaican bobsled team, and ''
Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit.'' ''Cool Runnings'' was her first Disney film as a producer.
Atlas Entertainment
In 1994, Steel formed
Atlas Entertainment with husband
Charles Roven
Charles Roven (born August 2, 1949) is an American film producer and the president and co-founder of Atlas Entertainment. He is known for producing the superhero films ''The Dark Knight Trilogy'', ''Suicide Squad'', '' Man of Steel'', '' Batman ...
and
Bob Cavallo
Bob Cavallo is an American entertainment manager, producer, and business owner. Cavallo worked for Walt Disney Studios from 1998 through 2011, during which time he reorganized the company's recorded music, music publishing and concert operations ...
. They had a three-year first look deal with
Turner Pictures. Her final two films before her death from cancer were ''
Fallen'' and ''
City of Angels.''
Memoir
In 1993, she wrote a memoir, ''They Can Kill You But They Can't Eat You,'' which described her time at Columbia.
In the book Steel describes finding out – after giving birth to her daughter – that she was fired as President of Production at Paramount.
Legacy
In her obituary for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'',
Nora Ephron said:
Dawn certainly wasn't the first woman to become powerful in Hollywood, but she was the first woman to understand that part of her responsibility was to make sure that eventually there were many other powerful women. She hired women as executives, women as producers and directors, women as marketing people. The situation we have today, with a huge number of women in powerful positions, is largely because of Dawn Steel.
Steel's career at Paramount as Chief of Production was referenced in the
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
series
''Entourage'', in the Season Three (2006) episode "What About Bob?", when fictional producer Bob Ryan asks Ari Gold whether Dawn Steel would still be working there, to which Ari replies: "Bob, Dawn Steel died nine years ago."
Awards
In 1989, Steel was awarded the
Women in Film Crystal Award
The Women in Film Crystal + Lucy Awards—first presented in 1977 by the now–Los Angeles chapter of the Women in Film organization—were presented to honor women in communications and media. The awards include the Crystal Award, the Lucy Awar ...
for outstanding women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry.
Personal life
Steel's father changed the family surname from "Spielberg" before her birth. The name Steel was chosen to reflect her father's weightlifting career.
In 1975, Steel married Ronnie Rothstein, a former business partner in the Oh Dawn! merchandising company. She dated young struggling actor
Richard Gere in 1975 and director
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominatio ...
(after his divorce from
Isabella Rossellini) in 1983.
In 1985, she married film producer
Charles Roven
Charles Roven (born August 2, 1949) is an American film producer and the president and co-founder of Atlas Entertainment. He is known for producing the superhero films ''The Dark Knight Trilogy'', ''Suicide Squad'', '' Man of Steel'', '' Batman ...
with whom she had a daughter, Rebecca Steel Roven, in 1987.
Death
In April 1996, at age 49, Steel was diagnosed with
brain cancer
A brain tumor occurs when abnormal cells form within the brain. There are two main types of tumors: malignant tumors and benign (non-cancerous) tumors. These can be further classified as primary tumors, which start within the brain, and secondar ...
and ultimately died on December 20, 1997,
after a 20-month battle against the disease. Her film ''
City of Angels'' was dedicated to her memory.
Filmography
She was a producer in all films unless otherwise noted.
Film
Television
Works and publications
* Steel, Dawn. ''They Can Kill You but They Can't Eat You: Lessons from the Front.'' New York: Pocket Books, 1993.
* Steel, Dawn. ''They Can Kill You but They Can't Eat You.'' New York: Simon & Schuster AudioWorks, 1993. Audio book read by the author (cassette format). .
See also
*
Film producers
A film producer is a person who oversees film production. Either employed by a production company or working independently, producers plan and coordinate various aspects of film production, such as selecting the script, coordinating writing, dir ...
*
List of notable brain tumor patients
A brain tumor is an abnormal growth of cells within the brain or inside the skull, and can be cancerous (malignant) or non-cancerous (benign). Just over half of all primary brain tumors are malignant; the rest are benign, though they may still be ...
References
External links
*
Dawn Steelat
Find a Grave
Find a Grave is a website that allows the public to search and add to an online database of cemetery records. It is owned by Ancestry.com. Its stated mission is "to help people from all over the world work together to find, record and present fin ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Steel, Dawn
American film studio executives
Film producers from New York (state)
American media executives
20th-century American memoirists
American women in film
1946 births
1997 deaths
Deaths from brain cancer in the United States
People from Manhattan
People from Great Neck, New York
Deaths from cancer in California
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
20th-century American businesspeople
Paramount Pictures executives
American women film producers
Burials at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery
American women memoirists
People from the Bronx
20th-century American businesswomen
Presidents of Columbia Pictures