Leslie Dixon is an American screenwriter and film producer. She began her career as an original screenwriter, writing films such as 1987's '' Outrageous Fortune'' and '' Overboard''. She then moved into adaptations and re-writes, developing the screenplays for: ''

Mrs. Doubtfire ''Mrs. Doubtfire'' is a 1993 American comedy-drama film directed by Chris Columbus. It was written for the screen by Randi Mayem Singer and Leslie Dixon, based on the 1987 novel ''Alias Madame Doubtfire'' by Anne Fine. Robin Williams, who also s ...

'', '' The Thomas Crown Affair'', ''

Pay It Forward Pay it forward is an expression for describing the beneficiary of a good deed repaying the kindness to others instead of to the original benefactor. The concept is old, but the particular phrase may have been coined by Lily Hardy Hammond in her 1 ...

'', and ''

Hairspray Hairspray may refer to: * Hair spray, a personal grooming product that keeps hair protected from humidity and wind * ''Hairspray'' (1988 film), a film by John Waters ** ''Hairspray'' (1988 soundtrack), the film's soundtrack album ** ''Hairspray ...

''. She has also produced a variety of films, and the television series '' Limitless''.

Biography

Early life

Leslie Dixon is the granddaughter of photographer

Dorothea Lange Dorothea Lange (born Dorothea Margaretta Nutzhorn; May 26, 1895 – October 11, 1965) was an American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Great Depression, Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administratio ...

and landscaper painter

Maynard Dixon Maynard Dixon (January 24, 1875 – November 11, 1946) was an American artist. He was known for his paintings, and his body of work focused on the American West. Dixon is considered one of the finest artists having dedicated most of their art o ...

.McCreadie, Marsha. Women Screenwriters Today: Their Lives and Words. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2006. 44-47. Print. Dixon grew up in the California Bay Area.Leslie Dixon and Tom Ropelewski List Beverly Hills House for $8.995 Million (Exclusive)
''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...

'', 6/12/2014Nelmes, Jill, and Jule Selbo. Women Screenwriters: An International Guide. N.p.: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. 778-79. Print. At the age of 18, she was living alone in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

without enough money to afford college. Once she realized that she wanted to pursue writing, she moved to Hollywood at the age of 26 with hopes of making her way into the film industry. Having no contacts within the industry, she began by working office jobs for several years and eventually landed a job as a script reader. During her time as a script reader, she studied the scripts she was reading. She learned the structure of scripts, their layout on the page, the elements that were needed in order to make a script appealing and successful, and she recognized the types of scripts that gained the most attention from producers. This gave her insight into "what was and wasn’t being bought". After a year of living in Hollywood, she wrote her first screenplay (written with an unknown co-writer).Smith, S. 2011. ‘Leslie Dixon’s First Script Sale’. Available at: http://screenwritingfromiowa. wordpress.com/2011/12/17/leslie-dixons-first-script-sale/ Her partner got an agent attached to the piece, and after receiving two offers, it was sold to Columbia Pictures for $30,000. However, the screenplay never made it to production.

Career

Her first solo screenplay was '' Outrageous Fortune'' (1987),Nickell, K. 2008. ‘Interview: Pay It Forward’s Leslie Dixon’, Writer’s Digest. Available at: http:// www.writersdigest.com/writing-articles/by-writing-genre/script-riting/interview_pay_it_ forwards_leslie_dixon written for

Shelley Long Shelley Lee Long (born August 23, 1949) is an American actress, singer, and comedian. Long portrayed Diane Chambers on the hit sitcom '' Cheers'' and received five Emmy nominations, winning in 1983 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Se ...

and Bette Midler. The idea for the screenplay came at

Robert Cort Robert W. Cort (born January 13, 1951) is an American film producer. Since 1985 he has produced forty-eight feature films which have grossed more than $2.5 billion in worldwide box office. These include: ''On the Basis of Sex'', ''Three Men and ...

's request for a "female buddy film". From 1987 to 1997, Dixon continued to write romantic comedies, including '' Overboard'' (1987), '' Loverboy'' (1989), ''

'' (1993), and '' That Old Feeling'' (1997). She also wrote an adaptation for '' The Thomas Crown Affair'' (1999), a re-write from

Alan Trustman Alan Trustman (born December 16, 1930) is an American lawyer, screenwriter, pari-mutuel operator and currency trader. He is best known for writing the 1968 film, '' The Thomas Crown Affair'', ''Bullitt'', and ''They Call Me Mister Tibbs!'', in his ...

's original screenplay in 1968, and then the drama ''

'' (2000) based on

Catherine Ryan Hyde Catherine Ryan Hyde (born 1955) is an American novelist and short story writer, with more recent forays and notable success in transitioning from traditional publication towards the world of eBook publication. Her novels have enjoyed bestseller sta ...

's 1999 novel of the same name. After reading

Alan Glynn Alan Glynn is an Irish writer born in 1960 in Dublin. Glynn studied English literature at Trinity College Dublin. Awards and honours *2011 Irish Book Award, Crime Fiction category, ''Bloodland'' Works Novels * ''The Dark Fields'' (200 ...

's ''

The Dark Fields ''The Dark Fields'' is a 2001 techno-thriller novel by Irish writer Alan Glynn. It was re-released in March 2011 under the title ''Limitless'', in order to coincide with its 2011 film adaptation.

'', she wrote '' Limitless'' (2011). In 2004, Dixon was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Writing for her ''

Freaky Friday ''Freaky Friday'' is a comedic children's novel written by Mary Rodgers, first published by Harper & Row in 1972. It has been adapted for several films, including versions in 1976, 1995, 2003, and 2018, and was reinterpreted as a horror film f ...

'' (2003) screenplay.

Personal life

She is married to fellow screenwriter, producer and director

Tom Ropelewski Tom Ropelewski is an American screenwriter, producer and director. He is best known for films ''Look Who's Talking Now'', ''Loverboy'', ''The Next Best Thing'' and '' The Kiss''. He is married to screenwriter/producer, Leslie Dixon. In May 2006, ' ...

. Their son was born January 16, 1996. They reside in Beverly Hills, California.

Filmography

Feature Films

TV Shows

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dixon, Leslie Living people Year of birth missing (living people) People from Beverly Hills, California American film producers American women screenwriters Film producers from California Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area Screenwriters from California American women film producers 21st-century American women