Sherry Lansing is the subject of the biography, ”Leading Lady - Sherry Lansing and the Making of a Hollywood Groundbreaker,” by Stephen Galloway, out in paperback today. Sherry has had a long and successful career as a filmmaker, Studio Head, and philanthropist. She was Chairman and CEO of Paramount Studios for 12 years, after being the President of 20th Century Fox. Some films made under her watch include Forrest Gump, Braveheart, Titanic, The Accused, First Wives Club…and the list goes on.

She is the founder and CEO of The Sherry Lansing Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to cancer research, health, public education, and encore career opportunities.

She is also a co-founder of Stand Up To Cancer, an initiative which funds multi-institutional cancer research “dream teams.”

In addition, she serves on the University of California Board of Regents and on the boards of the Broad Center, the Broad Museum, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the Carter Center, Encore.org, the W.M. Keck Foundation, the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, and the Pacific Council on International Policy.

Among her awards and honors are…

National Women’s Hall of Fame

Stem Cell Action Leadership Award, World Stem Cell Summit

Patron of the Arts Award, Screen Actor’s Guild

American Association of Cancer Research Humanitarian Award

Big Brothers and Big Sisters Legacy Award

Outstanding Woman in Film, Women In Film

Economic Equity Award, Women’s Equity Action League

Horatio Alger Humanitarian Award

Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, 79th annual Academy Awards

In this episode, Sherry talks about coming up through the ranks, the keys to her success in the midst of a lot of “noise”, and her secret meeting with Jimmy Carter.