[Deathwatch] Julia Phillips, producer, 57

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

Wednesday January 2 11:09 PM ET 

Oscar-winning producer Julia Phillips dead at 57

By Dana Harris

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Julia Phillips, the ebullient and caustic
producer of ``The Sting,'' ``Taxi Driver'' and ``Close Encounters of
the Third Kind'' who was the first woman ever to receive a best picture
Oscar, died Monday. She was 57.

Phillips died of cancer in her Hollywood home, according to her
daughter, Kate Phillips, and son-in-law, Modi Wiczyk.

A few years after she married businessman Michael Phillips in 1966, the
couple formed Bill/Phillips Prods. with actor Tony Bill. In contrast to
her even-tempered husband, Phillips gained a reputation as a brilliant
but intimidating raconteur who would say anything -- one who stayed up
all night, swore like a stevedore and smoked nonstop.

``I thought she'd make a good partner,'' said Bill, with whom the
couple produced ``The Sting.'' ``I was right.''

At the dawn of the 1970s, young and aggressive producers were something
of an anomaly in Hollywood, and the trio took the town by storm.

In 1973, the 29-year-old Phillips walked onto the Dorothy Chandler
Pavilion stage with her husband and Bill to receive the best picture
Oscar for ``The Sting.''

True to form, she spoke first: ``You can imagine what a trip this is
for a Jewish girl from Great Neck,'' she said. ``I get to win an
Academy Award and meet Elizabeth Taylor at the same time.''

What followed was a hot streak that still seems freakish 30 years
later: After ``Taxi Driver,'' which earned the Palme d'Or at the 1976
Cannes International Film Festival, Phillips produced ``Close
Encounters of The Third Kind.''

However, the 1977 film proved to be something of a coda for Phillips.
After producing three of the decade's iconic movies, she had a
production deal at 20th Century Fox with a staff of 30. However, her
raging cocaine habit took hold, and she didn't produce another film for
11 years.

Born Julia Miller in Manhattan in 1944 and raised in Long Island, her
father was a scientist who worked on the Los Alamos project that
developed the atomic bomb. She worked in publishing before moving to
production company First Artists, where she became the protegee of
David Begelman. There, she worked with actors like Barbra Streisand and
Robert Redford.

Phillips spent the 1980s getting clean and producing just one film,
``The Beat'' in 1988. She was also preparing to write a book, one that
would make her famous in a new realm.

``You'll Never Eat Lunch in this Town Again'' showed that she was her
father's daughter: The 1991 tell-all memoir was nuclear fission in
downtown Beverly Hills. Filled with tales of debauchery that invoked
the names of luminaries like Steven Spielberg, Warren Beatty and Martin
Scorsese, the title debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times Bestseller
list.

``She was as ferocious a friend as she was a foe,'' said Ruth Vitale,
co-president of Paramount Classics. ``She said what she meant and
always said it. In this town, that's a rare asset.''

In Phillips' case, it was also a quality that ensured her career was
truly over. According to Wiczyk, that didn't trouble her. ``She always
said, 'It turned me from an old producer into an icon.'''

Like any savvy producer, Phillips followed her hit with a sequel:
``Driving Under the Affluence'' was published in 1995.

The Showtime cable channel is developing a movie based on Phillips'
life.

``She was amazing,'' said CAA's John Ptak, who was Phillips' first
agent. ``A few of us were truly lucky to be with her at the time.''

Besides daughter Kate, she is survived by a son, Matthew.

Funeral arrangements were not immediately available.

Reuters/Variety REUTERS