After a career in publishing and a stint as story editor at Paramount, she formed Bill/Phillips Productions with then-husband Michael Phillips and actor Tony Bill and at age 26 won an Academy Award as co-producer of the blockbuster "The Sting" (1973). The team followed with another hit, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977), but Phillips's career went into eclipse after a period of cocaine abuse, chronicled in her scathing, autobiographical, tell-all bestseller "You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again" (1991). She wrote a sequel "Driving Under the Influence" which was published in 1995.
Education
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Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts, BA, 1965
Milestones
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1965 Worked as editorial assistant, then associate editor, "Ladies Home Journal"
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1969 Entered film industry as East Coast story editor at Paramount Pictures
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1970 Formed Bill/Phillips Productions with then-husband Michael Phillips and actor Tony Bill
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1970 Headed Mirisch Productions in New York
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1971 Became creative executive at First Artists Productions, New York
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1971 Founded and was president, Ruthless Productions, Los Angeles
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1973 Became first female producer to share in the Best Picture Oscar with "The Sting"
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1973 First film as producer, "Steelyard Blues"
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1974 Directorial debut, "The Estate of Billy Buckner" (for AFI's Women Directors Workshop)
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1976 Was a producer on Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver"
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1977 Worked as a producer on "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"; last film for a decade
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1987 Made one-shot return to feature film producing with "The Beat"
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1991 Published controversial memoir, "You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again"
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1999 Was subject of an "E! True Hollywood Story"
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Became textbook advertising copywriter for Macmillan Publications
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Worked as production assistant at McCall's Magazine