Leading Lady

Fox's model movie boss

At the fadeout of Rio Lobo, a Hollywood oater of 1970, Starlet Sherry Lansing guns down the varmint who had done her wrong and sashays off into the sunset with John Wayne. As she recalls, "I wasn't interested in being an actress at first, but when I walked onto that set, I started to become obsessed with film." Now the magnificent obsession has led to a new job in which the former actress and model will continue to face tough hombres. Last week Lansing, 35, was named president of production at 20th Century-Fox Pictures, putting her in charge of the development and management of the company's feature films.

Though Chairman Dennis Stanfill and several other officers of the diversified 20th Century-Fox rank above her, Lansing becomes the top American woman in the male-chauvinist world of film production. She will earn close to $300,000 a year in salary and could also collect more than $1 million in bonuses if she finds and develops a string of hits.

Lansing has the guts for the notoriously rugged industry. After graduating from Northwestern University, she went to Los Angeles to teach in a Watts high school just after the bloody riots of 1965. Later she became a model for Max Factor and Alberto-Culver, then landed movie roles in Loving and Rio Lobo. But she preferred the production side and quit acting to take a $5-an-hour job as a script reader.

With the help of friend and mentor Producer Daniel Melnick, her rise has been little short of meteoric. By 1975 she was an executive story editor at MGM, and two years later vice president of production for Columbia Pictures. Aside from intelligence and raven-haired beauty, Lansing's prime asset is her youth, at least according to Fox Vice Chairman Alan Hirschfield, her former Columbia boss, who hired her. Says he: "The movie audience is still trending down in age; 60% of it is between the ages of 14 and 24. Sherry can attract the younger creative moviemakers, who can make pictures that attract younger audiences."

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