10 Hollywood Legends You've Probably Never Heard Of
3. The Producer
Kathleen Kennedy’s résumé reads like an IMDB list of modern blockbusters. One of film unheralded living legends, the producer has been the driving force behind some of the greatest and most popular films in Hollywood history.
Co-founding Amblin Entertainment in 1981 with Steven Spielberg and her other half Frank Marshall, Kennedy has masterminded over 60 movies, a list which has garnered 120 Oscar nominations and over $11billion dollars worldwide - $6billion in domestic dollars, ranking her third behind Stan Lee and Spielberg himself.
Kennedy’s been front and centre on franchises like the Back To The Future movies, Gremlins, Cape Fear, Arachnophobia, Twister, The Sixth Sense… as well as every single movie Spielberg has directed since Raiders Of The Lost Ark.
Four years ago, she was made the president of Lucasfilm, and the brand manager of the entire Star Wars franchise. Her first project under that job title was Star Wars: The Force Awakens, one of the biggest movies of all time, and she’s currently in the process of shepherding the next generation of Star Wars films to the multiplex.
That probably makes her the most powerful woman in the history of Hollywood… and the only reason I’ve thrown the word ‘probably’ in there is that when I try to think of anyone else who’d even come close, my mind goes blank and throws up a rainbow-coloured spinning wheel.