From Deadline:She died peacefully at her home tonight surrounded by her husband, screenwriter Alvin Sargent, her family, and her friends after a long and courageous and public bout with breast cancer. She was 61. In Hollywood where women rarely make it to the top of the movie establishment, Laura Ziskin rose to become one of Hollywood’s leading independent producers and studio executives. She is best known for producing the blockbuster Spider-Man film trilogy which broke box office records worldwide and became the highest grossing film franchise in Sony Picture Entertainment’s history. But she will be remembered most for her humanity as the proud producer of the historic three-network "Stand Up To Cancer" televised fundraisers. Like one in 3 women in this country, she was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer in February 2004. (Doctors had repeatedly missed it previously because of the diffuse type of cancer she had.) She never wanted anyone to refer to her struggle as a 'battle': instead, she preferred to focus on the victories and was determined to use all her resources to make cancer a first tier issue in this country. As she wrote me in March 2011: "Three years ago, Stand Up To Cancer was little more than a dream, a bold idea shared by a few. We knew that cancer scientists finally had both the knowledge and the technology to make critical breakthroughs in detecting, treating and preventing cancer, but too often lacked the funds needed to bring new developments to fruition. Our goal was to raise money that would help speed up the pace at which scientific breakthroughs move from labs to clinics, where they can help patients and save lives, and to build a grassroots movement in support of that effort. Since our launch in 2008, thanks to all of you who have stood up with us, the collaborative 'Dream Teams' of researchers that we fund have already made significant scientific progress, and the SU2C grassroots community continues to grow."
Among the highlights of her movie career was 2002 when she produced the 74th Annual Academy Awards and became the first woman to ever produce the awards solo. The show was nominated for 8 Emmy Awards including Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special. Then, in 2007, Ziskin did it again, this time producing the first ever 'Green' Oscar ceremony. The show was nominated for 9 Emmy Awards.
