Dawn Steel

Entrepreneur

Birthday August 19, 1946

Birth Sign Leo

Birthplace New York

DEATH DATE Dec 20, 1997 (51)

#211,830 Most Popular

About

Head of Columbia Pictures who became one of the first women to run a major motion picture studio.

Before Fame

She worked as merchandising director for Penthouse Magazine and ran her own novelty-item business. She joined Paramount Pictures in 1978.

Trivia

She helped produce Fatal Attraction, Top Gun, and Flashdance for Paramount. She then took the helm at Columbia, but after several years of losses, she left to found her own company Atlas Entertainment.

Family Life

She was born Dawn Spielberg (no relation to the filmmaker Steven) in New York. Her father changed the family name to Steel.

Associated With

She was mentioned in an episode of Entourage, where a character asked the talent agent Ari Gold, played by Jeremy Piven, if Steel was still running the studio.