Kathleen Kennedy – Biography, Net Worth and Other Interesting Facts
Kathleen Kennedy was born on June 5, 1953 in Berkeley, California. His mother, Dione Marie “Dede” (née Dousseau), was a theater actress while his father, Donald R. Kennedy, earned his living as a lawyer and later as a judge. She has two siblings, a twin sister named Connie and another sister, Dana. She attended high school at Shasta High School in Redding, California, graduating in 1971. In college, she studied at San Diego State University, where she majored in telecommunications and movie theater.
Kennedy’s work in television production dates back to his senior year of college. She then worked for a San Diego-based television station, KCST, where she served in a variety of roles, including cameraman, video editor, set producer, and eventually became the station’s news production coordinator. . Her final role at the station was as producer of local talk show You’re Sure before eventually moving to Los Angeles.
His first job in Los Angeles was assistant to filmmaker John Milius, who was then working on a Steven Spielberg film. 1941 (1979). Kennedy made a number of notable contributions during the 1941 production and thus, she caught the eye of Spielberg who eventually hired her. Kennedy’s first projects with Spielberg were the films Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Poltergeist (1982) in which she was credited as associate producer.
She got her first producer credit in the sci-fi film ET the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) which was a major box office success. This marked the start of a hugely illustrious business partnership between Kennedy and Spielberg, who continued to work on most of his films for several years. They are best known for their work on the Jurassic Park film series as well as the Indiana Jones franchise, both of which were mega box office hits.
Their working relationship of more than 3 decades also includes other successful films like The Color Purple (1985), Hook (1991), Schindler’s List (1993), AI Artificial Intelligence (2001), War of the Worlds ( 2005), The Adventures of Tintin (2011) and Lincoln (2012).
Kathleen Kennedy also ran several major production companies during her long career. For many years, she was president of Amblin Entertainment, which she co-founded with Steven Spielberg and her husband Frank Marshall. She also ran another well-known production company, The Kennedy/Marshall Company, between 1991 and 2012. Kennedy is currently President of Lucasfilm Ltd., a position she has held since October 2012. With Lucasfilm, she has continued to create experiences timeless cinematics, most notably the Star Wars movie franchise.
