Allison Shearmur

• 1. Introduction

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  Allison Shearmur got her start in the film business by winning a campus contest. The prize was lunch with Stanley Jaffe, an executive at Columbia Pictures. That lunch turned into a mentorship that lasted the rest of her life. Jaffe guided a law student toward an industry she had not planned to enter. She went on to work as a studio executive and producer, credited on films spanning several franchises. What carried her from that campus lunch into decades of studio work, and what eventually cut her career short?

• 2. Family And Early Life

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  Allison Ivy Brecker was one of a set of quadruplets born to Martin and Rhoda Brecker on the 23rd of October 1963. She later became known professionally as Alli Shearmur. She grew up in a traditional Jewish household. She went on to attend the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She earned a Juris Doctor from the USC Gould School of Law and was admitted to the State Bar of California. She married the film composer Edward Shearmur, and they had two children together. In 2014, the Shearmurs had their house featured in the magazine House Beautiful. Marriage and motherhood ran alongside a legal career she was about to leave behind for something else entirely.

• 3. Climbing The Studio Ranks

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  After graduating, Allison Shearmur took part in a young executive management initiative that led to a job at Columbia TriStar. There she became a manager in the comedy development department. From 1994 to 1997, she worked as a vice-president at Walt Disney Studios, contributing to movies including George of the Jungle. She then moved to Universal Pictures as an executive vice-president of production. There she worked on Along Came Polly, Erin Brockovich, and the American Pie and Bourne franchises. Shearmur spent two years at Paramount Pictures as co-president of production. In that role she oversaw the studio's literary productions. Among them were The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and Stop-Loss. Other titles on the list included Zodiac, Dreamgirls, Charlotte's Web, Nacho Libre, and Failure to Launch. One more studio still lay ahead, where she would take on some of the biggest productions of her career.

• 4. The Franchise Years

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  In 2008, Allison Shearmur moved to Lionsgate as president of motion picture production. While there, she produced the first two Hunger Games films and then executive produced the final two. She also produced the 2015 live-action remake of Cinderella. The following year, she produced Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, part of the Star Wars anthology series. Alongside her studio work, she formed her own production company, Allison Shearmur Productions. In 2017, that company executive produced the television movie Dirty Dancing. Her producing credits during these years also included Abduction, What to Expect When You're Expecting, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Nerve, and Power Rangers. Solo: A Star Wars Story, credited to her as producer, would not reach audiences until after her death.

• 5. Illness And Legacy

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  Allison Shearmur developed lung cancer and died from the disease on the 19th of January 2018, at the age of fifty-four. That was at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. The films Solo: A Star Wars Story, The One and Only Ivan, and Chaos Walking were all dedicated to her memory. Solo reached theaters in 2018, the same year she died, still credited to her as producer. The One and Only Ivan followed in 2020, and Chaos Walking in 2021, both also carrying her producer credit. Three films reached audiences only after she was gone, each one carrying her name into a future she did not live to see.