You know it was a special night when Jerry Bruckheimer walked to the valet and described what he’d just witnessed in the backyard of Sherry Lansing’s Bel-Air home as “the greatest speech” he’s ever heard.
One legendary producer complimenting another after Lawrence Gordon — best known in Hollywood as Larry, and as a guiding force behind films like 48 Hrs., Predator, Die Hard, Field of Dreams, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Hellboy and dozens of others — took home Producers United’s inaugural Legacy Award at the organization’s first major fundraiser.
The intimate affair, spread across Lansing’s lawn with sweeping views of the city, was filled with some accomplished, dogged and (currently) beleaguered producers in the business along with industry insiders like CAA’s Kevin Huvane. Before Gordon took to the stage to accept his trophy, he was gifted with praise from two other legends of the field, married producers Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy. Marshall, who met him first in the 1970s, when they made movies like The Driver and The Warriors together. “And somewhere in there, Larry became our family,” Marshall noted.
Kennedy, Gordon and Marshall
“I came into Larry’s life just a little bit later,” Kennedy continued, “but for the last 30 years, he and I have been in the trenches together on something we both believed in deeply — the producers’ code of credits for the PGA and getting the [Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences] to recognize the people who actually do the work of producing. It was a long fight. There were plenty of moments we didn’t think we’d succeed, but Larry never wavered. That’s who he is — always looking out for the rest of us.”
