Allison Ivy Shearmur (also known as Alli Shearmur; née Brecker; October 23, 1963 – January 19, 2018) was an American film executive and producer.

Working for companies including Walt Disney Studios, Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures and Lionsgate, her production work involved such films as the American Pie and Jason Bourne franchises, The Hunger Games films, the live-action remake of Cinderella, as well as the Star Wars anthology films Rogue One and Solo.^[1][2]

Formative years and family life

Allison Ivy Brecker was one of the quadruplets born to Martin and Rhoda Brecker on October 23, 1963. She grew up in a traditional Jewish household,^[3] and attended the University of Pennsylvania Law School. After completing her Juris Doctor at the USC Gould School of Law, she became a member of the State Bar of California. While at university, she entered a campus contest and won first prize, lunch with Stanley Jaffe, an executive at Columbia Pictures. Jaffe became a lifelong mentor and role model for Shearmur.^[3]

She married film composer Edward Shearmur, with whom she had two children. In 2014, the Shearmurs had a house featured in House Beautiful.^[4]

Career

After graduation, Allison Shearmur was participated in a young executive management initiative, and was subsequently selected to become a manager in the comedy development department at Columbia TriStar. She worked at Disney as a vice-president between 1994 and 1997, where she worked on movies including George of the Jungle.^[2] She then joined Universal as an executive vice-president of production, and worked on Along Came Polly, Erin Brockovich and the American Pie and Bourne series.^[2]

Shearmur also worked for two years at Paramount as co-president of production, where she was responsible for the studio's literary productions such as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Stop-Loss, Zodiac, Dreamgirls, Charlotte's Web, Nacho Libre, and Failure to Launch.^[5] In 2008, she moved to Lionsgate as president of motion picture production. While at Lionsgate she produced the first two Hunger Games movies, then executive produced the final two.^[2]

Shearmur formed her own production company, Allison Shearmur Productions.^[1][2] In 2017, her company executive produced the television movie Dirty Dancing.^[2]

Illness and death

Allison Shearmur developed lung cancer and died from the disease at the age of fifty-four on January 19, 2018, at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.^[1][2] The films Solo: A Star Wars Story, The One and Only Ivan and Chaos Walking were dedicated to her memory.

Filmography