“You have to develop a thick skin,” she told The New York Times in 1996. “You have to be able to depersonalize the drama without becoming depersonalized. Every day there are crises, dramas and disappointments. To survive without being expelled, you have to be tough.

Small but energetic, with a deep voice and wry sensibility, Ms. Obst worked as an editor at the New York Times magazine before coming to Hollywood in the late 1970s, scouting potential projects as a “development girl” under the direction of producer Peter Guber.

Her first major breakthrough earned her her first credit in Hollywood, as an associate producer on “Flashdance” (1983), which starred Jennifer Beals as an aspiring dancer and which became one of the most big hits of the year.

A decade later, Ms. Obst’s career took off after she reconnected with the writer and filmmaker Nora Ephron, a friend from the New York journalism world. Ms. Obst produced Ephron’s first film, “This Is My Life” (1992), and was executive producer of Ephron’s romantic comedy “Sleepless in Seattle” (1993), which grossed more than $227 million dollars in the world.

Ms. Obst has enjoyed continued success with romantic comedies, including as producer of “How to Lose a Man in 10 Days” (2003), starring Hudson and Matthew McConaughey. She also produced thrillers such as “The Siege” (1998), directed dramas including “Hope Floats” (1998) and helped shape the modern science fiction genre. As executive producer of “Contact” (1997), she successfully campaigned for Jodie Foster to be cast as an astronomer, one of the film’s lead roles. She then served as a producer on Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” (2014), which became his biggest commercial success, grossing over $681 million upon its initial release.

“It’s not a departure to work on a science fiction film,” she told Salon in 2013. “I’m just a geek who loves romantic comedies.”

As Ms. Obst settled into her career in Hollywood in the 1980s, she also returned to her journalistic roots, writing highly acclaimed articles for magazines such as Harper’s and Premiere. She went on to write two books inspired by her time in show business, beginning with “Hello, He Lied: And Other Truths from the Hollywood Trenches” (1996), which Publishers Weekly described as “a particularly Hollywood kind of hybrid , a memoir/survival guide that describes what it’s really like to make a film while still managing to say something nice – or at least neutrally caring – about everyone in power.

While praising former bosses such as producer David Geffen, she also noted instances of sexist or rude behavior, like the time Geffen casually suggested she get a collagen vaccine.

Much of the book, which was adapted into an hour-long special on AMC, introduced readers to the fundamentals of producing, including the benefits of befriending unglamorous crew members. “You find out everything,” she wrote. “When the set designer says the sets will be ready in a week and the carpenter tells you he hasn’t even found the wood yet, you know someone is lying.”

As Ms. Obst said, part of success in Hollywood comes from following trends and giving the audience what they want. (She titled one chapter “Ride the Horse in the Direction It’s Going.”) But she also advised aspiring producers not to get complacent. “The secret all powerful people know is that no one else gives you power,” she wrote. When it comes to power, she added, “there is no permission to be given. Permission must be entered.

The eldest of three children, Lynda Joan Rosen was born in Manhattan. on April 14, 1950 and grew up in suburban Harrison, New York. Her father worked in the garment business – “we called him the king of shoulder pads,” Ms. Obst recalls – and her mother was a schoolteacher.

Fascinated by the New York counterculture of the 1960s, Ms. Obst would skip school to try to spot Bob Dylan in Greenwich Village. (She never saw him, she says, although she once saw singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie.) She became involved in the left-wing student movement after enrolling in the Pitzer College in California and volunteering to teach at the state prison. in Chino, introducing prisoners to the work of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin.

After transferring to Pomona College, Ms. Obst “turned into a really ugly radical,” as she said in a 2020 interview for Sagecast, a Pomona podcast. She discovered that she was more interested in studying Aristotelian ethics than debating the merits of ROTC programs, and after earning a bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 1972, she enrolled in graduate school at Columbia University, planning to embark on an academic career.

She left her studies after about a year. At the same time, she met her future husband, literary agent David Obst. He helped her meet writers, including Ephron, who encouraged Ms. Obst to become a magazine editor.

Aided by her husband’s literary connections, Ms. Obst soon joined the Times, where she edited articles by the author Taylor Branch as well as the pianist Glenn Gould. She also edited a book, “The Sixties: The Decade Remembered Now, by the People Who Lived It Then” (1977), which included personal essays by Muhammad Ali and Abbie Hoffman.

Ms. Obst moved to California reluctantly, after Simon & Schuster hired her husband to start a production company in Los Angeles. She had hoped to spend the rest of her career at the Times and said she knew almost nothing about film.

But she said she began to find her place in the industry by learning from Guber, the executive producer of “Midnight Express” (1978), who “gave me the license to do whatever I wanted.” in his production company Casablanca.

Ms. Obst then worked with Geffen and teamed with Debra Hill, with whom she produced films including the teen comedy “Adventures in Babysitting” (1987) and “The Fisher King” (1991), a fantasy film by director Terry Gilliam. comedy-drama which became one of his favorite projects.

“I laughed and I cried,” she told the Times, remembering the first time she read the script. Even when she had to leave the office and run errands, she couldn’t stop reading, she said. “At one point I cried so much that I took the script and threw it against the windshield.”

After the film’s release, Ms. Obst struck out on her own, producing films including “One Fine Day” (1996), with Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney, and “The Invention of Lying” (2009), with Ricky Gervais. She also worked as an executive producer on television, notably for the sitcoms “The Soul Man” and “Hot in Cleveland” and for the miniseries “The ’60s” and “The Hot Zone”, based on the warning of author Richard Preston. on infectious diseases.

Ms. Obst’s marriage ended in divorce. In addition to his brother Rick Rosen, who co-founded talent agency Endeavor and now runs the television department of its successor company, WME, survivors include a son, Oliver Obst, executive and producer at 3 Arts Entertainment; his brother Michael Rosen, a former television producer; and two granddaughters.

In her latest book, “Sleepless in Hollywood: Tales From the New Abnormal in the Movie Business” (2013), Ms. Obst lamented recent industry trends, including the predictable rise of mega-franchises and blockbuster films. ‘action.

“We have this formula: twist, twist, blow up a city, a dystopian universe, robots doing the same things,” she told the Guardian in an interview. “It’s not easy to make these things fresh.” Moviegoers need to “come together and vote with our feet,” she added. “It’s about wanting a little more.” A little more drama, a little more reality and a little more emotion.