Helene Hahn, the studio dealmaker who helped steer Disney through its 1980s and ’90s comeback and worked on the partnership that brought Pixar into the fold, has died. She was 78.
Her management team said she “died peacefully in her sleep” on Oct. 24 in Park City, Utah, where she had lived since leaving DreamWorks in 2004.
One Of The Top Women In Hollywood At Disney
Hahn rose to executive vice president at Walt Disney Studios, which made her one of the highest-ranking women in the film business at the time. Much of her work there happened alongside Jeffrey Katzenberg as the studio rebuilt itself, and she helped put together Disney’s landmark deal with Pixar.
For Disney fans, that comeback is the stretch that gave us The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King, the run of animated hits now known as the Disney Renaissance. Hahn wasn’t making the movies. She was on the business side, working out the deals that let the studio grow back into a powerhouse after years of struggling.
The Pixar deal is the reason Toy Story exists as a Disney release. Under it, Disney backed and distributed Pixar’s first feature films, starting with Toy Story in 1995, and the relationship ran all the way to Disney buying Pixar outright in 2006. Pixar remains one of Disney’s core studios today, and its own leadership is turning over too, with Jim Morris stepping back as president.
From Temp Job To Studio Executive
Hahn was born in 1948 in Westbury, New York, and graduated from Hofstra University before heading to Los Angeles. Her first job in the business was a temp position at Paramount Pictures, which she held while studying at Loyola Law School. She earned her law degree in 1975.
She went back to Paramount in 1977, became a senior vice president there and built a reputation for her dealmaking before making the move to Disney.
Building DreamWorks
When Katzenberg left Disney in 1994 to start DreamWorks SKG with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen, Hahn was one of the first executives brought on to build the new studio. She eventually became its chief operating officer and stayed until 2004.
After that she settled in Park City and spent her time on the slopes, taking up skiing with the same intensity she had brought to her studio work. Her husband died in July.
Her family has asked that anyone who wants to honor the couple make a donation to U.S. Ski & Snowboard, in recognition of their shared love of the sport and their support for young athletes.
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