After a brief career as a securities analyst, joined with then-wife Julia Phillips and actor Tony Bill in producing a string of box office and critical successes including "Steelyard Blues" and the Oscar-winning "The Sting" (both 1973). With Julia Phillips he also produced Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver" (1976) and Steven Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977) and solo produced the 1981 comedy "Heartbeeps," the delightful coming-of-age-in-the-60s comedy/drama, "The Flamingo Kid" (1984) and "Mom and Dad Save the World" (1992).