Born on August 22, 1942, in Cleveland, Phyllis Carlyle attended the American Academy for the Dramatic Arts before landing a job at a Chicago talent agency. A friend who had moved to Los Angeles got Carlyle a job as a commercial casting director, and she ran with it.
Carlyle went on to executive produce Lawrence Kasdan’s The Accidental Tourist (1988), starring William Hurt, Kathleen Turner, and Davis. It became a Best Picture Oscar nominee but lost to Rain Man.
Davis did win for Supporting Actress. Some years later, a client of Carlyle’s was sent the script for Seven a project she said the studios were turning down. She would work hard to get the film made, first at Columbia Pictures, then at Paramount but ultimately decided that “studio life was not for me.
Phyllis Carlyle dies: Cause of death revealed
Phyllis Carlyle, a casting director, and manager who worked with such big names as Willem Dafoe, Jude Law, and Geena Davis who later produced the hit films Seven and The Accidental Tourist, has died. She was 80.
Carlyle died September 14 of lymphoma in Encino, CA, according to her family and the Neptune Society.
