Born Barbara Solinger in the Bronx, she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama from Boston University, and then a Master’s of Arts from Columbia University. She was a successful writer in the TV and film industry, and did some acting on the side. Then Barbara married Philip Gips in 1958, a well-known graphic designer and film poster artist. She didn’t work in his shadow: sometimes he worked in hers. As a writer, Barbara had a particular gift for one-liners that summed things up really, really well. Or, to put it in Hollywood terms, she was a master Tagline Writer.
Sometimes, she ended up writing taglines for her husband for a film’s “one-sheet” poster, but he made sure she got the credit. Other times, she was hired directly to sum up a film in one memorable line. For example, for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979): “Ted Kramer is about to learn what 10 million women already know.” Desperately Seeking Susan (1985): “It’s a life so outrageous it takes two women to live it.” Fatal Attraction (1987): “On the other side of drinks, dinner and a one-night stand lies a terrifying love story.” No Way Out (1987): “Is it a crime of passion, or an act of treason?” And Postcards From the Edge (1990): “Having a wonderful time, wish I were here.” There were more.
But she’s best known for what MovieWeb says a tag that many consider one of “the best movie taglines ever written — and deservedly so.” Philip had been hired to work on the poster for a film, and brought Barbara with him to the screening: Alien (1979). She told the New York Times that after seeing the film, it stayed with her. As she was driving her children home alongside a river, she was “thinking how lonely it seemed at night, how lonely it must be in space,” she said. “All of a sudden, that line occurred to me.” The now-classic line: “In space no one can hear you scream.” It went right on the minimalist poster.
On the other hand, the Hollywood Reporter says the line “popped into her head while she was washing dishes, and all the other words that had been previously considered for the poster were summarily discarded.” Either way, “The line has become so famous that it is often quoted independently of the film itself,” MovieWeb says, “and you would be hard pushed to find someone that hasn’t ever heard of it. It encapsulates the essence of the story and serves as a chilling reminder of the vastness of space, evoking a sense of dread in the audience.” Besides being a popular meme, the tagline “played a significant role in securing Alien’s status as a cultural phenomenon.” One of the turns of the phrase was the tagline a very early This is True story — Issue 41 (see graphic). Philip died in 2019, at 88. Barbara died in a Bronx hospital on October 16 after suffering a stroke. She was 89.