An associate producer of Peter Bogdanovichs Paper Moon, Daisy Miller, and Nickelodeon in the mid '70s, Marshall was also line producer on Martin Scorsese's concert film The Last Waltz and Orson Welles' unreleased Hollywood satire The Other Side of the Wind. In the '80s he was associated with several Steven Spielberg films, most notably as producer of Raiders of the Lost Ark; co-producer of The Color Purple, Empire of the Sun, and Always; and co-executive producer of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. In partnership with his wife Kathleen Kennedy and Spielberg, Marshall formed the hugely succesful Amblin Entertainment production company, and co-produced or co-executive produced numerous other hits, including Poltergeist, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, and the three Back to the Future films. In 1990 Marshall debuted as a director with the spider-filled horror comedy Arachnophobia; he followed with the fact-based drama of survival and cannibalism, Alive.