Ted Field

Early life

Field was born on June 1, 1953, in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Marshall Field IV, who owned the Chicago Sun-Times from 1956 to 1965, and Katherine Woodruff Fanning, who was later an editor of several newspapers.

Field's parents divorced when he was young. Field's mother then married Larry Fanning, who became Field's stepfather. Field, his sisters, his mother and his stepfather moved to Anchorage, Alaska. Field's mother and Larry Fanning purchased the Anchorage Daily News from founder Norman C. Brown in 1967. Larry Fanning died in 1971: Kay Fanning continued to operate the paper until 1979 when she sold it to The McClatchy Company. She remained as publisher until 1983.

Field attended Pomona College in Claremont, California, graduating in 1979.

Career

Interscope Racing

Field's Interscope Racing started off entering Danny Ongais in Formula 5000 in 1975, graduating to USAC racing and the Indianapolis 500 in Parnelli chassis. Field also funded Ongais to make occasional Formula One outings in a Penske during the 1977 season.

Field also backed the construction in 1980 of an Interscope chassis designed by Roman Slobodynskyj for the Indianapolis 500. This was intended to take a turbocharged six-cylinder Porsche engine (similar to the one Ongais and Field were using in their Porsche 935) but a dispute with USAC over turbo boost meant the program was abandoned. The car was eventually fitted with a conventional Ford Cosworth DFX engine and entered in the 1981 500. Ongais led the race but crashed and was critically injured. In 1982 a recovered Ongais gave the car one last start at Indy but that too ended with an accident.

Interscope Communications

In 1982, Field founded Interscope Communications, which produced more than 50 major films. In 1984, Field was a leader of a group that bought movie camera manufacturer Panavision. In 1987, Panavision was sold to Lee International.

In 1992, PolyGram bought a controlling interest in the film label. In December 1998, Seagram acquired PolyGram, merging its film division with Universal Pictures. As a result, Interscope Communications, October Films and Gramercy Pictures were sold off to Barry Diller, who owned HSN, which in turn, had a major stake in USA Networks. In 1999, the three labels were merged to become USA Films. In 2001, Universal Pictures bought USA from Diller and in 2002, combined USA Films, Universal Focus and Good Machine Releasing to become Focus Features.

Interscope Records

In 1989, he and record executive Jimmy Iovine co-founded Interscope Records. The label sustained a distribution deal with Atlantic Records, but in 1995, became a free agent following controversy surrounding Interscope's signage of gangster rappers including Dr. Dre and Suge Knight's Death Row Records. The label was shortly bought by MCA Inc. for $200 million. In 1996, following a sale to Seagram by Matsushita Electric (parent company of Panasonic), MCA was rebranded as Universal Pictures, and its MCA Music Entertainment faction was renamed Universal Music Group. Then, in December 1998, Seagram acquired PolyGram and merged its music division of labels with Universal Music Group, resulting in Interscope, on January 1, 1999, being merged into Geffen Records and A&M Records to become Interscope Geffen A&M Records. He and Iovine were co-chairmen of IGA.

After leaving Interscope in February 2001, he and Marc Geiger formed Artistdirect Records with the backing of BMG's RCA Records. The label folded in 2003.

Radar Pictures

Since forming the company in late 2000, Field is currently chairman and CEO of Radar Pictures. The company initially used Interscope's library for the company's development slate.

Field and Radar Pictures have faced legal action in years between 2007 and 2019 over allegations of fraudulent misconduct. In December 2016, Field and his company assigned profits from then-upcoming Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017), to Filmula Entertainment, to satisfy a breach-of-contract over the unsuccessful reboot of Trauma Records.

Personal life

From 1984 to 1998, he owned a mansion formerly owned by Howard B. Keck located at 1244 Moraga Drive in the gated community of Moraga Estates in Bel Air, California. From 1986 through 1993, Field owned the Harold Lloyd Estate (also known as Green Acres) in Beverly Hills, California. Field is a tournament chess player who sponsored the 1990 World Chess Championship in NYC between Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov. He is currently developing a movie about former world chess champion Magnus Carlsen.

Racing record

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Filmography (producer)

He was a producer in all films unless otherwise noted.

Film

;Thanks

Television

;As an actor

References

References

1. (11 August 1998). "Literary Producer Opens a New Chapter". Los Angeles Times.
2. "Ted Field on ''24 Heures en Piste''".
3. [http://www.filmreference.com/film/43/Ted-Field.html Film Reference]
4. Geraldine Fabrikant. (11 August 1992). "Polygram to Buy 51% Stake in Interscope's Film Division – New York Times". [[The New York Times]].
5. Fabrikant, Geraldine. (1992-08-11). "Polygram to Buy 51% Stake in Interscope's Film Division". The New York Times.
6. "Seagrams completes PolyGram acquisition - Dec. 10, 1998".
7. "Polygram Folded into Universal {{!}} The Irish Film & Television Network".
8. "Barry Diller".
9. Staff Reports. (2001-12-17). "UNIVERSAL'S OWNER, USA NETWORKS OK DEAL".
10. Nelson, Kevin. (2022-03-14). "A Deeper Cinematic Focus: 20 Years of Focus Features".
11. (2023-10-09). "Interscope Communications".
12. Landler, Mark. (1995-09-28). "Time Warner to Sell Stake in Rap Label". The New York Times.
13. Fabrikant, Geraldine. (1996-02-22). "THE MEDIA BUSINESS;MCA Agrees to Buy Stake In Interscope Record Label". The New York Times.
14. Busch, Anita M.. (1996-12-10). "A whole new U for MCA".
15. Philips, Chuck. (1998-12-10). "Merger Puts Seagram at Top of Music Charts".
16. Strauss, Neil. (1998-12-21). "A Major Merger Shakes Up the World of Rock". The New York Times.
17. Pollack, Marc. "TED FIELD LEAVES INTERSCOPE".
18. Oppelaar, Justin. (2003-05-08). "ArtistDirect delisted".
19. Lyons, Dana Harris,Charles. (2000-10-11). "Radar on screen with ’44’".
20. Gardner, Eriq. (January 11, 2017). "Movie Mogul Ted Field Set to Stand Trial for Fraud". [[The Hollywood Reporter]].
21. (March 25, 2017). "The NHL's Weird Superhero Project Is Still Finding Ways To Fail".
22. (March 27, 2017). "Hollywood Docket: Prince's Tidal Deal; Bob Marley Film Lawsuit; CBS Radio Win". The Hollywood Reporter.
23. (24 March 2017). "Failed NHL Superhero Franchise Leads to $500,000 Judgment Against Producer".
24. Patten, Dominic. (January 6, 2017). "'Jumanji' EP Ordered To Pay Fees From Film To Creditor To Settle $2M Debt".
25. (January 18, 2018). "How the New 'Jumanji' Saved a Broke "Billionaire"". The Hollywood Reporter.
26. Ryon, Ruth (November 2, 1986) "Harold Lloyd Mansion for Sale Again?". Los Angeles Times.
27. ''[[Los Angeles (magazine)
28. "Ted Field". [[Automobile Club de l'Ouest]].
29. "Ted Field Results". Motorsport Stats.
30. White, Peter. (August 3, 2021). "'Valdemar Universe' Fantasy Book Series In The Works For TV From Kit Williamson, Brittany Cavallaro & Radar Pictures". Deadline.