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Frederick Woodruff "Ted" Field (born June 1, 1953[2]) is an American media mogul, record executive, entrepreneur and film producer.
Ted Field | |
|---|---|
 Ted Field discussing filmmaking at New York Film Academy | |
| Born | Frederick Woodruff Field June 1, 1953 |
| Alma mater | Pomona College[1] |
| Known for | Interscope Communications Radar Pictures |
| Spouse(s) | Judy Field (first marriage) Barbara Field (second marriage) Susan Bari Bollman Field (third marriage) |
| Children | 8 |
| Parent(s) | Marshall Field IV Katherine Woodruff Field (later Fanning) |
He founded Interscope Communications to develop and produce films in 1982, and produced his first hit, Revenge of the Nerds, the same year. Seven years later, he co-founded Interscope Records with Jimmy Iovine in 1989.
He is an heir of the Marshall Field family.[1]
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.[3]
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,[1] graduating in 1979.[citation needed]
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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,[4] 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.[5] In December 1998, Seagram acquired PolyGram,[6] merging its film division with Universal Pictures.[7] 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.[8] In 2001, Universal Pictures bought USA from Diller[9] and in 2002, combined USA Films, Universal Focus and Good Machine Releasing to become Focus Features.[10][11]
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.[12] The label was shortly bought by MCA Inc. for $200 million.[13] 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.[14] Then, in December 1998, Seagram acquired PolyGram and merged its music division of labels with Universal Music Group,[6][15] resulting in Interscope, on January 1, 1999, being merged into Geffen Records and A&M Records to become Interscope Geffen A&M Records.[16] He and Iovine were co-chairmen of IGA.
After leaving Interscope in February 2001,[17] he and Marc Geiger formed Artistdirect Records with the backing of BMG's RCA Records. The label folded in 2003.[18]
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.[19]
Field and Radar Pictures have faced legal action in years between 2007 and 2019 over allegations of fraudulent misconduct.[20][21][22][23] 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.[24][25]
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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.[26][27] 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[citation needed].
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24 Hours of Le Mans results
| Year | Team | Co-Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class Pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 |  Interscope Racing |
Milt Minter John Morton |
Porsche 935/79 | IMSA GTX |
154 | DNF | DNF |
| 1980 |  Kremer Racing Team Malardeau |
 Jean-Louis Lafosse Danny Ongais |
Porsche 935-K3/80 | Gr.5 SP 2.0+ |
89 | DNF | DNF |
| 1981 | Porsche Kremer Racing Interscope Racing |
Bill Whittington Don Whittington |
Porsche 935-K3/81 | Gr.5 SP 2.0+ |
57 | DNF | DNF |
| 1982 | Kremer Racing Interscope Racing |
Danny Ongais Bill Whittington |
Porsche Kremer C-K5 | Gr.C | 25 | DNF | DNF |
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He was a producer in all films unless otherwise noted.
Film
- Thanks
| Year | Film | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | The Man Inside | Special thanks |
| 2001 | Kissing Jessica Stein | |
| 2009 | Veronika Decides to Die | The production would like to thank |
Television
| Year | Title | Credit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | American Geisha | Executive producer | Television film |
| 1987 | The Real Adventures of Sherlock Jones and Proctor Watson | ||
| Murder Ordained | Executive producer | Television film | |
| The Father Clements Story | Executive producer | Television film | |
| 1988 | Crossing the Mob | Executive producer | Television film |
| 1989 | My Boyfriend's Back | Executive producer | Television film |
| A Mother's Courage: The Mary Thomas Story | Executive producer | Television film | |
| 1990 | The Secret Life of Archie's Wife | Executive producer | Television film |
| 1993 | Foreign Affairs | Executive producer | Television film |
| 1995 | Body Language | Executive producer | Television film |
| 1997 | Snow White: A Tale of Terror | Executive producer | Television film |
| 2000 | Into Pitch Black | Co-executive producer | Television special |
| 2015 | Winter Dragon | Executive producer | Television pilot |
| 2017 | Under the Bed | Television film | |
| 2018 | Lead | ||
| 2021 | The Wheel of Time | Co-executive producer Executive producer | |
| TBD | The Last Herald-Mage[30] | Executive producer |
- As an actor
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1983 | Saturday Supercade | Tex Toadwalker |
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- Madsen, Axel. The Marshall Fields: The Evolution of an American Business Dynasty. Wiley: 2002.
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