Biography for
Todd Field More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

24 February 1964, Pomona, California, USA

Birth Name

William Todd Field

Mini Biography

Todd Field began acting after graduating from high school in Portland, Oregon. A budding jazz musician as well, he skipped college in favor of a move east to New York to study acting. Once there, he began performing with the Ark Theatre Company as both an actor and musician. He subsequently won a role in Woody Allen's nostalgic Radio Days (1987). Field had an independent Spirit Award-nominated turn in Victor Nunez's Sundance Film Festival Grand jury Prize-winner Ruby in Paradise (1993). Field also starred in Nicole Holofcener's Walking and Talking (1996) which won the Grand Special Prize at the Deauville Film Festival in France. Other credits include Scott Ziehl's Broken Vessels (1998) in which Field starred and produced, and Stanley Kubrick's final masterpiece, Eyes Wide Shut (1999) in which he played the mysterious "Nick Nightingale". In 1999, Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "Field has a deceptive facade of all-American clean-cut looks that allows him to suggest a wide range of emotions and thoughts behind such a regular-guy appearance; in "Ruby in Paradise" he expressed such uncommon decency and intelligence you had to wonder how Ashley Judd's hardscrabble Ruby could ever have considered letting him get away. In "Eyes Wide Shut" he's the likable med school dropout turned saloon piano player, and in Broken Vessels he's an increasingly raging sociopath. In all these roles Field has the precious gift of being able to surprise you and to command your attention on screen." However, it was precisely at this point in his career that Field decided to leave acting behind and try instead to make a name for himself as a writer/director. His first film When I Was a Boy (1993) was selected by the Film Society of Lincoln Center as part of their New Directors/New Films series and was shown at the Museum of Modern Art. His next film, Nonnie & Alex (1995) received both the Special Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival and the Best Film prize at the Aspen Film Festival. The film was honored with a special citation from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Field also earned the Franklin J. Schaffner Award for Excellence from the AFI, one of the Institute's highest honors bestowed upon a filmmaker. In 2001, Field made his feature writing/directing debut with In the Bedroom (2001), an intensely emotional portrayal of the repercussions of family tragedy on a New England couple. Field won two Academy Award nominations, a Golden Globe nomination, and was named Best Director of the year by the National Board of Review. Internationally acclaimed by critics, the film was named Best Picture of the Year by The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, The New York Observer, and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

In 2006, Field co-wrote and directed Little Children (2006). The film, starring Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson, won numerous awards from the nation's top critics associations including writing awards for Field and Perrotta. The movie received three Golden Globe nominations including Best Picture of the Year, and was nominated for three Academy Awards.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Roberta Bresci

Spouse

Serena Rathbun

(25 July 1986 - present) 4 children

Trade Mark

His films tend to depict the dark side of small town USA and/or small, suburban-like communities.

His films are tough-minded and uncompromising. Sometimes visually arresting, but always violent. His actors acclaimed for career best performances and, in the case of Wilkinson & Haley, first-time Academy Award nominations.

Trivia

His father in law is famed screenwriter Bo Goldman.

His daughter, Alida P. Field, has appeared in three of his films. Most notably as the "Young Gymnast" selling candy door-to-door in In the Bedroom (2001).

He received his M.F.A from the American Film Institute (AFI).

Raised in Portland, Oregon, from the age of two when his father, then a truck driver, moved the family north after taking a job as a traveling salesman hawking welding supplies.

Son Henry Field played Nick Stahl's character as a child in In the Bedroom (2001).

Directed 5 actors in Oscar nominated performances: Tom Wilkinson, Sissy Spacek, Marisa Tomei, Kate Winslet, and Jackie Earle Haley.

Brother-in-law of Diana Rathbun, Mia Goldman and Justin Ashforth.

Personal Quotes

When I was a child, I was obsessed with the great conjurers. Not the guys that made an elephant disappear. People like Cardini...the magic, small, intimate, inches away. That's what interests me about film. It's the small moments. Not achieving larger than life status.

(on Los Angeles) Every once in a while you have to go back to LA. We're miners and that's where the mine is - it's a necessary evil.