Todd Field

Todd Field
Field at Deauville American Film Festival press conference September 5, 2006.
Born	William Todd Field (1964-02-24) February 24, 1964 (age 52) Pomona, California, U.S.
Residence	Rockland, Maine
Alma mater	Mount Hood Community College, Southern Oregon University, AFI Conservatory
Occupation	Actor Film director Film producer Screenwriter
Years active	1985–present
Home town	Portland, Oregon
Spouse(s)	Serena Rathbun (1986 – )
Children	4

William Todd Field (born February 24, 1964) is an American actor and three-time Academy Award nominated filmmaker.

Field was born in Pomona, California, where his family ran a poultry farm. When Field turned two, his family moved to Portland, Oregon, where his father went to work as a salesman, and his mother became a school librarian. At an early age, he became interested in performing sleight-of-hand and later music. As a child in Portland, Field was a batboy for the Portland Mavericks, a single A independent minor league baseball club owned by Hollywood actor Bing Russell. Kurt Russell, Bing's son and later an acclaimed Hollywood actor in his own right, also played for the Portland Mavericks during this time. Field and Maverick Pitching Coach Rob Nelson created the first batch of Big League Chew in the Field family kitchen. In 1980 Nelson and former New York Yankees all-star Jim Bouton sold the idea to the Wrigley Company. Since that time over 600 million pouches have been sold worldwide.

A budding jazz musician, at the age of sixteen Field became a member of the Big Band at Mount Hood Community College in Gresham, Oregon. Headed by Larry McVey, the band had become a proving-ground and regular stop for Stan Kenton and Mel Tormé when they were looking for new players. It was here Field played trombone along with his friend, trumpeter and future Grammy Award Winner, Chris Botti. During this same time he also worked as a non-union projectionist at a second-run movie theater. Field graduated with his class from Centennial High School on Portland's east side and briefly attended Southern Oregon State College (now Southern Oregon University) in Ashland on a music scholarship, but left after his freshman year favoring a move to New York to study acting with Robert X. Modica at his renowned Carnegie Hall Studio. Soon after, Field began performing with the Ark Theatre Company as both an actor and musician. He received his Master of Fine Arts from the AFI Conservatory.