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Jeffrey Katzenberg, Tom Cruise, Elaine May, and Dustin Hoffman say goodbye to a fearless friend at the Bert Fields Memorial

On Sunday, current and former Hollywood power brokers formally said one of their own farewell.

Clients, family, and coworkers paid tribute to Bert Fields at a memorial service today in Santa Monica. Bert Fields passed away on August 8 at the age of 93. Jeffrey Katzenberg, Dustin Hoffman, Susan Estrich and Michael Ovitz paid tribute to the Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger LLP partner and industry consigliere in front of a well-heeled crowd that included Fields’ widow Barbara Guggenheim, Leslie Moonves and Julie Chen Moonves, Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy, uber-producer Jerry Bruckheimer and David Geffen among many others.

In their own right, Katzenberg, Hoffman, and Ovitz recalled a man who was obviously both their buddy and their lawyer.

According to Katzenberg of Fields, who acted as his representative in the late 1990s during Katzenberg’s multimillion-dollar settlement battle against Disney, “like the greatest of gladiators, he loved to take on formidable opponents.” Fields’ “wicked sense of humour” was mentioned by the former DreamWorks Animation boss, who also referred to the lawyer as a “kind, loyal, and giving friend” and a “superhero,” prompting laughter from the crowded audience at the Eli and Edythe Broad Stage.

Fields’ “fearless” character was later mentioned by an emotional Hoffman, and it was a trait that was praised all afternoon. “A man who I will always think of…forever in his prime,” the Oscar winner said of Fields.

Throughout the three-hour memorial, which was primarily attended by masked mourners, longtime Fields clientele Tom Cruise and the heartwarmingly funny Elaine May virtually appeared to express their condolences and recollections of the man.

The Mission: Impossible actor recalled first meeting Fields through Hoffman while working on Rain Man. Cruise referred to Fields as “the most fascinating person I’ve ever met” and that he was “grateful” for their friendship. Fields was “a someone I knew I could always trust on,” continued Cruise.

Former CAA CEO Ovitz addressed the gathering and remarked, “He loved Davids, he loathed Goliaths.”

The memorial service on Sunday started with a video homage to the lawyer’s life, work, family, and sense of humour, which was preceded by a clip from an old Dragnet episode depicting a matinee idol-like Fields playing a courtroom lawyer.

Colleagues of Fields, his goddaughter Ali Hoffman, and other family members, including the lawyer’s grandkids Michael and Annabelle Fields, also spoke at the memorial service today, which was emceed by Rich Eisen.

The comments, however, certainly belonged to Fields’ widow Guggenheim. Guggenheim ended the tribute with an intimate look at the life of the man she was married to for more than three decades in a series of loving, sad, Shakespearean, and jovial but always composed statements.

She stated in a speech that frequently saw her voice break with emotion, “He was always very friendly to everyone.” Guggenheim also had some news for the audience in addition to providing insight into Fields’ writings about the lives of Richard III, Shakespeare, and Elizabeth I among other volumes he wrote. She claimed that just before he passed away, Fields finished writing his final book about William the Conqueror and the history of the Plantagenet family.

Guggenheim praised the “fighting energy in all spheres of life” of her prolific husband and pledged that the work would be published.

Fields was a natural-born raconteur who took great pride in both his literary and legal pursuits. This fact only helped to increase his reputation in high-profile circles when you consider that in the late 1990s, Fields successfully sued Disney and Michael Eisner to obtain a $250 million settlement for former studio head Katzenberg. Fields’ holistic legal approach and somewhat prescient embrace of technological prospects for the entertainment industry, which have become mythologized over the years as a Jeffrey vs. Goliath battle, left Disney lawyers in a state of disbelief.

Avatar creator James Cameron, Madonna, Hoffman, Warren Beatty (against Paramount over cuts to the acclaimed Reds), the Beatles, Michael Jackson, The Godfather author Mario Puzo and his estate, Star Wars creator George Lucas, Bruckheimer, and Steven Spielberg were among the other clients. Harvey and Bob Weinstein, now despised, were another client.

Fields was enticed into Hollywood’s seedier side, but he was never afraid to take off the white gloves. Problematic was the lawyer’s connection to disgraced P.I. Anthony Pellicano, who spent ten years in prison before being freed in 2019. Fields testified in the FBI’s case against Pellicano in 2008; Pellicano was a frequent employee of Fields’. Fields ultimately emerged from the courtroom drama and Pellicano’s acts largely unscathed thanks to his expertise on the witness stand and Teflon skin.

Even while the incidents were only briefly referenced during the memorial, today’s gathering of major figures demonstrated that Fields’ career has moved past those troubled times.

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