In Memoriam

Thomas P. Pollock (1943-2020) was a film producer and entertainment attorney. He was born April 10, 1943, in Los Angeles, California. He graduated with a B.A. from Stanford University in 1964, and received a J.D. from Columbia University in 1967. He served as chairman of Universal Pictures and was a founder of the Montecito Picture Company.

During Pollock’s tenure as Chairman of Universal, the studio released over 200 films that grossed in excess of $10 billion worldwide, including Jurassic Park, Parenthood, Cape Fear, Twins, The Flintstones, Kindergarten Cop, Back to the Future 2 and 3, Casper, Waterworld, Backdraft, Beethoven, Do The Right Thing, Fried Green Tomatoes, Sneakers, and Lorenzo’s Oil.

During this time, Universal received seven Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, including Schindler’s List, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1993. Other Best Picture nominees include Field of Dreams, Born of the Fourth of July, Scent of a Woman, In the Name of the Father, Apollo 13, and Babe.

Mr. Pollock was also responsible for bringing numerous creative talents to the studio including Ivan Reitman, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer of Imagine Entertainment, Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, George Miller, Jon Avnet, Martin Brest, Rob Cohen, Phil Alden Robinson, Jim Sheridan, James Cameron and Larry Gordon.

In 1998, Pollock worked with director/producer Ivan Reitman to form The Montecito Picture Company. Montecito has produced Road Trip (2000), Evolution (2001), Old School (2003), Disturbia (2007), Up in the Air (2009), Hitchcock (2012), Ghostbusters (2016), and Baywatch (2017).

Pollock served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American Film Institute and was a trustee of the American Museum of the Moving Image. He served as an adjunct professor of film and media studies at UC Santa Barbara, and was a trustee of the Los Angeles Music Center.