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Verna Fields
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Verna Fields (21 March 1918 - 30 November 1982) was an American film editor and executive.
Although she worked on many films, including American Graffiti and The Sugarland Express, she is probably best known for her work as film editor on Jaws. Due to the production problems with the malfunctioning shark, some have credited Fields for saving the film (though others point out that there must have been something to 'save' in the first place).
In the retrospective documentary featured on the DVD, Steven Spielberg says that she was affectionately referred to as 'Mother-cutter'.
After she won the Academy Award for Film Editing for her work on Jaws, she was promoted to a vice-chair at Universal Studios.
After John Hancock, the original director of Jaws 2 was sacked, it was suggested that she co-directed it with Joe Alves (who would later direct Jaws 3-D). Jeannot Szwarc was hired, however, to complete the film.
She died of cancer in Encino, California in 1982.
Motion Picture Sound Editors sponsors the annual Verna Fields Award for Student Sound Editing.
Variety's Eileen Kowalski notes that, "Indeed, many of the editorial greats have been women: Dede Allen, Verna Fields, Thelma Schoonmaker, Anne V. Coates and Dorothy Spencer."[1]