Bert Fields

Bert Fields, the colorful and canny dean of Hollywood lawyers whose services were called on by superstars and studios alike knowing they would get a no-holds-barred defense and all but assured of some measure of victory, died on Sunday August 7 2022 at his home in Malibu, Calif. He was 93. The cause was complications of long Covid-19, his wife, Barbara Guggenheim, said. Bert Fields ws one of the nation's leading entertainment attorneys, representing a who's who of Hollywood. Mr. Fields represents the industry’s top performers, directors, writers, producers, studios, talent agencies, book publishers and record companies. Clients have included DreamWorks, MGM, United Artists, Toho, James Cameron, Tom Cruise, Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman, Mike Nichols, Jeffrey Katzenberg, David Geffen, Jerry Bruckheimer, Joel Silver, The Beatles, Madonna, Sony Music and many others. In addition, he has represented such major authors as Mario Puzo, James Clavell, Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler and Richard Bach. Bert represented virtually every major Hollywood studio and talent agency, and he has tried many of the landmark cases in the entertainment and communications industries over the past 30 years. His practice was international in scope and extends beyond the field of entertainment, having represented such diverse clients as Arizona cotton farmers, Las Vegas hotels and casinos, real estate developers and regional shopping centers, clothing designers, manufacturers, boxing promoters, investment firms and even a Japanese Bank. Bert was the author, under a pseudonym, of two novels, the first published by Simon and Schuster and the second by Random House. His third book is a biographical work on Richard III published by ReganBooks/HarperCollins under his own name. His fourth book is an analysis of the Shakespeare authorship question, also published by ReganBooks/HarperCollins. Bert was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has been a contributor to the Op/Ed pages of the Los Angeles Times. He handled the divorce of a fashion model, Lydia Menovich, and fell in love with her; she became his second wife. They were married for 27 years, until her death of lung cancer in 1986.He met Ms. Guggenheim, an art consultant and his third wife, when he defended her against a lawsuit by Sylvester Stallone. In addition to her, he is survived by a son from his first marriage, James, and two grandchildren. Harvard Law School (LL.B., magna cum laude, 1952) University of California, Los Angeles (B.A., 1949)