Alan J Hirschfield

Longtime entertainment exec Alan Hirschfield, who oversaw such films as “Taxi Driver” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and held high posts at Columbia Pictures and 20th Century Fox, according to his son Marc Hirschfield. Hirschfield served as CEO of Columbia Pictures from 1973 to 1978. The exec was ousted from the studio after he refused on moral grounds to reinstate David Begelman, who had embezzled tens of thousands of dollars from Columbia. He served as chairman for 20th Century Fox from 1982 to 1986. Hirschfield was co-CEO and investment banker at Financial News Network from 1990 to 1992. From 1992 to 2000, he served as co-CEO of Data Broadcasting Corp. He then returned to consulting in the media and entertainment industry as president of Norman Hirschfield and Company. In the 1960s, he was an investment banker, and director and CFO of Warner/7 Arts. Hirschfield served on the boards of directors of Forbes, Carmike Cinemas, CBS Marketwatch, Billboard Publishing, Motown Records, Chappell Music Publishing, Chyron Corp., Cantel Medical Corp., Peregrine Systems, Interactive Data Corp., Enercrest, Wiltel Corp. and Leucadia National Corp. Marc Hirschfield also credits Alan Hirschfield with starting Arista Records with Clive Davis. Hirschfield, who was born in New York and raised in Oklahoma, is survived by his wife, three children, six grandchildren, niece and grand-niece. He also served with a number of philanthropic and non-profit organizations, including as director of the Lymphoma Research Foundation, as a trustee of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, The George Gustav Haye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian, Grand Teton Music Festival and the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole. He also was a trustee of the American Film Institute and an MPAA director. Director Carmike Cinemas, Inc. (NASDAQ), a national theatre chain; and Leucadia National and Leucadia National Corp. (NSYE), a holding company engaged in various operating and investing activities.