Early life and education
Pollock was born in Los Angeles to Helene (née Zalk) and Dr. Joseph Pollock. He attended The Happy Valley School (now Besant Hill School) in Ojai, California, an institution his maternal grandfather had helped establish. He earned a B.A. with distinction from Stanford University in 1964 and a J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1967, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone scholar and served as a Law Review editor.1
Career
Entertainment law
In 1968, Pollock joined the American Film Institute as assistant to founder George Stevens, managing business affairs for the AFI's Center for Advanced Film Studies. In 1970, he established the entertainment law firm Pollock, Rigrod, and Bloom (later Pollock, Bloom and Dekom, now Bloom Hergott). Among his earliest and most consequential clients was filmmaker George Lucas. Pollock negotiated the landmark deal that secured Lucas the merchandising and sequel rights to Star Wars, a transaction George Lucas later described as pivotal to his development "as both a filmmaker and businessman from the get-go."2 The firm was also instrumental in initiating the Indiana Jones and Superman franchises.1
Universal Pictures (1986-1996)
In September 1986, Pollock was named executive vice president of MCA Inc. and chairman of Universal Pictures' motion picture group. Over the following decade, the studio released more than 200 films that grossed in excess of $10 billion worldwide. During his tenure, Pollock greenlit and oversaw a body of work that reshaped mainstream Hollywood: the Back to the Future trilogy, Do the Right Thing (1989), Born on the Fourth of July (1989), Field of Dreams (1989), Parenthood (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Cape Fear (1991), Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), Jurassic Park (1993), Schindler's List (1993, Best Picture winner), Apollo 13 (1995), and Babe (1995), among many others. He recruited major creative talents to the studio including Ron Howard, Martin Scorsese, and James Cameron.31
Following Seagram's acquisition of MCA in 1995, Pollock became first vice chairman before departing in March 1996. NBCUniversal's Ron Meyer later credited him as playing "a critical role in securing our studio's legacy."3
AFI and academia
After leaving Universal, Pollock returned to the American Film Institute as a member of its Board of Trustees, eventually becoming Chairman of the Board. He also taught in the film studies program at the University of California, Santa Barbara.14
The Montecito Picture Company
In 1998, Pollock co-founded The Montecito Picture Company with Ivan Reitman. The company produced a steady run of studio releases over the following two decades, including Road Trip (2000), Evolution (2001), Old School (2003), Disturbia (2007), Up in the Air (2009, Academy Award Best Picture nominee), I Love You, Man (2009), Hitchcock (2012), Draft Day (2014), and Baywatch (2017).2
Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016)
Through The Montecito Picture Company's ongoing partnership with Ivan Reitman and Sony Pictures, Pollock served as an executive producer on Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016), directed by Paul Feig and produced alongside Reitman, Amy Pascal, and others. The film represented the first theatrical Ghostbusters release since Ghostbusters II (1989).
Pollock and Reitman were attached through Montecito to produce a then-untitled Ghostbusters animated feature for Sony Pictures Animation, with Ali Bell and Kristine Belson overseeing for the studio. The project was in development at the time of Pollock's death.
Tributes in Ghostbusters: Afterlife
Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021), directed by Jason Reitman, includes a quiet tribute to Pollock. During the cross-rip sequence, a building bearing the name "Pollock" and the year 1943 (his birth year) appears on screen. In the film's final days of post-production, Jason Reitman digitally replaced the original placeholder text "Newcastle" with "Pollock" in his memory.
Personal life
Pollock had three children: Alexandra, Allegra, and Luke, and four grandchildren. He lived in Malibu, California.1
Death
Tom Pollock died on August 1, 2020, from a heart attack at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 77 years old.32
The 2020 Netflix film A Babysitter's Guide to Monster Hunting, which Pollock had executive produced, was dedicated to him.
References
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
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Wikipedia, "Tom Pollock." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Pollock
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Deadline, "Tom Pollock Dead: Ex-Universal Chairman Brokered George Lucas' Star Wars Deal" (August 2020). https://deadline.com/2020/08/tom-pollock-dead-universal-chairman-george-lucas-lawyer-star-wars-ivan-reitman-partner-1203001940/
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Variety, "Tom Pollock, Former Universal Pictures Chairman, Dies at 77" (August 2020). https://variety.com/2020/film/news/tom-pollock-universal-pictures-chairman-dead-dies-1234723345/
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UCSB Film and Media Studies, "In Memoriam: Tom Pollock (1943-2020)." https://www.filmandmedia.ucsb.edu/event/in-memoriam-tom-pollock-1943-2020/
