Tom Pollock

Tom Pollock was not your ordinary studio chief. Trained as a lawyer, Pollock chaired Universal Pictures for nine years (1986 to 1996) and went on to partner with Ivan Reitman’s Montecito Picture Company, chair the Board of Trustees at the American Film Institute, and teach at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Pollock steered Universal through a rich and storied period, and took risks that many studio chiefs would not. He died of a heart attack on August 1 2020. Before he joined Universal, Pollock made a name for himself as the attorney who brokered the influential billion-dollar “Star Wars” deal for George Lucas, who retained rights to the franchise.