Person biography:
William Todd Field was born in Pomona, California, and grew up in Portland, Oregon. He began acting after high school and moved to New York to study at the Ark Theatre Company. Field won a role in Woody Allen's Radio Days (1987) and had a Spirit Award-nominated turn in Ruby in Paradise (1993). He also starred in Nicole Holofcener's Walking and Talking (1996) and Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut (1999).
Field's breakthrough came with his role in Ruby in Paradise, where he played a likable character and demonstrated his range as an actor. He continued to work in film and television, starring in Broken Vessels (1998) and producing and starring in Stanley Kubrick's final film, Eyes Wide Shut.
In 1999, Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times praised Field's acting, saying, "Field has a deceptive facade of all-American clean-cut looks that allows him to suggest a wide range of emotions and thoughts behind such a regular-guy appearance; in "Ruby in Paradise" he expressed such uncommon decency and intelligence you had to wonder how Ashley Judd's hardscrabble Ruby could ever have considered letting him get away."
However, Field decided to leave acting behind and focus on writing and directing. His first film, When I Was a Boy (1993),was selected by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and showed at the Museum of Modern Art. His next film, Nonnie & Alex (1995),received the Special Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival and the Best Film prize at the Aspen Film Festival.
Field's breakthrough as a writer-director came with In the Bedroom (2001),which received five Academy Award nominations and won numerous awards from critics associations. He went on to direct Little Children (2006),which won writing awards and received three Golden Globe nominations.
