Verna Fields - Final Cuts

Final Cuts

In 1981, she was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award for outstanding women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry.

Fields held her position as a Vice-President at Universal until her death in 1982. Jaws was the last film that she edited. There had apparently been some discussion that Fields might edit Spielberg's next film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), but Michael Kahn edited that film, and went on to edit all but one of Spielberg's films for the next thirty years. After John D. Hancock, the initial director of Jaws 2, was sacked, it was suggested that Fields co-direct it with Joe Alves. Jeannot Szwarc, however, was hired to complete the film.

Fields died of cancer in Encino, California in 1982. In her honor, Universal Studios named a building at its Universal City, California lot the "Verna Fields Building"; it lies immediately across from the Alfred Hitchcock Building. The Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE) sponsor an annual Verna Fields Award for Student Sound Editing. The Women in Film Foundation, which honored Fields with its Crystal Award in 1981, presently administers the Verna Fields Memorial Fellowship for women film students at UCLA.