Alan Hirschfield, former Columbia and Fox executive, dies at 79
Alan Hirschfield, a former entertainment executive who held top posts at Columbia Pictures in the 1970s and Twentieth Century Fox in the ‘80s, died Jan. 15 at his home in Wilson, Wyo., of what his family said were natural causes. He was 79.
Hirschfield was chief executive of Columbia Pictures from 1973 to 1978 and chairman of Twentieth Century Fox from 1982 to 1986.
Hirschfield was ousted at Columbia after he opposed the reinstatement of studio boss David Begelman, who embezzled more than $61,000.
Hirschfield was born in New York in 1935 and raised in Oklahoma. He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1957 and an MBA from the Harvard Business School two years later.
He is survived by his wife, Berte, three children and six grandchildren.
news.obits@latimes.com
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