Nancy Fields O'Connor

Nancy Fields O’Connor was a philanthropist, artist, author, activist, humanitarian, actress, and documentary film producer. She was a founding member of the John Wayne Cancer Institute. She and her husband Carroll O’Connor took the award for the Institute’s Duke Award in 1990 for “their outstanding support for cancer research.”

Nancy Fields O’Connor helped develop a charitable support group for a melanoma cancer research and treatment center at UCLA. She and her partner Carroll O’Connor donated $1 million to the University of Montana’s Center for the Rocky Mountain West, regional studies, and public policy institute.

The Center was renamed Carroll and Nancy Fields O’Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West in September 1997. Nancy was a member of the board of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, which she helped design in 2004.

Nancy O’Connor developed a celebrated exhibition and catalog of her grandfather Fred E. Miller’s historic collection of over 600 photographs of the Crow Indian Tribe from 1895-1920.

Nancy was also an actress. She is known for A Whale of a Tale (1976), The Celluloid Closet (1995), and The Mike Douglas Show (1961). She is the author of Fred E. Miller: Photographer of the Crows (Carnan Vidfilm; 1985) and was executive producer of the 2007 documentary Anita O’Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer.