Biography

Richard Schickel

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Born
February 10, 1933 · Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Died
February 18, 2017 · Los Angeles, California, USA (complications from a series of strokes)
Birth name
Richard Warren Schickel

Richard Schickel was born on February 10, 1933 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for The Big Red One (1980), Minnelli on Minnelli: Liza Remembers Vincente (1987) and Watch the Skies!: Science Fiction, the 1950s and Us (2005). He was married to Carol Rubenstein and Julia Carroll Whedon. He died on February 18, 2017 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Film historian and author.
Film Critic for Time Magazine since 1972. Before that, he was film critic for "Life" Magazine.
President of Lorac Productions, which produces documentaries on film history and personalities.
Release of the autobiography, "Lena" by Richard and Lena Horne.
In the first of his many film books, "Movies" (published in 1965), he referred to King Vidor dismissively as a hack director who had "ground out pot-boilers" until his death. In fact, the eminent director was still very much alive at the time (he did not die until 1982) and, some ten years later, Schickel interviewed him at length for a TV documentary. In his book "The Men Who Made The Movies", Schickel spoke of Vidor in the most laudatory terms and referred to him as "King", implying they were friends. He did not mention his 1965 dismissal, nor did he apologize for it. (It is possible he had confused King Vidor with Charles Vidor, a bad mistake for a critic to make in a history of the cinema).

The best kind of heroism is to be found in the relentless practice of one's profession. (Of fellow critic Pauline Kael): An almost demonically possessed little woman.
[on Robert Redford] Redford is adorable, but when they enriched that handsome hunk of white bread they somehow left out the mythic minerals.
[on Clint Eastwood] As a director, Eastwood is not as good as he thinks he is. As an actor, he is probably better than he allows himself to be.
[on Cary Grant] The drama in a Cary Grant movie is always seeing whether the star can be made to lose his wry, elegant and habitual aplomb.
[in 2012, on the Hollywood "Walk of Fame"] It has nothing to do with who is an authentic, for-the-ages star. That has deteriorated. It's driven entirely by what is hot at this moment, publicity and money. It's nice, but it's not the ultimate accolade for a movie actor.

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