Howard Thompson (film critic)
Title: Howard Thompson (film critic)
Subject: Malcolm X (1972 film), Countdown (1968 film), I'll Take Sweden, The Disorderly Orderly, The Landlord
Howard Thompson
Natchez, Mississippi
Cape Canaveral, Florida
Journalist and film critic
Notable credit(s)
Howard Thompson (1919 - March 10, 2002) was an US journalist and film critic whose career of forty-one years was spent at the New York Times.
Thompson was born in Natchez, Mississippi. He began his college studies at Louisiana State University but left to serve as a paratrooper in the United States Army during World War II. He was captured and spent six months in a German prisoner of war camp. After the war he continued his studies at Columbia University. In 1947, he joined the New York Times as an office boy in the personnel department, and soon moved to the movie section as a clerk to Bosley Crowther, the venerable film critic at the Times.[1] He later advanced to a reporter who frequently interviewed film personalities and finally became a critic in the late 1950s. He also served as chairman of the New York Film Critics.[2]
Thompson gained a reputation for his pithy comments about films for the television listings. The Village Voice called him "the Virgil of TV guides," and his capsule reviews were labeled "Tiny Thompsons." He retired from full-time work in 1988 but continued to write the "Critic's Choice" column and his famous one-liners for the movie listings.
Thompson had a stroke in 1996. He died of pneumonia in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The New York Times Guide to Movies on TV by Howard Thompson, published by Darien House (1970)
^ McCabe, Bret (December 25, 2002). "Droll Economy: Howard Thompson". Baltimore City Paper. Retrieved 2011-01-15.
^ Martin, Douglas (March 13, 2002). "Howard Thompson, 82, Writer Of Mini-Reviews for The Times". The New York Times.
WorldHeritage articles with VIAF identifiers
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American journalists
American film critics
Critics employed by The New York Times
People from Natchez, Mississippi
Louisiana State University alumni
Columbia University alumni
Deaths from pneumonia
News, Photojournalism, Citizen journalism, War, Broadcast journalism
Library of Congress, Diana, Princess of Wales, Latin, Oclc, Integrated Authority File
United States Air Force, American Revolutionary War, Virginia, Texas, North Carolina
Malcolm X (1972 film)
Malcolm X, Warner Bros., Spike Lee, Nation of Islam, Arnold Perl
Countdown (1968 film)
Robert Duvall, Robert Altman, James Caan (actor), Soviet Union, Malaysia
I'll Take Sweden
Frankie Avalon, Sweden, Edward Small, Frederick de Cordova, Bob Hope