Charles Davenport Champlin (March 23, 1926 – November 16, 2014) was an American
film critic
Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, magazines and other popular mass-media outlets ...
and
writer.
Life and career
Champlin was born in
Hammondsport, New York
Hammondsport is a village at the south end of Keuka Lake, in Steuben County, one of the Finger Lakes of New York, United States.
The Village of Hammondsport is in the Town of Urbana and is northeast of Bath.
History
Lazarus Hammond founded ...
. He attended high school in
Camden, New York, working as a columnist for the ''Camden Advance-Journal'' and editor Florence Stone. His family has been active in the wine industry in upstate New York since 1855. He served in the infantry in Europe in
World War II and was awarded the
Purple Heart
The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, w ...
and battle stars. He graduated from
Harvard University in 1948 and joined ''
Life'' magazine.
Champlin was a writer and correspondent for ''Life'' and ''
Time'' magazine for seventeen years, and was a member of the
Overseas Press Club. He joined the ''
Los Angeles Times'' as entertainment editor and columnist in 1965, was its principal film critic from 1967 to 1980, and wrote book reviews and a regular column titled "Critic at Large". He co-founded the
Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and has been a board member of the
American Cinematheque.
Champlin's television career began in 1971 when he hosted ''Film Odyssey'' on
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educati ...
, introducing classic films and interviewing major directors. That same year, he hosted a live music series, ''Homewood'', for
KCET, the Los Angeles PBS station. For six years he co-hosted a public affairs program, ''Citywatchers'', on KCET with columnist Art Seidenbaum. He has interviewed hundreds of film personalities, first on the
Z Channel
The Z Channel was one of the first pay television stations in the United States best known for its devotion to the art of cinema due to the eclectic choice of films"Film-News and Notes." ''Daily News of Los Angeles'' October 3, 1986 by the prog ...
's ''On the Film Scene'' in Los Angeles, then with ''Champlin on Film'' on
Bravo.
Champlin taught film criticism at
Loyola Marymount University
Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit and Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary, Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. It is located on the west side of the city near P ...
from 1969 to 1985, was adjunct professor of film at USC from 1985 to 1996, and has also taught at
UC Irvine and the
AFI Conservatory. He has also written many books, including his biographies ''Back There where the Past Was'' (1989) and ''A Life in Writing'' (2006).
In 1980 Champlin was on the jury of the feature film competition at that year's
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films ...
, serving alongside the likes of
Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas (born Issur Danielovitch; December 9, 1916 – February 5, 2020) was an American actor and filmmaker. After an impoverished childhood, he made his film debut in '' The Strange Love of Martha Ivers'' (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck. Do ...
,
Ken Adam and
Leslie Caron. Twelve years later, in 1992, he was a member of the jury at the
42nd Berlin International Film Festival and served on the advisory board of the
Los Angeles Student Film Institute.
In his later years, since the late 1990s, Champlin had
macular degeneration, and in 2001 wrote ''My Friend, You Are Legally Blind'', a
memoir
A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobio ...
about his struggle with the disease. He died on November 16, 2014, aged 88, suffering from
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As ...
.
Bibliography
* ''The Flicks: Or, Whatever Became of Andy Hardy''. 1977,
* ''The Movies Grow Up: 1940–1980''. 1982,
* ''George Lucas: The Creative Impulse. Lucasfilm's First Twenty Years''. 1992,
* ''John Frankenheimer: A Conversation With Charles Champlin''. 1995,
* ''Hollywood's Revolutionary Decade: Charles Champlin Reviews the Movies of the 1970s''. 1998,
* ''Back There Where the Past Was: A Small-Town Boyhood''. 1999, (Foreword by Ray Bradbury)
* ''My Friend, You Are Legally Blind: A Writer's Struggle with Macular Degeneration''. 2001,
* ''A Life in Writing: The Story of an American Journalist''. 2006,
References
External links
Obituary in ''Los Angeles Times''Internet Movie Database b*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Champlin, Charles
1926 births
2014 deaths
American film critics
American film historians
Film theorists
American male non-fiction writers
Los Angeles Times people
PBS people
Loyola Marymount University faculty
USC School of Cinematic Arts faculty
Harvard University alumni
United States Army soldiers
United States Army personnel of World War II
People from Camden, New York
People from Hammondsport, New York
Historians from New York (state)
Historians from California
Deaths from Alzheimer's disease
Deaths from dementia in California