Joseph McBride (born August 9, 1947) is an American

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

biographer Biographers are authors who write an account of another person's life, while autobiographers are authors who write their own biography. Biographers Countries of working life: Ab=Arabia, AG=Ancient Greece, Al=Australia, Am=Armenian, AR=Ancient Rome ...

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

and

educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

. He has written books on a variety of subjects including notable film directors, screenwriting, the JFK assassination, and a memoir of his youth. He also serves as professor in the Cinema Department at San Francisco State University.

Career

Early life and career

Born in

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

, McBride grew up in the suburb of Wauwatosa. He attended the

University of Wisconsin, Madison A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

, and worked as a reporter for the ''

Wisconsin State Journal The ''Wisconsin State Journal'' is a daily newspaper published in Madison, Wisconsin by Lee Enterprises. The newspaper, the second largest in Wisconsin, is primarily distributed in a 19 county region in south-central Wisconsin. As of Septembe ...

'' in Madison, before moving to California in 1973.

Books

McBride has published more than 20 books, including biographies of directors

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg ( ; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is ...

(''Steven Spielberg: A Biography'', 1997, and published in translation in mainland

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

in 2012),

Frank Capra Frank Russell Capra (born Francesco Rosario Capra; May 18, 1897 – September 3, 1991) was an Italian-American film director, producer, and screenwriter who was the creative force behind Frank Capra filmography#Films that won Academy Award ...

(''Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success'', 1992), two of

John Ford John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), better known as John Ford, was an American film director and producer. He is regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers during the Golden Age of Hollywood, and w ...

: ''John Ford'' (with Michael Wilmington, 1974) and ''Searching for John Ford)'' (2001) and three of Orson Welles: ''Orson Welles'' (1972), ''Orson Welles: Actor and Director'' (1977) and ''What Ever Happened to Orson Welles?: A Portrait of an Independent Career'' (2006). McBride's interview book with

Howard Hawks Howard Winchester Hawks (May 30, 1896December 26, 1977) was an American film director, Film producer, producer, and screenwriter of the Classical Hollywood cinema, classic Hollywood era. Critic Leonard Maltin called him "the greatest American ...

, '' Hawks on Hawks'', was published in 1982. In 2012, he published a

screenwriting Screenwriting or scriptwriting is the art and craft of writing scripts for mass media such as feature films, television productions or video games. It is often a freelance profession. Screenwriters are responsible for researching the story, dev ...

manual, ''Writing in Pictures: Screenwriting Made (Mostly) Painless''. In the book, McBride uses his adaptation of

Jack London John Griffith London (; January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors t ...

’s short story "

To Build a Fire "To Build a Fire" is a short story by American author Jack London. There are two versions of this story. The first one was published in 1902, and the other was published in 1908. The story written in 1908 has become an often anthologized class ...

" to break down the steps necessary for a screenplay, such as research, treatments, and outlines. The book draws from his extensive teaching experience. In 2013, he published ''Into the Nightmare: My Search for the Killers of President John F. Kennedy and Officer J. D. Tippit'', which was the result of McBride's 31-year investigation of the case. Later, in 2015, he published ''The Broken Places: A Memoir'', which deals with his troubled childhood, his teenage breakdown, and his subsequent recovery. Columbia University Press published ''How Did Lubitsch Do It?'', McBride's look at the career of filmmaker

Ernst Lubitsch Ernst Lubitsch (; ; January 29, 1892November 30, 1947) was a German-born American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; a ...

, in June 2018. In March 2019, McBride's ''Frankly: Unmasking Frank Capra'' was published. It recounts his legal battle with original publisher Knopf/Random House and Capra allies over publication of his biography ''Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success'', which was published by Simon & Schuster in 1992. His biography of

Billy Wilder Billy Wilder (; ; born Samuel Wilder; June 22, 1906 – March 27, 2002) was an American filmmaker and screenwriter. His career in Hollywood (film industry), Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is regarded as one of the most brilliant and ver ...

, ''Billy Wilder: Dancing on the Edge'' was published in 2021.

Film and television

McBride's screenwriting credits include '' Blood and Guts'' (1978) and '' Rock 'n' Roll High School'' (1979) and five

American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the History of cinema in the United States, motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private fu ...

Life Achievement Award specials on CBS-TV about

Fred Astaire Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz, May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, actor, singer, musician, choreographer, and presenter, whose career in stage, film, and television spanned 76 years. He is widely regarded as the "g ...

Lillian Gish Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893 – February 27, 1993) was an American actress best known for her work in movies of the silent era. Her film-acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. Gish was dubbed the "F ...

John Huston John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics. He rec ...

, and

James Stewart James Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American actor and military aviator. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991. With the strong morali ...

. He was also cowriter of the United States Information Agency worldwide live TV special ''Let Poland Be Poland'' (1982). He plays a film critic, Mr. Pister, in the Orson Welles feature '' The Other Side of the Wind'' (1970–76) and served as a consultant on its completion in 2018. He is also the coproducer of the documentaries ''Obsessed with Vertigo: New Life for Hitchcock's Masterpiece'' (1997) and ''John Ford Goes to War'' (2002).

Awards and honors

McBride received the "Television: Comedy/Variety - Special"

Writers Guild of America Award The Writers Guild of America Awards is an award for film, television, and radio writing including both fiction and non-fiction categories given by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America West since 1949. Eligibility Th ...

in 1984 for cowriting ''The American Film Institute Salute to John Huston'' with producer George Stevens, Jr. He has also received four other WGA nominations, two

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award catego ...

nominations, and a

Canadian Film Award The Canadian Film Awards were the leading Canadian cinema awards from 1949 until 1978. These honours were conducted annually, except in 1974 when a number of Quebec directors withdrew their participation and prompted a cancellation. In the 1970s ...

s nomination. The French edition of ''Searching for John Ford'', titled ''A la recherche de John Ford,'' published in 2007, was chosen the Best Foreign Film Book of the Year by the French film critics' association, le Syndicat Français de la Critique de Cinéma. A documentary feature on his life and work, ''Behind the Curtain: Joseph McBride on Writing Film History,'' written and directed by Hart Perez, had its world debut in 2011 at the Tiburon International Film Festival in Tiburon, Marin County, CA, and was released on DVD in 2012.

Personal life

McBride lives in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

. His life partner is author and psychology educator Ann Weiser Cornell.McBride, Joseph
''Writing in Pictures: Screenwriting Made (Mostly) Painless''

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

, 2012. pp. 352–353.

Bibliography

As author

* ''Orson Welles'' (1972, revised and expanded 1996) * ''John Ford'' (1975, with Michael Wilmington, revised and expanded 2023) * ''Kirk Douglas'' (1976) * ''Orson Welles: Actor and Director'' (1977) * ''High and Inside: An A-to-Z Guide to the Language of Baseball'' (1980) * '' Hawks on Hawks'' (1982) * ''Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success'' (1992) * ''Steven Spielberg: A Biography'' (1997, revised and expanded 2012) * ''The Book of Movie Lists: An Offbeat, Provocative Collection of the Best and Worst of Everything in Movies'' (1998) * ''Searching for John Ford'' (2001) * ''What Ever Happened to Orson Welles?: A Portrait of an Independent Career'' (2006, revised and expanded 2022) * ''Writing in Pictures: Screenwriting Made (Mostly) Painless'' (2012) * ''Into the Nightmare: My Search for the Killers of President John F. Kennedy and Officer J.D. Tippit'' (2013) * ''The Broken Places: A Memoir'' (2015) * ''Two Cheers for Hollywood: Joseph McBride on Movies'' (2017) * ''How Did Lubitsch Do It?'' (2018) * ''Frankly: Unmasking Frank Capra'' (2019) * ''Billy Wilder: Dancing on the Edge'' (2021) * ''Political Truth: The Media and the Assassination of President Kennedy'' (2022) * ''The Whole Durn Human Comedy: Life According to the Coen Brothers'' (2022)

As editor

* ''Persistence of Vision: A Collection of Film Criticism'' (1968) * ''Focus on Howard Hawks'' (1972) * ''Filmmakers on Filmmaking: The American Film Institute Seminars on Motion Pictures and Television, Volume 1'' (1983) * ''Filmmakers on Filmmaking: The American Film Institute Seminars on Motion Pictures and Television, Volume 2'' (1983)

References

External links

Official site
* *
Beatrice interview: Joseph McBride
{{DEFAULTSORT:McBride, Joseph 1947 births Living people 20th-century American biographers 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American biographers 21st-century American male writers American conspiracy theorists American film critics American film historians American male biographers American male screenwriters Film theorists John F. Kennedy conspiracy theorists People from Wauwatosa, Wisconsin Researchers of the assassination of John F. Kennedy San Francisco State University faculty Screenwriters from California Screenwriters from Wisconsin Screenwriting instructors University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Writers from Milwaukee Journalists from Milwaukee