Vincent Canby was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for The New York Times from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in 2000.
13 Facts About Vincent Canby
2.
Vincent Canby reviewed more than one thousand films during his tenure there.
3.
Vincent Canby attended boarding school in Christchurch, Virginia, with novelist William Styron, and the two became friends.
4.
Vincent Canby became an ensign in the United States Navy Reserve on October 13,1942, and reported aboard the Landing Ship, Tank 679 on July 15,1944.
5.
Vincent Canby was promoted to lieutenant on January 1,1946, while on LST 679 sailing near Japan.
6.
Vincent Canby obtained his first job as a journalist in 1948 for the Chicago Journal of Commerce.
7.
In December, 1994, Vincent Canby was replaced as the chief film critic by Janet Maslin and switched his attention from film to theatre, being named the Sunday theatre critic.
8.
Vincent Canby, was an occasional playwright and novelist, penning the novels Living Quarters and Unnatural Scenery and the plays End of the War, After All and The Old Flag, a drama set during the American Civil War.
9.
The career of Vincent Canby is discussed in the film For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism by contemporary critics such as The Nations Stuart Klawans, who talks of Canby's influence.
10.
Vincent Canby never married, but was, for many years, the companion of English author Penelope Gilliatt, whom he survived in 1993.
11.
Vincent Canby died from cancer in New York City on October 15,2000.
12.
Almost three years later, upon the death of Bob Hope, the late Vincent Canby's byline appeared on the front page of The New York Times.
13.
Vincent Canby had written the bulk of Hope's obituary several years before.