Arthur Knight (1916–1991) was an American movie critic, film historian, professor and TV host. His book ''The Liveliest Art,'' first published in 1957, is a history of the cinema used as a textbook at colleges and universities throughout the world.

Early life

He graduated from

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

in 1940, and became an assistant film curator at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

. He served in the Army from 1941 to 1945, becoming a first lieutenant.

Film teacher

Institutions at which he taught include: *

Brooklyn Academy of Music The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is a performing arts venue in Brooklyn, New York City, known as a center for progressive and avant-garde performance. It presented its first performance in 1861 and began operations in its present location in ...

* City College of New York Institute of Film Techniques *

New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR) is a graduate-level educational institution that is one of the divisions of The New School in New York City, United States. The university was founded in 1919 as a home for progressive era thinkers. NSSR ...

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

* Australian Film Television and Radio School His former students at USC include

George Lucas George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker. Lucas is best known for creating the ''Star Wars'' and ''Indiana Jones'' franchises and founding Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as chairm ...

Robert Zemeckis Robert Lee Zemeckis (born May 14, 1952) is an American filmmaker. He first came to public attention as the director of the action-adventure romantic comedy ''Romancing the Stone'' (1984), the science-fiction comedy ''Back to the Future'' film tr ...

John Carpenter John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American filmmaker, actor, and composer. Although he worked in various film genres, he is most commonly associated with horror, action, and science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s. He ...

and

Randal Kleiser John Randal Kleiser (born July 20, 1946) is an American film and television director, producer, screenwriter and actor, best known for directing the 1978 musical romantic-comedy film '' Grease''. Biography John Randal Kleiser was born in Lebanon ...

. His former film history students at the City College of New York Institute of Film Techniques include Donald Swerdlow (now Don Canaan), an award-winning journalist and film editor, Producer Michael Hertzberg, DGA-First AD - Frank Capra Award Recipient Alex Hapsas, Writer-Director David Saperstein (Cocoon). Mehdi Tehrani (professor of film studies at the

University of Tehran The University of Tehran (Tehran University or UT, fa, دانشگاه تهران) is the most prominent university located in Tehran, Iran. Based on its historical, socio-cultural, and political pedigree, as well as its research and teaching pro ...

Fine Arts Campus and

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 ...

) was one of his last students in 1990.

Movie critic

He reviewed movies for many publications, principally: * '' The Saturday Review'' (1949–1973) * ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' (1973–1986)

Host and producer

He wrote, produced and hosted the 1985 cable TV series ''Sex in Cinema'' for the

Playboy Channel Playboy TV (originally The Playboy Channel) is a pay television channel based in the United States. History The channel first launched on December 9, 1980, as Escapade by AMC Networks, Rainbow Programing Services (a joint-venture of four cab ...

. He was also the host of the syndicated radio series ''Knight at the Movies''. In 1974, he was a member of the jury at the 24th Berlin International Film Festival.

Personal life

His first wife was costume designer

Mary Ann Nyberg Mary Ann Nyberg (February 7, 1923 – September 19, 1979) was an American costume designer who was nominated for two Academy Awards. Oscar Nominations Both nominations were in the category of Best Costumes-Color. * 1953 Academy Awards – Nomin ...

, who died in 1979. He was survived by his wife, Anne.

References

External links

*
Arthur Knight at Yahoo! Movies
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Knight, Arthur 1916 births 1991 deaths City College of New York alumni American film critics American film historians American male non-fiction writers Film theorists USC School of Cinematic Arts faculty Writers from Philadelphia 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers Historians from Pennsylvania Historians from California American expatriates in Australia