Joseph L. Williams (November 9, 1958 – July 26, 2015) was the film critic for the daily ''

St. Louis Post-Dispatch The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the ''Belleville News-De ...

'' (#29 among U.S. newspapers) and the Web site STLtoday.com in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

. He was also the author of the books ''Entertainment on the Net'', ''Hollywood Myths'' and ''The Grassy Knoll Report''. Williams had been a staff writer for the newspaper since 1996. From 2003 to 2006, he was the on-camera movie reviewer for St. Louis TV station

KMOV KMOV (channel 4) is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, affiliated with CBS and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Gray Television alongside low-power Circle owned-and-operated station KDTL-LD (channel 16). The two stations s ...

. He was a frequent guest on radio and television broadcasts in the region.

Biography

Williams was born on November 9, 1958. He attended public schools in St. Louis County, graduating in 1976 from Parkway West High School. He was a 1982 graduate of the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

, where his mentor was the novelist

T.C. Boyle Thomas Coraghessan Boyle, also known as T. C. Boyle and T. Coraghessan Boyle (born December 2, 1948), is an American novelist and short story writer. Since the mid-1970s, he has published sixteen novels and more than 100 short stories. He won the ...

. He received a bachelor's degree in English from the school. Williams received his master's degree from the Missouri School of Journalism at the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...

in 1987. From 1988 to 1990, Williams was a staff writer for the music industry trade magazine '' Cashbox'' in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. He is credited with being the first national critic to write about the band

The Posies The Posies were an American power pop group. The band was formed in 1986 in Bellingham, Washington, United States, by primary songwriters Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow. Their music has its origins in Merseybeat and the Hollies. They are ...

, who were signed to

Geffen Records Geffen Records is an American record label established by David Geffen and owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M Records imprint. Founded in 1980, Geffen Records has been a part of Interscope Geffen A&M since 1999 and h ...

after Williams' review of the album '' Failure''. In 2012 Williams completed his second book, ''Hollywood Myths'' (Voyageur Press), an anthology of movie legends and lore. In 2013, Williams published ''The Grassy Knoll Report'', culminating his 30 years of research into the assassination of President

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

. Williams' reviews, columns and interviews with celebrities are syndicated to newspapers across the U.S. His reviews are excerpted on the popular Web sites

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, where he is listed as a "Top Critic," and

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

. Williams served as a juror, panelist and adjunct host for the annual

St. Louis International Film Festival The St. Louis International Film Festival (also known as SLIFF or Cinema St. Louis) is an annual film festival in St. Louis, Missouri, which has been running since 1992. The coordinating organization changed its name to "Cinema St. Louis" in 200 ...

. On November 22, 2013, Williams and the festival hosted director Oliver Stone for a 50th anniversary discussion of the Kennedy assassination.http://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2013/11/oliver-stone-speaks-sliff-50th-anniversary-jfk-assassination/ Oliver Stone Speaks at SLIFF on the 50th Anniversary of the JFK Assassination Williams was killed in a single-car accident on July 26, 2015 in Jefferson County, Missouri. He was traveling southbound on Highway 67, when he veered too far to the left, over-corrected and drove into a ditch on the right side of the highway. He was 56 years old.

References

External links

Joe's Movie Lounge (blog and current movie reviews)

Reel Time, Joe Williams' movie-discussion forum

Archive of Joe Williams' film reviews at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The Top Movies of 2009 (interview with Joe Williams on National Public Radio station KWMU)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Joe 1958 births 2015 deaths American film critics Road incident deaths in Missouri St. Louis Post-Dispatch people University of Missouri alumni University of Southern California alumni