莱纳德·马尔汀

Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic, film historian, and author. He is known for his book of film capsule reviews, Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide, published from 1969 to 2014. Maltin was the film critic on Entertainment Tonight from 1982 to 2012. Since 1998, he has taught film as a professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. In 2014, he began the weekly podcast Maltin on Movies. He served two terms as President of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and votes for films to be selected for the National Film Registry.

He has written books on animation and the history of film. He has also hosted numerous specials and provided commentary for several films. In 2021, he released his memoir, Starstruck: My Unlikely Road to Hollywood. He received the Robert Osborne Award from Turner Classic Movies in 2022.

Early life and education

Maltin was born into a Jewish family in New York City, the son of Jacqueline (née Gould; 1923–2012) and Aaron Isaac Maltin (1915–2002). His mother was a singer and his father was a lawyer and immigration judge. He was raised in Teaneck, New Jersey.

Maltin was inspired to become a film writer by John McCabe's biography Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy. "It changed my life", he said. He told the LA Times that he had checked the book out of the library repeatedly when he was a child. "It helped steer me on the path toward my lifelong love of film history", he said in an obituary of biographer McCabe in 2005.

Maltin began his writing career at age 10, with a weekly magazine called The Bergen Bulletin. At 13, he started writing for the Pennsylvania-based 8mm Collector, with a column called Research Unlimited, where he answered film questions. He began writing a monthly column for a Canadian publication, Film Fan Monthly, edited by Daryl Davy, dedicated to films from the golden age of Hollywood. In May 1966, Davy asked 15-year-old Maltin if he would take over as editor and sold the publication to him for $175. At the time it had a circulation of 400 in 11 countries. He expanded the circulation to 2,000 and continued to publish it until 1974. In the December 1968 issue of Esquire magazine, he wrote an article listing his 75 best movies shown on television and the 25 worst. He also wrote for Classic Images.

Martin created a film society at Teaneck High School and graduated in 1968, later earning a journalism degree at New York University.

Career

Early writings

While at New York University, Maltin became film critic and associate editor for the university's Washington Square Journal, as well as continuing to edit Film Fan Monthly. An English teacher at Teaneck High School suggested that Maltin meet a friend of hers at publisher New American Library who was looking for someone to edit a film guide and in September 1969, at age 18, Maltin edited his first book, TV Movies, a compendium of synopses and reviews, with the subtitle, "Everything You Want To Know About More than 8,000 Movies Now Being Shown on TV". In subsequent years, the book was regularly updated and then annually updated from October 1987 until September 2014, each edition having the following year's date. The book was later known as Leonard Maltin's TV Movies and Video Guide and eventually Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide. In 2005, many films released no later than 1960 were moved into a spin-off volume, Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide, to allow the regular book to cover a larger number of more recent titles.

In 1970, his second book, Movie Comedy Teams, was published featuring teams such as Laurel and Hardy, the Marx Brothers and Abbott and Costello. Maltin wrote program guides for the newly created Showtime network and went on to publish articles in a variety of film journals, newspapers, and magazines, including Variety and TV Guide. In the 1970s Maltin also reviewed recordings in the jazz magazine Downbeat. Maltin served as the film critic for Playboy for six years based on Roger Ebert's suggestion. He also wrote Behind the Camera, a study of cinematography published in 1971.

1982–2012: Entertainment Tonight

Starting on May 29, 1982, Maltin was the film reviewer on the syndicated television series Entertainment Tonight for 30 years. He praised the Tournee of Animation (alongside the Los Angeles International Animation Celebration) on the show at one point or another. He also appeared on the Starz cable network, and hosted his own syndicated radio program, Leonard Maltin on Video, as well as the syndicated TV show Hot Ticket with Boston film critic Joyce Kulhawik (originally E! personality and game show host Todd Newton). Maltin also hosted a television show called Secret's Out on ReelzChannel network. He also spearheaded the creation of the Walt Disney Treasures collectible DVD line in 2001, and continued to provide creative input and host the various sets.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Maltin served on the advisory board of the National Student Film Institute. In the mid-1990s, Maltin became the president of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and is on the advisory board of the Hollywood Entertainment Museum. For nearly a decade, Maltin was also on the faculty of the New School for Social Research in New York City. As of 2018, Maltin teaches in the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. In 1990, he took a look at the MGM years of The Three Stooges in a film called The Lost Stooges, available on a made-to-order DVD through the Warner Archive Collection. Maltin left Entertainment Tonight in 2010. His final appearance on the show as a regular correspondent was on July 19, 2010. However he appeared on Entertainment Tonight having lunch with the Oscar nominees in 2012.