Leslie Halliwell(1929-1989)

Leslie Halliwell, born in 1929 in Bolton, Lancashire, England, doyen of British film buffs, was best known as the author from 1977 of "Halliwells Film Guide", probably the most authoritative and best selling book of its kind in the UK and said to be "The film guide Hollywood insiders refer to more than any other". His interest in film started in boyhood with visits with his mother to the scores of cinemas then existing in pre-war Bolton. At school, in the army and at Cambridge University he ran film societies before later becoming a journalist on Picturegoer. In 1958 he became a film researcher for Granada TV and in 1968 became film buyer for the entire ITV network. Following this he was film buyer for Channel 4 introducing a younger audience to classic British films from the heyday of British cinema. He was though a frequent visitor to, and authority on, Hollywood and equally included foreign films of merit in his enormous storehouse of cinema knowledge. His many different associations with cinema from one-time cinema manager to the most important film buyer in Britain produced a thorough professional whose artistic and technical judgments were measured and reliable. He praised only when it was merited but this praise has largely stood the test of time. His readers though could come to know his particular dislikes - uncalled for violence, explicit sex, bad language and a lack of conventional professionalism - any of these could cause a film to be marked down. There was then an increasing divergence between what cinema had become and what perhaps he would have liked. His sensibilities - and his heart - were undoubtedly closest to Britain's so called "Golden Age of Cinema". He died in 1989 but his main film guide continues in his name under the editorship of John Walker.