Ashton Stevens
| Ashton Stevens | |
|---|---|
| Born |
11 August 1872 San Francisco, California |
| Died | 12 July 1951 (aged 78) Chicago, Illinois |
| Occupation |
Drama critic Arts journalist |
| Years active | 1894–1951 |
| Spouse(s) | Aleece Uhlorn (1900–1926) Florence Katherine Krug (1927–1951) |
| Relatives |
George Stevens (nephew) |
Ashton P. Stevens (August 11, 1872 – July 12, 1951) was an American journalist regarded as the dean of American drama critics. His newspaper column appeared in The San Francisco Examiner and later in the Chicago Herald-American. He was theatre critic for the Hearst Newspapers for 50 years, 40 of them in Chicago. The character of Jedediah Leland in the film Citizen Kane is based on Stevens, a close boyhood friend of Orson Welles.
Ashton Stevens was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Hannah L. and James W. Stevens. He was the brother of actor John Landers Stevens and uncle of Jack Landers Stevens and George Stevens, director of such films as Shane, Giant and The Greatest Story Ever Told. He is the great granduncle of producer-director Michael Stevens and granduncle of producer George Stevens, Jr..
Stevens began his journalism career in 1894 in San Francisco, as theatre reporter for the San Francisco News Letter. He started working for William Randolph Hearst's San Francisco Examiner in 1897, and went to work at the New York Evening Journal in 1907. In 1910 he moved to Chicago as drama critic for The Chicago Examiner and the Chicago Herald-American.
Stevens was regarded the dean of American play reviewers and drama critics, and was friend and confidante of many prominent playwrights and stage performers. Known for his sharp wit and fair criticism, he once wrote that "critics should write about plays and playwrights as they would about the weather, with hardly any regard for the weather's feelings."
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