Matthew Kennedy (author)
| Matthew Kennedy | |
|---|---|
| Born |
March 14, 1957 Redding, California |
Matthew Kennedy (born March 14, 1957) is an American writer, film historian, and anthropologist.
Matthew Kennedy was born in Redding, California, attended Shasta High School, and the University of California, Los Angeles, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in theater arts in 1979. Moving to San Francisco, he studied and performed with the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, before moving to New York to study with choreographer Merce Cunningham and perform with Jonathon Apples + Company. After serving on the executive staff of the California Arts Council, he pursued graduate studies in anthropology at the University of California, Davis, where he was awarded a Fulbright research grant. Graduating with a Masters of Arts in 1992, the following year he joined the faculty in anthropology at City College of San Francisco, where he continues to teach.
Kennedy's books include Marie Dressler: A Biography (1999), Edmund Goulding’s Dark Victory: Hollywood’s Genius Bad Boy (2004) with a foreword by Kevin Brownlow, Joan Blondell: A Life between Takes (2007), and Roadshow! The Fall of Film Musicals in the 1960s (2014).
Kennedy’s books on film have received praise. In reviewing Joan Blondell, film critic and historian Leonard Maltin wrote, "Kennedy is a genuinely good writer who knows the language as well as he does vintage Hollywood movies. This book gets my highest recommendation."The National Board of Review found Edmund Goulding’s Dark Victory to be "a fascinating read," and linguist and political commentator John McWhorter reviewed Marie Dressler with "Bullseye! ... this book finally does this fabulous star justice with comprehensive research on her now-obscured early life; loving, intelligent coverage of all her extand films; savvy, well-written documentation of her stage career, and endlessly perceptive reconstruction of what Dressler was like as a human being.... Truly a bravura performance - Dressler lives again."
...
Wikipedia