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{{Short description|British film critic (1929–1989)}}

'''Leslie Robert James Halliwell''' ([[February 23]], [[1929]] - [[January 29]], [[1989]]) was a [[Britain|British]] [[motion picture]] [[historian]] and [[encyclopaedist]] who shaped domestic tastes through his career as a [[buyer]] for [[Television|TV]].

{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}

{{Infobox person

|name = Leslie Halliwell

|image =

|image_size =

|caption = Signed Photo

|birth_name=Robert James Leslie Halliwell

|birth_date = 23 February 1929

|birth_place = [[Bolton]], [[Lancashire]], [[England]]

|death_date = {{death date and age|1989|1|21|1929|2|23|df=yes}}

|death_place = [[Esher]], [[Surrey]], England

|occupation = [[Film criticism|Film critic]], [[encyclopedia|encyclopaedist]]

|years active = 1952−1987

|partner =

}}

'''Robert James Leslie Halliwell'''<ref>Halliwell's birth certificate: Apr/May/Jun 1929, Bolton, Vol 8c, Page 480</ref> (23 February 1929 – 21 January 1989) was a British [[film criticism|film critic]], [[encyclopedia|encyclopaedist]] and television rights buyer for [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]], the British commercial network, and [[Channel 4]]. He is best known for his reference guides, ''[[The Filmgoer's Companion|Filmgoer's Companion]]'' (1965), a single volume film-related encyclopaedia featuring biographies (with credits) and technical terms, and ''Halliwell's Film Guide'' (1977), which is dedicated to individual films.

[[Anthony Quinton]] wrote in ''[[The Times Literary Supplement]]'': "Immersed in the enjoyment of these fine books, one should look up for a moment to admire the quite astonishing combination of industry and authority in one man which has brought them into existence."<ref>Anthony Quinton in ''[[The Times Literary Supplement]]'', 25 November 1977; Charles Champlin in ''The Los Angeles Times'', 4 May 1979; Benny Green in ''The Spectator'', 11/1977; John Russell Taylor in ''The Times Educational Supplement'', 2 June 1978; David Bartholomew in ''[[Library Journal]] Book Review'', 1979; ''Variety'', 23 December 1987.quoted in ''Halliwell's Horizon'', Michael Binder, [https://books.google.com/books?id=TsU-AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA195 p.195]</ref>

==Life==

Born in [[Bolton]], Halliwell was captivated by the [[cinema]] from an early age. A [[scholarship]] boy from a modest background, after graduating in [[English studies|English]] from [[St Catharine's College, Cambridge]], he held a number of jobs in film [[journalism]] and cinema management.

Halliwell's promotion of the cinema through his books and seasons of "golden oldies'"on [[Channel 4]] won him awards from the [[London Film Critics' Circle]], the [[British Film Institute]] and a posthumous [[BAFTA]].<ref>''The Guardian'', 6 December 1988 and 30 May 1997.</ref><ref name="Broadcast' 1985">''Broadcast'' magazine, 28 June 1985.</ref><ref>''Bolton Evening News'', 26 March 1990.</ref>

After working for a decade as a researcher and buyer for [[Southern Television]] and then [[Granada Television]], in [[1968]] he took responsibility for purchasing for the entire [[ITV]] network. In [[1982]], at the personal invitiation of [[Jeremy Isaacs]], he became buyer of [[US]] films for [[Channel 4]]. He retired in [[1986]].

==Early life==

Halliwell's personal tastes were conservative. He had a preference for the cinema of the [[1930s]] and [[1940s]] and no great appetite for foreign-language films. However, his professional knowledge of the entire gamut of cinema is seen in his [[encyclopaedia]]s ''[[The Filmgoers' Companion]]'' (first published [[1965]]), ''[[Halliwell's Film Guide]]'' (first published [[1977]]) and ''[[Halliwell's Television Companion]]'' (first published [[1979]] as ''Halliwell's Teleguide'').

Born in [[Bolton]], [[Lancashire]] in 1929, Halliwell enjoyed films from an early age. He grew up during the [[Golden Age of Hollywood]], a period when film production was at its peak, with new releases debuting in cinemas with great regularity. Halliwell went almost nightly to the cinema with his mother, Lily, which provided an escape from the at times tough reality of their [[mill town]].<ref>See Halliwell's memoir, ''Seats in all Parts''.</ref> In 1939, Halliwell won a scholarship to [[Bolton School]]. After [[national service]], he went on to study [[English Literature]] at [[St Catharine's College, Cambridge]].

==The Rex Cinema, Cambridge==

After his retirement, he wrote for the ''[[Daily Mail]]''. He also published a number of historical and critical works about the cinema.

[[File:Leslie Halliwell in "Films and Filming".jpg|thumb|right|200px|Halliwell profile/interview from <br />January 1987 issue of ''[[Films and Filming]]'']] After graduating with a 2:1 [[honours degree]], Halliwell worked briefly for ''[[Picturegoer]]'' magazine in London, before returning to Cambridge to manage the Rex Cinema from 1952 to 1956. Under his management, the cinema became extremely popular with the Cambridge undergraduate community, showing classic films such as ''[[The Blue Angel]]'', ''[[Citizen Kane]]'' and ''[[Destry Rides Again]]''. The ''[[Cambridge Evening News]]'' reported that "students felt their periods at Cambridge were incomplete without the weekly visit to the Rex."<ref>''Cambridge Evening News'', 31 January 1983.</ref> In 1955, after the British Censor had banned the [[Marlon Brando]] film ''[[The Wild One]]'', Halliwell arranged for Cambridge magistrates to assess the picture. They subsequently granted him a special licence, and so the Rex became one of the few cinemas in [[UK|Britain]] to show the film.<ref>''Sight & Sound'', summer 1955; ''Daily Express'', 22 March 1955; ''Cambridge Daily News'', 12 April 1955.</ref>

==Television career==

He married Ruth Porter in [[1959]] and they had one son. Halliwell died of [[cancer]] in a [[hospice]] in [[Esher]], [[Surrey]].

After leaving The Rex, Halliwell joined the [[Rank Organisation]] in 1956 on a three-year trainee course. He was then employed as a film publicist for the company.{{cn|date=August 2021}} In 1958, he joined [[Southern Television]], and was seconded to [[Granada Television]] a year later, where he remained for the next thirty years, at their offices in London's [[Golden Square]].<ref>''The Boltonian'' (Bolton School's magazine), July 1957.</ref><ref>''The Boltonian'', March 1959.</ref> He married Ruth Porter in 1959 and they had one son.<ref>Marriage certificate: Jul/Aug/Sep 1959, Vol 5g, Page 984, Surrey N.</ref> Initially appointed as Cecil Bernstein's assistant, Halliwell gained the role of Film Adviser to [[ITV Granada|Granada]]'s show ''Cinema'', which was the most popular arts programme on television during the 1960s.<ref>See ''TV Times'', July 1964 for the launch of the show. See ''Television Mail'', 4 December 1964 and any subsequent edition for the viewing figures.</ref>

Halliwell was given responsibility for buying TV shows and in 1968 became the chief film buyer for the [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] network, a role he maintained throughout the 1970s and most of the 1980s.<ref>See ''The Observer'', 22 March 1987 and ''Films & Filming'', January 1987</ref> Travelling to Hollywood twice a year to view the latest TV pilots and film offerings and to trade fairs in [[Cannes]] and [[Monte Carlo]], Halliwell became a major player in the television industry. In his capacity as chief buyer for the ITV network, he was responsible for bringing to [[British television]] screens some of the highest rated shows of the 1970s and 1980s, including ''[[The Six Million Dollar Man]]'', ''[[Charlie's Angels]]'', ''[[The Incredible Hulk (1978 TV series)|The Incredible Hulk]]'', and ''[[The A-Team]]'', as well as the [[List of James Bond films|James Bond film series]], ''[[Jaws (film)|Jaws]]'', and ''[[Star Wars (film)|Star Wars]]''.<ref>See ''The Sunday Times Magazine'', 1 October 1978 and ''Broadcast'' magazine, 8 March 1976; ''Sunday Times'', 13 February 1983; ''Broadcast'', 21 February 1983; ''Broadcast'', 2 February 1981 and ''The Observer'', 13 March 1988; ''Daily Express'', 23 October 1982; ''The Observer'', 22 March 1987 and ''The Listener'', 5 February 1987.</ref>

==Bibliography==

*Halliwell, L. (from 1965) ''The Filmgoers' Companion'' ISBN 0002557983

In 1982, at the invitation of [[Jeremy Isaacs]], he became buyer and scheduler of films for [[Channel 4]]. In keeping with the channel's intention to appeal to specialist audiences, Halliwell focused primarily on films from the 1930s and '40s. Over the next few years, the channel showed hundreds of vintage movies in seasons, with many titles introduced by filmmakers such as Samuel Goldwyn Jnr, [[Frank Launder]] and [[Sidney Gilliat]]. Isaacs later wrote that Halliwell had made an "unsurpassed contribution" to the channel's success.<ref>Book ''Storm Over 4: A Personal Account'' by Jeremy Isaacs. Halliwell had regular columns in the ''TV Times'' and ''See 4'' magazines in 1984-85, in which he publicised upcoming films and responded to reader questions and requests.</ref> The [[British Film Institute]] gave Halliwell an award in 1985 'for the selection and acquisition of films with a view to creative scheduling.'<ref name="Broadcast' 1985"/> Author and film historian [[Jeffrey Richards]] wrote:

*- (1965) ''Mountain of Dreams: the Golden Years of Paramount'' ISBN 0246108258

<blockquote>For lovers of the golden age of the cinema like myself, Channel 4 became a source of unalloyed delight as time and again one encountered films one had only ever read about and never expected to see.<ref>''Daily Telegraph'', 23 January 1989.</ref></blockquote>

*- (from 1977) ''Halliwell's Film Guide'' ISBN 0007144121

*- (from 1979) ''Halliwell's Television Companion'' ISBN 0586083790

During this period, Halliwell also presented two television series celebrating the British wartime documentary movement: ''Home Front'', for Granada in 1982 and ''The British at War'' for Channel 4 two years later. Both featured [[Ministry of Information (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Information]] productions such as ''[[Listen to Britain]]'', ''[[Desert Victory]]'' and ''[[The True Glory]]''.<ref>''The British at War'' is advertised in ''The Times'' TV Section, 25 October 1984.</ref>

*- (1982) ''Halliwell's Hundred'' ISBN 0246113308

*- (1985) ''Seats in All Parts: Half a Lifetime at the Movies'' ISBN 0246124784

==Encyclopaedias==

*- (1986) ''Halliwell's Harvest' ISBN 0684185180

*- (1986) ''The Dead that Walk'' ISBN 0804423008

===''The Filmgoer's Companion''===

*- (1987) ''Double Take and Fade Away'' ISBN 0246128356

First published in 1965, ''[[The Filmgoer's Companion]]'' sold ten thousand copies on its first run, including four thousand in the United States. In all, Halliwell edited nine editions of the ''Companion'',<ref>''Sunday Times'', 30 July 1989.</ref> which is now known as ''Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies''. The book was highly influential and critically acclaimed, with TV presenter [[Denis Norden]] comparing the companion to the ''[[Wisden Cricketers' Almanack]]''.<ref>''Looks Familiar'', Thames Television, 2 January 1974.</ref> [[Gene Siskel]] wrote in 1975:

*- (1987) ''Return to Shangri-La'' ISBN 0586070818

<blockquote>There is a well-developed consensus among film scribes that Leslie Halliwell's ''The Filmgoer's Companion'' is the single most valuable reference book on film."<ref>''Chicago Tribune'', 18 May 1975.</ref></blockquote>

*Halliwell, L. & Murray, G. (1975) ''The Clapperboard Book of the Cinema'' ISBN 0246108142

Others were less enthusiastic, criticising Halliwell's subjectivity and occasionally reactionary opinions on the films included, as well as the bias towards older films. [[Charles Champlin]] of the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' wrote in 1979 that "the referrer needs an iron will to look up only one fact,"<ref>''Los Angeles Times'', 4 May 1979.</ref> in reference to the perceived density of the book.

===''Halliwell's Film Guide''===

First published in 1977 and updated, ''Halliwell's Film Guide'' originally incorporated capsule reviews and information on over 8,000 English-speaking titles. He used a four-star rating system similar in appearance to the system used by [[Steven H. Scheuer|Steven Scheuer]] and (with slight modification) [[Leonard Maltin]].{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}} However, in Halliwell's system even a one-star rating was a definite recommendation.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}} Poor or mediocre films which other critics would rate one or two stars were equally missable to him, so they received no star.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}} In the preface to the fifth edition, he noted that he "aimed to increase the number of critical quotes, especially those given at the time of release by the American trade paper ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'', whose reviews were often a key to commercial success and whose pithy comments give a significant edge to changing film fashions. Other opinions, however, have not been neglected."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Halliwell |first1=Leslie |title=Halliwell's Film Guide |date=1989 |publisher=Grafton Books |isbn=0-06-016322-4 |edition=7th}}</ref>

By the time of Halliwell's death in 1989, the ''Film Guide'' had doubled in size. He acknowledged his predecessors in the introduction to the first edition,

<blockquote>I salute especially the work of [[Leonard Maltin]], James Robert Parish, [[Denis Gifford]], Douglas Eames and the unsung anonymous heroes who compiled the reviews of the [[British Film Institute|BFI]]'s ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' during the fifties and sixties.<ref>''Halliwell's Film Guide'', 1st edition – {{ISBN|0-246-10982-3}}.</ref></blockquote>

This second work also came in for as much criticism as it did praise. Halliwell came under fire from journalists and critics for the brevity of his assessments, and his dismissive stance on more modern films.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}} His devotion to the [[Golden Age of Hollywood]] left him increasingly out of touch with modern attitudes.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}} ''[[The Observer|Observer]]'' film critic [[Philip French]] wrote that Halliwell "isn't a scholar, critic or cineaste, but rather a movie buff, a man who knows the credits of everything but the value of very little".<ref>''The Spectator'', 24 February 1978.</ref> Jim Emerson of the ''[[Orange County Register]]'' called Halliwell "something of a grumpy old English fuddy-duddy [who] rarely has anything good to say about any movie made after 1960".<ref name="Emerson">{{cite news |last1=Emerson |first1=Jim |title=Rating 6 recently published guides to movies on video |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/37211181/ |work=[[Chicago Tribune]] |date=2 March 1990 |pages=74–75|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Halliwell expressed his views in an essay in this book:

<blockquote>The best kind of film buff loves the movie business for what it can be at its best{{nbsp}}... Hollywood at its best - and for Hollywood also read Ealing and Tobis Klangfilm and Svenske Filmindustri - was the purveyor of an expensive and elegant craft which at times touched art, though seldom throughout a whole film. Reality was seldom sought, but why should it be? Real life is not dramatic anyway{{nbsp}}... Some of the new films clearly have virtues which the old ones didn't possess: one is grateful for ''The Graduate'' and ''Charlie Bubbles'' and ''Cabaret'' and ''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'', which for various reasons could never have been made in the old Hollywood. But if my thesis were not largely true, how would one explain the enormous popularity of old movies on television, or the recent deluge of books about them?<ref>{{cite book |last1=Halliwell |first1=Leslie |title=Halliwell's Film Guide |date=1989 |publisher=Grafton Books |isbn=0-06-016322-4 |edition=7th}}</ref></blockquote>

===''Halliwell's Television Companion''===

Halliwell's third encyclopaedic work began life as the ''Teleguide'' in 1979. Disappointed with the first edition, he joined with ''[[Sunday Telegraph]]'' critic [[Philip Purser]] to produce ''Halliwell's Television Companion'', which ran for a further two editions in 1982 and 1986.{{citation needed|date=April 2017}} The third edition, published by Grafton in 1986, included over 12,000 entries.

==Retirement and death==

Halliwell retired from the television industry in 1986 but continued to edit his film guides.<ref>''Screen International'', 15 June 1986.</ref> He wrote a regular TV article for the ''[[Daily Mail]]'' beginning in 1987, and published a number of historical and critical works about the cinema. He also published three volumes of ghost stories inspired by [[M. R. James]].<ref>'Halliwell's Screen Choice' in the Saturday edition of the ''Daily Mail'', 14 March 1987-10/10/1987.</ref><ref>See bibliography.</ref>

Halliwell died of [[esophageal cancer]] at the Princess Alice [[Hospice care|Hospice]] in [[Esher]], [[Surrey]], a month before his 60th birthday.<ref name=DC>Death certificate: Jan/Feb/Mar 1989, Vol 17, Page 295, Reg no. 189, Surrey Northern.</ref>

==Halliwell's favourite films==

He wrote essays on his favourite films from the Golden Age in ''Halliwell's Hundred'' and in ''Halliwell's Harvest''. He stated that these books "are dedicated to the proposition that art should not be despised because it is popular."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Halliwell |first1=Leslie |title=Halliwell's Harvest |date=1986 |publisher=Grafton Books |isbn=0-246-12667-1}}</ref>

This list of Leslie Halliwell's favourite films was originally published in the fifth edition of the ''Film Guide''.<ref>[http://www.lesliehalliwell.com/topten.html Top Tens]. – LeslieHalliwell.com</ref>

* ''[[Citizen Kane]]'' (1941)

* ''[[Trouble in Paradise (1932 film)|Trouble in Paradise]]'' (1932)

* ''[[Bride of Frankenstein]]'' (1935)

* ''[[Le Million]]'' (1931)

* ''[[A Matter of Life and Death (film)|A Matter of Life and Death]]'' (1946)

* ''[[Lost Horizon (1937 film)|Lost Horizon]]'' (1937)

* ''[[Sons of the Desert]]'' (1933)

* ''[[The Philadelphia Story (film)|The Philadelphia Story]]'' (1940)

* ''[[The Maltese Falcon (1941 film)|The Maltese Falcon]]'' (1941)

* ''[[The Lady Vanishes (1938 film)|The Lady Vanishes]]'' (1938)

==Biography==

A biography, ''Halliwell's Horizon'', written by Michael Binder, was published in 2011.<ref>{{citation|url=http://www.lesliehalliwell.com/|title=Halliwell's Horizon|website=lesliehalliwell.com}}</ref>

==Books authored==

* 1965 – ''The Filmgoer's Companion''. – {{ISBN|0-00-255798-3}} (editions 1–9 by Halliwell)

* 1973 – ''The Filmgoer's Book of Quotes''. – {{ISBN|0-583-12889-0}}

* 1975 – ''The Clapperboard Book of the Cinema''. – with Graham Murray, {{ISBN|0-246-10814-2}}

* 1976 – ''Mountain of Dreams: the Golden Years of Paramount''. – {{ISBN|0-246-10825-8}}

* 1977 – ''Halliwell's Movie Quiz''. – {{ISBN|0-905018-42-7}}

* 1977 – ''Halliwell's Film Guide''. – {{ISBN|0-00-714412-1}} (editions 1–7 by Halliwell)

* 1979 – ''Halliwell's Television Companion''. – {{ISBN|0-586-08379-0}}

* 1982 – ''Halliwell's Hundred''. – {{ISBN|0-246-11330-8}}

* 1984 – ''The Ghost of Sherlock Holmes: Seventeen Supernatural Stories''. – {{ISBN|0-586-05995-4}}

* 1985 – ''Seats in All Parts: Half a Lifetime at the Movies''. – {{ISBN|0-246-12478-4}}

* 1986 – ''Halliwell's Harvest''. – {{ISBN|0-684-18518-0}}

* 1986 – ''The Dead that Walk''. – {{ISBN|0-8044-2300-8}}

* 1987 – ''A Demon Close Behind''. – {{ISBN|0-7090-2932-2}}

* 1987 – ''Double Take and Fade Away''. – {{ISBN|0-246-12835-6}}

* 1987 – ''Return to Shangri-La''. – {{ISBN|0-586-07081-8}}

* 1988 – ''A Demon on the Stair''. – {{ISBN|0-7090-3181-5}}

==References==

{{reflist|2}}

==External links==

* [http://www.lesliehalliwell.com Website celebrating Halliwell and his ''Film Guide'']

*Baker, A.P. (2004) ‘Halliwell, (Robert James) Leslie (1929-1989)’, rev., ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'', Oxford University Press, <http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/39934, accessed 8 June 2005>

* {{IMDb name|2503554}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category{{DEFAULTSORT:1929 births|Halliwell, Leslie]]}}

[[Category:19891929 deaths|Halliwell, Lesliebirths]]

[[Category:Film1989 critics|Halliwell, Lesliedeaths]]

[[Category:20th-century British historians]]

[[Category:Former students of St Catharine's College, Cambridge|Halliwell, Leslie]]

[[Category:Alumni of St Catharine's College, Cambridge]]

[[Category:British encyclopedists]]

[[Category:British film historians]]

[[Category:Deaths from esophageal cancer in England]]

[[Category:Daily Mail journalists]]

[[Category:English film critics]]

[[Category:English writers]]

[[Category:People educated at Bolton School]]

[[Category:People from Bolton]]