David Herbert Shipman

Background

Mr. Shipman was born in Norwich, Norfolk, United Kingdom, on November 4, 1932.

Education

David Shipman attended Merton College, Oxford.

Career

Mr. Shipman worked as a sales representative in publishing from 1955 to 1965, mostly in Europe, then returned to Britain to work for the publishers Thames & Hudson.

In 1968, he began work on his first book, The Great Movie Stars: The Golden Years, which was published two years later and became a best seller. He also worked as a lecturer, journalist and film consultant, and from 1986 until his death wrote obituaries for The Independent newspaper.

Achievements

• A specialist in cinema history, David Shipman was perhaps best known for his trilogy of books, Great Movie Stars, featuring The Golden Years, The International Years, and The Independent Years.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Great Movie Stars: The Golden Years v. 1
  • Great Movie Stars 3: The Independent Years Vol 3
  • Great Movie Stars 2:Intl Years: The International Years v. 2
  • Judy Garland: The Secret Life of an American Legend
  • Cinema: The First Hundred Years

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• Richard Cohen: "For over a quarter of a century David Shipman was the most influential writer on film in the world. He was never [a] film critic for a national newspaper, and was generally not seen by the cinema establishment as a heavyweight; but in the 10 books he wrote, most notably the three volumes that made up The Great Movie Stars and the two-volume The Story of Cinema, he exerted an influence no other writer on film has matched. More widely read than Pauline Kael, more authoritative and more knowledgeable than Leslie Halliwell, he always seemed in touch with the audiences for whom he wrote, and they appreciated his strongly held if iconoclastic views and the fact he was always his own man."

References

• OBITUARY : David Shipman