Peter Bart


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Peter Bart
Born Peter Benton Bart
July 24, 1932 (1932-07-24) (age 77)[1]
New York City, New York, United States
Occupation Author, Editor, Film producer, Journalist, Screenwriter, Television host
Spouse(s) Phyllis (née) Fredette

Peter Benton Bart (born July 24, 1932)[1] is an American journalist and film producer. He perhaps best known for his lengthy tenure (from 1989-2009) as the editor of Variety, an entertainment-trade magazine.

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Bart is also a co-host, with film producer Peter Guber, of the weekly television series, Shootout (formerly Sunday Morning Shootout) , which, since 2003, has been carried on the AMC television channel and is also seen in syndication and in 53 countries around the world.

Contents

Early life and education

Bart was born in New York City, New York, the son of Clara and M.S. Bart.[1]

Bart was educated at Friends Seminary in New York City; Swarthmore College, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and The London School of Economics and Political Science in London, United Kingdom.

Career

He served as a reporter and columnist for The New York Times and as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and the Chicago Sun-Times prior to entering the film business.

Starting in 1967 Bart worked as an executive at Paramount Pictures, rising to vice president in charge of production. He played a key role in such films as Rosemary's Baby (1968), True Grit (1969), Harold and Maude (1971), The Godfather (1972) and Paper Moon (1973). After eight years at Paramount he become senior vice president for production at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and president of Lorimar Productions, where he was involved in such films as Being There (1979) and The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981). Bart also served as a co-producer on such films as Fun with Dick and Jane (1977) and Islands in the Stream (1977).

He joined Variety as editor-in-chief in 1989. In 2007 Bart appointed Tim Gray to become his successor as editor with the understanding that he would stay on as columnist, blogger and consultant.[2] In April 2009 it was announced that Bart was moving to the position of "vice president and editorial director", characterized online as "Boffo No More: Bart Up and Out at Variety".[3]

He served as executive producer and screenwriter of the documentary film, Boffo! Tinseltown's Bombs and Blockbusters (2006) shown on the HBO television channel.

Through the years Bart has published eight books, including five non-fiction and three fiction.

Personal life

Bart is married to the former Phyllis Fredette. He has two daughters, Dilys Bart Shelton and Colby Bart Centrella.

His nephew is actor Roger Bart.[4]

Bibliography

(This list may be incomplete.)

  • Destinies, a novel co-written with Denne Bart Petitclerc (Simon & Schuster, 1979)
  • Thy Kingdom Come, a novel (Linden, 1981)
  • Fade Out: The Calamitous Final Days of MGM, nonfiction (Morrow, 1990). Refers to the final days of MGM as a historic film studio in Culver City, California. (MGM still exists as a company.)
  • The Gross: the Hits, the Flops — the Summer that Ate Hollywood, nonfiction (St. Martin's Press, 1999) (paperback: St. Martin's Griffin, 2000 - ISBN 978-0312253912 )
  • Who Killed Hollywood? and Put the Tarnish on Tinseltown, nonfiction (Renaissance, 2000)
  • Shoot Out: Surviving the Fame and (Mis)fortune of Hollywood, nonfiction coauthored with Peter Guber (Putnam, 2002)
  • Dangerous Company: Dark Tales from Tinseltown, a collection of short stories (Miramax, 2003)
  • Boffo! Hollywood in the Trenches: How I Learned to Love the Blockbuster and Fear the Bomb, nonfiction (Miramax, 2006)

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Staff writer (undated). "Peter Bart Biography (1932-)". Accessed August 9, 2009.
  2. ^ [1]. (April 6, 2009). The New York Times
  3. ^ [2]. (April 6, 2009). The New York Times (Website registration required.)
  4. ^ Horwitz, Simi (November 8, 2007). "First Banana — Roger Bart goes from sidekick to lead in bringing 'Young Frankenstein' to life". Backstage. http://www.backstage.com/bso/news_reviews/features/feature_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003669001.  Accessed April 4, 2009.

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