Joe Leydon

Joseph Patrick Leydon is an award-winning film critic and historian. Currently a critic and correspondent for "Variety", the "show business bible," a contributing writer for "MovieMaker" magazine and a contributing film critic for "The Houston Chronicle", he is the author of "Joe Leydon's Guide to Essential Movies You Must See" (Michael Wiese Productions), and host of http://movingpictureblog.blogspot.com/ and the website http://www.MovingPictureShow.com/.

He also is communications director for "Cowboys & Indians" magazine, and an adjunct professor at Houston Community College and the University of Houston's Jack J. Valenti School of Communications.

Leydon was born August 22, 1952 in New Orleans, Louisiana, and raised in the city's Ninth Ward, where he acquired a taste for fine food and hearty partying at an early age. He graduated from Loyola University, where he developed an equally passionate regard for Francois Truffaut and Charlie Chaplin while earning a BA in Journalism (with a minor in film).

At Loyola, he studied under the late Ralph T. Bell, whom Leydon has described as "the finest and most encouraging professor any student could ever hope to have." More recently, he has pursued graduate studies at the Jack J. Valenti School of Communications at University of Houston, earning a Master of Arts degree.

Leydon was film critic for "The Houston Post" from 1982 until the paper’s demise in 1995. He has also reviewed films for the "San Francisco Examiner", MSNBC.com, and NBC affiliate KPRC-TV in Houston. His work as a journalist, interviewer and feature writer has appeared in the "New York Daily News", "Los Angeles Times", "Newsday", "The Tennessean", "The Boston Globe", "The Toronto Star", and the "Austin American-Statesman"; "Film Comment" and "New Orleans" magazines.