Barry Paris
Barry Paris (born February 6, 1948) is an author and journalist based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
His best-known works include acclaimed biographies of film stars Louise Brooks, Greta Garbo and Audrey Hepburn. He is a movie reviewer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and co-host of a weekly radio show on WQED-FM. Paris has won multiple awards for cultural and investigative reporting. He is currently engaged in writing a biography of Franklin Pierce (tentatively titled Pierce in Oblivion), the 14th President of the United States.
Biographic works
Louise Brooks (Knopf, 1989) is Paris's ground breaking biography of the silent film star. A thoroughly researched and stylishly penned work, it will likely stand as the definitive book on this 20th-century icon. Widely praised upon publication, Louise Brooks was named Film Book of the Year by Leonard Maltin. In reviewing the book, the Daily Express stated "Barry Paris has written the model of a movie biography". Similarly, the Irish Times added, "In a short review it is impossible to give even a taste of the splendor of Mr Paris's work. It is one of the best biographies I have ever read, erudite, literate and always in search of its subject." Other reviews echoed similar positive assessments. The book was published across Europe and South America and remains in print in the United States. Along with this biography, Paris has written articles on the actress and scripted the Emmy-nominated documentary Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu (1998).
Paris authored Tony Curtis: The Autobiography (William Heinemann, 1993), which occupied the number one spot on the British best-seller list; Garbo (Knopf, 1995), widely considered the definitive biography of the reclusive star; Audrey Hepburn (Putnam, 1996), a biography of the iconic actress which was published in eight countries and Song of Haiti (Public Affairs, 2000), the story of Dr Larry and Gwen Mellon and their hospital at Deschapelles, Haiti.
Paris contributed 15 Minutes, But Who's Counting? Andy Warhol and His Icons to The Warhol Look: Glamour, Style, Fashion (Bulfinch Press, 1997); and edited and wrote the preface to Stella Adler on Ibsen, Strindberg, and Chekhov (Knopf, 1999), a collection of talks by the legendary drama teacher. A second, Paris-edited, collection of Stella Adler's talks is in preparation.
As well as the above-mentioned books, Paris is also a widely published journalist. His lengthy profiles of the novelist and Mozart biographer Marcia Davenport and the early film star Lina Basquette appeared in The New Yorker magazine. Other publications to which he has contributed articles, reviews and interviews include Vanity Fair, Opera News, American Film, Art and Antiques and (The Washington Post).
Paris is a 1969 graduate of Columbia University (where he studied film and Slavic languages) and of the Institute for the Study of the USSR in Munich, where he wrote Russian Cinema and the Soviet Film Industry, an early survey of the subject. Paris is fluent in Russian, Czech, Ukrainian, and Spanish, and has translated plays by Anton Chekhov.
Paris was the editor-publisher of the Prairie Journal of Wichita, Kansas from 1972–1974; feature editor of The Miami Herald from 1979–1980 and critic/reporter of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from 1980–1986. Since 1981, he has co-hosted Sunday Arts Magazine on radio station WQED-FM. The weekly program covers the Pittsburgh/Western Pennsylvania cultural and classical music scene. Among his journalistic awards are the National Sunday Magazine Editors' Best Feature (1993), Pennsylvania Press Association's Best Cultural Story (1982) and three Matrix Awards (1980, 1981, 1993).
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