Joseph Patrick Michael "Joe" Leydon (born August 22, 1952) is an award-winning film critic and historian. Currently a critic and correspondent for Variety, the "show business bible," and a contributing writer for MovieMaker magazine, he is the author of Joe Leydon's Guide to Essential Movies You Must See (Michael Wiese Productions), host of http://movingpictureblog.blogspot.com/ and the website http://www.MovingPictureShow.com/, and a contributing critic for Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide. He is also the communications director for Cowboys & Indians Magazine, where he has written cover-story profiles of such notables as Hugh Jackman, Jewel, Viggo Mortensen, Jeff Bridges, Trisha Yearwood, Tom Selleck, Nolan Ryan, George Strait, Sam Elliott and Kevin Costner. Since 2000, he has been an adjunct professor at Houston Community College and the University of Houston's Jack J. Valenti School of Communications.[1]
Leydon was born 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 François
Truffaut and Charlie Chaplin while earning a BA in
Journalism (with a
minor in film).[2] 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."[3]
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 a 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, Toronto Star and
the Austin
American-Statesman; Film Comment and New Orleans
magazines.
In recent years, he has conducted co-stage Q&A sessions with actors and filmmakers such as Norman Jewison (whom Leydon credits for inspiring his career as a film critic with the groundbreaking In the Heat of the Night),[4] Hal Holbrook, Patricia Neal,[5] Robert Davi, Scott Wilson and Craig Brewer at the Denver Film Festival, WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival and the Nashville Film Festival.
 Joe Leydon kicks back on Bourbon Street in New Orleans |
 Leydon earned an MA Degree at University of Houston's Jack J. Valenti School of Communication |
 At the 2007 Toronto Film Festival, Leydon devours chicken wings at his favorite restaurant in the city |
 Leydon joined Lyle Lovett in honoring Patricia Neal at the 2008 Nashville Film Festival |
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