Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy, born on February 16, 1950, in Evanston, Illinois, is a prominent American film critic renowned for his extensive contributions to film journalism. The son of Daniel, a rancher and real-estate developer, and Barbara, a cellist and former president of the Evanston Symphony Orchestra, McCarthy graduated from Stanford University in 1972. He began his career in the film industry as an assistant to Elaine May at Paramount Pictures, where he contributed to editing the film *Mikey and Nicky*.

In 1979, he began his long tenure at *Variety*, serving as chief film critic for over three decades until 2010. McCarthy's insights into cinema were also evident in his Emmy-winning documentary *Preston Sturges: The Rise and Fall of an American Dreamer* (1990), and he directed several acclaimed documentaries including *Visions of Light* (1992), which received accolades from the National Society of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics Circle, and *Forever Hollywood* (1999), which has been screened at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre for over ten years.

After a brief stint with an independent blog, McCarthy joined *The Hollywood Reporter* in October 2010 as chief film critic. His notable writings include *Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood* (2000) and *Fast Women: The Legendary Ladies of Racing* (2007). McCarthy married documentary filmmaker Sasha Alpert in 1993, and has continued to leave a significant mark on the world of film critique.