Death of Alexander Walker
The British film industry is today mourning the loss of its most highly respected film critic and writer. Alexander Walker died in a London clinic where he was undergoing tests for cancer. Walker, the resident critic of the London Evening Standard for an unparalled forty-three years, was 73.
He expressed his deep love of culture in the twenty books he published, including biographies of Montgomery Clift, Vivien Leigh and his close personal friend, Stanley Kubrick. Walker's friends also included luminaries like the late great Katherine Hepburn, and Clint Eastwood.
"Alex was the most brilliant and influential film critic of his age... he will be sorely missed,” said the Standard’s publisher, Lord Rothermere.
Oscar-winning director, producer and chairman of the British Film Institute, Anthony Minghella called Walker’s contribution to the understanding of British film "unique", adding that "as a broadcaster, commentator and film historian, he had no equal."
Alexander Walker was named critic of the year at the British Press Awards in 1970, 1974 and 1998 and France bestowed its highest honour, the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, on the Englishman in 1981.
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