J. W. Rinzler

Jonathan W. Rinzler (August 17, 1962 – July 28, 2021) was a film historian and author, known for publishing books about the behind the scenes of blockbuster movies such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and The Shining. Rinzler also wrote the novel Indiana Jones and the Mystery of Mount Sinai, as well as All Up, about the Space Race.

Rinzler is primarily known for being the target inspiration for Rinzler, a character from the 2010 Disney film, Tron: Legacy, that was named after him, according to the film’s director, Joseph Kosinski. Rinzler’s character is later revealed to be Tron himself, after he was decoded by Kevin Flynn’s likeness program, Clu 2.

Career After living in France for almost ten years, Jonathan Rinzler returned to the United States looking to work in the movie industry, more specifically with Lucasfilm. Rinzler, who had been working as a managing editor until that point, was interviewed for a position in the company to work with non-fiction books. He then joined the company in 2001, as the executive editor of LucasBooks, the company's publishing arm.

At the time, the company was producing Episode II: Attack of the Clones, and Rinzler had been hired to produce a series of books about the making of their movies. Rinzler still produced a book about the behind the scenes of the 1968 film Planet of the Apes for Disney in 2018.

In 2019, Rinzler published The Making of Alien, a behind-the-scenes book about the making of the 1979 film Alien with cast and crew interviews and previously-unseen photographs.

Rinzler also published a novel in 2020 called All Up, about the Space Race between the United States and Soviet Russia. He spent one year researching for the book, and about seven years writing it sporadically, until its publication.

Death In November 2020, Rinzler's wife announced that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in August. His last two books Howard Kazanjian: A Producer's Life and Stanley Kubrick's The Shining were published posthumously in September 2021 and February 2023.

Selected works Non-fiction books

Fiction books