Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy (born February 16, 1950) is an American film critic and author. He wrote for Variety for 31 years as its chief film critic until 2010.

Early life Todd McCarthy was born in Evanston, Illinois, the son of Daniel and Barbara McCarthy. His mother was a cellist and served as the president of the Evanston Symphony Orchestra. His father was a rancher and real-estate developer. McCarthy graduated from Evanston Township High School (ETHS) in 1968 and Stanford University in 1972. In college, McCarthy was hired as a critic at the newspaper office on campus. His first review was a positive one for the French-Italian film Belle de Jour (1967). He wrote it at the age of 18.

Career McCarthy edited Kings of Bs: Working Within the Hollywood System with Charles Flynn, a book that discusses the great filmmakers of B movies, which was published in 1975. McCarthy was later the manager of the English-language edition of Le Film français in 1977. The next year, he got a job as a Hollywood editor for Film Comment. He directed four documentaries about film: Visions of Light (1992), Claudia Jennings (1995), Forever Hollywood (1999), and Man of Cinema: Pierre Rissient (2007). He wrote about the producer/director Howard Hawks in his book, Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood, which was published in 2000.

McCarthy lost his job at Variety in March 2010, McCarthy lost his job at The Hollywood Reporter in April 2020. McCarthy subsequently began writing regularly for Deadline Hollywood later in 2020.