Gill, Brendan

Brendan Gill, (born October 4, 1914, Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.—died December 27, 1997, New York, New York), American critic and writer chiefly known for his work as critic of film, drama, and architecture for The New Yorker.

Gill began writing for The New Yorker immediately after finishing college in 1936. His witty essays often appeared anonymously in the magazine’s “Talk of the Town” column, and he served as staff film critic from 1960 to 1967, theatre critic from 1968 to 1987, and columnist from 1987 to 1997 of “Sky Line,” an architectural forum for his views on historic preservation. Here at The New Yorker (1975), a rich collection of anecdotes, photographs, and drawings recalling his years at the magazine, exhibits Gill’s pointed wit and sparkling prose. Ways of Loving: Two Novellas and Eighteen Short Stories (1974) was praised for its urbanity, although some critics found the work lacking in substance. A New York Life: Of Friends and Others (1990) contains elegant, witty sketches of many of Gill’s friends and acquaintances—including Dorothy Parker, Eleanor Roosevelt, Alec Waugh, and Man Ray. Many readers relished his gossipy manner and often controversial opinions. Gill wrote prolifically of New York life and architecture; his books on the subject include John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (1981) and A Fair Land to Build In: The Architecture of the Empire State (1984). He also wrote biographies of Cole Porter, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Charles Lindbergh, as well as poems, novels, and plays. In the year before his death he published Late Bloomers, which comprised portrayals of people who had achieved success during or after middle age (including Harry Truman, Charles Darwin, and Edith Wharton).