{"id":89773,"date":"2015-09-14T17:00:20","date_gmt":"2015-09-14T21:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=89773"},"modified":"2015-09-15T15:15:30","modified_gmt":"2015-09-15T19:15:30","slug":"bill-becker-1927-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/14\/bill-becker-1927-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Becker, 1927\u20132015"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_89775\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/billbecker.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-89775\" class=\"wp-image-89775\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/billbecker.jpg\" alt=\"BillBecker\" width=\"600\" height=\"451\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/billbecker.jpg 837w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/billbecker-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-89775\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Becker in 1995.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>We were saddened to learn that Bill Becker, a longtime friend of <em>The Paris Review<\/em>, died this weekend at eighty-eight. As <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/09\/14\/theater\/william-becker-who-transformed-janus-films-dies-at-88.html\" target=\"_blank\">today\u2019s obituary in the<em>\u00a0New York Times<\/em><\/a> explains, Bill was \u201ca theater critic and financier who acquired Janus Films with a partner in 1965, expanded its catalog of art-house and Hollywood classics and broadened their distribution to university audiences and home viewers.\u201d A cineaste and a shrewd businessman, he was instrumental in bringing works by Renoir, Fellini, Bergman, Antonioni, Truffaut, and dozens of other filmmakers to new American audiences, a legacy his son Peter carries on as president\u00a0of the Criterion Collection.<\/p>\n<p>We knew Bill as a familiar face at our annual Spring Revel, and a generous, loyal benefactor. A close friend of George Plimpton\u2019s, he was quick to champion the writers he admired\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/04\/13\/james-salters-acceptance-speech\/\" target=\"_blank\">James Salter credited him<\/a> with bringing <em>A Sport and a Pastime\u00a0<\/em>to Plimpton\u2019s attention. After George died, Mr. Becker continued to support the <em>Review<\/em> under each of its new editors. We join his colleagues at Janus Films and the Criterion Collection in offering our condolences and our gratitude.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We were saddened to learn that Bill Becker, a longtime friend of The Paris Review, died this weekend at eighty-eight. As today\u2019s obituary in the\u00a0New York Times explains, Bill was \u201ca theater critic and financier who acquired Janus Films with a partner in 1965, expanded its catalog of art-house and Hollywood classics and broadened their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[19427,19429,14,20537,369,19428,11989,13136,19426],"class_list":["post-89773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-memoriam","tag-bill-becker","tag-criterion-collection","tag-george-plimpton","tag-in-memoriam","tag-james-salter","tag-janus-films","tag-obituaries","tag-remembrances","tag-william-becker"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Remembering Bill Becker, a Loyal Friend of The Paris Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"September 14, 2015 \u2013 We were saddened to learn that Bill Becker, a longtime friend of The Paris Review, died this weekend at eighty-eight. 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