Richard Warren Schickel (February 10, 1933 – February 18, 2017) was an American film historian, journalist, author, documentarian, and film and literary critic. He was a film critic for Time from 1965–2010, and also wrote for Life and the Los Angeles Times Book Review. His last writings about film were for Truthdig.
He was interviewed in For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism (2009). In this documentary, he discusses early film critics Frank E. Woods, Robert E. Sherwood, and Otis Ferguson, and tells of how, in the 1960s, he, Pauline Kael and Andrew Sarris, rejected moralizing opposition of the older Bosley Crowther of The New York Times who had railed against violent movies such as Bonnie and Clyde (1967). In addition to film, Schickel also critiqued and documented cartoons, particularly Peanuts.
Schickel was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of Helen (née Hendricks) and Edward John Schickel. He received his B.A. in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1955.
Schickel had two daughters. Following a series of strokes, he died in Los Angeles on February 18, 2017, eight days after his 84th birthday.
Schickel received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1964. He also lectured at Yale University and University of Southern California's School of Film and Television.
The World of Carnegie Hall (1960)
Movies: The history of an Art and an Institution (1964)
The World of Goya, 1746–1828 (1968)
The Disney Version: The Life, Times, Art and Commerce of Walt Disney (1968); revised editions: 1984, 1997
Second Sight: Notes on Some Movies 1965–1970 (1972)
His Picture in the Papers: A Speculation on Celebrity in America Based on the Life of Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. (1974)
Harold Lloyd: The Shape of Laughter (1974)
The Men Who Made The Movies (1975)
Douglas Fairbanks: The First Celebrity (1976)
Another I, Another You: A Novel (1978)
Singled Out: A Civilized Guide to Sex and Sensibility for the Suddenly Single Man—or Woman (1981)
Cary Grant: A Celebration (1983)
D.W. Griffith: An American Life (1984); British Film Institute Book Prize, 1985