Clive Hirschhorn (1940-)[1] is a playwright, journalist and theatre and film critic.

Biography

Born in Johannesburg, the son of hotelier Colin Kalman and Pearl (Rabinowitz) Hirschhorn. He attended the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, receiving a B.A. in 1960. Between 1960 and 1963, he worked as deputy film and theatre critic for the Sunday Times and freelanced for both The Rand Daily Mail' and Johannesburg Sunday Express.

Hirschhorn left South Africa for London in April, 1963 and in 1964 to work as a story editor at the UK's ABC TV network a freelance journalist with the London Daily Mail, before joining the Sunday Express in 1965 as an interviewer. becoming the paper's film and theatre critic (1966-1995). In 1996, he was made editor of the theatre magazine Applause and in 1998 also the theatre critic of This Is London.

Over the years Hirschhorn has written several books about the film industry and the personalities involved in it and has become a renowned and avid collector of theatre and film publications.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance=

While still a student at the University of the Witwatersrand, he was an active member of the University Players and wrote the play A State of Innocence while still in his teens. This was produced and directed by Ruth Oppenheim, with a cast that included Marjorie Gordon and Johann Nell, at the Library Theatre in 1960.

Between 1960 and 1963, he was deputy film and theatre critic for the Sunday Times and freelanced for both The Rand Daily Mail' and Sunday Express, all in Johannesburg.

In later years he gave lectures on the Hollywood musical at the University of Cape Town's annual Summer School