Take a closer look at some of Hollywood's top-tier talent at the beginning of their careers.

Child Stars, Then and Now

Take a closer look at some of Hollywood&#39;s top-tier talent at the beginning of their careers.

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Hollis Alpert was a major movie critic who rose to prominence in the 1960s, best remembered today for his role in creating the National Society of Film Critics. He was born on September 24, 1916 in Herkimer, New York and served as a combat historian with the U.S. Army during the Second World War. Some of his accounts of warfare were published by magazines, which gave him entrée into New York-based mass media after he was demobilized.

In the period 1950-56, Alpert worked as an editor for the "New York Times" while freelancing as a book and movie reviewer. He was hired as a movie critic by the "Saturday Review", where he rose to prominence. In 1966, Alpert, Pauline Kael and other critics who worked for magazines founded the the National Society of Film Critics because the New York Film Critics Circle was dominated by movie reviewers toiling for the big New York daily newspapers. Alpert, Kael and others found the established critics be stodgy and old-fashioned, so they created their own organization to herald what they considered the new, vital works that were revolutionizing cinema.

After leaving the "Saturday Review" in 1975, Alpert worked for the "American Film Magazine" until 1981. On November 18, 2007, he died in Naples Florida at the age of 91.

Biography: &quot;The Barrymores&quot;. New York: Dial Press, 1964.

Biography: &quot;Marlon Brando and the Ghost of Stanley Kowalski&quot;. New York: Hearst Corp., 1961.

(book) &quot;The Claimant&quot;. New York: Dial Press, 1968.

(book, with Charlton Heston) &quot;Charlton Heston: The Actor&#39;s Life: Journals 1956-1976&quot;. New York: E.P. Dutton &amp; Co., 1978.

(book) &quot;Fellini: A Life&quot;. New York: Scribner, 1986. ISBN 0689116985

(book) &quot;Burton&quot;. New York: Putnam Adult, 1986. ISBN 0399130934

(book) &quot;The Life And Times Of Porgy And Bess: The Story of an American Classic&quot;. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990. ISBN 0394583396

(book) &quot;Broadway!: 125 Years of Musical Theatre&quot;. New York: Arcade Publishing, 1991. ISBN 1559700920

(book) &quot;How to Play Double Bogey Golf&quot;. New York: Random House Value Publishing, 1993. ISBN 0517098245

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Hollis Alpert

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