Burt Kearns is an American author, journalist, and television and film producer, writer and director, whom Vanity Fair referred to as "a show business and pop culture savant."^[1]

Kearns's book, Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel, will be published on April 2, 2024 by Applause Theatre & Cinema Books.^[2] His biography of actor Lawrence Tierney,^[3] Lawrence Tierney: Hollywood's Real-Life Tough Guy, was published in December, 2022 by the University Press of Kentucky.^[4][5] The Show Won't Go On: The Most Shocking, Bizarre, and Historic Deaths of Performers Onstage, which he wrote with Jeff Abraham, was published in 2019 by Chicago Review Press.^[6][7]

Kearns's first book, the television memoir Tabloid Baby, was published in 1999.^[8][9]

In 2018, he became a contributor to the literary pop culture website, PleaseKillMe.com.^[10] In December 2021, he began to contribute written and video pieces to Legs McNeil’s literary pop culture website, Legsville.com.^[11]

Television and film production

Frozen Pictures

In 2000, Kearns formed the production company Frozen Television (later Frozen Pictures) with producer Brett Hudson, formerly of the Hudson Brothers musical comedy team. Kearns directed, wrote and produced many television shows and series under the Frozen banner, including the documentary series Adults Only: The Secret History of The Other Hollywood and The Secret History of Rock ‘n' Roll with Gene Simmons for Court TV; All the Presidents' Movies,^[34] narrated by Martin Sheen, for Bravo; and two seasons of the Showtime late night series My First Time.

He directed and produced the 2008 Frozen Pictures documentary musical film, The Seventh Python, about the career and influence of Monty Python collaborator and Bonzo Dog Band member Neil Innes,^[35] and directed and produced Basketball Man,^[36] the 2007 Frozen Pictures documentary film that featured basketball stars and legends telling the story of the life and legacy of the game's inventor, Dr. James Naismith. The film was released on DVD on May 8, 2007.^[37]

Kearns received international attention,^[38] including front page stories in The New York Times^[39] and USA Today,^[40] for his controversial Saintmychal.com website and documentary project that chronicled and inherently promoted the canonization of 9/11 hero Rev. Mychal Judge.

Tabloid Baby

Kearns left tabloid television and began writing Tabloid Baby in 1996. A combination memoir and exposé, the book was published in November 1999 by Hambleton-Hill's Celebrity Books imprint.^[43][44]

The book was praised by Mike Wallace of CBS News' 60 Minutes as "sad, funny, undeniably authentic" and by tabloid television host Maury Povich as "The Bible".^{[45][46][47][48]}

Early career

After graduation from Fairfield University;^[49] Kearns worked as a reporter and editor for the Acorn Press, a chain of newspapers in southern Connecticut and Westchester, New York. After John Lennon's assassination on December 8, 1980, he moved to Manhattan, where he reported and wrote for neighborhood newspapers including The Westsider, East Side Express and Chelsea-Clinton News, before being hired in August 1981 on the assignment desk, and later as newswriter and show producer, at WNEW-TV's 10 O'Clock News. Kearns moved on to became a show producer, field producer and newswriter for such New York City and network news operations as WNBC-TV's News 4 New York and CBS News' Nightwatch and CBS Morning News.^[50] With a background as a music writer and early chronicler of the punk music scene early in his newspaper career^[51][52] (he performed with Joey Ramone on the 45 rpm recording of Shrapnel's single, "Hey",^[53] produced by Jonathan Paley), he also moonlighted as a writer for Spin magazine.^{[54][55][56][57]}

Hired by Rupert Murdoch's 20th Century Fox as managing editor and producer of the nightly tabloid television series, A Current Affair, in the late 1980s, he helped develop and expand the tabloid television genre. In 1990, Kearns accompanied executive producer and genre inventor Peter Brennan to Hollywood, where, as managing editor and producer of Hard Copy (1990–1993) and Premier Story (1994), he continued to be an influential figure in the heyday of tabloid television.^[58][59][60] The range of his influence on the genre and its participants was laid out clearly in the 2012 biography, Mike Wallace: A Life by Peter Rader ^[61] and Australian television executive Gerald Stone's 2011 memoir, Say It with Feeling.^[62]

Kearns (and his exploits covering the fall of the Berlin Wall) was featured in Maury Povich's 1991 memoir, Current Affairs: A Life on the Edge.^[63] He was the model for the character Al Bunker, the tabloid television producer covering the fall of the Berlin Wall in Thomas Keneally's 1993 novel, Jacko: The Great Intruder.^[64]

Awards

Winner of 2015 Cannabis Film Festival Viewers' Choice Award as producer of High There.^[65]

Winner of 2009 Las Vegas Film Festival Golden Ace Award ^[66][67] for directing and producing The Seventh Python.^[68]

Emmy-winning newswriter, honored by New York City chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for contributing to the winning of Outstanding News Broadcast Emmy by WNBC-TV's News 4 New York at 6PM.^[69]

True Tabloid Star

In addition to numerous television, radio and podcast appearances ^[70] promoting his books and other projects, Kearns has appeared as an expert or "talking head" on many television specials and documentaries, including Dark Side of The 90s: Tabloid TV,^[71] Kardashian: The Man Who Saved OJ Simpson,^[72] Fame for 15,^[73] Victim 0001,^[74][75] Rock Stars Do The Dumbest Things,^[76] Headliners & Legends with Matt Lauer ^[77] and When Cameras Cross The Line.^[78] He was also featured in the documentary 15 Minutes of True Tabloid Stars.^[79][80]

Personal life

Kearns is married to television producer Alison Holloway.^[81] The couple have two children.

References

External links

• Burt Kearns at IMDb
• Burt Kearns' Emmy award