{{Short description|South African-born British film writer (1940–2017)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}} {{refimprove|date=November 2018}} '''Robyn Karney''' (4 January 1940 – 7 December 2017) was a South African-born London-based film writer and critic.
Karney was born in Cape Town, but raised in Johannesburg.<ref name="Goldsmith">{{cite news|last=Goldsmith|first=Linda|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jan/31/robyn-karney-obituary|title=Robyn Karney obituary|work=The Guardian|date=31 January 2018|access-date=18 November 2018}}</ref> A stage manager for the theatre companies of Brian Brooke and Leonard Schach, she emigrated to London in 1962.<ref name="Goldsmith"/>
A former critic for the film magazine ''Empire'',<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/critic/robyn-karney/|title=Critics: Robyn Carney|publisher=Rotten Tomatoes}}</ref> Karney edited several books on film including the massive historical works ''Chronicle of the Cinema'' (1995) and ''Cinema Year by Year'' (2000), both for DK Publishing, and ''Who's Who in Hollywood'' (1993). Karney was also the author of biographies of Audrey Hepburn, Charlie Chaplin and Burt Lancaster.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/118338.Robyn_Karney|title=Robyn Karney|publisher=goodreads.com}}</ref> With Ronald Bergan (1937–2020), she wrote the ''Bloomsbury Foreign Film Guide'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1988, 1991, known as the ''Holt Foreign Film Guide'', then ''The Faber Companion to Foreign Films'' in the United States). Her main job, however, was as a literary editor for major publishers.<ref name="Goldsmith"/>
On 6 January 2009, Karney appeared as expert witness on the BBC Radio 4 series ''Great Lives'' with host Matthew Parris and fellow guest Tracy-Ann Oberman in an edition devoted to actress Bette Davis. Karney appeared again on ''Great Lives'', on 12 May 2015, in an edition in which Antonia Quirke championed actor Marlon Brando, with Karney providing a dissenting voice.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Karney, Robyn}} Category:1940 births Category:2017 deaths Category:British film critics Category:British women film critics Category:British film historians
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