# Robyn Karney

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{{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](/source/Empire_(film_magazine))'',<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](/source/DK_Publishing), and ''Who's Who in Hollywood'' (1993). Karney was also the author of biographies of [Audrey Hepburn](/source/Audrey_Hepburn), [Charlie Chaplin](/source/Charlie_Chaplin) and [Burt Lancaster](/source/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](/source/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](/source/BBC_Radio_4) series ''[Great Lives](/source/Great_Lives)'' with host [Matthew Parris](/source/Matthew_Parris) and fellow guest [Tracy-Ann Oberman](/source/Tracy-Ann_Oberman) in an edition devoted to actress [Bette Davis](/source/Bette_Davis). Karney appeared again on ''Great Lives'', on 12 May 2015, in an edition in which [Antonia Quirke](/source/Antonia_Quirke) championed actor [Marlon Brando](/source/Marlon_Brando), with Karney providing a dissenting voice.

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Category:1940 births
Category:2017 deaths
Category:British film critics
Category:British women film critics
Category:British film historians

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Robyn Karney](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robyn_Karney) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robyn_Karney?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.