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Joseph Patrick Leydon is an award-winning film critic and historian. Currently a critic and correspondent for Variety, the "show business bible," a contributing writer for MovieMaker magazine and a contributing film critic for The Houston Chronicle, he is the author of Joe Leydon's Guide to Essential Movies. He also is communications director for Cowboys & Indians magazine, and an adjunct professor at Houston Community College and the University of Houston's Jack J. Valenti School of Communications. Leydon was born August 22, 1952 in New Orleans, Louisiana, and raised in the city's Ninth Ward, where he acquired a taste for fine food and hearty partying at an early age. He graduated from Loyola University, where he developed an equally passionate regard for Francois Truffaut and Charlie Chaplin while earning a BA in Journalism (with a minor in film). At Loyola, he studied under the late Ralph T. Bell, whom Leydon has described as "the finest and most encouraging professor any student could ever hope to have." More recently, he has pursued graduate studies at the Jack J. Valenti School of Communications at University of Houston, earning a Master of Arts degree.