[1]
KT, Adrienne Harris, and Robert Sklar. Beijing, 1988.
We have just learned of the death of Professor Robert Sklar after a bicycling accident.
This is a great loss. Bob was a scholar of immense energy and keen intelligence. His books will endure for a very long time, built as they are on careful scholarship and imaginative interpretation. Bob’s background in American Studies made him a pungent cultural historian of cinema long before Cultural Studies became a subfield of film studies. A researcher of old-fashioned virtues, he wrote with a transparency and vivacity that scholars seldom muster. He also didn’t shrink from political criticism, as seen in some of his work for Cineaste, a journal with which he was identified for many years.
Bob was a down-to-earth, good-humored guy. When David taught for a semester at NYU in 1979, Bob was a great boss, warning that one had to know every department’s “folkways.” When we were invited to China to lecture, the genial presence of Bob and Adrienne made it a trip we’ll always remember–not least for Bob’s daily quest to find a Times so he could check on baseball scores. This remarkable man will be much missed.
Matt Singer’s tribute to Robert Sklar is at IFC here. [2]
PS 6 July: See also Frances Guerin’s [3], Eric Kohn’s [4], and Jim Hoberman’s [5] tributes to Bob.
PPS 8 July: See Richard Allen’s comprehensive tribute on the SCMS site [6], and the Variety story as well [7].