Jack Tewksbury, a longtime entertainment industry journalist and Hollywood Foreign Press Association member, died Saturday, according to the HFPA. He was 94.
HFPA president Ali Sar said, “Jack has been an invaluable member and a true gentleman. He will be sorely missed.”
Tewksbury was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Oct. 11, 1925. He began his career in journalism working in New York as a reporter for Motion Picture Daily and Radio-TV Daily during his college years at New York University. He moved to Hollywood and became the movie columnist for the Quebec-Chronicle-Telegraph. Tewksbury also worked as a publicist for prolific producer Joseph Levine.
According to Tewksbury’s IMDb page, he wrote thousands of articles that appeared in hundreds of global publications and was always interested in comedy. He and his friends would deal with boredom during the middle of the night while waiting for news to happen by trying to see who could make up the most ridiculous story and get it sent out on a wire service.
He joined the HFPA in 1985 as a journalist for French publications, and then, more recently, wrote for Argentina. He served as the HFPA treasurer from 1992-1998, 1999-2000 and 2009-2011. He regularly wrote features for the Golden Globes website and also served as vice president of the Young Artist Awards.
The HFPA is a 77-year-old non-profit organization of journalists and photographers who report on the entertainment industry’s activity and interests in the United States for media outlets outside the U.S. The organization conducts the annual Golden Globe Awards ceremony in Los Angeles.