Damien Bona
Damien Conrad Bona (March 18, 1955 – January 29, 2012) was an American film historian, writer, film critic and journalist. Bona co-authored the 1986 reference book, "Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards," a definitive history of the Academy Awards with Mason Wiley, a former classmate at Columbia University.[1][2] In 1982, Bona quit his job as a Manhattan lawyer and moved to Los Angeles, where he and Wiley embarked on extensive research to write a reference guide to Oscar history from the first ceremony in 1929.[1] Much of the research was conducted at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences library in Beverly Hills, California.[1] The two missed their original publication deadline of November 1982.[1] They submitted the final copy two years later with updates on the 1985 Academy Awards.[1] Co-author Wiley died of Aids in 1994.[1] Bona was the sole author of the book's sequel, "Inside Oscar 2," which was released in 2002 and covered the Academy Awards from 1995 through 2000.[1]
Bona was born March 18, 1955 during a heavy snow storm in Sharon, Connecticut, and raised in New Milford.[2] He graduated from the Portsmouth Abbey School in 1973. He earned a bachelor's degree in English in 1977 from Columbia University,[3] where he worked as a film critic for the university newspaper, the Columbia Daily Spectator.[1][2] He earned a law degree from the New York University School of Law in 1980.[1] He worked as a lawyer in Manhattan for two years before resigning and temporarily moving to Los Angeles where he and Mason Wiley began researching their book on the Academy Awards.[1] After their research in Los Angeles, both Bona and Wiley moved back to New York City.
Bona is the author of two other books, "Opening Shots: The Unusual, Unexpected, Potentially Career Threatening First Roles That Launched the Careers of 70 Hollywood Stars" (1994) and "Starring John Wayne as Genghis Kahn: Hollywood's All-Time Worst Casting Blunders" (1996).[1]
After suffering sudden cardiac arrest on January 14, 2012, Bona died from its complications in Manhattan on January 29, 2012, at the age of 56.[2]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k McLellan, Dennis (February 20, 2012). "Damien Bona dies at 56; co-wrote 'Inside Oscar' on Academy Awards". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on February 25, 2012. Retrieved February 25, 2012.
- ^ a b c d Hevesi, Dennis (February 9, 2012). "Damien Bona Dies at 56; Creator of Guide for Oscar Buffs". The New York Times. Retrieved February 25, 2012.
- ^ "Obituaries". Columbia College Today. Spring 2012. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
- 1955 births
- 2012 deaths
- American film historians
- American male non-fiction writers
- American film critics
- Academy Awards
- American LGBTQ journalists
- American LGBTQ historians
- Columbia College (New York) alumni
- New York University School of Law alumni
- People from New Milford, Connecticut
- Journalists from New York City
- Historians from New York (state)
- Historians from Connecticut
- 21st-century American LGBTQ people