Kerr's career as a film critic started
at age thirteen, when he wrote a column for his hometown paper, "The Evanston Review." The column, "Junior Film Fans,"
allowed Kerr to go to eight movies a week. He took a B.A. degree
from Northwestern in 1937 and earned a Masters the next year. After
some years in the Drama Department of Catholic University, during
which time he wrote, directed and adapted plays, he began his career
as a critic at Commonweal, before moving to the New York Herald
Tribune. When the Tribune ceased publication in 1966, he moved to
the New York Times, where he remained for seventeen years until
his retirement. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1978 for the body of
his work. A spokeswoman for the League of New York Theaters said
that "his opening night dispatches, overflowing with vivid
reportage and wry wit, are our best accounts of Broadway's last
great era."
