Bill Collins

William Roderick Collins (4 December 1934 – 20 June 2019) was an Australian film critic and film historian, radio and television presenter, journalist, author and lecturer best known for presenting Hollywood films on television in Australia. Collins specialised in the era of Classical Hollywood cinema, and his favourite film was Gone with the Wind. He was well known for his association with Network 10, presenting Bill Collins' Golden Years of Hollywood for fifteen years, and later with Foxtel, presenting movies on the cable channel FOX Classics from 1995 to 2018. Biography Bill Collins was born in Sutherland, Sydney, the son of a policeman and school teacher. He was educated at Canterbury Boys' High School and the University of Sydney, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Latin in 1959, a Diploma of Education in 1960 and a Master of Education in 1965. Originally an English school teacher at East Hills Boys High School and his alma mater Canterbury Boys' High School, and later lecturer at Sydney Teachers College, Collins' appreciation of cinema led him to write reviews in the early 1960s and resulted in him working as a film presenter for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (then the Australian Broadcasting Commission). He moved from the ABC to TCN Channel 9 working there between 1967–74; later moving to ATN Channel 7 from 1975 to 1979. In 1980 he moved to Channel Ten to present movies nationally.