Kunhardt, Philip B., Jr. 1928-2006
(Philip Bradish Kunhardt, Jr.)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born February 5, 1928, in New York, NY; died of complications from pulmonary fibrosis, March 21, 2006, in Chappaqua, NY. Film producer, editor, and author. Kunhardt was a former managing editor for Lifemagazine, as well as a documentary producer known for films that were aired by the Discovery Channel and the Public Broadcasting Service. A graduate ofPrinceton University, he joined the Life staff in 1950 as a reporter. Working his way up to assistant managing editor, he remained with the magazine until it folded in 1972. He continued to work for Time Inc. magazines such as People, however, until Life was revived in 1978. He returned to the now-monthly publication, becoming its managing editor and retiring in 1982; he would later edit Life: The First Fifty Years, 1936-1986, and Life: World War II (1990). After leaving journalism, Kunhardt focused on his family-run film company, Kunhardt Productions, which released such miniseries and lengthy television biographies as P.T. Barnum (1995), The American President (2000), and Freedom (2003). Some of these Kunhardt adapted to book form, such as with P.T. Barnum: America's Greatest Showman (1995). The author also had a great interest in the American Civil War, a fascination he inherited from his grandfather who had collected rare photos from the era that are now preserved in the Meserve-Kunhardt Collection; Kunhardt would write a well-received biography on Abraham Lincoln titled Lincoln: An Illustrated Biography(1992), as well as Mathew Brady and His World(1977) and Twenty Days (1965), which were also about the Civil War. These last two titles were written with his mother, Dorothy M. Kunhardt, who was noted as the author of the 1940 children's book Pat the Bunny. Among Kunhardt's other publications are two family memoirs about his parents: My Father's House (1970) and The Dreaming Game (2004).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, March 27, 2006, p. B9.

New York Times, March 24, 2006, p. A19.