Joe Williams

Joseph L. Williams (November 9, 1958 – July 26, 2015) was the film critic for the daily St. Louis Post-Dispatch (#29 among U.S. newspapers) and the Web site STLtoday.com in St. Louis, Missouri. He was also the author of the books Entertainment on the Net, Hollywood Myths and The Grassy Knoll Report. Williams had been a staff writer for the newspaper since 1996. From 2003 to 2006, he was the on-camera movie reviewer for St. Louis TV station KMOV. He was a frequent guest on radio and television broadcasts in the region. Biography Williams was born on November 9, 1958. He attended public schools in St. Louis County, graduating in 1976 from Parkway West High School. He was a 1982 graduate of the University of Southern California, where his mentor was the novelist T.C. Boyle. He received a bachelor's degree in English from the school. Williams received his master's degree from the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri in 1987. From 1988 to 1990, Williams was a staff writer for the music industry trade magazine Cashbox in Los Angeles, California. He is credited with being the first national critic to write about the band The Posies, who were signed to Geffen Records after Williams' review of the album Failure. In 2012 Williams completed his second book, Hollywood Myths (Voyageur Press), an anthology of movie legends and lore.