William D. Wine

William David Wine passed away, peacefully at home, in Philadelphia on June 14, 2026.

Bill Wine or “Billy” as he was known to his family and friends was born in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. His father was a printer, his mother, a teacher by education, stayed at home to raise her family while her husband worked different shifts.

He was a gifted math student who earned a B.S. from Drexel University in Mathematics. After writing a movie review for a local paper, he soon realized his true passion was television and film. His earliest memories had always been reading the credits from his favorite TV. shows. After graduating from Drexel, he went on to earn a Master’s Degree from Temple University in Communications. He completed all the course work toward a PhD., but decided he would rather publish film and TV articles than write a dissertation. He never looked back.

He covered the movie beat for decades, writing and performing on KYW News radio, WTFX TV and WIP Radio.

Among the dozens of places he served as a journalist were the Camden Courier Post, the Phildelphia Inquirer, The Philadelphia Daily News, Philadelphia Magazine, The Drummer and The Village Voice.

Besides reviewing movies, books and plays he also interviewed actors and entertainers, including Orson Welles, Henry Fonda, Audrey Hepburn, Gene Wilder, and Jack Lemmon.

He was nominated five times and received three Emmy Awards for news writing while at Fox 29.

Bill was a tenured associate professor at La Salle for thirty-six years, teaching a wide variety of undergraduate courses in film and writing. He was regarded as a tough, but fair teacher.

His true passion was play writing. Since his father had been a child actor in the Yiddish theater, it sparked his life-long interest in the theater. He wrote eleven plays and won nine play writing grants and seventeen honorable mentions in writing competitions.

A master of puns, rhymes and jokes he was an acerbic wit. He could be wickedly funny especially when delivering a pan of a movie. One of his favorite quotes was, “I had a bad seat. It was facing the screen.” Although he could be wildly silly, what resonated was always his intelligence.

Bill was an avid Philadelphia Phillies, Sixers and Eagles fan. One of his favorite memories was having Harry Callas shush him by putting his hand over his mouth in the broadcasting booth for cheering too loudly. A natural athlete, he played basketball into his 70’s. During one game at La Salle, the assistant basketball coach asked if it would be okay if his nine-year-old son played with the faculty. He said he would never forget the kid-a young Kobe Bryant. A lifelong tennis player, he was never one to shy away from competition. He volunteered, from the audience, to play tennis at a publicity event in Los Angeles. The opponent was the great Rod Laver. He lost, but wrote about the experience.

As a father and grandfather, he was anything but critical. He was warm, loving and supportive. He is survived by his wife of 45 years (Suzanne), his daughters Simone (Michael) and Paulina (Seth). his three grandchildren, Nathaniel, Temma and Henry and his sister Marcia (Lou).

A Celebration of Life will be announce at a later date as well as information about a scholarship fund in his name.

In lieu of flowers, he would probably prefer you to go see a good movie in a theater.