Steve Neale obituary
My friend Steve Neale, who has died aged 71, was a film historian and a well-known figure in the development of film studies in UK universities. Steve began teaching and writing at an opportune moment in the 1970s, when film studies was being established as a discipline in the humanities, and his work helped to shape how the subject was and is taught in the UK.
Steve wrote about a wide variety of topics, from film technology to gender representation, politics and film and the history of Hollywood. He is best known for his work on popular film genres, including two books, Genre (1980) and Genre and Hollywood (2000).
He was born in Bexleyheath, Kent, to Doreen (nee Molkenthin), who served in the Women’s Royal Naval Service during the second world war, and Ronald Neale, a sales manager at a small engineering firm. From Chislehurst and Sidcup grammar school he went on to study English literature at the University of Exeter, graduating in 1972.
After teacher training at Whitelands College (now part of the University of Roehampton), he taught English and film studies at the Little Ilford school in Newham, London (1973-75) before joining the British Film Institute in 1976 as a lecturer. He then moved to the Arnolfini arts centre in Bristol, selecting films for public exhibition (1979-80), and to the Midland Group arts centre in Nottingham (1980-84).
Steve taught film studies at the University of Kent (1984-97), and in 1996 moved to Sheffield Hallam University, where he was senior lecturer in film studies. In 1997 he became research professor in film, media and communication studies. He joined the University of Exeter as professor and chair in film studies in 2004 and I met him three years later when he became my PhD supervisor. He was a friendly and unassuming man – on meeting him for the first time, few would guess that he was one of the greatest scholars of motion pictures. He retired in 2014.
A collection of his work was published earlier this year in a book, Film, Cinema, Genre: The Steve Neale Reader, edited by Frank Krutnik and Richard Maltby. It attests to the sustained importance of Steve’s work over more than 40 years.
In retirement, Steve remained in Exeter and continued researching and writing about film.
He met Karen Edwards in 2004 when she was a lecturer in English at Exeter University. They married in 2016. He is survived by Karen, by his brother, David, his nephew, David, and his great-nieces, Lola and Robyn.