William Paine Knickerbocker; Theater Critic

William Paine Knickerbocker, theater and film critic for the San Francisco Chronicle for two decades, died Wednesday night in a Tiburon convalescent home after a long illness. He was 73.

Knickerbocker was a Chronicle critic from 1955 to 1974 and was honored in 1963 with the Directors’ Guild of America’s annual Critic Award, considered the Oscar of movie criticism.

Knickerbocker, who did not use his first name, was born in New York City and was graduated from Dartmouth. After stints in advertising and as a reporter on the Portland Oregonian, he received his master’s degree in English literature from UC Berkeley in 1939.

After serving as a Navy intelligence officer in the Pacific Theater during World War II, he returned to journalism as a reporter on the Oakland Tribune in 1949 before going to the Chronicle.

He was instrumental in bringing the American Conservatory Theater to San Francisco from Pittsburgh after the Actors Workshop repertory company went to New York.

He was so esteemed by fellow Bay Area critics that they established the Paine Knickerbocker Award, which is presented annually for creative excellence in the theater.

Knickerbocker married Nancy Burt in 1940. She died in 1976. Two years later, he married Martha Haven Fletcher, who survives him. He is also survived by a sister, two children, two stepchildren and three grandchildren.