Philip B. Kunhardt Jr., 78; Writer Produced Documentaries for TV
Philip B. Kunhardt Jr., 78, a writer and producer of television documentaries on freedom and the American presidency, died Tuesday at his home in Chappaqua, N.Y., of complications from pulmonary fibrosis.
With two of his sons, Peter and Philip B. III, Kunhardt helped produce documentaries for Kunhardt Productions. These included “Freedom,” an eight-hour series broadcast on public television in 2003, and “The American President,” which profiled every U.S. president as of 2000.
Kunhardt, a native of New York, graduated from Princeton. He started with Life magazine as a reporter and eventually became managing editor before retiring in 1982. He wrote several books, including memoirs about his parents and “A New Birth of Freedom,” about the Gettysburg Address.
His mother, Dorothy M. Kunhardt, was a historian and children’s book author best known for “Pat the Bunny,” published in 1940.
Together, they wrote two books: “Twenty Days,” about Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, and “Mathew Brady and His World.”
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