Dennis Bingham
- Actor
Dennis Bingham grew up in a working class
Catholic family in Columbus, Ohio, one that spoke of Jimmy Stewart as a
family friend. When he saw the movie listings for "James Stewart" in
"The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (1962) as a young child he thought
"that's a pretty strange way to spell 'Jimmy.'" Reading from age three,
his parents expected him to grow up to be a priest, but at eight years
old, he noticed his first cinematic technique, a distance created by
Cinemascope in _Music Man, The_ (1962). He went to Ohio State
University and took some film courses which were part of the
engineering department at the time, but majored in English, with
creative writing, literature, and theatre (including acting on stage)
as emphases. Falling in love with the golden age of film criticism with
writers like Pauline Kael and Andrew Sarris. He knew that was what he
wanted to do, which he did locally for several years before fulfilling
a dream to go to NYU Film School to get his M.A. He then returned to
Ohio State for doctoral work, and became an assistant, after which he
discovered what he really wanted to do was teach. He is a Professor of
English at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, where he
is head of the Film Studies division. His focuses in research have been
in feminist film theory, gender, masculinity, and biopics. He is the
author of "Whose Lives Are They Anyway: The Biopic as Contemporary Film
Genre" (Rutgers University Press, 2010). He also mentored Katherine
Ellison (II), Scott Hutchins, Bonnie Williams, Jonathan Knipp, Tess
McClernan, Westley Felton, Damien Belliveau, Anne Laker, and Melinda
Labita.