Ephraim Katz

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Ephraim Katz (March 11, 1932, Tel Aviv — August 2, 1992, Manhattan) was a writer, journalist, and filmmaker who devoted his life to gathering the information in his book, The Film Encyclopedia.

Ephraim became a film reporter and critic in Israel, before moving to the United States in 1959. Residing in New York, he made television documentaries for CBS, including "The Taste of Sunday," one of its first in color, and later for NBC. Katz, Quentin Reynolds, and Zwy Aldouby co-wrote the book Minister of Death: The Adolf Eichmann Story (1960), about the capture of Adolf Eichmann.

Ephraim Katz directed many documentaries, educational and industrial films, but his greatest contribution to cinema was his single volume The Film Encyclopedia (1st edition, 1979). One of the most comprehensive critical and historical works on film in print, he single-handedly wrote the entire first edition. The Encyclopedia contains biographical and critical information about many major and minor figures in films including actors, directors, producers, and production people. It also chronicles the history of cinema around the world and contains definitions and descriptions of technical processes and film terminology.

Katz studied law and economics at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. He later studied political science at Hunter College, New York and cinema at New York University.

Ephraim Katz died of emphysema. He had two daughters.