Chris Steinbrunner

Peter Christian Steinbrunner (1934 – 7 July 1993) was an American author, broadcaster and historian specializing in detective film and fiction.[1][2]

Steinbrunner grew up in Queens, New York, and attended Fordham University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree and a master's degree in sociology.[1] While at Fordham, and for some years afterward, he was the host of a weekly radio program broadcast from the university station WFUV-FM, on which he presented interviews as well as occasional dramatizations of Sherlock Holmes stories.[3][4]

Following his college years, he was employed at the local New York City television station WOR-TV (later WWOR), becoming its film programming director.[1][2] He remained at the station until the mid-1980s, during which time he produced entertainment specials about James Bond and Sherlock Holmes.[3]

Steinbrunner was well known among Holmes aficionados, and mystery fans in general, as exceptionally knowledgeable in his field. He was a founding member of The Baker Street Irregulars’ scion society "The Priory Scholars of Fordham".[5][6] He was a long-time member of the Mystery Writers of America, receiving its Edgar Award for co-authoring the Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection in 1976.[1][2]

Amongst Steinbrunner's written works were the program notes to the American Film Institute's festival "Sherlock Holmes on the Screen", presented in Washington, D.C., in 1972.[7]