Bill Pence, a former vice president of Janus Films who founded the Integral Telluride Film Festival in 1974, has died. He was 82. The Telluride day planet said Pence died on Dec. 6 after a long illness.
Pence, a native of Minneapolis, kicked off the Telluride party with his wife Stella and friend and film historian James Card, who became co-director of the event. The inaugural festival at Colorado’s Sheridan Opera House and a local bar honored Francis Ford Coppola, Gloria Swanson and Leni Riefenstahl and surprisingly sold out. Pence led the party’s growth, adding three more seats in 1986.
In 1991, he made a major deal with the city’s only school, building a 500-seat theater in the gym each winter, with a small music room upstairs as a performance facility. Over the next 15 years, the Pences brought the Galaxy, the Palm and the Chuck Jones theaters to the locations.
The Pences left the party in 2003. They were later recruited to help program and run the TCM Classic Film Festival and Bill Pence continued to work on preserving and archiving overlooked films.
During his career, Pence also rose to VP at Janus Films in New York, orchestrated the theater department’s move to Denver, and later directed the student film program at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH.
Pence and his 52-year-old wife are survived by their daughters Zazie and Lara and four grandchildren.
Writer: Erik Pedersen
Source: Deadline
Bernice Bonaparte is an author and entertainment journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a passion for pop culture and a talent for staying up-to-date on the latest entertainment news, Bernice has become a trusted source for information on the entertainment industry.
