• Joel Brown

    Staff Writer

    Portrait of Joel Brown. An older white man with greying brown hair, beard, and mustache and wearing glasses, white collared shirt, and navy blue blazer, smiles and poses in front of a dark grey background.

    Joel Brown is a staff writer at BU Today and Bostonia magazine. He’s written more than 700 stories for the Boston Globe and has also written for the Boston Herald and the Greenfield Recorder. Profile

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There are 11 comments on Remembering Los Angeles Program’s William Linsman

  1. Bill was funny, intelligent, caring… he would always have great ideas and gave postitive comments about things. It was refreshing to be around him and you would walk away smiling and thinking… yeah! he is right! life is good! I will always remember him saying: I’ll go to Spain and we will make a great short movie about the BU program in Madrid. YOu will be very missed in our next meeting.

  2. Bill was a tremendously encouraging and caring mentor. Even after I left the entertainment industry to pursue another field, he remained a cheerleader for me, something I’ll forever appreciate. Thank you, Bill.

  3. It was a pleasure and a privilege to work alongside Bill Linsman building awareness of the BU Film program in LA and the LA Redstone Film Festival. He will be sorely missed.

  4. Bill was kind enough to host me when I came out to visit the LA program some years ago. His passion for his work and the love of his students was evident. Great guy who knew everything about (and seemingly everyone in) Los Angeles. Huge loss for us, but his memory will live on through the many students he mentored.

  5. You’ve captured Bill beautifully. So much of what Bill did was unseen — and deliberately so. A few years ago I told Bill about an LA school’s program where troubled teens were assigned by the court to help crew a sailing ship where they would learn discipline, teamwork, etc. But the program needed donors. Bill, on his own, assembled a film crew and produced a beautiful video that became a great fund-raising tool for the program. He will be missed.

  6. Like others have echoed, Bill Linsman was also a hugely positive influence in my life. He was full of light and love, and he often took the time to remind me how great life was and how fortunate we both were. So much gratitude for his presence. BU, Los Angeles, and the world has lost such a talented, humble, and caring soul. Thank you for this article, BU.

  7. A wonderful article about a wonderful man. He has been a mentor and source of strength for me during my time in LA, and everyone who has worked with him knows how lucky they are to have been around such a positive and kind spirit.
    I’ll never forget his smiling face, as he pumped his fist in the air and said ‘Go Critical Contents’ – he took so much joy in seeing me launch my first company. Always a lovely man, always smiling, always supportive and positive, always helping others. I am so grateful to have been friends with one of the kindest men there is.

  8. Echoing what others have said, Bill was beyond generous as a colleague, and always responsive to needs expressed and unexpressed. He was one of a kind, and I always looked forward to any work we did together, to help students in trouble. His death is a huge loss.

  9. I had the fortune of seeing Bill in LA this October. It was always a delight to see him. Being two native Angelenos, we spoke dispiritedly of the changing LA scene and how it is not like it used to be. He told me his plans to go to New Mexico, and I expressed how I’ve always wanted to visit. When I finally do, Bill will surely be in my thoughts. Lots of love to his family.

  10. Bill was an incredibly resource, guide and mentor to so many. I arrived to LA from Boston, bright eyed and bushy tailed and worked to forge my own path, take some outside classes and turn the amazing internship opportunities he helped place me in (Scrubs & Malcolm in the Middle) into actual jobs. It was like having access to Uncle Joe Biden, incredibly connected and warm hearted, whenever you needed some grounding and advice in the sometimes overwhelming LA entertainment arena. He will be very missed.

  11. I miss my friend Bill Linsman. Was just thinking of him and learned about his passing. He was one of my first teachers in Main. We kept in touch when he came visiting me in Israel. Learned a lot from Bill. Not only films – also meditation and how to be nice to people and listen. Yes, listen. I’ll always remember his quote: “Be Center, Have The Strength To Resolve Conflicts”. That’s the most important tool for a director, and I still try to follow that. I miss you Bill! Love, Dani Menkin

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