Brian Linehan book

There was a time when Brian Linehan walked the halls at 333 King Street East, when not behind a keyboard writing an entertainment column.

More often than not, he would grin that Linehan grin and say hello. He wrote a weekly Sun column for more than a year before those brutal Sun Media cutbacks curtailed his Sun input.

We thought about Brian's presence at the Sun the other night in discovering one of his TV interviews at 6 a.m. on the Star channel. It was a 1999 interview with actor Anthony Quinn.

Rather than being an in-your-face interviewer, Brian's style was to sit back and let the actors tell their stories. His 1999 Anthony Quinn interview was a rare half hour of raw emotions from a world-acclaimed actor.

Brian, who was 59 when he died in June 2004, is the subject of a new book by George Anthony, a former Day Oner Toronto Sun entertainment editor and columnist now living in Montreal with his wife, Gail, and their three children.

Starring Brian Linehan: A Life Behind the Scenes will be released Sept. 25 by McClelland & Stewart. The 272-page hardcover book, written by a friend and colleague, will no doubt be popular among Brian Linehan fans from all walks of life.

The book promo reads: "Starring Brian Linehan has it all: the wit, the struggles, the insecurity, the famous friends, the secret life behind the camera, and the ground-breaking interviews. Before ET, Access Hollywood, and STAR, there was City Lights and there was Linehan."

Thanks to George Anthony, Brian Linehan fans on both sides of the border will soon know more about their favourite Hamilton-born Hollywood interviewer.

And thanks to the Star channel, we can still watch the master interviewer at work.