Robert James Leslie Halliwell (23 February 1929 – 21 January 1989) was a British film critic, encyclopaedist and television rights buyer for ITV, the British commercial network, and Channel 4. Halliwell's Filmgoer's Companion (1965) is a single volume film-related encyclopaedia featuring biographies (with credits) and technical terms. Halliwell's Film Guide (1977) is dedicated to individual films. For some years, Halliwell's books were the most accessible source for movie information, and his name became synonymous with film knowledge and research. Anthony Quinton wrote in the Times Literary Supplement in 1977: