Bill Linsman was born in Los Angeles and raised in Beverly Hills, where his uncle was a film producer ("The Cisco Kid," "Charlie Chan"). As a youth he was a regular visitor on motion picture sets, and early on became "celluloid-struck." He attended UCLA and UC Irvine, earning a bachelor's degree in economics at Irvine in 1967, and then an MFA at USC's School of Film in 1969, the same year he moved to Phoenix. Linsman began his career at a television station, the local NBC affiliate, first as a soundman, then as a producer and director. He was general manager and director at a film company in Scottsdale, working there three years before starting his own production firm, Linsmanfilm. Read more.