About

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.

From 1993-1995 he lived in London, working mostly in western and eastern Europe. He has directed spots in London, Toronto, Prague, Budapest, Hamburg, Milan, Moscow, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Cairo, Beijing, and most recently Kuala Lumpur. At the end of 1997 he directed spots airing in Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong, Manila and Japan. His clients include major packaged goods, food accounts, automobile manufacturers, and retail chains. His specialties within his craft include storytelling and dialogue. He has directed many baby commercials, humor commercials, "emotional" commercials, and celebrities . He has been a CLIO finalist five times and has won numerous ADDY's, IBA Awards, Monitor Awards, and CINE Golden Eagles for longer format films. His commercial "Who's Sorry Now?" for Porter-Cable Tools won a regional Addy in March of 1998.

Linsman was the executive producer and director of the Southwestern Bell-sponsored documentary "Letting Moonlight In", a half-hour film about adobe home designer and artist Bill Tull. The show aired on many Public Television stations in 1989, and was shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art in August 1990. He has published articles in The American Cinematographer and has lectured on commercial filmmaking in Japan and Sweden, and addressed the Russian Union of Cinematographers. He has taught television commercial direction for 14 years at the International Film & Television Workshops in Rockport, Maine. The March, 1998 issue of The American Cinematographer features an article, written by Linsman, about the Workshops , and their affect on the film industry. He also teaches in Film, Video, and Broadcasting in the School of Continuing & Professional Studies at New York University .

Bill Linsman and his family now live in California. He is currently Director of the Boston University in Los Angeles Internship Program and a visiting Associate Professor at Boston University's Department of Film & Television in the College of Communication. He is married to the artist and writer Paula Panich, who is also known as the creator and publisher of DiRT: DiRT: A Garden Journal from the Connecticut River Valley . Linsman and Panich are the parents of a 24-year-old daughter who is  a photographer in New York City. Two more daughters live in Arizona  with their families (two elementary school teachers, a financial  analyst, and a bank executive) including four grandchildren.

Partial client list: Autozone, McDonald's, Campbell's Soup, Chevron, Oldsmobile, Porsche-Audi, Taco Bell, Circus Circus, Safeguard, Sunny Delight, Mentos, Porter-Cable, Ford, Greyhound, Ivory, Tide, Rice-A-Roni, Pampers, Luvs, Head & Shoulders, Dolly Madison, Fleischmann's, U-Haul, American Express, Dash, Fixodent, United Van Lines, Clearasil, Mitsubishi, Oscar Meyer, Nabisco, Beatrice, Coors, Southwestern Bell, South Central Bell, Armour, Crest, Dial, Contadina, Carnation, Electrolux, Clearasil, Wendy's, Mattel, General Mills, Foremost, Western Auto, NAPA, K-Mart, Coleco, Honda, Pepsi, Vicks, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Downey and Pillsbury.

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