Drew Casper


Joseph Andrew "Drew" Casper is a former professor who worked at the School of Cinematic Arts as part of the University of Southern California from 1971 until his retirement in 2019. His area of research while both a student and later as a professor was American film from World War II to the present. While a Ph.D. student at USC, Dr. Casper's mentor, Irwin Blacker, died suddenly and the Cinema department offered Dr. Casper a position. Casper rose to become the third-highest-paid person at USC. In the fall of 1997, the estate of Alfred Hitchcock and USC made Dr. Casper the first Alma and Alfred Hitchcock Professor for the Study of American Film. He retired from his role at USC in December 2019 after 47 years. Casper was invited in the early 2000s to do approximately 20 DVD commentaries on films from the 1940s-60s. He is the author of books about Vincente Minnelli, Stanley Donen, a book on Postwar Hollywood 1946–1962., and a volume called Hollywood Film, 1963-1976: Years of Revolution and Reaction.

DVDs provided commentary for