Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. Richard^^Griffith Richard Griffith (1912-1969) was an art critic, film historian, and a member of the staff of The Museum of Modern Art 1940-1942 and 1949-1965. Griffith was assistant to the Curator of the Film Library from 1940 to 1942, and assistant to the Director from 1949 to 1951. He succeeded Iris Barry as Curator of the Museum's Film Library in 1951, and resigned from the Museum because of ill health in 1965. At the Museum Griffith presented major film cycles, including one on Marlene Dietrich, and established the Film Preservation Fund, through which hundreds of classic motion pictures were saved. He died in an automobile accident near his home in Winchester, Virginia, on October 17, 1969.