Richard Payne, familiar to EWTN audiences for many years through his films and series, including Saints Alive! and A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing, died on July 18 at the age of 88.
“He will be greatly missed, certainly by me as a friend, and really by the Church as a man who stood up for what he believed and what he believed the Church believed,” EWTN President Emeritus and TV-radio host Doug Keck told the Register.
Richard’s youngest son, Stephen, his working partner in Arcadia Films, shared biographical information through a written release. Payne was born in Ottawa, Ontario, on March 18, 1938. He became a religious educator, curriculum director and scriptwriter for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the National Film Board. In 1964, he married Mary Patricia Ann Sheridan. They had five children.
Moving with his family to the United States in 1967, Payne became an editor at Paulist Press.
“As an editor and acquisitions director he brought to print an astonishing company of the age’s great Catholic minds — among them Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI; Dorothy Day; Hans Urs von Balthasar,” related Stephen.
At Paulist Press, Payne served as editor-in-chief of The Classics of Western
