Danny Boyd, a well-known West Virginia filmmaker, writer, and longtime professor in the Kanawha Valley, has died.
Boyd, 69, served for more than 30 years as a media studies professor at West Virginia State University. Throughout his career, he created multiple award-winning films and documentaries that reached international audiences.
The West Virginia International Film Festival announced his passing on social media Saturday morning.
Former students, collaborators, and friends shared tributes and condolences online throughout the day.
“While he wore many hats over the years, storytelling was at the heart of everything Danny did,” Huntington’s Foundry Theater said in a social media post. “His voice was singular, his perspective fearless, and his generosity with fellow artists unmistakable.”
Boyd earned degrees from West Virginia University and the University of Arkansas before launching his professional filmmaking career in the early 1980s. His first feature film, Chillers, debuted in 1988 and received a Silver Scroll for excellence from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films, according to his website.
He followed with two more feature films, Strangest Dreams and Paradise Park. Strangest Dreams premiered on the USA Network in 1991 and continues to be distributed internationally. Paradise Park earned Gold Awards at both the Houston International Film Festival and the Chicago International Film Festival.
As a National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities fellow, Boyd earned recognition across documentary, horror, comedy, and dramatic filmmaking, along with screenwriting, according to his website. The West Virginia Filmmakers Festival named him “Filmmaker of the Year” in 2003.
Boyd also taught internationally as a Fulbright Scholar and consistently involved his students in professional projects. After 33 years at WVSU, he retired from teaching in 2016.
Many credit him as a key influence in West Virginia’s filmmaking community during the 1980s and 1990s.
Beyond filmmaking, Boyd contributed as a freelance writer and photographer for numerous publications, authored illustrated novels and children’s books, and supported local theater productions, according to his website.
His children’s books — The Adventures of Wandala, Miss Dirt Turtle’s Garden Club, Tavey’s First Hunt, and WrestleDreamia — earned multiple awards.
His most recent book, God’s Pool in Particle Park, was released in September.