Robyn Karney, who has died of cancer aged 77, was a writer on film and a literary editor. She had comprehensive knowledge of the cinema, and in the early 1980s edited the popular Octopus Books series of Hollywood studio histories. She co-wrote the Bloomsbury Foreign Film Guide (1988, with Ronald Bergan) and was the compiler of Who’s Who in Hollywood (1993).

Perhaps her biggest project was as editor-in-chief of the Chronicle of the Cinema (1997; updated as Cinema, Year by Year), launched by Esther Williams at the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood. She loved being in the US and, for instance, spent many months in Santa Fe working on Victoria Price’s 1999 book about her father, Vincent Price.

Robyn had a great way with words, as anyone will know who has read her stylish and entertaining books A Star Danced: Life of Audrey Hepburn (1994) and Burt Lancaster: A Singular Man (1996). But as a dedicated wordsmith she found her true vocation as a literary editor, working for most of the major publishers. For Victoria Glendinning, she edited Leonard Woolf: A Life and she was a contributing editor on Tony Benn’s Diaries. Barbara Hosking, aide to Harold Wilson and Ted Heath, whose memoir Exceeding My Brief was published at the end of last year, acknowledged Robyn as her “editor extraordinaire”.

Robyn grew up in Johannesburg, but was born in Cape Town and attended university there. She became a stage manager for the Brian Brooke and Leonard Schach theatre companies before coming to the UK in 1962, where she soon experienced the excitement of London in the swinging 60s.

After short spells as a waitress in the King’s Road and working for an estate agent who represented the Kray Brothers, she became assistant head of scripts at ATV. She then set up her own company offering film and theatre services to the stars, which could include everything from secretarial support to arranging first night parties.

Robyn held strong opinions, but once you were accepted into her circle she was fiercely devoted and loyal. I count myself lucky to have been her friend for more than 55 years; she introduced me to the cut and thrust of intellectual debate, and profoundly influenced my tastes in the arts and the political context in which I lived. In similar ways, she influenced many other lives.

Robyn is survived by Helen Bourne, her partner of 43 years, her sister, Peta, nephew Matthew and niece Kate.