Short answers, pulled from the story.
Joseph Campbell is best known for The Hero with a Thousand Faces, published in 1949, in which he developed the concept of the monomyth - a single underlying pattern he identified in hero narratives across world mythologies. His philosophy is also widely associated with the phrase follow your bliss, which he derived from the Sanskrit term Ananda.
George Lucas stated that The Hero with a Thousand Faces and other works by Campbell shaped the story of the first Star Wars film, released in 1977. Lucas later described discovering, with an eerie feeling, that his first draft was already following classic mythological motifs described by Campbell. The two men did not meet until 1984, when Campbell attended a Lucas lecture at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.
Campbell taught as a professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, New York, from 1934 until his retirement in 1972 - a tenure of 38 years. He based his landmark book The Hero with a Thousand Faces on an introductory mythology class he taught there.
Campbell derived follow your bliss from the Sanskrit term Ananda, meaning bliss or rapture, part of the Upanishadic triad Sat-Chit-Ananda. He intended it as a guide for individuals navigating their own hero journey through life, not as encouragement of hedonism - a misreading he reportedly addressed late in life by saying he should have said follow your blisters.
American folklorist Barre Toelken argued that Campbell built his monomyth by selecting stories that fit a preconceived pattern while excluding equally valid stories that did not. Folklorist Alan Dundes designated Campbell a non-expert and said the notion of archetype had done more harm to serious folklore study than any other amateur idea. Anthropologist Raymond Scupin cited overgeneralization as the reason Campbell's theories were not well received in anthropology.
The Power of Myth is a PBS documentary series of interviews between Campbell and journalist Bill Moyers, filmed at Skywalker Ranch. It first broadcast in 1988, the year after Campbell's death on the 30th of October 1987. A companion book containing expanded transcripts of their conversations was released shortly after the broadcast.