Saturday, June 13, 2026

A02082 - Gene Shalit, Long Time Today Show Film Critic

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Gene Shalit
Shalit on Today, 1973
BornMarch 25, 1926
New York City, U.S.
DiedJune 12, 2026 (aged 100)
EducationUniversity of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (BA)
Occupations
  • Journalist
  • film critic
  • literary critic
  • television personality
  • author
Years active1960s–2010
TelevisionToday
Spouse
Nancy Lewis
​
​
(m. 1950; died 1978)​
Children6, including Willa

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Eugene Shalit (March 25, 1926 – June 12, 2026) was an American journalist, television personality, film and book critic, and author. After starting to work part-time on NBC's The Today Show in 1970, he appeared regularly there from January 15, 1973,[1][2] until retiring on November 11, 2010.[3][4] He was known for his frequent use of puns and his comical "absent-minded professor" appearance, which consisted of an oversized handlebar moustache, fuzzy hair, large glasses, and colorful bow ties.

Early life and education

Shalit was born on March 25, 1926, in New York City, and raised in Newark and Morristown, New Jersey;[1] he was of Latvian Jewish ancestry.[5] In high school, he wrote a humor column titled "The Korn Krib" for the school newspaper.[6] Shalit wrote for The Daily Illini at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, graduating in 1949 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in science and letters.[7]

Career

Shalit, according to a Dick Clark interview in The New York Times Magazine, was Clark's press agent in the early 1960s. Shalit reportedly "stopped representing" Clark during a Congressional investigation of payola. Clark never spoke to Shalit again, and referred to him as a "jellyfish".[8]

Shalit began reviewing the arts in 1967 and wrote for such publications as Look magazine, Ladies' Home Journal (for 12 years), Cosmopolitan, TV Guide, Seventeen, Glamour, McCall's, and The New York Times.[9]

From 1970 to 1982, Shalit broadcast a daily essay, Man About Anything, for the NBC Radio Network, which was NBC's most widely carried radio feature.[1]

From January 15, 1973, to November 11, 2010, Shalit served as the film and book critic for NBC's Today, marking a tenure of over 37 years during which he reviewed thousands of films and conducted interviews with prominent actors and directors.[10][11][12] Shalit's generally positive assessments of films, often avoiding outright pans, drew both acclaim for accessibility and criticism from peers for lacking rigor, as evidenced by parodies from rival film critics like Siskel and Ebert.[13][14] Among his notable reviews, Shalit praised John Cusack's performance in the 1989 film Say Anything..., describing the film as an "unpretentious and perceptive little jewel of a movie" that captured the nuances of young romance.[15] He similarly lauded the 1987 Mel Brooks film Spaceballs in an interview with Brooks, highlighting its satirical take on science fiction tropes while noting its modest $20 million budget.[16]

Shalit in March 1986

In 1986, Shalit hosted a videocassette and laserdisc collection from MCA Home Video, Gene Shalit's Critic's Choice Video.[17] Four images (five on the laserdisc covers) of Shalit appeared in a filmstrip on the front of the box with his reviews on the back. Titles included Touch of Evil, Destry Rides Again, Double Indemnity, and The Ipcress File.[18]

Shalit announced that he would leave The Today Show after 40 years, effective November 11, 2010.[19][20] He was quoted as saying "It's enough already", about his retirement.[21] He largely stayed out of the public eye thereafter, only appearing once for Willard Scott's retirement from NBC on December 15, 2015.[22]

Brokeback Mountain review controversy

In 2005, Shalit gave a negative review to the film Brokeback Mountain, in which he described Jack Twist (the character played by Jake Gyllenhaal) as a "sexual predator" who "tracks Ennis (Heath Ledger's character) down and coaxes him into sporadic trysts".[23]

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) stated that Shalit's "baseless branding of Jack as a 'sexual predator' merely because he was romantically interested in someone of the same sex is defamatory, ignorant, and irresponsible" and that he "used the occasion to promote defamatory antigay prejudice to a national audience".[24] Shalit's son Peter, who is gay, wrote a letter to GLAAD defending his father and stating he had not defamed anyone and was not homophobic, and further said the organization had defamed him by "falsely accusing him of a repellent form of bigotry".[25] Shalit himself apologized for the wording of his review.[26][27][28]

Personal life and death

Shalit was married to Nancy Lewis from 1950 until her death from cancer in 1978.[29][30] For much of his career, he lived in Leonia, New Jersey.[31] As of 2012, he resided in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.[32][33][34][35]

Shalit and Lewis had six children. They include the artist and businesswoman Willa Shalit (born 1955),[32][36] Peter (born 1954), who is a physician and recognized authority on gay men's health and lives with HIV,[25][37][38][39] and Emily, who was born in August 1957 and died of ovarian cancer in November 2012, at the age of 55.[30][40]

On October 24, 2012, Shalit crashed his car in Lenox, Massachusetts, after falling asleep at the wheel.[41][42][43] Misdemeanor charges of negligent driving to endanger were later dismissed after he agreed to stop driving until the dismissal, and he was to follow a "safety condition" approved by his attorney and the police chief.[35][44][45]

Shalit turned 100 on March 25, 2026.[46][47] Today commemorated the milestone in a special segment in which Al Roker sent birthday wishes using a personalized Smucker's jar, referencing Shalit's association with the brand through earlier promotions.[48] Shalit marked the occasion surrounded by his family and looked forward to watching his favorite baseball team, the New York Mets.[48] Shalit died on June 12, 2026, at the age of 100.[49]

Shalit (left) with the cast of the Today show, 1976

Written works

See also

References

  1.  "Gene Shalit". NBC News. December 10, 2004. Archived from the original on January 16, 2021. Retrieved June 4, 2015.
  2.  "Gene Shalit Will Replace Joe Garagiola on 'Today'". The New York Times. January 5, 1973. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  3.  Dawidziak, Mark (November 12, 2010). "Gene Shalit Signs Off from the 'Today' Show". Cleveland. Archived from the original on May 5, 2021. Retrieved May 5, 2021.
  4.  "Movie Critic Gene Shalit Leaving 'Today' Show". USA Today (Press release). New York City. Associated Press. November 9, 2010. Retrieved June 4, 2015.
  5.  Scherzer, Carl B. (October 1977). "Early Jewish History in Morristown". Morristown Jewish Center. Archived from the original on April 23, 2021. Retrieved April 23, 2021. Gene Shalit is not Morristown's first nationally known television personality of Jewish ancestry.
  6.  "Morristown at a Glance". Gannett. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved January 27, 2008. Poet Joyce Kilmer once taught at Morristown High School, and film critic Gene Shalit got his start writing a humor column, 'The Korn Krib,' for the high school newspaper.
  7.  "Gene Shalit 2007 Hall of Fame Profile". Illini Media. Retrieved November 21, 2023.
  8.  Goldman, Andrew (March 27, 2011). "Dick Clark, Still the Oldest Living Teenager". The New York Times Magazine: MM14. Archived from the original on April 1, 2011. Retrieved April 13, 2011.
  9.  "John Wideman and the 1963 City Basketball Champions 'The Astonishing John Wideman'". University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved April 23, 2026.
  10.  Wilson, Greg (November 10, 2010). "Gene Shalit to End 40-Year 'Today' Run". WCAU. Retrieved April 22, 2026.
  11.  "Gene Shalit leaving 'Today' show after 40 years, but not retiring". The Christian Science Monitor. November 10, 2010. Retrieved April 22, 2026.
  12.  "Gene Shalit leaving after 41 years on TODAY". TODAY.com. November 11, 2010. Retrieved April 22, 2026.
  13.  "Gene Shalit's longtime producer shares his memories of a legend". TODAY.com. November 11, 2010. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  14.  McKittrick, Christopher (May 24, 2019). "The 10 Most Famous Movie Critics of All Time". LiveAbout. Retrieved April 22, 2026.
  15.  See 'Say Anything' reviewed on TODAY in 1989. TODAY.com. June 24, 2019. Retrieved April 22, 2026.
  16.  1987: Mel Brooks Talks 'Spaceballs' Budget, Flying Winnebagos. TODAY.com. January 31, 2025. Retrieved April 22, 2026.
  17.  "Gene Shalit's Critic's Choice VHS Series: 1941's The Wolf Man (1987)". The Northeast Ohio Video Hunter. October 19, 2015. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  18.  "Home Video Newsline". Billboard. November 29, 1986. p. 45. ISSN 0006-2510.
  19.  McKay, Mary-Jayne (November 10, 2010). "Gene Shalit to End 'Today' Show Tenure". CBS News. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  20.  Hester, Jere (November 10, 2010). "A Final Rave Review for Gene Shalit". WNBC. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  21.  "People: Conan O'Brien; Robert De Niro; Gene Shalit; Rachel Weisz; Darren Aronofsky; Neil Young; John Nettles". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. November 10, 2010. Archived from the original on December 10, 2010. Retrieved December 29, 2010.
  22.  "Willard Scott's Retirement Brings Rare Gene Shalit Sighting to 'Today'". New York Daily News. December 15, 2015. Archived from the original on May 30, 2019. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
  23.  "Shalit sorry for 'Mountain' of a mess". Chicago Tribune. January 13, 2006. Retrieved March 25, 2026.
  24.  "Gene Shalit's Brokeback Mountain Review Angers Gay Rights Group". The Advocate. January 6, 2006. ISSN 0001-8996.
  25.  "Peter Shalit Writes to GLAAD About His Dad". The Advocate. January 9, 2006. ISSN 0001-8996.
  26.  "Gene Shalit clarifies 'Brokeback' review". The Advocate. January 10, 2006. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  27.  Mitovich, Matt Webb (January 10, 2006). "ASK AND YOU SHALIT RECEIVE". TV Guide. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  28.  Grossberg, Josh (January 12, 2006). "Shalit Sorry for 'Brokeback' Bash". E!. Archived from the original on May 29, 2015. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
  29.  "Mrs. Nancy Shalit". Daily Record. August 11, 1978. p. 2. Retrieved March 26, 2026.
  30.  "Emily Shalit". The Berkshire Eagle. December 7, 2012. Archived from the original on December 30, 2018. Retrieved December 29, 2018 – via Legacy.
  31.  Novak, Lauren (March 25, 2025). "4 Things You Never Knew About Gene Shalit (He's 99!)". Remind. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  32.  Kahn, Toby (February 10, 1986). "Gene Shalit's Daughter Willa Has Casts of Characters Ranging from Brooke Shields to President Reagan". People. Retrieved May 16, 2016.
  33.  The Publishers Weekly. Vol. 184. F. Leypoldt. September 26, 2006 [1st pub. 1963]. p. 117.
  34.  Hinckley, David (November 11, 2010). "Gene Shalit leaves 'Today' show at age 84 after 40 years of attention-grabbing film critiques". New York Daily News. Retrieved April 22, 2026.
  35.  Fanto, Clarence (January 11, 2013). "Gene Shalit's Car-Crash Case in Lenox to Be Dismissed". The Berkshire Eagle. Massachusetts. Archived from the original on May 25, 2021. Retrieved May 25, 2021.
  36.  "Woman Proves Shopping Can Transform Lives". CNN. September 17, 2008. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved July 12, 2012.
  37.  Shalit, Peter (1998). Living Well: The Gay Man's Essential Health Guide. Allyson. ISBN 978-1-55583-444-9.
  38.  Shalit, Gene (January 6, 2006). "For the Love of Pete". The Advocate. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  39.  Steele, Bruce C. (February 14, 2006). "Q&A: Peter Shalit". The Advocate. p. 4. Retrieved October 7, 2018.
  40.  "Emily Shalit Obituary (2012)". The Hunterdon County Democrat. Retrieved April 23, 2026.
  41.  "Gene Shalit cited after falling asleep while driving, hitting pole in Massachusetts". The New Haven-Register. October 26, 2012. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  42.  "Gene Shalit cited after car hits pole in Mass". The New Haven-Register. October 27, 2012. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  43.  "Massachusetts misdemeanor driving charge against retired television movie critic Gene Shalit to be dismissed". Mass Live. January 10, 2013. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  44.  "Driving charges against Gene Shalit to be dropped". CBS News. January 10, 2013. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  45.  "Mass. charge against Gene Shalit to be dismissed". The Seattle Times. January 10, 2013. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  46.  Reiher, Andrea (March 25, 2026). "'Today Show' Legend With Iconic Mustache Turns 100". Parade. Retrieved March 25, 2026.
  47.  "Gene Shalit, iconic 'Today' show film critic, turns 100". The Washington Times. March 25, 2026. Retrieved March 26, 2026.
  48.  TODAY Celebrates Gene Shalit's 100th Birthday With Smucker's Jar. TODAY.com. March 25, 2026. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  49.  "Gene Shalit, 'TODAY' show movie critic, dies at 100". NBC News. June 12, 2026. Retrieved June 12, 2026.
  50.  Harnick, Chris (June 18, 2019). "SpongeBob SquarePants Assembles Its Celebrity Guest Stars for One Epic Celebration". E! Online. Archived from the original on June 23, 2019. Retrieved January 7, 2020.
  51.  "Brian Sings and Swings". Family Guy. Season 4. Episode 19. January 8, 2006. Fox Broadcasting Company.
  52.  "The Book of Joe". Family Guy. Season 13. Episode 2. October 5, 2014. Fox Broadcasting Company.
  53.  "Big Man on Hippocampus". Family Guy. Season 8. Episode 10. January 3, 2010. Fox Broadcasting Company.
  54.  Hutchins, Mark (September 10, 2016). "To Be Published Upon Gene Shalit's Passing". Points In Case. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  55.  Yorston, G.W.C.; Lavalie, John (October 25, 2018). "The Critic: an Episode Guide". epguides. Archived from the original on August 30, 2021. Retrieved January 7, 2020.
  56.  Gilchrist, Todd (May 19, 2012). "The Muppet Show – Season One". IGN. Archived from the original on November 24, 2020. Retrieved January 7, 2020.
  57.  "Gene Shalit Played by Jon Lovitz". SNL Archives. Archived from the original on November 4, 2021. Retrieved November 4, 2021.
  58.  "Watch Gene Shalit Sketches from SNL Played by Horatio Sanz". NBC Universal. Archived from the original on April 1, 2017. Retrieved March 31, 2017.
  59.  "Gene Shalit Played by Horatio Sanz". SNL Archives. Archived from the original on November 4, 2021. Retrieved November 4, 2021.
  60.  Meisler, Andy (April 17, 1994). "The Satirist Who Landed in a Sitcom". Television. The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 30, 2021. Retrieved February 28, 2021.
  61.  Rami, Trupti; Yuan, Jada; Caldwell, Sean Fitz-Gerald Sarah; Salemi, Vicki; Gilbert, Kylie; Vineyard, Jennifer; Gaffney, Adrienne; Orzeck, Kurt; Gordon, Diane; Peters, Jenny (May 20, 2015). "Conan O'Brien, Tina Fey, and More Celebs Share Their Favorite Letterman Memories". Slate. Archived from the original on March 20, 2022. Retrieved March 20, 2022.
  62.  'Why We Edit' Collection on Letterman, 1983–92. Giller, Don. March 23, 2020. Retrieved March 30, 2022 – via YouTube.
  63.  Solomon, Charles (September 10, 1989). "Laughing Matters: A Celebration of American Humor selected and edited by Gene Shalit". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 23, 2026.

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Gene Shalit, Film Critic Bristling With Hair and Puns, Dies at 100

One of the nation’s most recognizable characters, he delivered his wacky commentary for more than 40 years on the “Today” show.

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A black-and-white photo of a man with bushy hair and a thick mustache, holding his hand against his head and bearing a wry expression. He is sitting at a desk with a typewriter and a movie reel.
Gene Shalit in 1980. With his handlebar mustache, bushy hair, black horn-rimmed glasses and extravagant bow ties, he was one of the nation’s most recognizable characters.Credit...Dave Pickoff/Associated Press

By Robert D. McFadden

Gene Shalit, the Muppet look-alike who reviewed movies and other cultural arts with a whimsical bent and a shtick for puns as the resident wit on NBC’s “Today” show for four decades, one of the longest tenures on an American television program, died on Friday at 100.

NBC reported the death, citing a family statement. No further details were immediately available.

For millions of Americans tuned in to the “Today” potpourri of news, interviews, entertainment and weather, a dose of literate, wacky commentary from Mr. Shalit’s “Critic’s Corner,” often with cackles of appreciation for his own incorrigibility, was as much a part of the morning as a cup of coffee.

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A black-and-white photo of a TV studio in which a masked man wearing a black cape unleashes a whip at a man sitting at a desk doing a segment for a film review.
As Mr. Shalit gave his review of “Zorro, the Gay Blade” on “Today Show” in 1981, the movie’s star, George Hamilton, appeared in costume.Credit...Associated Press

With his handlebar mustache, bushy hair, black horn-rimmed glasses and extravagant bow ties, he was one of the nation’s most recognizable characters, a composite caricature of Groucho Marx, William Howard Taft and a Jim Henson puppet. His punchy wry wit may have borrowed from Woody Allen and Mark Twain, but it played well in Peoria.


“‘Ishtar’ ish tarrible!” Mr. Shalit concluded in a review of Elaine May’s 1987 comedy about two lounge singers looking for work in Morocco and stumbling into Cold War machinations.

After seeing “The Longest Yard,” a 1974 flick in which Burt Reynolds organizes a prison football team, he suggested: “This movie should be penalized half the distance to the goal — twice.”

And joining a chorus of critics panning “Hudson Hawk,” a 1991 Bruce Willis world-domination vehicle, he warned: “This movie is awful, spelled o-f-f-a-l.”

His most controversial criticism came in a negative review of “Brokeback Mountain,” the widely acclaimed 2005 Ang Lee film depicting the romantic and sexual relationship between two men in the American West. Mr. Shalit called Jake Gyllenhaal’s character, Jack Twist, a “sexual predator” who “tracks Ennis (Heath Ledger) down and coaxes him into sporadic trysts.”

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, now known as GLAAD, accused Mr. Shalit of promoting anti-gay prejudice and demanded an apology. Mr. Shalit, the father of six children, including a gay son, replied with a letter expressing regret, acknowledging that he had “angered, agitated and hurt many people,” and saying that he had had “no intention of casting aspersions on anyone in the gay community or the gay community itself.”


Besides reviewing movies, books, plays and other cultural offerings, Mr. Shalit interviewed authors and entertainers, including Barbra Streisand, Warren Beatty, Robert De Niro and Sophia Loren. He did cameos of himself in several movies and television shows, and was a familiar figure on television game and talk shows and charity fund-raisers.

On “Today,” a program sensitive to ratings and notable for personnel changes, Mr. Shalit was the durable mainstay in a cast that over the years included Barbara Walters, Jim Hartz, Tom Brokaw, John Chancellor, Hugh Downs, Joe Garagiola, Deborah Norville, Jane Pauley, Katie Couric, Bryant Gumbel, Al Roker, Willard Scott, Matt Lauer and Ann Curry.

Mr. Shalit joined “Today” in 1968 as a book reviewer, became a regular in 1970 and was the culture critic from 1973 until he retired in 2010.

His producer, Guy Ludwig, reflecting on Mr. Shalit’s long career in 2010, recalled seeing Mr. Shalit, late in his career, entering a theater for a screening with a look of glee on his face.

“My God, how could you?” he said. “You’ve seen two million movies.”

“Yeah,” Mr. Shalit replied, “but I’ve never seen this one!”

Eugene Theodore Shalit (rhymes with PAL-it) was born in New York City on March 25, 1926, to Latvian immigrants, Isadore and Anna (Michelovich) Shalit. He grew up in Newark and Morristown, N.J., where his father owned a drugstore. He graduated from the University of Illinois in 1949.

Arriving in New York City in 1951, he was hired by a press agent to attend stage shows at the Paramount and laugh at the comics for $5 a day. “They weren’t funny,” he recalled in a 2012 interview for this obituary. “I couldn’t laugh. One other person was laughing. He got $5 too.” Mr. Shalit quit after one day.

He next landed in the publicity department of Look magazine, doing promotionals with “two other kids” — Lawrence K. Grossman, who became president of NBC News, and Marvin Josephson, who founded the talent agency International Creative Management.

Mr. Shalit was married to Nancy Lewis from 1951 until her death in 1978, and they had six children: Peter, Willa, Emily, Amanda, Nevin and Andrew. Emily died in 2012. A complete list of survivors was not immediately available.

In the 1950s and early ’60s, Mr. Shalit wrote columns and culture reviews for Ladies’ Home Journal and Look magazine. An NBC executive spotted his writing and, worried about how audiences might react to his mustache and hair, hired him in 1967 for network radio work. A year later, NBC took a chance and he began appearing on the “Today” show.

“Once Gene was on, he’d get letters like, ‘Who is this part-time anarchist that you have on television?’” Mr. Ludwig recalled. “But what resonated above his unusual appearance was his incredible wit, his remarkable intelligence.”

From 1970 to 1982, Mr. Shalit produced a daily essay for NBC Radio, “Man About Anything,” which was heard on more stations than any other NBC network feature. He was an occasional panelist on “What’s My Line?”; hosted programs on the “Masterpiece Mystery” series; and wrote for TV Guide, Cosmopolitan, Seventeen, Glamour, McCall’s, The New York Times and other publications.


“Laughing Matters: A Celebration of American Humor,” a compendium of works by 200 authors, script writers and cartoonists selected by Mr. Shalit, was published in 1987. Mr. Shalit loved classical music, played the bassoon and performed with the Boston Symphony in Boston, at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood near his home in Stockbridge, Mass., and at Lincoln Center in New York. He once conducted the Pittsburgh Symphony in a full concert. He liked to say that in none of these venues was he ever invited back.

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A glamorous older movie star tugs at the mustache of a man with bushy hair.
On “Today” in 1980, Mr. Shalit received a tug of his trademark mustache by the film star Sophia Loren.Credit...Ron Frehm/Associated Press

In 1974, Jim Henson’s Muppets appeared on the “Today” show with Bert gussied up in Shalit-style hair and mustache. Side by side they looked like fraternal twins. In 1983, he appeared in the Great Muppet Look-Alike Contest in Muppet magazine’s first issue, and in 1996 he contributed a recipe for “Movie Crumb Cake” for the cookbook “In the Kitchen With Miss Piggy.”

Mr. Shalit wrote many letters to The Times about baseball. In 2003, he suggested help for the Mets lineup: sign Rickey Henderson, then in his last season.

“With his walks, bunts and an occasional extra-base hit, he will get on base far more often than the current troupe,” he wrote. “And when Rickey gets to first, he’ll soon be on second. Sure, he’ll be stranded there, but won’t it be fun to see a Met in scoring position?”

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