#critic

Gene Shalit, the fast-talking funnyman who reviewed movies, performs and books for NBC’s “At this time” present, has died. He was 100. Shalit’s household confirmed the longtime critic’s demise Friday, telling NBC that he “handed away peacefully after 100 years of a tremendous life.” Based on a 2010 interview with Man Ludwig, Shalit’s producer for greater than 20 years, Shalit was employed as a…

Gene Shalit passed away yesterday at the age of 100, and I can’t help thinking of it as a response to the death of Rex Reed, almost as though he were saying “Okay, now that he’s gone, my work here as an antidote to him is done”. Both men were movie critics with a prominent television presence. Both sort of played themselves as characters and were memorable as such. But where Reed was widely…