Shalit, the bushy-haired mustachioed television personality who reviewed books and movies on “The Today Show” for 40 years, died Friday. His family told NBC News he “passed away peacefully today after 100 years of an amazing life.”
Shalit appeared on NBC’s “The Today Show” from 1970 until his retirement in 2010, sporting his signature bow ties and large glasses and working numerous puns into his film and book reviews in the “Critic’s Corner” segments.
In addition to his reviews, he interviewed celebrities from Steven Spielberg to the Grateful Dead to Helen Hayes.
“It was always magical for me to see Gene on the screen,” CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric said upon his retirement in 2010. “I think Gene was a master at doing celebrity interviews. He interviewed Sophia Loren and you could tell he was completed mesmerized by her.”
His long tenure on “The Today Show” made him one of the few recognizable film critics, which led to him being featured in several animated shows. “SpongeBob Square Pants” dubbed him Gene Scallop, a fish food critic for whom Shalit provided the voice. He was parodied in four episodes of “Family Guy,” voiced a character playing himself on “The Critic” and was portrayed in “The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence.”
“Saturday Night Live” also parodied the popular critic, with Jon Lovitz and later Horatio Sanz portraying Shalit. On “Second City Television,” he was portrayed by the equally bushy-eyebrowed Eugene Levy.
Born in New York City, he graduated the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where like fellow critic Roger Ebert many years later, he wrote for the Daily Illini newspaper. Early in his career he was a press agent for Dick Clark, a job which ended during a Congressional investigation of payola.
He turned to writing about entertainment in the late 1960s for publications including Look, Ladies’ Home Journal, TV Guide and The New York Times. He also authored four books of humor.
Shalit also broadcast daily essays called “Man About Anything” on the NBC Radio Network from 1970 to 1982.
He is survived by a son and a daughter. Another daughter and his wife, Nancy Lewis, pre-deceased him.
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