Gene Shalit, longtime film critic for ‘Today,’ dies at 100

Gene Shalit, the longtime film critic for the “Today” show whose opinions were enhanced by his frizzy hair, bushy handlebar mustache and sharp wit, died on Friday. He was 100.

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Shalit’s family confirmed his death in a statement to NBC, where he had worked on “Today” for four decades, The Washington Post reported. No other details were available, according to the newspaper.

The family’s statement to NBC News noted that Shalit “passed away peacefully today after 100 years of an amazing life.”

Shalit was a staple on “Today” from 1970 until his retirement in 2010, Variety reported. Wearing large glasses and a bowtie, Shalit would review films and books, sprinkling them with puns and witty asides during the “Critics Corner” segment of the morning newsmagazine program.

He began as a contributor in 1970 but became a full-time critic on the show three years later, NBC News reported.

On “Today,” Shalit delivered his two-minute opinions from a campy setup that included movie projectors and reels of film, the Post reported.

A sampling of Shalit’s witticisms, according to the Post and The New York Times, include these gems:

•  “Two words: ‘Ishtar’ ish-tarrible,” Shalit said in a review of Elaine May’s 1987 comedy about two lounge singers looking for work in Morocco.
• “Don’t forgo ‘Fargo.’”
• “‘X-Men’ should not be taken seriously. In fact, it should be taken with two aspirin.”
• “‘The Shining’ is a horror picture. It cost $18 million; that’s part of the horror.”
• “‘The Silence of the Lambs’ may be all wool and a yard wide, but it makes a terrific yarn,”
• For “The Longest Yard,” Shalit noted that “This movie should be penalized half the distance to the goal -- twice.”
• Shalit panned “Hudson Hawk,” a 1991 film starring Bruce Willis, observing that “This movie is awful, spelled o-f-f-a-l.”

Shalit became a pop culture phenomenon. In the animated show “SpongeBob Square Pants,” Shalit provided the voice for a critic named “Gene Scallop,” Variety reported. He was also parodied in four episodes of “Family Guy,” was featured in “The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence,” and voiced a character on “The Critic,” according to the entertainment news website.

“Saturday Night Live” cast member Horatio Sanz, reporting as Shalit embedded as a reporter during the Iraq War in 2003, provided a barrage of puns, the Post reported.

“Saddam better ‘Patton’ down the hatches, or he’s gonna get ‘M*A*S*H’-ed,” Sanz said.

During his tenure on “Today,” Shalit not only did reviews, he also interviewed authors and entertainers, the Times reported. They included stars such as Barbra Streisand, Warren Beatty, Robert De Niro and Sophia Loren.

Shalit was born in New York City on March 25, 1926, and grew up in Morristown, New Jersey, according to the Post. While attending college at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he wrote a column called “What Shalit Be?” the entertainment news website reported.

Arriving in New York City in 1951, Shalit was hired by a press agent to attend stage shows at the Paramount and laugh at the comics for $5 a day, the Times reported. He quit after one day, noting that the comics were not funny.

During the 1950s, Shalit was a press agent for Dick Clark, Variety reported. Before joining “Today,” he wrote about entertainment for publications including “Look,” “Ladies’ Home Journal,” “TV Guide” and The New York Times.

Shalit compiled and edited two books, according to the Post: “Laughing Matters: A Celebration of American Humor ” (1987) and “Great Hollywood Wit” (2002).

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