{"id":863540,"date":"2026-06-13T02:22:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T02:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/863540\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T02:22:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T02:22:16","slug":"gene-shalit-dies-longtime-today-show-movie-critic-was-100","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/863540\/","title":{"rendered":"Gene Shalit Dies: Longtime ‘Today’ Show Movie Critic Was 100"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tGene Shalit<\/a>, the longtime film critic for Today<\/a>, known for his quirky puns and signature walrus mustache, has died. He was 100.<\/p>\n

\n\tHis family tells NBC News in a statement that Shalit passed away peacefully on Friday \u201cafter 100 years of an amazing life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShalit began his long career at The Today Show<\/a> in 1970, where he began part-time and became a contributor three years later.<\/p>\n

\n\tKnown for his frequent use of puns\u00a0and his comical \u201cabsent-minded professor\u201d appearance, which included a\u00a0handlebar mustache, fuzzy hair, large glasses and colorful\u00a0bow ties, Shalit became one of the most recognizable faces on television.<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring his four-decade tenure at Today as film and book critic, Shalit reviewed thousands of films, many of which were generally positive assessments, which frequently drew criticism from his peers for his lack of rigor, evidenced in parodies by rival film critics such as Siskel & Ebert. <\/p>\n

\n\tHis review of the 1980 horror film The Shining is considered by many to be his most notable. Veering away from the consensus, he panned the film shortly after its release, criticizing it for lacking the depth and scariness expected from a major Stephen King adaptation and failing to live up to its hype.<\/p>\n

\n\tShalit announced that he would leave\u00a0The Today Show\u00a0after 40 years, effective Nov. 11, 2010. He was quoted at the time as saying \u201cit\u2019s enough already\u201d about his retirement.<\/p>\n

\n\tBorn March 25, 1926 in New York City to parents of Jewish descent, Shalit and his mother briefly moved later that year to Newark, New Jersey, before the family permanently relocated to Morristown, New Jersey, in 1932.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe discovered his passion for writing while attending Morristown High School, where he penned a humor column for the student newspaper, a style which eventually morphed into his pun-heavy, comedic styling that would define his career in later years.<\/p>\n

\n\tPrior to his long stint on Today, Shalit began writing for print publications in the 1960s, such as Look magazine,\u00a0a 12-year stint at Ladies\u2019 Home Journal, as well as Cosmopolitan,\u00a0TV Guide,\u00a0Seventeen,\u00a0Glamour,\u00a0McCall\u2019s and\u00a0The New York Times.<\/p>\n

\n\tOver the years, Shalit became synonymous with pop culture. He guest-starred as the voice, and was portrayed in the form of a fish food critic named \u2018Gene Scallop\u2019 in the\u00a0SpongeBob SquarePants\u00a0episode \u2018The Krusty Sponge\u2019. He also was parodied in several episodes of\u00a0Family Guy, including \u2018Family Guy Viewer Mail #1\u2019, \u2018Brian Sings and Swings\u2019,\u00a0\u2018The Book of Joe\u2019 \u00a0and \u2018Big Man on Hippocampus\u2019, although he was not a voice actor for the series.<\/p>\n

\n\tShalit also voiced a character inspired by himself in three episodes of the animated series\u00a0The Critic. Additionally, he was portrayed several times on\u00a0Second City Television by cast member\u00a0Eugene Levy.<\/p>\n

\n\tShalit\u00a0turned 100\u00a0on March 25, 2026,\u00a0a milestone that was commemorated on Today in a special segment, in which\u00a0Al Roker\u00a0sent birthday wishes using a personalized\u00a0Smucker\u2019s jar, a reference to Shalit\u2019s association with the brand through earlier promotions. Shalit was surrounded by his family for the occasion and said he looked forward to watching his favorite baseball team, the\u00a0New York Mets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gene Shalit, the longtime film critic for Today, known for his quirky puns and signature walrus mustache, has…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":863541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[9],"tags":[171,351970,20644,41336,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-863540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gene-shalit","tag-today","tag-today-show","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116740420326238329","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/863541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}