Gene Shalit, beloved Today show film critic, dies aged 100

• Gene Shalit died peacefully on Friday, 12 June, aged 100
• He joined the Today show full-time in 1973 and retired in 2010
• Shalit is survived by his six children, including artist Willa Shalit

Gene Shalit, the long-serving film critic of NBC's Today show celebrated for his pun-laden reviews, distinctive bushy moustache and absent-minded professor persona, died peacefully on Friday, at the age of 100. His family confirmed the news to NBC News, saying he "passed away peacefully today after 100 years of an amazing life" and describing his time on Today as "an extraordinary era for him."

Shalit had turned 100 on 25 March, a milestone the programme marked by featuring him on a Smucker's jar and sharing a recent photograph. "Today show anchor Al Roker noted at the time: "He is ringing in 100 by enjoying that fresh air in the Berkshires with his six kids, five grandchildren."

Early life and path to television

Born Eugene Shalit in New York City in 1926, Shalit grew up in New Jersey and developed an early passion for writing, contributing to both his high school newspaper and the student press at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he graduated in 1949.

He later worked as a press agent for Dick Clark but left when Clark was called before Congress during the 1960 payola investigations. Clark subsequently told The New York Times Magazine in 2011 that Shalit was "a jellyfish" and that he never spoke to him again. Shalit went on to establish himself as a magazine writer, contributing humour columns to Ladies' Home Journal and Look magazine.

The road to Today

It was one of those columns that caught the attention of an NBC executive, who contacted Ladies' Home Journal and invited Shalit to discuss a possible broadcasting role. His producer Guy Ludwig recalled the exchange in a 2010 Today interview: "And an executive here at NBC happened to read one of his columns and called up the Ladies' Home Journal and said, 'Mr. Shalit, do you talk anything like the way you write?'" Ludwig continued: "And Gene said, 'Well, I think so.' He goes, 'Well, come on down here. We want to talk to you about broadcasting.'"

Shalit began appearing on Today part-time from 1968 with a segment called "Critics Corner," starting with monthly book reviews before expanding to film criticism. Ludwig recalled the initial audience reaction: "Once Gene was on, he'd get letters like, 'Who is this part-time anarchist that you have on television?' because he was so different." Despite the unconventional impression, Ludwig said Shalit's "incredible wit" and "remarkable intelligence" shined through.

A four-decade run on Today

By 1973 Shalit had joined Today as a full-time critic, a position he held until 1995, though he continued with the programme until his retirement in 2010. Alongside his reviews, he conducted celebrity interviews, including a now-famous exchange with actress Carol Channing during which Shalit could not stop laughing.

His reviews blended genuine criticism with comedic wordplay — a signature approach illustrated by his line on the 1991 horror classic The Silence of the Lambs: "The Silence of the Lambs may be all wool and a yard wide, but it makes a terrific yarn." When critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert began reshaping television film criticism in the 1980s with their series At the Movies, they explicitly cited Shalit as the model they wished to avoid.

"We're professional critics first, not TV performers," Siskel told People in 1984. "We don't make jokes at the expense of the movies, like Gene Shalit, and we don't do softball interviews — turning the camera on and letting the stars talk."

Upon his retirement, then-Today Executive Producer Jim Bell paid tribute, saying: "Gene is not just a Today show treasure but a television legend and an American icon. We salute him for his unprecedented 40-year run on a single television program, a feat unlikely to ever be matched." Shalit returned to the programme once more in 2012, when colleague Willard Scott retired.

Controversy and family

In 2006, Shalit drew condemnation from GLAAD after describing Jake Gyllenhaal's character in Brokeback Mountain as a "sexual predator." GLAAD accused him of using the moment to "promote defamatory antigay prejudice to a national audience."

His son Peter, a gay physician specialising in HIV/AIDS research, responded publicly, writing in part: "It is precisely because my dad is not homophobic that he felt free to criticize the movie as he saw it." Shalit had previously demonstrated his support for Peter in a 1997 letter published in The Advocate, in which he expressed backing for Peter and his long-term partner.

Shalit married Nancy Lewis in 1950. She died in 1978. The couple had six children together, including artist Willa Shalit and Peter. Willa reflected on their upbringing in a 1986 People interview, saying: "When we were growing up, no one knew we existed. My father kept us very private. At home there was a lot of reading, education and art, and a lot of 'you can do anything you want.' The concept of impossible was not in our vocabulary."

Another of Shalit's daughters, Emily, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, prompting him to organise the First Annual Gene Shalit Pro-Celebrity Billiards Classic for MS in her honour in 1993.

Cultural legacy

Shalit's reach extended well beyond Today. He voiced an animated version of himself, named Gene Scallop, on SpongeBob SquarePants, and was parodied on Family Guy, Saturday Night Live and SCTV. Today anchor Al Roker summed up his legacy in 2022: "He was just spectacular in what he knew and who he knew."