Gene Shalit, the puckish film and book critic whose handlebar moustache, wild hair, and rainbow of bow ties made him one of television’s most recognizable faces, died June 12, 2026, at the age of 100. He had turned 100 just months earlier, on March 25.
For more than 37 years, Shalit was a fixture on NBC’s “Today,” serving as its film and book critic from January 1973 until his retirement in November 2010. Over that span he reviewed thousands of films and interviewed countless actors and directors, building a reputation for accessible, pun-loving commentary delivered with the air of a delighted absent-minded professor. His generally warm assessments drew both affection from viewers and ribbing from peers, including the rival duo of Siskel and Ebert.
Born in New York City on March 25, 1926, and raised in New Jersey, Shalit got his start writing a humor column for his high school newspaper before studying at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he wrote for The Daily Illini and graduated in 1949. He began reviewing the arts in the late 1960s, contributing to Look, Ladies’ Home Journal, Cosmopolitan, TV Guide, and The New York Times, among others. From 1970 to 1982 he also delivered “Man About Anything,” a daily essay that became NBC Radio’s most widely carried feature.
His wordplay and unmistakable look turned him into a pop-culture touchstone. He was parodied on “Saturday Night Live,” “SCTV,” and “Family Guy,” voiced versions of himself on “The Critic,” and even surfaced as a fish food critic named “Gene Scallop” on “SpongeBob SquarePants.”
Shalit largely stepped away from public life after leaving “Today,” summing up his retirement with characteristic brevity: “It’s enough already.” He was married to Nancy Lewis from 1950 until her death in 1978, and is survived by members of his family, including his daughter, artist and businesswoman Willa Shalit, and his son Peter, a physician. He was a devoted New York Mets fan to the end.