Overview
- Shalit, who died Friday, June 12, 2026, was 100 and his family said he “passed away peacefully today after 100 years of an amazing life,” with no cause of death disclosed.
- He joined NBC’s Today as a contributor in 1970, became the show’s arts editor in 1973, anchored the long-running “Critic’s Corner” for roughly four decades and retired in 2010.
- Before and during his TV career he wrote for publications such as Look and Ladies’ Home Journal and broadcast the daily radio essay “Man About Anything” from 1969–82.
- Shalit’s pun-filled reviews, bow ties, oversized mustache and frizzy hair made him an instantly recognizable TV personality who was frequently parodied on shows from Saturday Night Live to SpongeBob.
- His career is remembered for widening the audience for film criticism on television and for moments of controversy, most notably a 2005 Brokeback Mountain review that drew criticism and prompted an apology.