Gene Shalit | |
|---|---|
 Shalit onToday, 1973 | |
| Born | (1926-03-25)March 25, 1926 (age 99) New York City, U.S. |
| Education | Morristown High School |
| Alma mater | University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1960–2010 |
| Television | Today |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 6, includingWilla |
Eugene Shalit (born March 25, 1926) is an American retired journalist, television personality,film andbook critic and author. After starting to work part-time onNBC'sThe Today Show in 1970, he filled those roles from January 15, 1973,[1] until retiring on November 11, 2010.[2][3] He is known for his frequent use ofpuns, his oversizedhandlebar moustache and fuzzy hair, and for wearing colorfulbow ties.
Shalit was born on March 25, 1926, inNew York City, and raised inNewark andMorristown, New Jersey.[1] Shalit is ofJewish ancestry.[4]
In high school, Shalit wrote a humor column for the school newspaper, whichGannett has identified as "The Korn Krib".[5]
Shalit attended theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where he wrote forThe Daily Illini from 1945 to 1949.[6]
Shalit, according to aDick Clark interview inThe New York Times Magazine, was Clark's press agent in the early 1960s. Shalit reportedly "stopped representing" Clark during a Congressional investigation ofpayola. Clark never spoke to Shalit again, and referred to him as a "jellyfish".[7]
Shalit has been involved in reviewing the arts since 1967 and has written for such publications asLook magazine,Ladies' Home Journal (for 12 years),Cosmopolitan,TV Guide,Seventeen,Glamour,McCall's, andThe New York Times.
From 1970 to 1982, Shalit broadcast a daily essay,Man About Anything, for theNBC Radio Network, which was NBC's most widely carried radio feature.[1]
In 1986, Shalit hosted a videocassette andlaserdisc collection fromMCA Home Video,Gene Shalit's Critic's Choice Video. Four images (five on the laserdisc covers) of Shalit appeared in a filmstrip on the front of the box with his reviews on the back. Titles includedTouch of Evil,Destry Rides Again,Double Indemnity andThe Ipcress File.[8]
Shalit announced that he would leaveThe Today Show after 40 years, effective November 11, 2010. He was quoted as saying "It's enough already", about his retirement.[9] He has largely stayed out of the public eye since then, only appearing once forWillard Scott's retirement from NBC in 2015.[10]
In 2005, Shalit gave a negative review to the filmBrokeback Mountain, in which he described Jack Twist (the character played byJake Gyllenhaal) as a "sexual predator" who "tracks Ennis [Heath Ledger's character] down and coaxes him into sporadic trysts."
TheGay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) responded by stating: Shalit's "baseless branding of Jack as a 'sexual predator' merely because he is romantically interested in someone of the same sex is defamatory, ignorant, and irresponsible" and that he "used the occasion to promote defamatory antigay prejudice to a national audience."[11] Shalit's son Peter, who is gay, wrote a letter to GLAAD defending his father and stating he had not defamed anyone and was not homophobic, and further said the organization had defamed him by "falsely accusing him of a repellent form of bigotry."[12] Shalit himself apologized for the wording of his review.[13]
Shalit was married to Nancy Lewis from 1950 until her death from cancer in 1978.[14] For much of his career, he lived inLeonia, New Jersey. As of 2012[update], he resided inStockbridge, Massachusetts.[15][16][17]
Nancy Lewis' and Gene Shalit's children include the artist and entrepreneurWilla Shalit.[15][18] Another child is Peter Shalit, a physician and recognized authority on gay men's health and living withHIV.[19][20][12] Their daughter Emily died ofovarian cancer in November 2012.[14]
On October 24, 2012, Shalit crashed his car inLenox, Massachusetts, after accidentally falling asleep at the wheel. Misdemeanor charges of negligent driving to endanger were later dismissed after he agreed to stop driving until the dismissal, and he was to follow a "safety condition" approved by his attorney and the police chief.[17]
Shalit guest-starred as the voice, and was portrayed in the form of a fish food critic named "Gene Scallop" in theSpongeBob SquarePants episode "The Krusty Sponge".[21]
Shalit has been parodied in several episodes ofFamily Guy in cutaway gags, including "Brian Sings and Swings",[22] "The Book of Joe",[23] and "Big Man on Hippocampus",[24] though Shalit did not provide voice acting for the series.
Shalit also voiced a character portraying himself in three episodes of the animated seriesThe Critic.[25]
AMuppet character based on him appeared inThe Muppet Show: Sex and Violence (1975).[26]
Shalit was portrayed in two episodes ofSaturday Night Live byJon Lovitz,[27] and later in nine episodes byHoratio Sanz in sketches andWeekend Update sequences.[28][29]
Shalit was also portrayed onSecond City Television several times by cast memberEugene Levy.[30]
OnLate Night with David Letterman Shalit had his head squashed between two giant comedy hammers during an interview withDavid Letterman.[31][32]
Gene Shalit is not Morristown's first nationally known television personality of Jewish ancestry.
Poet Joyce Kilmer once taught at Morristown High School, and film critic Gene Shalit got his start writing a humor column, 'The Korn Krib,' for the high school newspaper.
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