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TagsAmerica's movie critic got his start writing for his high school newspaper in New Jersey
BY BOB HOLT
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
Movie critic and Morristown native Gene Shalit has announced that he's leaving the "Today" show on Thursday, where he's reviewed movies for 40 years. The last time his "Critic's Corner" appeared on the morning show was in May, when he reviewed "Shrek Forever After."
With his bushy hair and flowing mustache, Shalit is one of America's most recognizable personalities. He has been reviewing motion pictures, plays and books on television, radio, and in major magazines for 45 years.
Executive producer Jim Bell says 40 years on the same show is "a feat unlikely to ever be matched."
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Shalit said in a statement from his pr representative, "It's enough already."
He originally joined the Today show in 1970 as a regular contributor before replacing Joe Garagiola at the desk in 1973.
Shalit had been the senior film critic for Look Magazine and wrote the What's Happening page for Ladies Home Journal for 12 years. From 1969-1982 he wrote and broadcast a daily essay as the Man About Anything on NBC's coast-to-coast radio network. He has also been a regular panelist on "What's My Line?" and "To Tell The Truth," and has written articles for The New York Times, Cosmopolitan, TV Guide, Seventeen, Glamour, and McCall's.
Shalit has even performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Boston's Symphony Hall and Tanglewood, played his bassoon on stage in Lincoln Center and conducted the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in a full concert of classical music.
According to todayshow.com, Shalit was born in New York on March 25, 1926 and moved to Newark with his mother. In 1932 his family moved to Morristown, where his father bought a drug store. In Morristown High School he wrote the school newspaper's humor column (prophetically called "The Broadcaster"), and narrowly escaped expulsion.
In 1994, while on assignment from Today to cover major league baseball spring training in St. Petersburg, Fla., Shalit was run over by a car. The Today Show reports to the disappointment of many Hollywood movie producers and directors, Shalit recovered.
According to popeater.com, Shalit said in his statement he is not retiring, but would "pursue other activities" which include publishing, radio and commercials.
The Today show aired this tribute to the 84-year-old Shalit on Thursday.
