He was America's most famous film critic, until Chicago's Roger Ebert & Gene Siskel got their own show. A bushy mustache, with an afro to match, made Gene Shalit a television icon for nearly 40 years on The Today Show, starting around 1972.
Shalit didn't just do movie reviews. He also conducted interviews with actors whose films he'd review, such as, in this case, a 1981 interview with Liza Minelli, who was promoting "Arthur":
Shalit parlayed his fame on Today into appearances on game shows such as What's My Line? & To Tell The Truth, and was parodied by the likes of Eugene Levy (SCTV), and Horatio Sanz (Saturday Night Live). His likeness also turned up in animated form via The Critic and Family Guy.
Rest in peace.
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