Rex Reed, the sharp-tongued film critic who relished being on both sides of the camera, died Tuesday at his Manhattan home at age 87 after a brief illness, his representative said. A columnist for the New York Observer from its launch in 1987 until late last year, Reed previously held long stints at the New York Daily News and New York Post and became one of the era's most visible movie critics, trading the traditional anonymity of reviewers for TV gigs, talk-show spots, and even film roles, per the Hollywood Reporter.
Born in Texas and raised in Louisiana, Reed parlayed campus journalism into a New York career that mixed criticism, celebrity profiles, and unapologetic gossip. His 1960s Esquire work landed in Tom Wolfe's 1973 anthology The New Journalism, and he went on to write eight books and appear in films including Myra Breckinridge and Superman. He also had a stint co-hosting At the Movies after Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert's departure.
He fawned over female film stars like Bette Davis and Angela Lansbury but "could be brutal" to others, once describing actor Melissa McCarthy as a "female hippo," per the New York Times. As Ava Gardner once said, "This son of a b---- is either at your feet or at your throat." Famous for withering pans and his insistence that Marisa Tomei's 1993 Oscar was announced in error, Reed remained polarizing to the end. He never married and said in 2018, "I think people are intimidated by people with opinions."
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