Rex Reed, longtime film critic and journalist, dies at 87

(AP) – Rex Reed, the prominent and outspoken film critic and journalist known for his longtime column in The New York Observer, died Tuesday. He was 87.

Reed died at his Manhattan home after a short illness, publicist Sean Katz said on behalf of Reed’s friend William Kapfer.

In a career spanning more than six decades, Reed became one of the most well-known voices in cultural criticism. He published eight books, acted in movies (playing himself in “Superman”), counted movie stars like Angela Lansbury as friends and often found himself in the spotlight for controversial comments. Most infamous among them was his assertion that Marlee Matlin’s Oscar win for “Children of a Lesser God” was a pity vote, and, decades later, comments about Melissa McCarthy’s weight and size in a review for “Identity Thief.” He also perpetuated a false conspiracy theory that Marisa Tomei’s 1992 Oscar win for “My Cousin Vinny” was fake.

When it came to the movies, he had a reputation for being a bit of a crank as well, often bemoaning the old days and feeling out of step with the next generation of film critics.

“I like just as many films as I dislike,” Reed told The New York Times in 2018. “But I think we’re drowning in mediocrity. I just try as hard as I can to raise the level of consciousness. It’s so hard to get people to see good films.”

Reed was born in Fort Worth, Texas, on Oct. 2, 1938, and spent his childhood moving around the South for his father’s job. He told the New York Times in 2018 that his origin story as a “controversial writer” began in the eighth grade, when he started writing a gossip column in the school paper and plotted his exodus to a more cosmopolitan life.