Film critic Rex Reed, known for poison-pen reviews, dies at 87

Rex Reed, the film critic and celebrity journalist whose prose could soar into poetic admiration or plunge like a dagger between the shoulder blades, died Tuesday at his Manhattan home after a short illness. He was 87. His death was confirmed by longtime friend William Kapfer. No cause of death was announced.

Mr. Reed burst onto the movie-criticism scene in the 1960s as part of a wave of new reviewers who offered a sharper, jazzier alternative to the more staid forms of analysis that had been the standard at major outlets. His reviews and stylishly written profiles of Hollywood and Broadway icons appeared over six decades in publications ranging from The New York Times and Vogue to GQ, Esquire and, most recently, the New York Observer.

He made no secret of his preference for the grandes dames of Old Hollywood — the Dietrichs, Bergmans and Lansburys — and tended to write about them with reverence. He described Broadway dancer Gwen Verdon as one of those performers “rare as blue butterflies, who carry around their own lightning.” Modern actresses were another matter. “The old broads are the ones who interest me the most,” he told Newsweek. “Nothing bores me more than these miniskirted girls with nothing on their minds.”

His takedowns were equally memorable. He wrote in 1967 that sitting through a Michelangelo Antonioni interview was even more excruciating than sitting through one of the director’s films, prompting Antonioni to write a letter to the editor in protest. Mr. Reed drew the enduring enmity of Frank Sinatra after describing his daughter Nancy as resembling a “pizza waitress.” An oft-quoted 1966 profile of Barbra Streisand described her arriving three-and-a-half hours late before biting into a green banana and telling reporters, “OK, you’ve got 20 minutes.”

Mr. Reed insisted he was not a crank. “I like just as many films as I dislike,” he told The New York Times in a 2018 profile. “But I think we’re drowning in mediocrity. I just try as hard as I can to raise the level of consciousness.”

He was not without his controversies. He wrote that actress Marlee Matlin had benefited from a “pity vote” when she won the best actress Oscar in 1987 for “Children of a Lesser God.” He also spread the false claim that presenter Jack Palance had announced the wrong name at the 1993 ceremony, denying Marisa Tomei her legitimately won best supporting actress award for “My Cousin Vinny” — a theory he was still calling a “massive cover-up” as late as 1997. The Academy has officially denied the story, and Tomei has called it “extremely hurtful.”

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In 2013, Mr. Reed described Melissa McCarthy in a review of “Identity Thief” as “tractor-sized” and likened her to a “female hippo.” Ms. McCarthy said publicly she “felt really bad for someone who is swimming in so much hate.” Mr. Reed was unapologetic, later claiming that his review had inspired her to lose weight and that she owed him a thank-you.

Mr. Reed was also a former co-host of the syndicated television program “At the Movies” and was a frequent presence on the talk show circuits of Johnny Carson and Dick Cavett. He also served on juries at both the Berlin and Venice international film festivals. Mr. Reed had a brief acting career as well, most notably starring in the 1970 film adaptation of Gore Vidal’s “Myra Breckinridge” alongside Raquel Welch. The film was universally savaged — including by Mr. Reed himself, who called it “a train wreck.” 

Mr. Reed was born Oct. 2, 1938, in Fort Worth, Texas. His father worked as an oil company supervisor, and the family moved frequently across the South. Mr. Reed attended 13 schools before earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Louisiana State University in 1960, where he wrote film and theater reviews for the student newspaper.

After early struggles to land a newspaper job in New York, he worked briefly in the publicity department at 20th Century Fox before bluffing his way into interviews at the 1965 Venice International Film Festival — including a session with Buster Keaton, which he sold to The New York Times for $125, and one with Jean-Paul Belmondo, sold to the New York Herald Tribune for $150. Both were published the same day, launching his career.

One of his closest friends in life was actress Angela Lansbury. The pair spent time together playing cards, watching old movies and frequenting restaurants. Her death in 2022 was devastating to him.

“I don’t feel like I have friends anymore,” he said in his final years. “They’re all gone.”

In January 2025, the New York Film Critics Circle honored Mr. Reed at their annual dinner marking his 50th anniversary with the group. He had outlasted every critic of his generation and the one before.

No immediate family members survive.