Rex Reed, 1938 – 2026

Film critic and sometimes actor Rex Reed, 87, died on May 12. Reed wrote for the The New York Observer, the New York Daily News, and the New York Post, as well as penning such gossipy books as Do You Sleep in the Nude?, Conversations in the Raw, People Are Crazy Here, and Valentines & Vitriol. Reed was known for his particularly bitchy, insulting reviews (he’s the one who started the “Marisa Tomei didn’t really win an Oscar” rumor), so when he attempted to act, in the appalling Myra Breckinridge, his work was rightfully skewered. He recalled of his early days writing PR at Fox, writing "those puffy things about Elvis Presley and—you know—Fabian, and tell everybody how great they were when I wouldn't be caught dead seeing their movies myself. Cleopatra came along and rocked the company financially. We were saving on rubber bands and paying Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton to float down the Nile while everybody back at Fox was taking salary cuts, and I was the first one to go."