Gene Shalit, June 13 -- through his explosion of dark hair, sprawling mustache, oversize glasses, and an unfailing ability to pack a pun into any sentence - died on Friday, June 12, 2026. He was 100. His family told NBC News he passed "after 100 years of an amazing life."

Shalit spent four decades at NBC's Today show, joining as a book reviewer in 1970 and stepping up as the program's primary film critic in 1973 when he replaced Joe Garagiola on the desk. He worked alongside virtually every era of the show's anchors - Hugh Downs, Tom Brokaw, Barbara Walters, Bryant Gumbel, Jane Pauley, Matt Lauer, and Katie Couric - and never quite seemed to age into the background. Meredith Vieira's assessment in a 2011 tribute captured the consensus: "...