Rex Reed, film critic and occasional actor, dies at 87

Rex Reed, the longtime film critic and occasional film actor, has died. A representative confirmed the news to The Hollywood Reporter. Reed was 87 years old. Known for his cutting and sometimes offensive criticism, Reed wrote professionally from the mid-1960s nearly up until his death. Ree​​d spent nearly four decades at the New York Observer, and his writing appeared in outlets like The New York Times, New York magazine, GQ, Vogue, and many more. Reed also made his film debut in 1970 with the infamous flop Myra Breckinridge, and appeared in as himself in Superman, The Gong Show, and The Critic over the years. Born in Texas in 1938, Reed moved to New York in the 1960s after graduating from Louisiana State University. Initially wanting to be an actor, he ended up working in the publicity department of 20th Century Fox and was laid off when the studio lost money from Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton’s Cleopatra. The loss of the job led him to criticism, and he first got a job as a music critic at the HiFi/Stereo Review. He bounced around a bit between outlets before landing at the Observer in 1987, where he remained for nearly 40 years.