Legendary journalist, film and cultural critic, and media personality, Rex Reed had died after a short illness, at age 87, on Tuesday, May 12, at his home in Manhattan; he was surrounded by his closest loved ones. Reed’s death was confirmed by longtime friend William Kapfer.
Since the early 1960s, Reed has been known for his outspoken movie criticism and stylishly written profiles of Hollywood and Broadway icons, featured in publications ranging from The New York Times to GQ, Esquire and Vogue, as well as for the New York Observer where he authored the “Talk of the Town” column over the last four decades. His writings were collected in eight books, including his first, Do You Sleep in the Nude?, plus Conversations in the Raw, People Are Crazy Here and Valentines & Vitriol. Reed established a reputation for gaining intimate access to Hollywood stars, often revealing their vulnerabilities or eccentricities in ways that traditional, more formal critics did not, known for his blunt style and contrarianism in some of his writing.
Reed was born on October 2, 1938 in Fort Worth, Texas, but the family moved throughout the U.S. South during his childhood. He received a journalism degree from Louisiana State University, where he began writing film and play reviews, not only for the university’s newspaper, but for the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate. Reed moved to New York City aiming to find success as an actor, but as a “day job,” he was hired to work at the publicity department of 20th Century Fox, beginning his career in writing. He went on to conduct and write interviews for The New York Times and New York magazine, and in 1966 was hired as one of the music critics for HiFi/Stereo Review, where he remained until 1973. The rest is history, as the saying goes. His final article was a tribute to New York Observer founder Arthur L. Carter, published in December 2025.
