Rex Reed, Film Critic Known for Acerbic Reviews, Dies at 87
In self-defense, Mr. Reed insisted to The Times in 2018 that “I like just as many films as I dislike. But I think we’re drowning in mediocrity,” he continued. “I just try as hard as I can to raise the level of consciousness. It’s so hard to get people to see good films.”
On various events, he has landed in bother of his personal making. He was recognized to trash movies he had barely watched, and a few critics of his stated he often had assistants conduct his interviews.
When Marlee Matlin, who’s deaf, gained greatest actress at the 1987 Academy Awards for “Children of a Lesser God,” Mr. Reed wrote that she had benefited from a “pity vote.” Bizarrely, and wrongly, he insisted that Marisa Tomei didn’t actually win the 1993 Oscar for greatest supporting actress for her position in “My Cousin Vinny” and that the presenter, Jack Palance, had learn the flawed identify. Mr. Reed as soon as blended up Benicio del Toro, a Puerto Rican actor, and Guillermo del Toro, a Mexican filmmaker, lacking Benicio as well.
(*87*) actually widened in 2013 after Mr. Reed, writing in The Observercruelly described Melissa McCarthy in “Identity Thief” as “tractor-sized,” likening her to a “female hippo.” In response, Ms. McCarthy stated she “felt really bad for someone who is swimming in so much hate.” Her personal response was that she supplied him an apology, for she went on to drop a few pounds after her assessment.
A few instances he bumped into bother with the regulation. In 1988, he pleaded responsible to and acquired a $2,000 effective for making an attempt to evade New York State taxes. Twelve years later, he was accused of shoplifting at a Tower Records retailer on the Upper West Side after being discovered with Mel Tormé, Carmen McRae and Peggy Lee CDs in his coat pocket. It was all a mistake, he stated, and the fees have been dropped. When she realized of the incident, Ms. Lee despatched him a whole set of her recordings.
Rex Taylor Reed was born in Fort Worth on Oct. 2, 1938, the one youngster of James M. Reed, an oil firm supervisor, and Jewell (Smith) Reed, who claimed a distant relationship to members of the Dalton Gang and whose father, she stated, was rocked as a boy on Jesse James’s knee.
