Film reviewer for the "Today Show" died on Tuesday at her Manhattan apartment at the age of 90. Steven Crist, her son, confirmed her death.
Crist was no less than a trailblazer, not only was she the first full-time female film critic to be hired by a major newspaper, The New York Herald Tribune, she was also the first regular-critic for NBC's Today Show, between 1963 & 1973, she was the founding film critic at New York Magazine, and wrote for TV Guide, where she gained a massive fan-following over the 22-years she was there. According to the New York Times, Crist was named as movie-goers favorite movie critic in the 1960s in a Harris Poll.
Crist was known for her honestly and difficult to please attitude. She deemed the classic Sound of Music as "icky-sticky," (www.nytimes.com), said that Elizabeth Taylor and Tim Burton Starrer Cleopatra was "At best a major disappointment, at worst an extravagant exercise in tedium," (Associated Press). Associated Press HILLEL ITALIE said of the critic that although she "duly celebrated many movies, her trademark quickly became the putdown," (yahoonews.). So much so that Academy Award Nominated film director Otto Preminger called Crist, "Judas Crist."
Popular movie critic Roger Ebert said of the revered Crist, that she paved the way for other film critics and popularized the genre of film review.
The graduate from Columbia School of Journalism won a George Polk award in 1951.
According to reports, Crist will have a private burial and a possible public one in September.
