Tom Shales Death: When Did Tom Shales Die?: American writer and television critic, Tom Shales, also known as Thomas William Shales has died, aged, 79.
He was a television critic for The Washington Post from 1977 to 2010, for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1988.
Tom Shales Death: When Did Tom Shales Die?
Tom Shales died on Saturday, January 13, 2024, at a hospital in Alexandria, Virginia. The cause was complications from COVID and renal failure, said his caretaker, Victor Herfurth.
Born in 1944, Shales attended Elgin Community College before transferring to American University in Washington, D.C., where he studied journalism.
At the University, he was editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, The Eagle, for the 1966–1967 academic year and the paper’s movie critic.
From 1968 to 1971, Shales worked as entertainment editor at the D.C. Examiner, a tabloid newspaper. In 1972, he joined The Washington Post as a writer in the Style section.
He was then named chief television critic in July 1977 and was appointed TV editor in June 1979. His reviews were syndicated in newspapers nationwide.
In 1988, he received the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism for his work at The Washington Post, including his coverage of the Robert Bork Supreme Court nomination hearings.
From 1998 to 1999, he was a frequent film critic for Morning Edition on National Public Radio. He was a guest co-host on the TV show, Roger Ebert & the Movies after Gene Siskel’s death.
In 2006, he ceased to be a staff writer for the Washington Post and went on contract, where he remained until 2010 when he was laid off entirely by the newspaper.
From 2012 to 2014, he wrote a column for RogerEbert.com. Shales was the most influential TV critic in North America for many decades
He was admired for his wit and insight and dreaded for his brutal takedowns of programs and artists he disliked and was nicknamed “Terrible Tom” and “the Terror of the Tube”
Shales wrote or co-wrote four books, including the bestseller Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live, co-authored with James Andrew Miller
He had a voracious and wide-ranging curiosity and wrote about TV news coverage of U.S. politics and reviews of new entertainment programs.
Source: Ghgossip.com
