Eugene Shalit (born March 25, 1926) is an American retired journalist, television personality, film and book critic and author. After starting to work part-time on NBC's The Today Show in 1970, he filled those roles from January 15, 1973, until retiring on November 11, 2010. He is known for his frequent use of puns, his oversized handlebar moustache and fuzzy hair, and for wearing colorful bowties.
Shalit was born in New York City and raised in Newark and Morristown, New Jersey. In high school he wrote a humor column for the school newspaper, which Gannett has identified as "The Korn Krib". Shalit is of Jewish ancestry.
Shalit wrote for The Daily Illini for six years at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (1943–1949).

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