Rex Reed, the film critic and author whose pithy reviews and provocative Hollywood interviews established him as a bad boy of entertainment journalism, died Tuesday morning, his rep told The Hollywood Reporter . He was 87.

Reed died at his home in Manhattan after a short illness, according to friend William Kapfer, the rep said. He lived since 1970 in a New York apartment in the Dakota that he bought for $30,000.

The Louisianian penned film reviews and columns for the New York Observer since the newspaper’s start in 1987 (he was laid off for a spell in 2017 before being rehired), and his final review was for the film Truth & Treason in November.

Earlier, he spent 13 years as an arts critic for the New York Daily News and five with the New York Post .

Reed was not the typical dowdy or frumpy critic. With his nasally drawl and fashionable attire, he was front and center in a profession where most writers of his time were behind-the-scenes personalities who shied from public exposure.…