Famous Critics

Glenn Beck is an influential American media personality, political commentator, and author. He was born on February 10, 1964, in Everett, Washington. Early life challenges influenced his later career. Beck overcame personal struggles with drug and alcohol addiction to achieve success. His professional path moved from Top-40 radio disc jockey to a prominent role.

Jonathan Stewart was born November 28, 1962, in New York City. He has a career spanning multiple decades as a stand-up comedian, television host, and political commentator. His fame started in comedy, where his wit made him a recognizable figure. He hosted The Daily Show on Comedy Central, which launched him into the international spotlight.

Simon Cowell was born in London in 1959. He is a globally recognized figure who significantly impacted popular culture through his sharp wit and honest critiques. Cowell started in the music industry, working in A&R for record companies. His expertise in finding talent led him to judge TV talent shows where his reputation for respect and fear was established. He launched Pop Idol, a British television series.

Michael Moore is recognized as a filmmaker and author whose work provokes thought in entertainment and political commentary. Born in Flint, Michigan, on April 23, 1954, his background in working-class roots shaped his documentaries. After founding The Flint Voice newspaper, he gained national recognition with his debut film, Roger & Me, in 1989.

Avram Noam Chomsky was born December 7, 1928, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He made a major impact on linguistics and political philosophy. Chomsky is considered one of the most influential public intellectuals of the 20th century. He earned his bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. There, he met Zellig Harris, a prominent linguist.

Roger Ebert was a film critic and journalist born June 18, 1942, in Urbana, Illinois. Ebert started his career as a sports writer for The News-Gazette in his hometown. After graduating from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he joined the Chicago Sun-Times as a film critic in 1967. His sharp reviews made him synonymous with film critique.

Christopher Hitchens was a British-born journalist, essayist, and critic. Born in 1949, he spent his early life in Portsmouth, England, developing a passion for politics and literature. He earned a degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Balliol College, Oxford University. Hitchens pursued a career in publishing for over forty years. He moved to the United States in 1981, spreading his sharp writing across the Atlantic.

Marcel Proust (born July 10, 1871; died November 18, 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist. He is best known for his novel À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time; earlier titled Remembrance of Things Past). The novel was published in seven parts between 1913 and 1927. Critics consider him one of the most influential authors of the 20th century.

Cornel West acted in many Hollywood films during his career. He appeared in several television specials, including "The Issue Is Race" (1992-93) and two episodes of "Firing Line Special Debate" (PBS, 1993-94). He also appeared in the HBO film "Violence: An American Tradition" (1995-96). West acted in film roles such as "A Darker Side of Black" (1995) and the documentary "Black Is... Black Ain't" (1995) with Angela Davis. He focused his entertainment career on film.

Clive James was born on October 7, 1939. He is an Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet, translator, and memoirist. He has lived and worked in the United Kingdom since 1962.

John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, and critic. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than twice, sharing it with Booth Tarkington and William Faulkner. Updike published over twenty novels and numerous short story collections, poetry, and literary criticism throughout his career. Hundreds of his stories, reviews, and poems appeared in The New Yorker starting in 1954. He also wrote regularly for The New York Review of Books.

Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the Chicago Tribune. He hosted popular movie review shows on television from 1975 to 1999 alongside Roger Ebert.

Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 [OS 7 September] – 13 December 1784), often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor, and lexicographer. He was a devout Anglican. Politically, he was a committed Tory. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography describes Johnson as "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history". He is the subject of James Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson, described by Walter Jackson Bate as "the most famous sing

Joseph Eugene Stiglitz (; born February 9, 1943) is an American economist, public policy analyst, and a professor at Columbia University. He is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001) and the John Bates Clark Medal (1979). He is a former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank and is a former member and chairman of the (US president's) Council of Economic Advisers. He is known for his support of Georgist public finance theory and for his critical view of the management of globalization, of laissez-faire economists (whom he calls "free market fund

Garry Kimovich Kasparov (Russian: Га́рри Ки́мович Каспа́ров, Russian pronunciation: [ˈɡarʲɪ ˈkʲiməvʲɪtɕ kɐˈsparəf]; born Garik Kimovich Weinstein, 13 April 1963) is a Russian chess grandmaster, former world chess champion, writer, and political activist, whom many consider to be the greatest chess player of all time. From 1986 until his retirement in 2005, Kasparov was ranked world No. 1 for 225 out of 228 months. His peak rating of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until being surpassed by Magnus Carlsen in 2013. Kasparov also holds records for consecutive professional tourname

María Cristina Estela Marcela Jurado García (16 January 1924 – 5 July 2002), better known as Katy Jurado, was a Mexican actress of film, television, and theater. Jurado began her acting career in Mexico. She achieved some renown in her country's cinema during the period known as the Golden Age of Mexican cinema (1940s–1950s). In 1951 she was discovered by American filmmakers in Mexico and began her Hollywood career. She acted in notable Western films of the 1950s and 1960s. An exotic beauty, Jurado specialized in interpretations of complex, stereotyped and sexualized women. Her talent for play

Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; Spanish: [ˈboɾxes] (listen); 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish-language and universal literature. His best-known books, Ficciones (Fictions) and El Aleph (The Aleph), published in the 1940s, are compilations of short stories interconnected by common themes, including dreams, labyrinths, philosophy, libraries, mirrors, fictional writers, and mythology. Borges' works have contributed to philosophical literature and the fantasy genre, and have been considered

Charlie Brooker was a British television writer and producer who was best known for creating the internationally renowned science-fiction anthology series "Black Mirror" (Channel 4/Netflix, 2011- ). Born and raised in England, Brooker always harnessed a bit of a creative side. He began writing and drawing comics when he was a young boy, and by the late 1980s was working as a cartoonist for the British comic book magazine Oink!. When it came time to enter college, Brooker enrolled in the University of Westminster, where he took classes in Media Studies. He completed most of his studies at the U

George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60 plays. He was also an essayist, novelist and short story writer. Nearly all his writings address prevailing social problems with a vein of comedy which makes their stark themes more palatable.

Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski ( ZBIG-nyef brə-ZIN-skee, Polish: [ˈzbiɡɲɛf kaˈʑimjɛʐ bʐɛˈʑij̃skʲi] (listen); March 28, 1928 – May 26, 2017) was a Polish-American diplomat and political scientist. He served as a counselor to President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1966 to 1968 and was President Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor from 1977 to 1981. Brzezinski belonged to the realist school of international relations, standing in the geopolitical tradition of Halford Mackinder and Nicholas J. Spykman.Major foreign policy events during his time in office included the normalization of relations with

John Anthony Burgess Wilson (February 25, 1917 – November 22, 1993) was an English writer and composer. Although he wrote primarily comic fiction, his dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange remains his most famous novel. Stanley Kubrick adapted the book into a controversial film in 1971, which Burgess claimed caused the book's popularity. Burgess also wrote novels like the Enderby quartet and Earthly Powers. He composed librettos and screenplays, including the 1977 TV mini-series Jesus of Nazar.

Mark James Patrick Kermode (né Fairey; born 2 July 1963) is an English film critic and musician. He is the chief film critic for The Observer, contributes to the magazine Sight & Sound, presents the BBC Four documentary series Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema, co-presents the BBC Radio 5 Live show Kermode and Mayo's Film Review, and previously co-presented the BBC Two arts programme The Culture Show. Kermode is a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Kermode is a founding member of the skiffle band the Dodge Brothers, for which he plays double bass. In January 2019, it was

A tart-tongued wit and prolific writer of reviews, poetry, short stories, plays and screenplays, founding member of the famed Algonquin Hotel Round Table Dorothy Parker parlayed her caustic barbs into a successful career as a writer in numerous mediums. Parker could be unpredictable and self-destructive, attempting suicide several times in her life, while growing increasingly dependent on alcohol. Still, she remained a prolific writer throughout her career for magazines like Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Smart Set and LIFE while becoming more politically active in leftist causes. She mar

Giles Lytton Strachey (; 1 March 1880 – 21 January 1932) was an English writer and critic. A founding member of the Bloomsbury Group and author of Eminent Victorians, he is best known for establishing a new form of biography in which psychological insight and sympathy are combined with irreverence and wit. His biography Queen Victoria (1921) was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

Lu Xun (Wade–Giles romanisation: Lu Hsün) was the pen name of Zhou Shuren (25 September 1881 – 19 October 1936), a Chinese writer, essayist, poet, and literary critic. He was a leading figure of modern Chinese literature. Writing in Vernacular Chinese and Classical Chinese, he was a short story writer, editor, translator, literary critic, essayist, poet, and designer. In the 1930s, he became the titular head of the League of Left-Wing Writers in Shanghai. Lu Xun was born into a family of landlords and government officials in Shaoxing, Zhejiang; the family's financial resources declined over th

Colm Tóibín (Irish pronunciation: [ˈkɔl̪ˠəmˠ t̪ˠoːˈbʲiːnʲ]; born 30 May 1955) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, journalist, critic and poet.Tóibín is currently Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University and succeeded Martin Amis as professor of creative writing at the University of Manchester. He was appointed Chancellor of the University of Liverpool in 2017.Called "a champion of minorities" by Arts Council director Mary Cloake as he collected the 2011 Irish PEN Award, that same year John Naughton of The Observer included Tói

Frank Anthony Bruni (born October 31, 1964) is an American journalist and long-time writer for The New York Times. In June 2011, he was named an op-ed columnist for the newspaper. His columns appear twice weekly and he also writes a weekly newsletter. One of his many previous posts for the newspaper was as its chief restaurant critic, from 2004 to 2009. He is the author of three bestselling books: Born Round, a memoir about his family's love of food and his own struggles with overeating; Where You Go Is Not Who You'll Be, about the college admissions mania; and Ambling Into History, about Geor

Robert Louis Peters (October 20, 1924 – June 13, 2014) was an American poet, critic, scholar, playwright, editor, and actor born in an impoverished rural area of northern Wisconsin in 1924. He held a Ph.D in Victorian literature. His poetry career began in 1967 when his young son Richard died unexpectedly of spinal meningitis. The book commemorating this loss, Songs for a Son, was selected by poet Denise Levertov to be published by W. W. Norton in 1967, and it still remains in print. Songs for a Son began a flood of poetry.

Camille Anna Paglia (; born April 2, 1947) is an American feminist academic and social critic. Paglia has been a professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, since 1984. She is critical of many aspects of modern culture, and is the author of Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (1990) and other books. She is also a critic of contemporary American feminism and of post-structuralism as well as a commentator on multiple aspects of American culture such as its visual art, music, and film history.

William Livingstone Siksay (born March 11, 1955) is a Canadian politician, and was the Member of Parliament (MP) who represented the British Columbia riding of Burnaby—Douglas for the New Democratic Party from 2004 to 2011.

Robert Benchley was an actor who had a successful Hollywood career. Benchley's earliest roles were in film, including the romantic comedy "Rafter Romance" (1933) with Ginger Rogers, "Dancing Lady" (1933) and "The Social Register" (1934). He also appeared in the Clark Gable adventure "China Seas" (1935), the comedy "Piccadilly Jim" (1936) with Robert Montgomery and the comedy "Live, Love and Learn" (1937) with Robert Montgomery. He continued to work steadily in film throughout the forties, appearing in "Nice Girl?" (1941), the musical "You'll Never Get Rich" (1941) with Fred Astaire and the com

Herbert Mitchell Muschamp (November 28, 1947 – October 2, 2007) was an American architecture critic.

Philip Michael Hensher FRSL, born February 20, 1965, is an English novelist, critic, and journalist.

Virgil Thomson (November 25, 1896 – September 30, 1989) was an American composer and critic. He helped develop the "American Sound" in classical music. Critics described him as a modernist, neoromantic, and neoclassicist. Thomson composed "an Olympian blend of humanity and detachment." His expressive voice remained muted until his late opera Lord Byron, which showed emotional content rising to moments of real passion.

Edward Wadie Said (Arabic: إدوارد وديع سعيد [wædiːʕ sæʕiːd], Idwārd Wadīʿ Saʿīd) lived from November 1, 1935, to September 24, 2003. He taught literature at Columbia University. Said was a public intellectual and founded the academic field of postcolonial studies. Born in Mandatory Palestine, he was Palestinian American and a citizen of the United States through his father, a U.S. Army veteran. Educated in British and American schools, Said used his education to illuminate cultural and political gaps between the Western world and other cultures.

Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, and cultural critic. He commented on society, literature, music, politicians, and contemporary movements. His satirical reporting on the Scopes trial, which he called the "Monkey Trial," gained significant attention. As a scholar, Mencken wrote The American Language, a multi-volume study of spoken English in the United States. He admired Friedrich Nietzsche and was an outspoken opponent of certain views.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (October 21, 1772 – July 25, 1834) was an English poet, critic, philosopher, and theologian. He founded the Romantic Movement in England with William Wordsworth and was a member of the Lake Poets. Coleridge collaborated with Charles Lamb, Robert Southey, and Charles Lloyd. He wrote poems like The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, and published the major prose work Biographia Literaria. His criticism of William Shakespeare proved highly influential, introducing German idealist philosophy to English.

Alan George Heywood Melly (August 17, 1926 – July 5, 2007) was an English jazz and blues singer, writer, critic, and lecturer. From 1965 to 1973, he served as a film and television critic for The Observer. He lectured on art history, focusing on surrealism.

Adolfo Bioy Casares (September 15, 1914 – March 8, 1999) was an Argentine fiction writer, journalist, and translator. He worked closely with Jorge Luis Borges. Casares authored the fantastic novel The Invention of Morel.

Liu Xiaobo (December 28, 1955 – July 13, 2017) was a Chinese writer, critic, activist, philosopher, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He campaigned for political reforms and ended communist one-party rule in China. Some called him "China's Nelson Mandela." He was imprisoned as a political prisoner in Jinzhou, Liaoning. After being diagnosed with liver cancer, he received medical parole on June 26, 2017, and died on July 13, 2017. Liu gained fame in literary circles during the 1980s through his critiques.

James Lafayette Dickey (February 2, 1923 – January 19, 1997) was an American poet and novelist. He was appointed the eighteenth United States Poet Laureate in 1966 and received the Order of the South award. Dickey is best known for his novel Deliverance (1970), which was adapted into an acclaimed film.

Walter Horatio Pater (August 4, 1839 – July 30, 1894) was an English essayist, literary critic, and fiction writer. He is regarded as one of the great stylists. His writings on Renaissance subjects were popular but controversial because they reflected his lost belief in Christianity.

Kenneth Peacock Tynan (April 2, 1927 – July 26, 1980) was an English theatre critic and writer. He made his initial impact as a critic at The Observer (1954–58, 1960–63). Tynan praised Osborne's Look Back in Anger (1956) and encouraged emerging British theatrical talent. In 1963, he became the literary manager for the National Theatre Company. As an opponent of theatre censorship, Tynan was considered one of the first to say "fuck" on British television, a statement that caused controversy. He later settled in California.

J. D. "Sandy" McClatchy (August 12, 1945 – April 10, 2018) was an American poet and literary critic. He edited the Yale Review and served as president of The American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Alexander Woollcott was an actor in "Babes on Broadway" and "The Scoundrel."

Benjamin D. Brantley (born October 26, 1954) is an American journalist and the chief theater critic for The New York Times.

Scott A. Brison (May 10, 1967) is a Canadian former politician from Nova Scotia. Brison served as the Member of Parliament for Kings-Hants from the 1997 federal election until July 2000, and then from November 2000 to February 2019. He switched parties in 2003 to join the Liberal Party. Brison held the post of Minister of Public Works and Government Services from 2004 to 2006 in the Paul Martin government. He served as President of the Treasury Board of Canada in Justin Trudeau's ministry until January 2019. He remained in Opposition.

James Rufus Agee (November 27, 1909 – May 16, 1955) was an American novelist, journalist, poet, screenwriter, and film critic. In the 1940s, he became one of the most influential film critics in the U.S. His novel, A Death in the Family (1957), earned him a posthumous 1958 Pulitzer Prize.

John Ruskin (8 February 1819 – 20 January 1900) was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, as well as an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and political economy. His writing styles and literary forms were equally varied. He penned essays and treatises, poetry and lectures, travel guides and manuals, letters and even a fairy tale. He also made detailed sketches and paintings of rocks, plants, birds, landscapes, and architec