# John Simon Passes **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 26, 2019, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-simon-passes/843993 "2019-11-26T01:00:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-simon-passes/843993/1 "2019-11-26T01:00:10Z")
The Viscount of Vitriol is no more. [John Simon has passed away at age 94](https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/john-simon-veteran-film-and-tv-critic-dies-at-94/ar-BBXjckO). ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-simon-passes/843993/2 "2019-11-26T18:18:08Z")
Judging from the lack comments, it’s apparent nobody even remotely liked the guy or had anything to say about his demise. This thread probably wasn’t a good idea. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-simon-passes/843993/3 "2019-11-26T18:20:58Z")
> [@](#): > > Simon earned a reputation for being aggressive in his words and often earned scorn from both actors and fellow critics for his work. In 1969. he was denied membership in the New York Drama Critics’ Circle, though he was ultimately inducted the following year. I swear to Og, on my first scan through that article, I read that as “indicted the following year.” ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-simon-passes/843993/4 "2019-11-27T00:13:20Z")
It may be that he’s not as well known outside of New York. I had never heard of him.\* \*Not that I’m an expert. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-simon-passes/843993/5 "2019-11-27T02:54:49Z")
I always enjoyed reading his reviews in the _New Yorker,_ even (or especially) when I disagreed. R.I.P. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-simon-passes/843993/6 "2019-11-27T03:04:54Z")
I disagreed. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-simon-passes/843993/7 "2019-11-27T03:22:45Z")
John Simon was the dictionary definition of beyond the pale in his field. He was a high-paid troll. If he posted here, there would be a mass movement to ban him and his posts would be continually reported. The mods wouldn’t do anything, to be sure, but we would never lack for misogyny. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-simon-passes/843993/8 "2019-11-27T04:18:45Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > Judging from the lack comments, it’s apparent nobody even remotely liked the guy or had anything to say about his demise. This thread probably wasn’t a good idea. Chalk me up as another “never heard of him.” ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-simon-passes/843993/9 "2019-11-27T04:23:26Z")
I’ll bet Ebert and Siskel don’t save him a seat. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-simon-passes/843993/10 "2019-11-27T18:21:14Z")
Here’s John Simon’s legendary [review of Star Wars](https://books.google.com/books?id=QuQCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA71&dq=%22george+lucas%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=OO_FVLH3EonyoATh2IG4DA&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAjge#v=onepage&q&f=false). It’s basically one long sneer. Although rather funny, if approached correctly. But he seldom rose above that sneer, and the reviews that made actors hate him were those about women. [This page](https://workersbravo.wordpress.com/2012/12/29/sixteen-bitchy-comments-from-john-simons-movies-into-film-criticism-1967-1970/) has excepts from his first collection of film reviews. Try to stomach these: > [@](#): > > [Last Summer] The kids themselves, with the exception of Cathy Burns (Rhoda), are not particularly good actors, and Barbara Hershey (Sandy, and not a kid anymore) looks, regrettably, much better with her bikini top on than off. Miss Burns, on the other hand, is an extremely accomplished little actress, but also insuperably homely — she looks, in fact, like a pink beach ball with a few limbs and features painted on it. There is no excuse for Rhoda’s being a positive freak, and making us feel she is damned lucky to have been raped at all. > > [The Charge of the Light Brigade] It is regrettable to have both leading ladies in such a dashing film seemingly vie with each other for this year’s Homeliness Award, just as it is misguided to entrust the gallantly swashbuckling lead to David Hemmings, who, besides being a mediocre actor, looks in long shots like something out of Planet of the Apes. > > [The Taming of the Shrew] But just how garish [Elizabeth Taylor’s] commonplace accent, squeakily shrill voice, and the childish petulance with which she delivers her lines are, my pen is neither scratchy nor leaky enough to convey. The once pretty face has become coarse, though from a distance it can still look good — but only if it avoids any attempt at expression, as, to be sure, it not infrequently does. Only the bosom keeps implacably marching on — or down, as the case may be — but I do not feel qualified to be the Xenophon of this reverse anabasis. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-simon-passes/843993/11 "2019-11-27T22:45:42Z")
> [@](#): > > Barbara Hershey (Sandy, and not a kid anymore) looks, regrettably, much better with her bikini top on than off. And he was describing Barbara Hershey in her prime. He was even more merciless about Diana Rigg’s appearance just a few years after she played Emma Peel. Aside from his constant dissection of actresses’ physical appearances, it seemed Simon’s standards for beauty were far beyond what any mortal woman could ever achieve. As I’ve stated before, you got the impression that whenever Simon looked at a fashion magazine covergirl, his first thought would be to wonder why she didn’t dress like Joseph Merrick while going out in public. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-simon-passes/843993/12 "2019-11-27T23:47:51Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > And he was describing Barbara Hershey in her prime. He was even more merciless about Diana Rigg’s appearance just a few years after she played Emma Peel. Aside from his constant dissection of actresses’ physical appearances, it seemed Simon’s standards for beauty were far beyond what any mortal woman could ever achieve. As I’ve stated before, you got the impression that whenever Simon looked at a fashion magazine covergirl, his first thought would be to wonder why she didn’t dress like Joseph Merrick while going out in public. If I’m remembering correctly, Simon had a major crush on British actress Lindsay Duncan. All other women were, apparently, under-bridge dwellers by comparison. (Didn’t know Simon was still alive this late; I hadn’t thought about him in years.) ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-simon-passes/843993/13 "2019-11-27T23:58:08Z")
He also had it in for Carol Kane. Calling her ugly in terms that were borderline anti-semitic. That was back in…maybe?..the 70s? I never trusted his judgment. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2019, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-simon-passes/843993/14 "2019-11-28T01:07:39Z")
You never got a sense that he loved movies, the craft, or his job. It was a burden he had to bear and we were lucky to be spared the experience of being tortured by the things he was forced to sit through. So his air of superiority always seemed rooted in contempt, that few things were rarely worth his time, and there was rarely a film (even one he championed) that wouldn’t get shivved in the process. The type of critic where you might have a morbid fascination in what he might say, but one that nobody will miss because he was toxic to the core. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2019, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-simon-passes/843993/15 "2019-11-28T01:52:25Z")
> [@MovieMogul](#): > > You never got a sense that he loved movies, the craft, or his job. It was a burden he had to bear and we were lucky to be spared the experience of being tortured by the things he was forced to sit through. So his air of superiority always seemed rooted in contempt, that few things were rarely worth his time, and there was rarely a film (even one he championed) that wouldn’t get shivved in the process. The type of critic where you might have a morbid fascination in what he might say, but one that nobody will miss because he was toxic to the core. In fairness to Simon, I can’t see evidence that he primarily thought of himself as a film critic. He was a theater critic who, for brief periods, reviewed movies, too: > [@](#): > > John — who died yesterday at 94, after a stroke — was New York’s drama critic for 36 years, from late 1968 to 2005, apart from a brief period when he moved over to covering film. > **[On John Simon](https://www.vulture.com/2019/11/obituary-critic-john-simon-1925-2019.html)** > > Considering the longtime New York critic, who died yesterday at 94. From the same source, some information that may please most readers of this thread: > [@](#): > > The responses to his reviews were almost as legendary as the articles themselves. After he panned a Sylvia Miles performance, she saw him in a restaurant and dumped a plate of steak tartare over his head. Peter Bogdanovich, in the script for What’s Up, Doc?, named a pompous character “Hugh Simon.” The comedy duo Bob and Ray, after John panned their Broadway revue, added a character to their radio show whose name was John Simon, a.k.a. the Worst Person in the World, and he was always heard eating an enormous, sloppy sandwich. He had a heavy Serbian accent: > [@](#): > > He grew up in Subotica before the Second World War and came here as a child, then pursued three degrees — B.A., M.A., Ph.D. — at Harvard. Perhaps because English was not his first language, he was relentless about correct grammar and usage, and his book Paradigms Lost is about his view of the declining standards thereof. It’s an interesting piece by one of Simon’s editors. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2019, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-simon-passes/843993/16 "2019-11-28T15:10:04Z")
I wasn’t very familiar with Simon as a reviewer, though I knew he had done theater reviews and that they were usually pretty strongly negative. Thanks for the review excerpts, **Exapno Mapcase** – just astonishing, especially the first one. I do remember him as a staunch member of the Language Police, convinced that any slippage in the Rules of Grammar and Usage signified the death of civilization as we knew it. He was given a chapter of his own in Jim Quinn’s delightful early-eighties book _American Tongue in Cheek_, which took on the self-described language mavens (Simon, Edwin Newman, William Safire…) by pointing out their ignorance about how language worked and the history of language. Simon, in Quinn’s estimation, was perhaps the ignoramus-est of them all. It must be difficult to live in a world where you know everything and everyone else knows nothing and most of them refuse to agree with you. Perhaps Mr. Simon is now in a more agreeable place. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2019, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-simon-passes/843993/17 "2019-11-28T16:38:02Z")
> [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > I wasn’t very familiar with Simon as a reviewer, though I knew he had done theater reviews and that they were usually pretty strongly negative. Thanks for the review excerpts, **Exapno Mapcase** – just astonishing, especially the first one. > > I do remember him as a staunch member of the Language Police, convinced that any slippage in the Rules of Grammar and Usage signified the death of civilization as we knew it. He was given a chapter of his own in Jim Quinn’s delightful early-eighties book _American Tongue in Cheek_, which took on the self-described language mavens (Simon, Edwin Newman, William Safire…) by pointing out their ignorance about how language worked and the history of language. Simon, in Quinn’s estimation, was perhaps the ignoramus-est of them all. > > It must be difficult to live in a world where you know everything and everyone else knows nothing and most of them refuse to agree with you. Perhaps Mr. Simon is now in a more agreeable place. Jim Quinn! Yes!!! OTOH, I think your last paragraph perfectly describes a lot of people who post here and other places on the internet. How many hundred threads have you read where one person keeps goings on and on about a pet belief in the face of unanimous opposition by the rest? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2019, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-simon-passes/843993/18 "2019-11-28T19:41:42Z")
**[Moderating]** > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > John Simon was the dictionary definition of beyond the pale in his field. He was a high-paid troll. If he posted here, there would be a mass movement to ban him and his posts would be continually reported. > > The mods wouldn’t do anything, to be sure, but we would never lack for misogyny. **Exapno** , you know better than that. If you have a problem with the mods, take it up in an appropriate thread, in ATMB. This is an official Warning. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2019, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-simon-passes/843993/19 "2019-11-29T00:39:35Z")
In light of his passing and in the spirit of the season, here’s David Sedaris’ piece about a John Simon-esque critic reviewing a children’s Christmas pageant. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Iherkj4ano](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Iherkj4ano) ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2019, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-simon-passes/843993/20 "2019-11-29T01:15:54Z")
Saddening news. I’ll never forget the _Odd Couple_ episode where Oscar ignorantly subs for his paper’s theatre critic, and eventually ends up on a TV panel where he fakes a mouth ailment, “preventing” him from talking, so that theatre-savvy Felix can “speak” for him, instead, and, in the process, insults panellist John Simon, who, quite affronted, rejoins with some butthurt riposte, and then storms off. Saddening.