Issue #48, March 9, 2007

Neighbor:

Jeffrey Lyons Film Critic

By Christian McLean

With all the yes-men kowtowing to the every need of celebrities in the Hamptons, there is one man who has always told it like it is, never needing to seek approval from the A-listers, and many times, actually expressing his disapproval of them. He isn’t the bouncer at The Pink Elephant or Resort, and he isn’t a gossip columnist, flitting about and passing judgment. The man whose opinions reign supreme is Jeffrey Lyons, a resident of Orient Point and one of the most highly touted film and theatre critics of our time.

His statistics are staggering; over 15,000 film and 3,000 theatre reviews since hitting the scene in the 1970s.

Like many of the greats, Jeffrey was born into the family business. His father, Leonard Lyons, carved a niché for the Lyons legacy with his syndicated theatre reviews at the New York Post called “The Lyons Den.” The ferocious sounding column ran for forty years, from 1934-1974. His father’s celebrity drew family friends like Alfred Hitchcock, Marlene Dietrich, and Orson Welles, surrounding Jeffrey and his three brothers with some of the biggest names in the business.

While you might think Jeffery would be groomed to step into his father’s shoes as a critic of theater and the ever-growing medium of film, the younger Lyons took a slightly more roundabout approach to entering the field. He attended Julliard, not for acting, but for music. Hearing folks like Welles and Richard Burton swap stories surely had its effect on the young man however, and eventually Jeffrey attended acting classes taught by acclaimed acting coach Lee Strasberg, who also taught Paul Newman, Robert De Niro, and Ellen Burstyn.

Sadly, aside from a small part in The French Connection, any screen-time Lyons would rack up would be as himself. He was destined for the audience. His father, his acting, and an intimate knowledge of the history of performance led to Jeffrey’s life as a critic. In 1970, he began his career as a film critic for WPIX TV/New York, WFSB-TV/Hartford, and WMAR-TV/Baltimore. While that would continue until 1991, Lyons also broadcasted his reviews on CBS Radio.

Toward the end of his career at WPIX, Jeffery landed the position of Entertainment editor at CNBC and spun that into on-air appearances on “Today” from 1992-1993. He would jump stations for two years, working as a theater and film critic for ABC’s “World News Now.” Since 1996, Lyons has been at WNBC performing the same task on various NBC programs, most recently the program “Reel Talk,” which he co-hosts with Alison Bailes (of “At the Angelika” fame), and his son, Ben. Running parallel with much of his career at WPIX, NBC, and ABC (1982-1996), Lyons has also hosted the PBS program, “Sneak Previews.”

As previously stated, Lyons enjoyed some screen-time in addition to myriad television shows he hosted. In 1982, he played himself, a theater critic, in Sidney Lumet’s (and Dan’s Movies Made in the Hamptons) classic, Deathtrap. He then took to the small screen as himself in a 1990 episode of “Wiseguy,” and back to the big screen as (you guessed it) himself in Feminine Touch, and more recently in HBO’s “Arli$$.”

While he is most known for his work as a film critic, Lyons has also written three books. The first, not surprisingly, is Jeffrey Lyons’ 101 Great Movies for Kids. But more interesting, his passion for baseball has led to the co-authoring, with his brother, of Out of Leftfield: Over 1,134 Newly Discovered Amazing Baseball Records, Connections, Coincidences and More, followed by Curveballs and Screwballs, and then Short Hops and Foul Tips. He is even known to be found, much in contrast to his strong New York ties, in the broadcasting booth at Fenway Park, as a guest play-by-play announcer on the Boston Red Sox Radio Network

Jeffery has also been a part of the annual Artists & Writers Softball Game at East Hampton’s Herrick Park. At the 53rd Annual event, Lyons even got a chance to share the pine with legendary Yankee catcher Yogi Berra. As for radio, taking on the title of his father’s famed newspaper column, Jeffrey also hosts “The Lyons Den,” which airs nationally and internationally on 200 stations.

In his time as a film and theater critic, he has interviewed the biggest names in Hollywood and in the Hamptons. An integral part of the Bay Street Theater’s film series, over the years, Lyons has moderated discussions with Eli Wallach, as well as an event with Lauren Bacall and Sidney Lumet, which followed the screening of Agatha Christie’s 1974 mystery classic Murder On The Orient Express. Just this February, Lyons braved the winter weather to host an evening with Alan Alda, which featured the film Sweet Liberty, which Alda wrote, directed and starred. And now he will return on March 31 to host “A discussion of Hollywood Then and Now,” an evening that includes a screening of The Big Country and a discussion with Alec Baldwin.

Sharing the stage with such a superb list of thespians is a testament to Jeffrey Lyons’ place in the world of theater and film. It is this legacy which has secured his role in the annals of film and theater history as one of the most respected and insightful critics of his day; a position rivaled only by that of his father (and one day maybe even his son).