Eugene Shalit was born on March 25, 1926, in New York. He was raised in New Jersey, where his father purchased a drug store. When the younger Shalit was in elementary school, he created the school’s first newspaper, The Spotlight, and bought a fedora so he looked the part, according to his “TODAY” profile. He later wrote his high school newspaper’s humor column.

He graduated in 1949 from the University of Illinois, where he proved his journalistic bona fides as a sports editor, columnist and humor writer for The Daily Illini.

He later became a reporter and writer for the Twin Cities’ daily newspaper and filed dispatches on Big Ten sporting events as a freelancer for The Associated Press in Chicago.

Shalit reached national fame as an on-air personality for the “TODAY” show, where he interspersed his entertainment coverage with offbeat in-the-field reports and improvisational hijinks on set.

He said farewell to viewers in 2010. In a tribute, former co-host Meredith Vieira said: “It’s hard to imagine not having him here. He is the ‘TODAY’ show.”

In more recent years, Shalit largely retreated from the public eye.

Shalit was married to Nancy Lewis for 28 years, from 1950 until her death in 1978.