With his reviews on nearly 200 NBC stations nationwide, Jeffrey Lyons is an
entertainment guru who will delight any audience. He is one of only a handful
of national movie critics, but is the only one who knew Hemingway, Adlai
Stevenson, Orson Welles, Richard Burton, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dali, Groucho
Marx; faced a small fighting bull in a Spanish arena; trained with the NY
Giants; was a houseguest of Ernest Hemingway in Cuba, of the Trumans at the
White House; acted in two movies and a TV drama, always as himself; lectured on
baseball at the Hall of Fame and the Smithsonian; and has interviewed virtually
every major movie star since 1974.
Jeffrey Lyons joined NBC4 in October 1996 as a film and theater critic. He
files reports for News Channel 4 seven days a week, primarily on Live at Five
and various weekend newscasts. His reviews are also seen on KNBC Los Angeles
and worldwide on Direct TV and WNBC's web site on "Feedroom." Lyons co-hosted
the PBS series Sneak Previews, 1982-96 and has interviewed nearly every major
movie and Broadway star over the past three decades. He contributed film
reviews to NBC4, 1992-93, on TODAY in New York. He was the film and theater
critic for ABC World News Now on the ABC-TV network, 1994-96. From 1989 to
1994, Lyons was entertainment editor for CNBC. He also has been the film critic
for television stations WPIX TV/New York, WFSB-TV/Hartford, WMAR-TV/Baltimore;
CBS Radio; and, a contributing editor for Inside Edition and A&E Review. Lyons
has hosted numerous radio programs including The Lyons Den on 200 Mutual Radio
stations and CBC Radio, Canada. "The Lyons Den" radio reports are currently
heard twice daily in nearly 100 cities.
His books include Curveballs and Screwballs, March 2001;
Jeffrey Lyons' 101 Great Movies for Kids, published by Simon &
Schuster, 1996; and he co-authored, with his brother, Out of Left Field:
Over 1,134 Newly Discovered Amazing Baseball Records, Connections, Coincidences
and More, published by Times Books/Random House, 1998. He has been the
film critic for Video Review and Rock magazines and served on the Metropolitan
Desk of The New York Times. Lyons has also acted in several motion
pictures including The French Connection and Death Trap and the TV series Wise
Guy. Jeffrey grew up one of four sons of syndicated Broadway columnist Leonard
Lyons, whose column, The Lyons Den, published six times a week by the
N.Y. Post between 1934 and 1974, was his entree into the celebrated
people of that time. Thus, family friends included Ernest Hemingway, Orson
Welles, Clifford Odets, Richard Burton, Ingrid Bergman, Sir Alfred Hitchcock,
Marc Chagall, Milton Berle, Adlai Stevenson, Joe DiMaggio and dozens of other
luminaries of that era. Jeffrey has, for the past 32 years, continued the
family tradition with his in-depth interviews with nearly every movie star of
our time; some 500 so far.
Among his varied interests, Lyons studied acting with Lee Strasberg,
attended the Julliard School of Music, trained with the New York Giants, spent
parts of 17 summers touring Spain with that country's greatest matador, and has
been a guest play-by-play announcer for the Boston Red Sox Radio Network, both
in English and Spanish.
Mr. Lyons created and co-hosts "REEL TALK," NBC's national movie show, now
seen in every major city and on the NBC network.
Lyons is married and resides with his wife and children in New York.
