Bobby Rivers, actor, TV critic and host on VH1 and Food Network, dead at 70

Bobby Rivers, an actor, television host and radio personality, has died at the age of 70.

WISN 12 in Milwaukee, where Rivers became the city's first Black film critic on television, announced his death in a story updated Wednesday.

He served as a VJ on VH1 in 1985 alongside Rosie O'Donnell and hosted his own celebrity talk show on the network, "Watch Bobby Rivers," starting in 1988. He also hosted Food Network's short-lived "Top 5" series in the early 2000s.

As an actor, Rivers played a news reporter on Seasons 1 and 3 of "The Sopranos" and as Chris Perley in Season 1 of "The Equalizer" TV series. He also played an emcee in the 1989 comedy "Identity Crisis."

His most recent acting credit was in 2008 and 2009, in two episodes of the satirical sketch comedy series "The Onion."

Rivers studied film journalism and communications at Marquette University in Milwaukee, according to the news station.

He also contributed to "PM Magazine," a nationally syndicated news and entertainment TV series broadcasted in the late 1970s through the 1980s. According to WISN, Rivers said the show "helped Milwaukee go beyond stereotypes."

Tributes from the film and television industry have poured in, with fellow actors and TV hosts remembering Rivers.

"All hail this pioneer Bobby Rivers… He brought SO much to the table. R I P Bobby," Whoopi Goldberg captioned a photo of the two smiling on Instagram Wednesday.

"I am so sad to hear this. Bobby was a terrific guy and wonderfully warm, funny and smart," Katie Couric wrote on X, formerly Twitter Wednesday.

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Milwaukee native and fellow critic Gino Salomone mourned Rivers on X Wednesday, saying the TV critic's "razor sharp wit and ability to come up with questions that celebrities had never heard before set him apart."

He continued: "One of the first African Americans to have his own show, Watch Bobby Rivers on VH1. He will be missed." 

According to Wisconsin LGBTQ news outlet Our Lives Wisconsin, which interviewed Rivers in July, the TV host interviewed everyone from Goldberg to Dolly Parton, Meryl Streep, RuPaul, Paul McCartney and Sally Field. The outlet called Rivers "Milwaukee's Black, queer media pioneer."

A cause of death has not yet been announced.

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