Richard Corliss, 71: Eminent Time magazine film critic

NEW YORK - Richard Corliss, 71, the longtime film critic for Time magazine, died Thursday after suffering a major stroke last week, magazine officials said Friday.

Mr. Corliss, who was born in Philadelphia, earned his bachelor's degree from St. Joseph's University and later earned a master's degree in film studies. He became a lifelong resident of New York City with his wife, Mary. After writing for a range of magazines from 1966 on, he joined the staff of Time in 1980. In his 35 years as the magazine's film critic, Mr. Corliss wrote more than 2,500 reviews and other articles.

"He conveyed nothing so much as the sheer joy of watching movies - and writing about them," Time theater critic Richard Zoglin said in an online tribute to Mr. Corliss. "He was a perceptive, invaluable guide through three and a half decades of Hollywood films, stars and trends."

He was also an inveterate maker of lists, generating yearly movie top 10 lists. Some of his No. 1's, such as Borat in 2006, could be head-scratchers, and some, such as Thief in 1981, could be the critic's obscurity catnip, but he had far more bull's-eyes, as with Midnight Cowboy (1969), E.T. (1982), and Pulp Fiction (1994).

Time editor Nancy Gibbs called Mr. Corliss a master of the written word. Words "were his tools, his toys, to the point that it felt sometimes as though he had to write like the rest of us breathe and eat and sleep," she said.

Zoglin said Mr. Corliss had an encyclopedic knowledge of film and its place in cinematic, cultural, and American history.

His reviews were "authoritative but never intimidating," and his tastes "populist but eclectic," ranging from kung fu and Disney animation to films by Ingmar Bergman and Werner Herzog.

Mr. Corliss also was the author of several books. Talking Pictures in 1974 was a survey of major Hollywood screenwriters. He also wrote a monograph on Stanley Kubrick's Lolita and last year published a book on iconic film mothers, Mom in the Movies.

"Our tributes and a sampling of his writing from his 35 years at Time allow us to savor the immense range and excellence of his work as one of the world's most important voices on film, and so many other subjects," Gibbs said. "We will miss him terribly, and our prayers are with his beloved wife, Mary."