Longtime Pittsburgh TV-Movie Critic Dies

PITTSBURGH, PA — Ed Blank, whose byline was read for decades by Pittsburgh movie and theater enthusiasts, died Wednesday.

Blank, of Mt. Lebanon, was 81.

Blank spent 25 years at The Pittsburgh Press, where he was TV-radio editor before becoming the newspaper's drama editor. He was a critic and columnist who covered movies, Broadway and local theater productions.

When the Press folded in 1992 after a protracted labor dispute, Blank joined the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He spent more than a decade there in a role similar to the one he had at the Press before leaving the paper in 2007.

In 2018, Blank shared his thoughts on the 50th anniversary of the classic, Western Pennsylvania-made horror movie "Night of the Living Dead" with Patch readers.

Blank was a graduate of South Hills Catholic (Seton-LaSall) High School and Duquesne Universiy.

He also was a U.S. Army veteran who enjoyed telling his newspaper colleagues about the year he spent in Vietnam.

Funeral arrangements are being handled by William Slater II Funeral Service on Greentree Road.