John Joseph O'Connor (July 10, 1933 – November 13, 2009) was an American journalist and critic. He was born in

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, New York. One of four sons born to Irish immigrant parents, he earned his bachelor's degree from City College of New York and his master's degree from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

. He began his career as a copy editor at ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' in 1959, later becoming the Journal's arts editor and theater and dance critic, in which capacity he continued at ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. He served at the ''Times'' for 25 years, mostly as a

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

critic. O'Connor was diagnosed with lung cancer four weeks before his death at the age of 76. He died at his home in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

References

1933 births 2009 deaths 20th-century American journalists American dance critics American male journalists American people of Irish descent American television critics American theater critics City College of New York alumni Critics employed by The New York Times Deaths from lung cancer in New York (state) The Wall Street Journal people Yale University alumni {{US-journalist-1930s-stub