Highly respected veteran British film critic Derek Malcolm died of heart and lung failure at his home in Deal, south-eastern England, his wife Sarah Gristwood announced on Sunday.

Malcolm served as the chief movie critic for The Guardian newspaper for more than 25 years, and was a familiar face at film festivals around the world throughout that time.

Before he settled down at the movies, he tried his hand at being a National Hunt jockey and then working as an actor. He joined The Guardian in the early 1970s and stayed there as its chief movie critic until 1999, moving to the London Evening Standard paper in the same role.

He also published a personal memoir in 2003, ‘Family Secrets,’ in which he recounted his dysfuctional family background, including the fact that his father shot dead his mother’s lover, an incident for which he was acquitted, and Malcolm’s parents stayed together afterwards.