Iconic New York City columnist and editor Pete Hamill died on Wednesday at age 85, according to an announcement from his brother.
The news quickly prompted remembrances and tributes to Hamill, including from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) who called the Brooklyn-born writer the “voice of New York.”
“So saddened to hear that Pete Hamill passed away,” Cuomo said in a Wednesday statement. “Pete was not just an unsurpassed journalist, editor and writer — he was the voice of New York. We say goodbye today to an irreplaceable New Yorker. I know that his legacy and work will live on.”
Hamill’s career included a stint as editor-in-chief of the New York Post in 1993 during a well-publicized newsroom revolt against publisher Abe Hirschfeld. He later became editor-in-chief of the tabloid-rival New York Daily News.
But he was best known as a columnist chronicling life in the Big Apple for the city’s tabloids.
Tributes poured in from the journalism community when the news broke Wednesday morning.
Hamill was first hired by the New York Post in 1960.