Howard Kissel, Daily News Theater Critic, Dies at 69 Howard Kissel, the longtime theater critic for The Daily News, died on Friday at his home in Manhattan. His death was confirmed by his sister Anne Kissel Elliot, who said he had been suffering from complications of a 2010 liver transplant and had returned from a visit to her in Palm City, Fla., on Thursday. Mr. Kissel, who for some four decades wrote about film, music and art as well as theater, also once made a foray into acting. There he is in an early scene of Woody Allen's 1980 film, "Stardust Memories." Easily recognizable in his oversize eyeglasses and a three-piece plaid suit, with a halo of dark curls (the curls later became silver), Mr. Kissel, as the manager of the filmmaker played by Mr. Allen, argues against his client's decision to stop making comedies and to deal with human suffering instead. The manager says, "Human suffering doesn't sell tickets in Kansas City." And Mr. Kissel knew a few things about selling tickets, as well as about New York, the city he adopted as his home. He lamented what he playfully called the Kiddy Komponent of New York theatergoing, which he said led to a 13-year run for "Beauty and the Beast" (1994-2007). He praised the "wonderful dizzy quality" of the puppets in "Avenue Q" (2003), which went on to win the Tony Award for best musical and is still running in an Off Broadway theater. He wrote that the 1995 Roundabout revival of Stephen Sondheim's musical "Company," a quintessential Manhattan show, looked as if "it had been done by people who had never been here." He found "The Drowsy Chaperone" (2006) "full of wit and high spirits, so entertaining you can overlook the fact it came from Los Angeles." Before joining The Daily News in the mid-1980s, Mr. Kissel was an arts editor of Women's Wear Daily and its sister publication W magazine. He also served as chairman of both the New York Film Critics Circle and the New York Drama Critics" Circle. But Mr. Kissel never overestimated the power of theater criticism. "Many shows have become big hits without us," he said as part of a panel of critics discussing the 2005-6 season on the CUNY TV program "Theater Talk." I think that's just fine. Our job is not to make hits. Our job is to make judgments. He was the author of "David Merrick: The Abominable Showman," a biography of the prolific Broadway producer whose shows included "Gypsy" and "42nd Street." He turned Stella Adler's lectures into the book "The Art of Acting" and most recently wrote "New York Theater Walks," which detailed walking tours based on the city's theatrical history. Mr. Kissel was born in 1942 in Milwaukee, the son of Leo Kissel, a longtime editor at The Milwaukee Sentinel who dreamed of a career in music, and his wife, Ruth. After graduating from Shorewood High School in 1960, he earned a bachelor's degree from Columbia University and a master's from Northwestern University. His wife, Christine, died in 2006. In addition to Ms. Eliot he is survived by another sister, Judy Kissel. After leaving The Daily News in 2008, Mr. Kissel wrote a blog, The Cultural Tourist, for the newspaper and then for The Huffington Post. His last entry, posted three days before his death, was about a trip last summer that included a high school reunion. "I wish I were one of those people who, as the years go by, continue looking forward," he wrote. "Alas, I'm not," he continued. I thank you for your indulgence.