For more than three decades, Ed Koch was a ubiquitous pop-culture presence, appearing constantly on TV and in movies, as well as writing books and movie reviews.
While hardly the first New York City mayor to make this crossover — Jimmy Walker in the 1920s was a playboy and famous songwriter, while Fiorello La Guardia became nationally known for reading comic strips over the radio during a newspaper strike in the 1940s — Koch took it to an unheard-of level.
With his brash New York style and barbed one-liners, Koch was an unabashed ham who loved the spotlight — and found venues for it way beyond the usual interviews on TV news programs.
He appeared, almost always as himself, on sitcoms from “Barney Miller’’ in 1978 to “Sex and the City” in 2001. He had four guest shots on “Saturday Night Live,” the first one with Mick Jagger.
During his three terms as mayor, he offered to perform free mayoral cameos for any film or TV show shot in New York City — most famously joining Jim Henson’s creations in “The Muppets Take Manhattan.”
Even after losing a re-election bid in 1989, Koch was still a formidable media presence.
He dispensed pointed verdicts on TV’s “The People’s Court” for two seasons beginning in 1997, and was still playing himself in movies like “Take Back the Night” (set during his tenure as mayor) a full decade later.
Koch was also a prolific writer of books, both fiction (mysteries with a detective named “Ed Koch” and a story for children, also featuring a young “Eddie”) and non-fiction. His 1984 memoir “Mayor” was a best-seller that was turned into an off-Broadway musical.
He wrote political commentary for a variety of outlets, including The Post.
A huge movie fan who haunted film houses the Quad and Angelika, Koch reviewed movies for many years, generally rating them with a plus or minus sign.
“You either enjoy something or you don’t,” he once explained. “I don’t understand this business of two or three stars.”
His last review, for “My Week With Marilyn,’’ was delivered on camera in November 2011 for an Internet video series called “The Mayor at the Movies.”
He called the romantic comedy about Marilyn Monroe, which had received generally mixed notices, “a sheer delight” and added: “There are many bad critics out there. Don’t listen to them — listen to me.’’
A documentary on the former mayor, “Koch,” debuted in theaters yesterday, coincidentally the day of his death.
“He was very theatrical, so he certainly would appreciate the irony,’’ says the film’s director, Neil Barsky.
Koch — who liked the film but disagreed with its depiction of his approach to race relations — had a publicist for the film approach The Post to publish his review of the documentary. It didn’t happen because of his failing health.
But during a brief break in hospitalizations during his final illness, Koch was greeted by a standing ovation as he was pushed on stage in a wheelchair for a question-and-answer session on Jan. 13 following a showing of “Koch’’ as part of the Jewish Film Festival at Lincoln Center.
It turned out to be the final bow for a beloved, quintessential New Yorker who was rarely off the public stage for the last 35 years.