R.I.P. Legendary Film Critic Roger Ebert

[hybridsoldier23]

Sad day for journalism and the entertainment industry. Cancer....

Roger Ebert -- one of the most famous movie critics of all time -- died today after a battle with cancer. He was 70 years old.

Ebert was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2002. Four years later, doctors removed part of his lower jaw, preventing him from speaking and eating. However, Ebert continued to write movie reviews almost until the day he died.

Ebert is a legend in Hollywood -- with a star on the Walk of Fame to prove it. Along with critic Gene Siskel, he famously popularized the use of the "Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down" ratings system.



Ebert's movie reviews were considered to be the most influential in town.

Aside from writing movie critiques for the Chicago Sun-Times for 46 years, he also hosted "At The Movies" from the early 80s until 2006.

In 1986, he was joined on the show by fellow critic Gene Siskel, who passed away in 1999.

After Siskel's death, his chair was filled by Richard Roeper -- and he and Ebert continued on with the show until 2006.

According to the Sun-Times, Ebert was an early investor in Google -- and more than likely made a fortune because of it.

Ebert is survived by his wife, step-daughter and two step-grandchildren.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-roger-ebert-dead-20130404,0,602338.story

By Rick Kogan

2:50 p.m. CDT, April 4, 2013

It was reviewing movies that made Roger Ebert as famous and wealthy as many of the stars who felt the sting or caress of his pen or were the recipients of his televised thumbs-up or thumbs-down judgments. But in his words and in his life he displayed the soul of a poet whose passions and interests extended far beyond the darkened theaters where he spent so much of his professional life.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning movie critic for the Chicago Sun-Times for more than 45 years and for more than three decades the co-host of one of the most powerful programs in television history (initially with the late Gene Siskel, the movie critic for the Chicago Tribune, and, following Siskel’s death in 1999, with his Sun-Times collogue Richard Roeper), Ebert died Thursday, according to a family friend.

He was 70 years old.

Even still, he kept writing and remained as active as he could be. He was planning to host the 15th annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival later this month in his hometown of Champaign-Urbana.

Prolific almost to the point of disbelief -- the Weekend section of the Sun-Times often featured as many as nine on some days -- Ebert was arguably the most powerful movie critic in the history of that art form. He was also the author of 15 books, a contributor to various magazines, author of the liveliest of bloggers and an inspiring teacher and lecturer at the University of Chicago.

Roger Joseph Ebert was born in downstate Urbana on June 18, 1942, the only child of Walter, an electrician, and Annabel, a bookkeeper.

His passion for journalism sparked early. He published his own neighborhood paper while in grammar school and in high school was co-editor of the school paper, published a science fiction fanzine and wrote for The News-Gazette in Champaign. His desire to attend Harvard University was thwarted by his parents' inability to afford that Ivy League institution, he attended the nearby University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he majored in journalism and was editor of the campus paper, The Daily Illini.

He began selling freelance stories and book reviews to the Chicago Daily News and Chicago Sun-Times during this time and after coming to Chicago to pursue a PhD. D. in English at the University of Chicago. In 1966, he was hired as a writer for the Sun-Times’ Midwest magazine. Six months later he became movie critic.

His reviews, from the start and ever since, were at once artful and accessible. In 1975 he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for criticism, the first such criticism prize to be awarded for film criticism by the Pulitzers.

These were raucous newspapering days (and nights) and Ebert was part of the crowd that often congregated at such bygone saloons as Riccardo’s and O’Rourke’s on North Avenue. It was there that Ebert would entertain the crowd of colleagues and admirers with his sharp wit, boyish playfulness and charming erudition.

Competition between rival newspapers reporters and critics was savage in those days as Siskel, then the Tribune’s movie critic, later recalled, “We intensely disliked each other. We perceived each other as a threat to our well-being.”

But in 1975, Eliot Wald, a producer at the local PBS station, WTTW-Ch. 11, had the idea of pairing Siskel and Ebert on a television show about movies and persuaded them both to give it a shot. Thea Flaum was the executive producer of what was then called “Opening Soon at a Theater Near You.”

The early shows now appear as crude and unpolished as some of the shows on cable access. But at the time it was refreshing. Here were two men who, in physical appearance and personality, were unlike anything else on the tube.

These were not the typically neatly coiffed and sun-brushed talking heads. And they were not prim and polite; they argued.

Their enthusiasm for and knowledge of movies was palpable, and by providing clips from current releases they were giving viewers a consumer-friendly, witty, intelligent and entertaining package.

Still, few could have predicted either the eventual success of the show or the natural fit of the two personalities; they were uncannily well-matched and early on showed the ability to turn debate into an art.

The show became more popular with each season, taking a new name, “Sneak Previews,” and gaining a national audience when it was syndicated on PBS in 1978 and where it would become for a time the most highly rated show in PBS history. In 1982, the pair signed with Tribune Entertainment and renamed the program “At the Movies.” In 1986 they were lured into the fold of Buena Vista Television, a division of the Walt Disney Co., and changed the show’s name to “Siskel & Ebert at the Movies.”

By this time the TV show had made Siskel and Ebert rich and famous. It had also made them the most powerful critics in the world, according to many polls and industry experts, and American pop cultural icons, sometimes referred to as “Sisbert.” They spawned imitators and were firmly embedded in the American celebrity fabric due to frequent appearances on the “Tonight” show, “Late Night With David Letterman” and “Oprah.”

In 1999 Siskel died after a quiet battle against complications that arose after a growth was removed from his brain 10 months earlier. He was only 53-years-old.

“I remember after we first started out,” Ebert recalled at the time, “and we were on a talk show and this old actor Buddy Rogers said to us, `The trouble with you guys is that you have a sibling rivalry.' We did. He was like a brother, and I loved him that way.”

 

[rawex5]

R.I.P.

 

[6 Rings G.O.A.T.]

Rest in peace.

 

[danger style]

RIP

I used to watch At The Movies every sunday when i was a kid

 

[Nawzlew]

I though I read yesterday that he was getting new treatment?

Damn

RIP Ebert

**** cancer.

 

[Bert.]

RIP

 

[str8drop]

Damn RIP

I was literally just reading a couple hours ago that he wasn't gonna be doing as many reviews because of cancer.

Scorsese is supposed to be doing a documentary.

 

[bence23]

RIP to the GOAT

 

[Fong$tarr]

This sucks. There will literally be no other film critic like him. Plus websites like Rotton Tomato messed everything up.

RIP

 

[celticsfan9783]

RIP

I used to watch At The Movies every sunday when i was a kid

Thought I was the only one. Loved watching the heated debates between him and Gene Siskel.

 

[freeze]

Damn. I thought he was doing better. . I miss Siskel & Ebert. They were the nice version of the two old muppet guys.





Siskel & Ebert were lowkey Mj & Pippen or Batman & Robin. Peanut butter & jelly or ketchup & mustard.

 

[stillin729]

Pretty crazy

 

[legreyfoxx]

dang, RIP. i used to watch at the movies too.

 

[stillin729]

I used to watch Siskel and Ebert on Sundays before the NFL pre show in the 90's

 

[jumpmanpro97]

cancer is a problem, RIP man I remember watching that siskel and ebert show a long time ago

 

[donmega]

Much respect. Rest In Power.

 

[49erholic]

Rip

 

[The_Isomotion31]

R.I.P. I hate cancer.

 

[elpablo21]

Didnt know he was sick. RIP. I always enjoyed his approach to film critiquing.

Siskel has an aisle seat saved for your bruh

 

[stillin729]

I read yesterday his cancer came back I didn't realize it was like that though

 

[stillhungry]

one thumb down. RIP

 

[furiousstylez23]

Roger and his wife. Shawty was eating good.

Rip.

 

[jdi23]

RIP

 

[rafeaks]

This is terrible man. He was my favorite critic. Sad to see him go. 

 

[Thierry Henry]

I though I read yesterday that he was getting new treatment?

Damn

RIP Ebert

**** cancer.

same thing I also read

R.I.P.