RIP Roger Ebert

Film critic Roger Ebert passed away today in Chicago after a decade-long battle with cancer. Ebert wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times for 46 years, celebrating his anniversary at the paper with his last column on Tuesday. He also reviewed movies on TV for 31 years, most notably with fellow critic Gene Siskel.

The same year Ebert won the Pulitzer — 1975 — he also launched a new kind of television program: “Opening Soon at a Theater Near You” with Chicago Tribune movie critic Gene Siskel on WTTW-Channel 11. At first it ran monthly.

The combination worked. The trim, balding Siskel, perfectly balanced the bespectacled, portly Ebert. In 1978, the show, retitled “Sneak Previews,” moved to PBS for national distribution, and the duo was on their way to becoming a fixture in American culture.

“Tall and thin, short and fat. Laurel and Hardy,” Ebert once wrote. “We were parodied on ‘SNL’ and by Bob Hope and Danny Thomas and, the ultimate honor, in the pages of Mad magazine.”

His colleagues admired him as a workhorse. Ebert reviewed as many as 306 movies a year, after he grew ill scheduling his cancer surgeries around the release of important pictures. He eagerly contributed to other sections of the papers — interviews with and obituaries of movie stars, even political columns on issues he cared strongly about on the editorial pages.

Ebert wrote 17 books and one movie (Beyond the Valley of the Dolls). In 2006, his lower jaw was removed, leaving him unable to speak or eat, but he kept writing for the newspaper and online. Ebert was 70. Link

(Image credit: Eileen Ryan)


Comments (4)

Newest 4
Newest 4 Comments

I'll miss his razor sharp wit. Reviews of bad movies will never be the same without Ebert. "No good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough." RIP, Roger Ebert.
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Ebert was brilliant but without being snooty. He once wrote that the movie "Almost Famous" made him want to hug himself. (I had the same reaction to the movie.) He was courageous in illness. I will miss his writing, his thinking, his way of looking at the world. He was more than a film critic, though among them, he was the best. I heartily recommend people visit his blog to enjoy his thoughts on things other than movies.
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I don't think I have ever heard a Mexican accent get confused with Arnold Schwarzenegger! LOL.

Yeah, I agree though, it doesn't really look like it would occupy me past watching the video.
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Hey, gang! I just made pinball machine out of a paperclip, a rubber band and my desk!!!

It doesn't really work like a real pinball machine, but it costs nothing!
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This is mad, I thought the idea of pinball was to reach a high score whilst not letting the ball escape with skilful use of the paddles.

This version amounts to the same as putting a tennis ball in a cardboard box and shaking it about.
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@Mysterioso

Don't point that finger at me! My home Particle Accelerator didn't fail because I was high. It was due to sub-standard outsourced parts. And poorly translated manuals. Like, totally.
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Perhaps, responses such as the one above are what comes of future/educated “engineers and stoners” when they are just plain rude and stupid. For me, a mother whom has been screwing around trying to build an electronic pinball table for her five year old but has been stuck on a launch lever that he can actually manipulate, this demonstration was exceptional. Considering that I never once had to turn on volume to see his simple idea, I could care less if he were Mexican, governor or the inspiration for Deliverance. The only strange thing to point out about the video is that the latex gloves with no face shot made me think we were going to go “snuff” any second. You guys should use your time to add your bright ideas to comment sections and who knows, after reading a page of trash on an idea that I found both clever because of its simplicity and because of the fact that if he can whip something like this up out of trash and 1min. 40 sec. of time; I know exactly where this could go if turned into a class project or a play date project.—LED lights, pedometer counter, prank hand buzzer, hidden picture puzzle background with a magnifying plastic cover- a class contest to see who can improve upon the level using only trash- Thank you Mr. Man that posted the video. I love it and I hope that you inspire many more.
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Responder #20: seek help...And FWIW, 5yr olds
will never give a flip for pinball. Maybe a
video game or a cel phone, but sadly, pinball
is soon to be something from the past.
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What a charming idea! My grandaughter and I are going to make one this weekend, when she comes over. Kids love stuff like that:) She's 8 years old and totally into arts and crafts stuff right now.
Thanks for the great idea :)
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