Roger Ebert
June 18, 1942 — April 4, 2013
Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times for 46 years and the most influential American film critic of his generation — the first critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, the co-star of the most widely watched film review program in television history, and, after losing his voice to cancer in 2006, an unexpectedly moving writer on life, mortality, and what cinema means to a human being.
From Urbana to the Sun-Times
Born on June 18, 1942, in Urbana, Illinois, Roger Joseph Ebert grew up in a middle-class family and developed a passion for movies, journalism, and writing almost simultaneously. He edited the student newspaper at the University of Illinois and was offered the job of film critic at the Chicago Sun-Times in 1967 at the age of 24, without having studied film formally. He would hold the position for the rest of his life. In 1975, he became the first film critic to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism — a distinction that remained rare in the field. His writing was clear, passionate, deeply knowledgeable, and above all accessible; he wrote for general readers rather than academic specialists, and his reviews were read by millions.
Siskel & Ebert and the Thumb
In 1975, WTTW Chicago paired Ebert with rival Chicago Tribune critic Gene Siskel in a television show called Sneak Previews, which became nationally syndicated as At the Movies and eventually Siskel & Ebert at the Movies. Their adversarial friendship — two intellectually combative, completely different personalities who agreed surprisingly often — became appointment viewing for film lovers across America. Their "thumbs up / thumbs down" rating system became one of the most widely recognized visual symbols in pop culture. When Siskel died in 1999, Ebert described losing his on-screen nemesis as losing a part of himself. He continued with various co-hosts, but the partnership was never replicated.
Did You Know?
In 2006, Roger Ebert was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and subsequent surgery to remove a salivary gland left him unable to speak or eat. He communicated through a computer text-to-speech system and continued writing reviews and his popular blog with undiminished energy and clarity. By many accounts his writing became more personal, more philosophical, and more moving in the final years of his life than it had ever been before — addressing memory, aging, faith, and the consolations of cinema with extraordinary grace. He died just two days after announcing publicly that his cancer had returned.
A Digital Legacy
Ebert was an early and enthusiastic adopter of blogging and social media, building a massive online following through Twitter and his website as his television career wound down. His reviews of nearly 10,000 films remain searchable online and are treated by many cinephiles as a primary reference work. He died on April 4, 2013, leaving behind not only a body of critical work of extraordinary range and depth, but a philosophical model for how to write about art that remains influential far beyond film criticism.