Roger Ebert

CARYN ROUSSEAU, The Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Roger Ebert had the most-watched thumb in Hollywood. With a twist of his wrist, the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic rendered decisions that influenced a nation of moviegoers and could sometimes make or break a film. The heavy-set writer in the horn-rimmed glasses teamed up on television with Gene Siskel to create a format for criticism that proved enormously appealing in its simplicity: uncomplicated reviews that were both intelligent and accessible and didn't talk down to ordinary movie fans. Ebert, film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times since 1967, died Thursday at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago as he was getting ready to go home for hospice care, his wife, Chaz, said in a statement posted on his blog Thursday. He was 70. Two days earlier, Ebert had announced he was undergoing radiation treatment for a recurrence of cancer. "So on this day of reflection I say again, thank you for going on this journey with me. I'll see you at the movies." Ebert wrote Tuesday on his blog. Despite his wide influence, Ebert considered himself "beneath everything else a fan." "I have seen untold numbers of movies and forgotten most of them, I hope, but I remember those worth remembering, and they are all on the same shelf in my mind," Ebert wrote in his 2011 memoir titled "Life Itself." After cancer surgeries in 2006, Ebert lost portions of his jaw and the ability to eat, drink and speak. But he went back to writing full time and eventually even returned to television. In addition to his work for the Sun-Times, he became a prolific user of social media, connecting with hundreds of thousands of fans on Facebook and Twitter. Ebert's thumb — pointing up or down — was his trademark. It was the main logo of the long-running TV shows Ebert co-hosted, first with Siskel of the rival Chicago Tribune and — after Siskel's death in 1999 — with Sun-Times colleague Richard Roeper. A "two thumbs-up" accolade was sure to find its way into the advertising for the movie in question. The nation's best-known movie reviewer "wrote with passion through a real knowledge of film and film history, and in doing so, helped many movies find their audiences," director Steven Spielberg said. His death is "virtually the end of an era, and now the balcony is closed forever." In early 2011, Ebert launched a new show, "Ebert Presents At the Movies." The show had new hosts and featured Ebert in his own segment, "Roger's Office." He used a chin prosthesis and enlisted voice-over guests or his computer to read his reviews. Fans admired his courage, but Ebert told The Associated Press that bravery had "little to do with it." "You play the cards you're dealt," Ebert wrote in an email in January 2011. "What's your choice? I have no pain. I enjoy life, and why should I complain?" Always modest, Ebert had Midwestern charm but stuck strongly to his belief that critics honestly tell audiences "how better to invest two hours of their lives." On the air, Ebert and Siskel bickered like an old married couple and openly needled each other. To viewers who had trouble telling them apart, Ebert was known as the fat one with glasses, Siskel as the thin, bald one. Ebert favored blue sweater vests and khakis. After his surgeries, he switched to black turtlenecks and white, film director-style scarves. Joining the Sun-Times part-time in 1966, he pursued graduate study at the University of Chicago and got the reviewing job the following year. His reviews were eventually syndicated to several hundred other newspapers, collected in books and repeated on innumerable websites, which would have made him one of the most influential film critics in the nation even without his television fame. His 1975 Pulitzer for distinguished criticism was the first, and one of only three, given to a film reviewer since the category was created in 1970. In 2005, he received another honor when he became the first critic to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Ebert's breezy and quotable style, as well as his deep understanding of film technique and the business side of the industry, made him an almost instant success. He soon began doing interviews and profiles of notable actors and directors in addition to his film reviews — celebrating such legends as Alfred Hitchcock, John Wayne and Robert Mitchum. Ebert also offered words of encouragement for then-newcomer Martin Scorsese, who was one of three filmmakers working on a bio-documentary about Ebert at the time of his death. In 1969, Ebert took a leave of absence from the Sun-Times to write the screenplay for "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls." The movie got an "X'' rating and became somewhat of a cult film. Ebert's television career began the year he won the Pulitzer, first on WTTW-TV, the Chicago PBS station, then nationwide on PBS and later on several commercial syndication services. And while Siskel and Ebert may have sparred on air, they were close off camera. Siskel's daughters were flower girls when Ebert married his wife, Chaz, in 1992. "He's in my mind almost every day," Ebert wrote in his autobiography. "He became less like a friend than like a brother." Ebert found a professional and personal partner in Chaz, who acted as his co-producer. During television interviews, he often used his computer voice to tell her "I love you." She returned the sentiment, telling Ebert during the final dress rehearsal for "Ebert Presents at the Movies" that he had an "indomitable spirit." "And you know that's right," Chaz Ebert told her husband. "Because people would have understood totally if you decided never to do any of this again." "I've lost the love of my life," Chaz Ebert said in her statement Thursday, "and the world has lost a visionary and a creative and generous spirit who touched so many people all over the world. We had a lovely, lovely life together, more beautiful and epic than a movie. It had its highs and the lows, but was always experienced with good humor, grace and a deep abiding love for each other." Ebert was also an author, writing more than 20 books that included two volumes of essays on classic movies and the popular "I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie," a collection of some of his most scathing reviews. The son of a union electrician who worked at the University of Illinois' Urbana-Champaign campus, Ebert was born in Urbana on June 18, 1942. The love of journalism, as well as of movies, came early. Ebert covered high school sports for a local paper at age 15 while also writing and editing his own science fiction fan magazine. He attended the university and was editor of the student newspaper. After graduating in 1964, he spent a year on scholarship at the University of Cape Town in South Africa and then began work toward a doctorate in English at the University of Chicago. Ebert's hometown embraced the film critic, hosting the annual Ebertfest film festival and placing a plaque at his childhood home. In the years after he lost his physical voice, Ebert was embraced online. He kept up a Facebook page, a Twitter account with more than 800,000 followers and a blog, Roger Ebert's Journal. He posted links to stories he found interesting, wrote long pieces on varied topics, not just film criticism, and wittily interacted with readers in the comments sections. He liked to post old black-and-white photos of Hollywood stars and ask readers to guess who they were. "My blog became my voice, my outlet, my 'social media' in a way I couldn't have dreamed of," Ebert wrote in his memoir. "Most people choose to write a blog. I needed to." Writing in 2010, he said he did not fear death because he didn't believe there was anything "on the other side of death to fear." "I was perfectly content before I was born, and I think of death as the same state," he wrote. "I am grateful for the gifts of intelligence, love, wonder and laughter. You can't say it wasn't interesting." ___ Online: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/ ___ Follow Caryn Rousseau at http://www.twitter.com/carynrousseau. _________________________________________________ DAVID GERMAIN, The Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Roger Ebert could be tough on filmmakers, but unlike many critics, he earned their respect. So much so that they claimed him as one of their own when the Directors Guild of America made Ebert an honorary lifetime member at the group's awards ceremony four years ago. What better testimony for a life's work in a profession that typically draws sneers from filmmakers and fans alike? But then Ebert, who died Thursday at age 70, was not just any critic. He was THE critic. At the Chicago Sun-Times since 1967 and through decades as a pioneering film reviewer on television, Ebert championed tiny gems that he scouted out at film festivals and took Hollywood's biggest names to task when they missed the mark. Ebert drew his own criticism that the thumbs-up, thumbs-down trademark of his TV shows over-simplified the way we look at films. Yet with his chubby frame and thick-rimmed glasses, he popularized the notion of the dweebish critic as arbiter of cultural taste, inspiring a generation of TV and online reviewers much as Woodward and Bernstein inspired a generation of investigative journalists. Just as inspirational was how Ebert continued the work he loved through repeated ailments. He lost parts of his jaw and the ability to speak after cancer surgeries in 2006, yet he came back to writing fulltime and eventually returned to television. And that famous thumb barely scratched the surface of Ebert's work as a critic, student and just plain lover of film. "Roger loved movies. They were his life. His reviews went far deeper than simply thumbs up or thumbs down," said Steven Spielberg, one of the filmmakers who honored Ebert at the Directors Guild ceremony. "He wrote with passion through a real knowledge of film and film history, and in doing so, helped many movies find their audiences." Ebert died at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, two days after announcing on his blog that he was undergoing radiation treatment for a recurrence of cancer. "I've lost the love of my life," his wife, Chaz Ebert, said in a statement Thursday, "and the world has lost a visionary and a creative and generous spirit who touched so many people all over the world. We had a lovely, lovely life together, more beautiful and epic than a movie. It had its highs and the lows, but was always experienced with good humor, grace and a deep abiding love for each other." Ebert's criticism earned him a Pulitzer in 1975, and he wrote more than 20 books that included two volumes of essays on classic movies. He hung out with filmmakers from Federico Fellini and Ingmar Bergman to Billy Wilder and Mel Brooks. He was the first critic given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The Directors Guild ceremony featured recorded testimonials from Spielberg, Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese and others who amusingly recalled good and bad notices from Ebert and made it clear that his reviews kept them on their toes. "The role of the critic is to call them as they see them and Roger did so with integrity. In more than four decades of honest review of our films, Roger demanded excellence — but recognized our directorial achievements," Directors Guild President Taylor Hackford said Thursday. The feeling was mutual. Unable to speak at the guild ceremony after his cancer surgery, Ebert shared his affection for the directors in a statement recorded via a synthetic computer voice with a British accent. "The motion picture is the art form I love above all others," Ebert told the directors. "It is the symphony, and you are the conductors." It's a bit like the sheepdog buddying around with the wolf, when filmmakers can be so chummy and admiring of a critic. Ebert's thumbs-up was a resounding seal of approval, his thumbs-down a kiss of death, yet his easygoing nature and his passion for film made him as much a part of Hollywood as the actors, filmmakers and studio bosses. "We love Roger. Isn't that funny?" said Warner Bros. distribution executive Jeff Goldstein. "You couldn't ask for a more extraordinary champion of films both large and small," said Sony Pictures spokesman Steve Elzer. "We all paid attention to whatever direction his thumb was pointing." Ebert eloquently defined his passion for film in a speech read by his wife, Chaz, at his Directors Guild honor. "The movies come closer than any other art form in giving us the experience of walking in someone else's shoes," she read on Ebert's behalf. "They allow us an opportunity to experience what it would be like to live within another gender, race, religion, nationality, or period of time. They expand us, they improve us, and sometimes they ennoble us." Along with reviews, Ebert did interviews and profiles of Hollywood's top talent, including legends such as John Wayne, Robert Mitchum and Alfred Hitchcock. He crossed to the other side during a leave of absence from the Sun-Times in 1969 to write the screenplay for "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls," which drew an adults-only X rating and became a cult favorite. In 1975, Ebert and Gene Siskel, film critic for the rival Chicago Tribune, teamed for a show that began on Chicago's PBS station, then went nationwide — the two trading opinions on new movies from a set resembling a theater balcony. They continued their TV partnership with a syndicated show, each giving thumbs up or down on the films and engaging in lively sparring matches on air even as they remained close friends off camera. Ebert continued the show with Sun-Times colleague Richard Roeper after Siskel's death in 1999. In early 2011, Ebert launched a new show, "Ebert Presents At the Movies." It had new hosts, but featured Ebert in his own segment, "Roger's Office." He used a chin prosthesis and enlisted voice-over guests to read his reviews. While some called Ebert an inspiration, he told The Associated Press in an email in January 2011 that bravery and courage "have little to do with it." "You play the cards you're dealt," Ebert wrote. "What's your choice? I have no pain. I enjoy life, and why should I complain?" Spielberg lamented that with Ebert's death, the "balcony is closed forever." Warner Bros. executive Goldstein prefers to imagine Ebert and Siskel reunited and doing what they loved — reviewing films. "They're together. They're on seven nights a week, and they start tonight," Goldstein said. "And you can just see them on the balcony now." ___________________________________________________ The Associated Press, The Associated Press The death of film critic Roger Ebert elicits wide reaction from directors, actors, fellow critics and others: "I am devastated by the loss of my love, Roger — my husband, my friend, my confidante and oh-so-brilliant partner of over 20 years. He fought a courageous fight. I've lost the love of my life and the world has lost a visionary and a creative and generous spirit who touched so many people all over the world. We had a lovely, lovely life together, more beautiful and epic than a movie. It had its highs and the lows, but was always experienced with good humor, grace and a deep abiding love for each other." -- Ebert's wife, Chaz Ebert, in a statement posted on her husband's blog. ___ "Roger loved movies. They were his life. His reviews went far deeper than simply thumbs up or thumbs down. He wrote with passion through a real knowledge of film and film history, and in doing so, helped many movies find their audiences. Along with Gene Shalit, Joel Siegel, and of course Gene Siskel, Roger put television criticism on the map. Roger's passing is virtually the end of an era and now the balcony is closed forever." -- Movie director Steven Spielberg. ___ "Roger and Gene (Siskel) together again. End of an era." -- Oprah Winfrey on Twitter. ___ "Roger was the movies. When he didn't like a film, he was honest; when he did, he was effusive — capturing the unique power of the movies to take us somewhere magical. Even amidst his own battles with cancer, Roger was as productive as he was resilient — continuing to share his passion and perspective with the world. The movies won't be the same without Roger, and our thoughts and prayers are with Chaz and the rest of the Ebert family." -- President Barack Obama, in a statement. ___ "Roger Ebert was one of the great champions of freedom of artistic expression. When the power of independent film was still unknown and few would support it, Roger was there for our artists. His personal passion for cinema was boundless, and that is sure to be his legacy for generations to come." -- Robert Redford, actor and founder of the Sundance Institute, in a statement. ___ "From the mightiest blockbuster to the smallest independent film, Roger Ebert devoted his career to sharing his love of film with generations of moviegoers. The role of critics is to call them as they see them and Roger did so with integrity." -- Directors Guild of America President Taylor Hackford. ___ "He wrote (the) book. There was no business before him and Gene Siskel. ... He pioneered that crossover from print to broadcast media, and he did it with such professionalism and perception and passion. He was an amazing contributor to our industry, and his influence will be long felt." -- Warner Bros. distribution executive Jeff Goldstein ____ "It will leave a huge void. He was the most widely read critic. For many people that's how they understand film criticism. They understand film criticism in terms of Roger Ebert. He is the icon of that medium for most people. He's the one film critic they can name. He loomed so large. Especially toward the end of his life." -- Film critic Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, who writes for rogerebert.com and was a host on Ebert's 2011 show "Ebert Presents at the Movies." ___ "we lost a thoughtful writer, i remember my first review from him, pi (i got his and siskel's thumbs) it was a career highlight." -- Darren Aronofsky, who directed the 1998 movie "Pi," wrote on Twitter. ___ "I watched him a lot. I watched his thumbs go up. I watched his thumbs go down. And when they went up for me I was very happy." -- Playwright and actor Harvey Fierstein. ___ "Sometimes you loved him. Sometimes you hated him as you do every critic. But I was thinking — I think that a great critic is somebody that has a real love for what he's criticizing, and I think he was that." -- Actress Glenn Close --- "Roger Ebert championed the art of the moving image, and by the courage of his personal example demonstrated how much movies matter." -- American Film Institute President and CEO Bob Gazzale, in a statement. ___ "He means a lot to the kids at the Daily Illini. He means a lot to every student at this college. He does what everybody wants to do, and that was to provide a story that's engaging and that everybody wants to read. ... He was always a journalist first." -- Jan Slater, dean of the College of Media at the University of Illinois who worked with Ebert on a film festival in Champaign named after him. ___ "We are terribly saddened by the news of the passing of our friend Roger Ebert. More than a friend, Roger was family. He knew us from our humble beginnings, stuck by us, and helped us grow, as only family can do. It is no exaggeration to say that Roger, through his championing, had a large hand in making us who we are today on the world stage. He was a pioneer, a true lover of film. His passing is a huge loss for cinema. He inspired us and will continue to inspire generations. We are taking this opportunity to remember and celebrate our beloved friend, Roger Ebert. Our hearts go out to Chaz and to their family and friends." __ The Toronto International Film Festival, in a statement.