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Roger Joseph Ebert (born June 18, 1942) is an Emmy Award-nominated American television personality, author, and film critic who began writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, every week since 1967. His reviews are syndicated to over 200 newspapers in the U.S. and elsewhere. He is also the co-host of a syndicated television program featuring his film criticism, first for 23 years with Gene Siskel and, since Siskel's death, with Richard Roeper on Ebert & Roeper. He has written more than 15 books, including his annual movie yearbook. In 1975, he became the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Ebert has honorary degrees from the University of Colorado, the American Film Institute, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In February 1995, Chicago's Erie Street was renamed Siskel & Ebert Way, near the CBS Studios. He also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in June 2005, the first professional film critic to receive this honor. Through his newspaper reviews, books, television shows, and lectures, he has contributed considerably to the appreciation of film among members of the public. He also runs a special section of his website RogerEbert.com devoted to what he deems to be great films. Since 1999 Ebert has hosted the annual Roger Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival in Champaign, Illinois.
Career as a critic Ebert began his film critic career in 1967, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times. In 1969, his review of Night of the Living Dead was published in Reader's Digest. In 1976 he and Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune began co-hosting a weekly movie review television show, Sneak Previews, produced by the Chicago public broadcasting station WTTW. The show was picked up by PBS in 1978 for national distribution. In 1982, the critics moved to a syndicated commercial television show named At the Movies, and later, Siskel & Ebert & The Movies, where they were known for their "thumbs up/thumbs down" review summaries. When Siskel died in 1999, the producers retitled the show Roger Ebert & the Movies with rotating co-hosts. In September of 2000, fellow Chicago Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper became the permanent co-host and the show was renamed Ebert & Roeper. Ebert has also done DVD audio-commentaries for several films including Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Dark City, Floating Weeds, Crumb, and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (in which he also wrote the screenplay based on a story that he co-wrote with Russ Meyer). On the day that ABC television network carries the Academy Awards show, Ebert, with partner Roeper, annually appear on the live pre-awards show, An Evening at the Academy Awards: The Arrivals prior to the awards ceremony show featuring red carpet interviews and fashion commentary. They also appear on the post awards show entitled An Evening at the Academy Awards: the Winners. Both shows are produced by ABC's Los Angeles station KABC-TV, and are simulcast on ABC's Chicago station WLS-TV and several other ABC affiliates. Other career highlights As a teenager, Ebert was involved in science fiction fandom, writing articles for fanzines, including Richard A. Lupoff's ''Xero''. In 1958, he won the Illinois high school championship in radio speaking, a speech event. Ebert co-wrote the screenplay for the 1970 cult film, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, directed by Russ Meyer, and likes to joke about being responsible for the poorly received film. Ebert and Meyer also made Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens and were involved in the ill-fated Sex Pistols movie Who Killed Bambi? Style of Criticism Ebert has described his critical approach to films as "relative, not absolute"; he reviews a film for what he feels will be its prospective audience, but always with at least some consideration as to its value towards film a as a whole. Ebert emphasizes the importance of the written review over his stars; he has assured that the star system is very unreliable if the review is not taken into account. There have been instances (see Basic Instinct 2) where his star review completely contradicts his overall opinion, which Ebert explains by stating "I cannot recommend the movie, but ... why the hell can't I? Just because it's God-awful? What kind of reason is that for staying away from a movie? God-awful and boring, that would be a reason." In his review of The Manson Family, he gave the film three stars for achieving what it set out to do, but admitted that didn't count as a recommendation per se. Ebert often makes heavy use of mocking sarcasm, especially when reviewing movies he considers bad. His reviews are also often characterized by dry wit, and a marked distaste for films that feature violence in support of authority. Ebert has also been known to occasionally review movies in the forms of stories, poems, songs, scripts, or imagined conversations. Like Pauline Kael, he has occasionally accused some films of having an unwholesome political agenda, and the word 'fascist' accompanied more than one of Ebert's reviews of the law-and-order films of the 1970s (such as Dirty Harry). He is also suspicious of films which appear to have hypocritical agenda -- i.e., a confrontational film that is passed off as art, but is merely lurid and sensational (The Night Porter; Blue Velvet). Ebert has written many essays and articles exploring in-depth the concept of film criticism, treating it as a serious subject. Public policy Ebert is an outspoken opponent of the Motion Picture Association of America rating system (he often uses the negative epithet "flywheels" to describe their arbitrary nature), and has repeatedly criticized their decisions regarding which movies are "suitable for children"—for example, Whale Rider and School of Rock, which he thought both should be PG instead of PG-13. In his review of ''The Exorcist'', Ebert expressed shock that the film received a rating of "R" from the MPAA instead of an "X" (he said it was "stupefying" that it managed to receive the lighter rating). He also frequently laments that cinemas outside major cities are "booked by computer from Hollywood with no regard for local tastes", making high-quality independent and foreign films virtually unavailable to most moviegoers. He is a strong advocate for Maxivision 48, in which the movie projector runs at 48 frames per second, as compared to the usual 24 frames per second, (which the Maxivision 48 projector can also show with the flick of a switch) Personal life
Battle with cancer In 2002, Ebert suffered a bout with papillary thyroid cancer. He underwent surgery in February 2002 which successfully removed the cancer. He later underwent surgery in 2003 for cancer in his salivary gland. In December 2003, he underwent a four-week course of radiation treatment as a followup to the surgery on his salivary gland which altered his voice slightly. He continued to review movies, not missing a single opening while undergoing treatment. He underwent surgery Friday, June 16, 2006, just two days before his 64th birthday, to remove cancer near his right jaw, including a section of jaw bone. Ebert filmed enough TV programs with his co-host, Richard Roeper, to keep him on the air for several weeks. However, his extended convalescence has necessitated a series of "guest critics" to co-host with Roeper, including Jay Leno (a good friend to both Ebert and Roeper), Kevin Smith, John Ridley, Toni Senecal, Michael Phillips, Aisha Tyler, Fred Willard, and A.O. Scott. An update from Ebert on October 11 confirmed his bleeding problems have been resolved. He was receiving rehabilitation care at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago to regain muscle strength lost during his convalescence. Ebert stated he planned to fully resume work early in 2007, and to hold his annual Overlooked Film Festival as scheduled. Books written by Ebert Each year, Ebert publishes a book of all the movie reviews from that year. He has also authored the following books: See also | ||||||||||
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