Roger Ebert 1942-2013

 

Roger Ebert…film critic, journalist, and screenwriter, has passed away at the age of 70.

Ebert was known for his film review column which ran in the Chicago Sun-Times beginning in 1967, and for his television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The Movies, all of which he co-hosted with fellow critic Gene Siskel. After Siskel’s death in 1999, Ebert would continue the show with Richard Roeper in Ebert & Roeper & The Movies.

He wrote more than 20 books, including his year-end annual yearbook. In 1975, he became the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, and to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. As of 2010, his movie reviews were syndicated in more than 200 newspapers across the U.S. and worldwide. He was outspoken against the MPAA film-rating system, skeptical of 3D, and an advocate for filmmaking and projection at 48 frames-per-second. He is a credited screenwriter on the 1970 schlock-melodrama film BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS.

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This Blogger has been arguing about, debating about, and writing about movies his entire life. In every drunken (or sober) late-debate about any film at any time, one way or another the name of Roger Ebert would make its way into the conversation. It was always his opinion on a dispute which provided a foundation for everything; what-did-Ebert-say was nearly always the final word. The movies, you see, are more than just what appears on screen; they are also about the people who love them…those people who are on the other side of that screen; contributing in one form or another. Ebert wasn’t just a part of that other side; he was the foundation for it.