Roger Joseph Ebert

Roger Joseph Ebert (pron.: /ˈiːbərt/; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American journalist, film critic, and screenwriter. He was a film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death. In 1975, he was the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. As of 2010, his columns were syndicated to more than 200 newspapers in the United States and abroad. Ebert also published more than 20 books and dozens of collections of reviews.

Ebert and rival critic Gene Siskel helped popularize nationally televised film reviewing when they co-hosted the PBS show Sneak Previews, followed by several variously named At the Movies programs. The two verbally sparred and traded humorous barbs while discussing films. They created and trademarked the phrase "Two Thumbs Up", used when both hosts gave the same film a positive review. After Siskel died in 1999, Ebert began co-hosting with Richard Roeper. In 1999, he launched his own annual film festival called Ebertfest. In 2005, Ebert became the first film critic to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

When post-surgical complications related to thyroid cancer left him unable to speak from 2006 on, he gained a sizable following online. Ebert died on April 4, 2013, after an 11-year battle with cancer.

Neil Steinberg of the Chicago Sun-Times said Ebert "was without question the nation’s most prominent and influential film critic", Tom Van Riper of Forbes described him as "the most powerful pundit in America",and Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times called him "the best known film critic in America".

 

Early life

Roger Joseph Ebert was born in Urbana, Illinois, the son of Annabel (née Stumm) and Walter H. Ebert, an electrician.

His paternal grandparents were German immigrants and his maternal ancestry was German, Dutch, and Irish. Ebert's interest in journalism began when he was a student at Urbana High School, where he was a sports writer for The News-Gazette in Champaign, Illinois; however, he began his writing career with letters of comment to the science fiction fanzines of the era. He became involved in science fiction fandom, writing articles for fanzines, including Richard A. Lupoff's Xero. In his senior year, he was co-editor of his high school newspaper, The Echo. In 1958, he won the Illinois High School Association state speech championship in Radio Speaking, an event that simulates radio newscasts.

Regarding his early influences in film critiquing, Ebert wrote in the 1998 parody collection Mad About the Movies:

"I learned to be a movie critic by reading Mad magazine... Mad's parodies made me aware of the machine inside the skin – of the way a movie might look original on the outside, while inside it was just recycling the same old dumb formulas. I did not read the magazine, I plundered it for clues to the universe. Pauline Kael lost it at the movies; I lost it at Mad magazine."

Ebert began taking classes at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as an early entrance student, completing his high school courses while also taking his first university class. After graduating from Urbana High School in 1960, Ebert then attended and received his undergraduate degree. While at the University of Illinois, Ebert worked as a reporter for the The Daily Illini and then served as its editor during his senior year while also continuing to work as a reporter for the News-Gazette of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois (he had begun at the News-Gazette at age 15 covering Urbana High School sports). As an undergraduate, he was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity and president of the U.S. Student Press Association at Illinois. One of the first movie reviews he ever wrote was a review of La Dolce Vita, published in The Daily Illini in October 1961.

After receiving his undergraduate degree from Illinois in 1964, Ebert spent a semester as a master's student in the department of English there before attending the University of Cape Town on a Rotary fellowship for a year. He returned from Cape Town to his graduate studies at Illinois for two more semesters and then, after being accepted as a PhD candidate at the University of Chicago, he prepared to move to Chicago. He needed a job to support himself while he worked on his doctorate and so applied to the Chicago Daily News, hoping that, as he had already sold freelance pieces to the Daily News, including an article on the death of writer Brendan Behan, he would be hired by editor Herman Kogan. Instead Kogan referred Ebert to the city editor at the Chicago Sun-Times, Jim Hoge, who hired Ebert as a reporter and feature writer at the Sun-Times in 1966. He attended doctoral classes at the University of Chicago while working as a general reporter at the Sun-Times for a year. After movie critic Eleanor Keane left the Sun-Times in April 1967, editor Robert Zonk gave the job to Ebert. The load of graduate school and being a film critic proved too much, so Ebert left the University of Chicago to focus his energies on reporting.

Career

Ebert began his career as a film critic in 1967, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times until his death. That same year, Ebert's first book, a history of the University of Illinois titled Illini Century: One Hundred Years of Campus Life, was published by the University's press. In 1969, his review of Night of the Living Dead was published in Reader's Digest.

Ebert co-wrote the screenplay for the 1970 Russ Meyer film Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and sometimes joked about being responsible for the film, which was poorly received on its release but is now regarded as a cult classic. Ebert and Meyer also made Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens, Up!, and other films, and were involved in the ill-fated Sex Pistols movie Who Killed Bambi? (In April 2010, Ebert posted his screenplay of Who Killed Bambi? aka Anarchy in the UK on his blog.)

From the 1970s on, Ebert worked for the University of Chicago as a guest lecturer, teaching a night class on film. For example, his fall 2005 class was on the work of the German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

Roger Ebert (right) with Russ Meyer in 1970.

In 1975, Ebert began co-hosting a weekly film review television show, Sneak Previews, which was locally produced by the Chicago public broadcasting station WTTW. Three years later, Gene Siskel became a co-host when the show was picked up by PBS for national distribution. The duo became famous for their "thumbs up/thumbs down" review summaries. Siskel and Ebert trademarked the phrase "Two Thumbs Up".

In 1982, they moved from PBS to launch a similar syndicated commercial television show named At The Movies With Gene Siskel & Roger Ebert. In 1986, they again moved the show to new ownership, creating Siskel & Ebert & The Movies through Buena Vista Television (part of the Walt Disney Company).

After Siskel's death in 1999, the producers retitled the show Roger Ebert & the Movies and used rotating co-hosts. In September 2000, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper became the permanent co-host and the show was renamed At The Movies With Ebert & Roeper (and other later titles).

Ebert ended his association with the Disney-owned At The Movies in July 2008, after the studio indicated it wished to take the program in a new direction. On February 18, 2009, Ebert reported that he and Roeper would soon announce a new movie review program, and reiterated this plan after Disney announced that the program's last episode would air in August 2010.

On January 31, 2009, Ebert was made an honorary life member of the Directors Guild of America. His final television series, Ebert Presents: At The Movies, premiered on January 21, 2011, with Ebert contributing a review voiced by someone else in a brief segment called "Roger's Office".

Critical style and personal taste

Ebert described his critical approach to films as "relative, not absolute"; he reviewed a film for what he felt would be its prospective audience, yet always with at least some consideration as to its value as a whole. He awarded four stars to films of the highest quality, and generally a half star to those of the lowest, unless he considered the film to be "artistically inept" or "morally repugnant", in which case it received no stars.

When you ask a friend if Hellboy is any good, you're not asking if it's any good compared to Mystic River, you're asking if it's any good compared to The Punisher. And my answer would be, on a scale of one to four, if Superman is four, then Hellboy is three and The Punisher is two. In the same way, if American Beauty gets four stars, then The United States of Leland clocks in at about two.

Ebert emphasized that his star ratings had little meaning if not considered in the context of the review itself. Occasionally (as in his review of Basic Instinct 2), Ebert's star rating may have seemed at odds with his written opinion. Ebert acknowledged such cases, stating, "I cannot recommend the movie, but ... why the hell can't I? Just because it's godawful? What kind of reason is that for staying away from a movie? Godawful and boring, that would be a reason." In August 2004 Stephen King, in a column, criticized what he saw as a growing trend of leniency towards films from critics including Ebert. His main criticism was that films, citing Spider-Man 2 as an example, were constantly given four star ratings that they did not deserve. In his review of The Manson Family, Ebert gave the film three stars for achieving what it set out to do, but admitted that did not count as a recommendation per se. He similarly gave the Adam Sandler–starring remake of The Longest Yard a positive rating of three stars, but in his review, which he wrote soon after attending the Cannes Film Festival, he recommended readers not see the film because they had access to more satisfying cinematic experiences. He declined to give a star rating to The Human Centipede, arguing that the rating system was "unsuited" to such a film: "Is the movie good? Is it bad? Does it matter? It is what it is and occupies a world where the stars don't shine."

Ebert reprinted his starred reviews in movie guides. In his appearances on The Howard Stern Show, he was frequently challenged to defend his ratings. Ebert stood by his opinions with one notable exception – when Stern pointed out that Ebert had given The Godfather Part II a three-star rating in 1974, but had subsequently given The Godfather Part III three and a half stars. Ebert later added The Godfather Part II to his "Great Movies" list in October 2008 stating that his original review has often been cited as proof of his "worthlessness" but he still had not changed his mind and would not change a word of his original review. When reviewing the 2009 remake of The Last House on the Left, Ebert noted how he had given the controversial 1972 original three and a half stars and declined to make a comparison between the two versions: "I wrote that original "Last House" review 37 years ago. I am not the same person. I am uninterested in being 'consistent.'"

Ebert 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 was wary of films passed off as art, but which he saw as lurid and sensational. He leveled this charge against such films as The Night Porter.

Ebert's reviews could clash with the overall reception of movies, as evidenced by his one-star review of the celebrated 1986 David Lynch film Blue Velvet ("marred by sophomoric satire and cheap shots... in a way, [director Lynch's] behavior is more sadistic than the Hopper character"). He was dismissive of the popular 1988 Bruce Willis action film Die Hard ("inappropriate and wrongheaded interruptions reveal the fragile nature of the plot"), while his positive review of 1997's Speed 2: Cruise Control ("Movies like this embrace goofiness with an almost sensual pleasure") is the only one accounting for that film's 2% approval rating on the Rotten Tomatoes critical website.

Ebert often made heavy use of mocking sarcasm, especially when reviewing movies he considered bad. At other times he was direct, famously in his review of the 1994 Rob Reiner comedy North, which he concluded by writing that:

I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated hated this movie. Hated it. Hated every simpering stupid vacant audience-insulting moment of it. Hated the sensibility that thought anyone would like it. Hated the implied insult to the audience by its belief that anyone would be entertained by it.

Ebert's reviews were also characterized by what has been called "dry wit". In August 2005, after Rob Schneider insulted Los Angeles Times movie critic Patrick Goldstein, who criticized his movie Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, by commenting that the critic was unqualified because he had never won the Pulitzer Prize, Ebert intervened by stating that, as a Pulitzer winner, he was qualified to review the film, and bluntly told Schneider, "Your movie sucks." Ebert and Schneider would later mend fences regarding this.

Ebert was known to comment on films using his own Roman Catholic upbringing as a point of reference, and was critical of films he believed were grossly ignorant of or insulting to Catholicism, such as Stigmata and Priest,though he gave favorable reviews of controversial films with themes or references to Jesus and Catholicism, including The Passion of the Christ, The Last Temptation of Christ, and to Kevin Smith's religious satire Dogma. However, Ebert identified himself as an agnostic.

He often included personal anecdotes in his reviews when he considered them relevant. He occasionally wrote reviews in the forms of stories, poems, songs, scripts, open letters, or imagined conversations. He wrote many essays and articles exploring in depth the field of film criticism.

Ebert was also an advocate and supporter of Asian American cinema, famously coming to the defense of the cast and crew of Justin Lin's Better Luck Tomorrow (2001) during a Sundance Film Festival screening when a white member of the audience asked how Asians could be portrayed in such a negative light and how a film so empty and amoral could be made for Asian Americans and Americans. Ebert responded, "What I find very offensive and condescending about your statement is that nobody would say such a thing to a bunch of white filmmakers: how could you do this to 'your people'? This film has the right to be about these people, and Asian American characters have the right to be whoever the hell they want to be. They do not have to represent 'their people'!" He was a supporter of the film after the incident at Sundance, and also supported a number of Asian American films, having them also screen at his film festival (such as Eric Byler's Charlotte Sometimes).Ebert was a fan of Asian-American filmmaker Wayne Wang.

Ebert was accused by some horror movie fans of bourgeois[citation needed] elitism in his dismissal of what he calls "Dead Teenager Movies". Ebert clarified that he did not disparage horror movies as a whole, but that he drew a distinction between films like Nosferatu and The Silence of the Lambs, which he regarded as "masterpieces", and films which he felt consisted of nothing more than groups of teenagers being killed off with the exception of one survivor to populate a sequel.

Ebert indicated that his favorite film was Citizen Kane, joking, "That's the official answer," although he preferred to emphasize it as "the most important" film. He insinuated that his real favorite film was La Dolce Vita. His favorite actor was Robert Mitchum, and his favorite actress was Ingrid Bergman. He expressed his general distaste for "top ten" lists, and all movie lists in general,but contributed a top ten list to the 2012 Sight and Sound Directors' poll. Listed alphabetically, those films were 2001: A Space Odyssey; Aguirre, the Wrath of God; Apocalypse Now; Citizen Kane; La Dolce Vita; The General; Raging Bull; Tokyo Story; The Tree of Life; and Vertigo.

Ebert compiled "best of the year" movie lists beginning in the 1960s, thereby helping provide an overview of his critical preferences. His top choices were:

•  

• 1967: Bonnie and Clyde
• 1968: The Battle of Algiers
• 1969: Z
• 1970: Five Easy Pieces
• 1971: The Last Picture Show
• 1972: The Godfather
• 1973: Cries and Whispers
• 1974: Scenes from a Marriage
• 1975: Nashville
• 1976: Small Change
• 1977: 3 Women
• 1978: An Unmarried Woman
• 1979: Apocalypse Now
• 1980: The Black Stallion
• 1981: My Dinner with Andre

• 1982: Sophie's Choice
• 1983: The Right Stuff
• 1984: Amadeus
• 1985: The Color Purple
• 1986: Platoon
• 1987: House of Games
• 1988: Mississippi Burning
• 1989: Do the Right Thing
• 1990: Goodfellas
• 1991: JFK
• 1992: Malcolm X
• 1993: Schindler's List
• 1994: Hoop Dreams
• 1995: Leaving Las Vegas
• 1996: Fargo

• 1997: Eve's Bayou
• 1998: Dark City
• 1999: Being John Malkovich
• 2000: Almost Famous
• 2001: Monster's Ball
• 2002: Minority Report
• 2003: Monster
• 2004: Million Dollar Baby
• 2005: Crash
• 2006: Pan's Labyrinth
• 2007: Juno
• 2008: Synecdoche, New York
• 2009: The Hurt Locker
• 2010: The Social Network
• 2011: A Separation
• 2012: Argo

Ebert revisited and sometimes revised his opinions. After ranking E.T. The Extra Terrestrial third on his 1982 list, it was the only movie from that year to appear on his later "Best Films of the 1980s" list (where it also ranked third). He made similar revaluations of 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark, and 1985's Ran. The Three Colors Trilogy (Blue, White, and Red), and Pulp Fiction originally ranked second and third on Ebert's 1994 list; both were included on his "Best Films of the 1990s" list, but their order had reversed.

Ebert was an admirer of director Werner Herzog, whom he supported through many years when Herzog's popularity had declined. He conducted an onstage public "conversation" with Herzog at the Telluride Film Festival in 2004, after a screening of Herzog's film Invincible at the Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival. Herzog dedicated his 2008 film Encounters at the End of the World to Ebert, and Ebert responded with a heartfelt public letter of gratitude.

In 2005, Ebert opined that video games are not art, and are inferior to media created through authorial control, such as film and literature, stating, "video games can be elegant, subtle, sophisticated, challenging and visually wonderful", but "the nature of the medium prevents it from moving beyond craftsmanship to the stature of art". This resulted in negative reaction from video game enthusiasts, such as writer Clive Barker, who defended video games as an art form, stating that they have the power to move people, that the views of book or film critics are less important than those of the consumers experiencing them, and that Ebert's were prejudiced. Ebert responded that the charge of prejudice was merely a euphemism for disagreement, that merely being moved by an experience does not denote it as artistic, and that critics are also consumers. Ebert later defended his position in April 2010, saying, "No video gamer now living will survive long enough to experience the medium as an art form." He also stated that he had never found a video game "worthy of (his) time", and thus had never played one.

In a July 1, 2010, blog entry, Ebert maintained his position that video games cannot ever be art in principle, but conceded that he should not have expressed this skepticism without being more familiar with the actual experience of playing them. He reflected on the reaction to his blog entry, gamers' attempts to recommend to him games such as Shadow of the Colossus, and his reluctance to play games due to his lack of interest in the medium.

 

Views on the film industry

Ebert was an outspoken opponent of the Motion Picture Association of America film rating system, repeatedly criticizing its decisions regarding which movies are suitable for children.

He also frequently lamented 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 American moviegoers.

Ebert was 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. He was opposed to the practice whereby theatres lower the intensity of their projector bulbs in order to extend the life of the bulb, arguing that this has little effect other than to make the film harder to see.Ebert was skeptical of the recent resurgence of 3D effects in film, which he found unrealistic and distracting.

Film and TV appearances

Ebert was one of the principal critics featured in Gerald Peary's 2009 documentary film For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism. He is shown discussing the dynamics of appearing with Gene Siskel on the 1970s show Coming to a Theatre Near You, which was the predecessor of Sneak Previews on Chicago PBS station WTTW. He also expressed his approval of the proliferation of young people writing film reviews today on the Internet.

Ebert provided DVD audio commentaries for several films, including Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Dark City, Floating Weeds, Crumb, and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (for which Ebert also wrote the screenplay, based on a story that he co-wrote with Russ Meyer). Ebert was also interviewed by Central Park Media for an extra feature on the DVD release of the anime film Grave of the Fireflies.

During the past decade, on the day of the Academy Award ceremony, Ebert repeatedly appeared with Roeper on the live pre-awards show, An Evening at the Academy Awards: The Arrivals. This aired for over a decade, usually prior to the awards ceremony show, which also featured red carpet interviews and fashion commentary. They also used to appear on the post-awards show entitled An Evening at the Academy Awards: The Winners, produced and aired by the ABC-owned KABC-TV in Los Angeles.

In 1995, Ebert, along with colleague Gene Siskel, guest-starred on an episode of the animated TV series The Critic. In the episode, Siskel and Ebert split and each wants Jay as his new partner. The episode is a parody of the film Sleepless in Seattle.[93] The following year, Ebert appeared in Pitch, a documentary by Canadian film makers Spencer Rice and Kenny Hotz.

He also made an appearance as himself in a 1997 episode of the television series Early Edition, which took place in Chicago. In the episode, Ebert consoles a young boy who is depressed after he sees a character called Bosco the Bunny die in a movie.

In 2003, Ebert had a cameo appearance in the film Abby Singer, in which he recited the white parasol monologue from Citizen Kane. Roger Ebert founded his own film festival, Ebertfest, in his home town of Champaign, Illinois, and was also a regular fixture at the Hawaii International Film Festival. On May 4, 2010, Ebert was announced by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences as the Webby Person of the Year, having taken to the Internet following his battle with cancer. On October 22, 2010, Ebert appeared on camera with Robert Osborne on the Turner Classic Movies network during the network's "The Essentials" series. Ebert chose the film Sweet Smell of Success to be shown.

Personal life

Ebert and his wife Chaz Hammelsmith Ebert (left) giving the thumbs up to Nancy Kwan (right) at the Hawaii International Film Festival on October 20, 2010

At age 50, Ebert married trial attorney Charlie "Chaz" Hammelsmith (formerly Chaz Hammel-Smith) in 1992. He explained in his memoir, Life Itself, that he "would never marry before my mother died," as he was afraid of displeasing her. Chaz Ebert is now vice president of the Ebert Company and has emceed Ebertfest.

Roger Ebert was a recovering alcoholic, having quit drinking in 1979. He was a member of Alcoholics Anonymous and had written some blog entries on the subject. He had been friends with, and at one time dated, Oprah Winfrey, who credits him with encouraging her to go into syndication. He was also good friends with film historian and critic Leonard Maltin and considered the book Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide to be the standard of film guide books.

On April 25, 2011, he achieved one of his long-time goals: winning one of the weekly caption contests in The New Yorker after more than 100 attempts.

Political and religious views

A supporter of the Democratic Party, Ebert publicly urged liberal filmmaker Michael Moore to give a politically charged acceptance speech at the Academy Awards: "I'd like to see Michael Moore get up there and let 'em have it with both barrels and really let loose and give them a real rabble-rousing speech. During a 2004 visit to The Howard Stern Show, Ebert predicted that the then-junior Illinois senator Barack Obama would be very important to the future of the country. During a 1996 panel at the University of Colorado at Boulder's Conference on World Affairs, Ebert coined The Boulder Pledge, by which he vowed never to purchase anything offered through the result of an unsolicited email message, or to forward chain emails or mass emails to others.

He was critical of the Intelligent Design creationism. He has also stated that people who believe in either creationism or New Age beliefs such as crystal healing or astrology are not qualified to be President.

Regarding his belief system, he doesn't "want to provide a category for people to apply to [him]" because he "would not want [his] convictions reduced to a word" and states, "I have never said, although readers have freely informed me I am an atheist, an agnostic, or at the very least a secular humanist – which I am". Ebert has also expressed disbelief in pseudoscientific or supernatural claims in general, calling them "woo-woo".

Health

Thyroid cancer and first surgery Ebert (right) at the Conference on World Affairs in September 2002, shortly after his cancer diagnosis

In early 2002, Ebert was diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer. In February, surgeons at Northwestern Memorial Hospital successfully removed the cancer with clean margins. He later underwent surgery in 2003 for cancer in his salivary gland, and in December of that year, underwent a four-week follow-up course of radiation to his salivary glands, which altered his voice slightly. Ebert continued to be a dedicated critic of film, not missing a single opening while undergoing treatment.

Second surgery and loss of speech

Ebert underwent further surgery on June 16, 2006, two days before his 64th birthday, to remove additional cancerous tissue near his right jaw, which included removing a section of jaw bone. On July 1, Ebert was hospitalized in serious condition after his carotid artery burst near the surgery site and he "came within a breath of death". He later learned that the burst was likely a side effect of his treatment, which involved neutron beam radiation. He was subsequently kept bedridden to prevent further damage to the scarred vessels in his neck while he slowly recovered from multiple surgeries and the rigorous treatment. At one point, his status was so precarious that Ebert had a tracheotomy performed on his neck to reduce the effort of breathing while he recovered. Although it was not revealed at the time, Ebert also lost the ability both to speak and to eat or drink (so that he would have to use a feeding tube).

Ebert had pre-taped enough TV programs with his co-host Richard Roeper to keep him on the air for a few weeks; his extended convalescence necessitated a series of "guest critics" to co-host with Roeper: Jay Leno, Kevin Smith, John Ridley, Toni Senecal, Christy Lemire, Michael Phillips, Aisha Tyler, Fred Willard, Anne Thompson, A.O. Scott, Mario Van Peebles, George Pennacchio, Brad Silberling, and John Mellencamp. Michael Phillips later became Ebert's replacement for the remainder of Roeper's time on At The Movies until mid 2008 when Roeper did not extend his contract with ABC.

Rehabilitation and return to reviewing

In October 2006, Ebert confirmed his bleeding problems had been resolved. He was undergoing rehabilitation at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago due to lost muscle mass, and later underwent further rehabilitation at the Pritikin Center in Florida." After a three-month absence, the first movie he reviewed was The Queen. Ebert made his first public appearance since mid-2006 at Ebertfest on April 25, 2007. He was unable to speak but communicated through his wife, Chaz, using written notes. His opening words to the crowd of devout fans at the festival were a quote from the film he co-wrote with Russ Meyer, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls: "It's my happening and it freaks me out." Also in April 2007, in an interview with WLS-TV in Chicago, he said, "I was told photos of me in this condition would attract the gossip papers — so what?" On April 23, the Sun-Times reported that, when asked about his decision to return to the limelight, Ebert remarked, "We spend too much time hiding illness."

Ebert returned to reviewing on May 18, 2007, when three of his reviews were published by the Chicago Sun-Times, and he returned to his website, a role that his editor had shouldered during the critic's illness. Thereafter, he slowly worked back to his previous output of 5–6 reviews a week plus a "Great Movies" review. He also resumed his "Answer Man" column. In a July 21, 2007, commentary on a rebuttal to Clive Barker, he revealed that he was still unable to speak, but he could still write.He posted reviews of the 2006 film Casino Royale and the 2007 films, Zodiac and Ratatouille with a note that he was in the process of going back and reviewing some of the movies that were released during his absence.A regular attendee of the Toronto International Film Festival, he attended in 2007, while awaiting surgery that was hoped to restore his voice.

Ebert adopted a computerized voice system to communicate. He initially chose to use a voice with a British accent that he named "Lawrence", but then switched to a high quality voice with an American accent included with Mac OS X named "Alex" and later a copy of his own voice created from his own DVD commentaries. According to Ebert, he did not miss the activity of eating or drinking so much as the camaraderie of dining with friends.

Third surgery

Ebert underwent further surgery on January 24, 2008, this time in Houston, to address the complications from his previous surgeries. A statement from Ebert and his wife indicated that "the surgery went well, and the Eberts look forward to giving you more good news..." but on April 1, his 41st anniversary as a film critic at the Sun-Times, Ebert announced that there had been further complications and his speech had not been restored. He wrote, "I am still cancer-free, and not ready to think about more surgery at this time. I should be content with the abundance I have." His columns resumed shortly after the April 23 opening of his annual film festival at the University of Illinois. During his various surgeries, doctors carved bone, tissue and skin from his back, arm, and legs, and transplanted them in an attempt to reconstruct his jaw and throat, though these transplants would each be unsuccessful, and eventually removed. As a result of these procedures, his right shoulder was visibly smaller than his left, and his legs had been scarred and weakened.

Hip fractures and cancer recurrence

On April 18, 2008, it was announced that Ebert had fractured his hip in a fall, a result of the weakening of his body following the unsuccessful tissue transplants, and had undergone surgery to repair it.

By 2010, Ebert had a full-time, live-in nurse to attend to him when he needed assistance. Although doctors asked him to allow them to make one more attempt to restore his voice, Ebert refused, indicating that he was done with surgery, and would likely decline significant intervention even if his cancer returned, since he felt that the last procedure he underwent did more harm than good. Regarding his death one day, he stated in 2010:

I know it is coming, and I do not fear it, because I believe there is nothing on the other side of death to fear. I hope to be spared as much pain as possible on the approach path. I was perfectly content before I was born, and I think of death as the same state. What I am grateful for is the gift of intelligence, and for life, love, wonder, and laughter. You can't say it wasn't interesting. My lifetime's memories are what I have brought home from the trip. I will require them for eternity no more than that little souvenir of the Eiffel Tower I brought home from Paris.

Ebert employed a Scottish company called CereProc, which custom-tailors text-to-speech software for voiceless customers who record their voices at length before losing them, and mined tapes and DVD commentaries featuring Ebert to create a voice that sounded more like his own voice. He used the voice they devised for him in his March 2, 2010, appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, in which he discussed his methods of coping with the loss of his voice and his other post-surgical difficulties.

Ebert later proposed a test to determine the realism of a synthesized voice. By January 2011, Ebert had been given a prosthesis for his chin created by University of Illinois craniofacial doctors and other specialists. The prosthesis, which took two years to fabricate, was worn by Ebert on Ebert Presents: At The Movies, in a medium shot of him that was used for the "Roger's Office" segment. In December 2012, Ebert was hospitalized with a fractured hip, which his wife Chaz jokingly blamed on "tricky disco dance moves".

On April 2, 2013, Ebert announced that he would be taking a "leave of presence" from his duties because the hip fracture he suffered a few months earlier was determined to be cancerous and he would be receiving radiation treatment. He said, "I'll be able at last to do what I've always fantasized about doing: reviewing only the movies I want to review."

Death

Ebert died on April 4, 2013, at the age of 70, following his 11-year battle with cancer. According to his wife Chaz, "We were getting ready to go home today for hospice care, when he [Ebert] looked at us, smiled, and passed away."The closing sentence on his final blog post, two days before his death, said, "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's death prompted wide reaction from celebrities both in and out of the entertainment industry. Barack Obama wrote, "Roger was the movies ... [he could capture] the unique power of the movies to take us somewhere magical ... The movies won't be the same without Roger". Robert Redford called Ebert "one of the great champions of freedom of artistic expression" and said "His personal passion for cinema was boundless, and that is sure to be his legacy for generations to come." Oprah Winfrey called Ebert's death the "end of an era", as did Steven Spielberg, who also said that Ebert's "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... [he] put television criticism on the map".

Bibliography

Each year since 1999, except in 2008, Ebert has published Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook, a collection of all of his movie reviews from the previous two and a half years (for example, the 2011 edition, ISBN 978-0-7407-9769-9, covers January 2008 – July 2010), as well as essays and other writings. He has also written the following books:

• Scorsese by Ebert (ISBN 978-0-226-18202-5) (Excerpted Introduction)
• Awake in the Dark: The Best of Roger Ebert (ISBN 0-226-18200-2) – a collection of essays from his 40 years as a film critic, featuring interviews, profiles, essays, his initial reviews upon a film's release, as well as critical exchanges between the film critics Richard Corliss and Andrew Sarris
• Ebert's "Bigger" Little Movie Glossary (ISBN 0-8362-8289-2) – a book of movie clichés
• The Great Movies (ISBN 0-7679-1038-9), The Great Movies II (ISBN 0-7679-1950-5), and The Great Movies III (ISBN 9780226182087) – three books of essays about great films
• I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie (ISBN 0-7407-0672-1) – a collection of reviews of films that received two stars or fewer. (Title comes from his review of North.)
• Roger Ebert's Book of Film (ISBN 0-393-04000-3) – a Norton Anthology of a century of writing about the movies
• Questions For The Movie Answer Man (ISBN 0-8362-2894-4) – his responses to questions sent from his readers
• Behind the Phantom's Mask (ISBN 0-8362-8021-0) – his first attempt at fiction.
• The Perfect London Walk (ISBN 0-8362-7929-8) – a tour of Ebert's favorite foreign city
• Your Movie Sucks (ISBN 0-7407-6366-0) – a new collection of less-than-two-star reviews. (Title comes from his review of Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo.)
• Roger Ebert's Four-Star Reviews 1967–2007 (ISBN 0-7407-7179-5)
• An Illini Century: One Hundred Years of Campus Life (no ISBN) – the history of the first 100 years of the University of Illinois, edited by Ebert in 1967
• Roger Ebert (2010). The Pot and How to Use It: The Mystery and Romance of the Rice Cooker. Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-9142-7. OCLC 449846539.
• Life Itself: A Memoir. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2011. (ISBN 0-4465-8497-5)