Roger Joseph Ebert is the author of more than 15 literary works, the famous American film critic and showman, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1975. For a continuation of 46 years, he was an indisputable authority for the audience of all social strata and the most demanding critic for filmmakers.
Ebert could afford, disregarding the opinion of his colleagues in the workshop, to praise one film, as happened with Django, and to smash the other to smithereens, as happened with the film Oz: The Great and the Terrible. As a legacy to humanity after his death, Roger Ebert left a lot of witty quotes and wonderful reviews. His apt expressions are known to every real movie fan.
Biography
Roger Ebert was born in the provincial town of Erbana, Illinois in 1942. The beginning of his professional career is considered the work of the contributing author in the Chicago Sun-Times. Although the public first learned about promising criticism in 1969 after the publication of Reader's Digest, his first author's review of the currently canonical horror film "The Night of the Living Dead".
In 1976, joining forces with Gene Siskel, Ebert decides to try his hand on television, the duet show is broadcast for the first time in Chicago. He expects tremendous success, so after two years the show is broadcast nationwide. Further, like-minded people, not stopping there, release three more show programs. In 2000, Richard Roper joined them. The three of them shoot the television program Ebert & Roeper.
Talented person is talented in everything
Ebert not only wrote reviews of films, he created audio commentaries on the films “Casablanca”, “Citizen Kane”, “Floating Grass” and “The Dark City”, which were released on DVD. Repeatedly Roger acted as a screenwriter. He was the author of the scripts for the films “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls”, “Valley of Bliss”, “Get Up!”. Almost no Academy Awards ceremony was held without the presence of film critic.
Ebert's favorite actor (director) was Werner Herzog, it was he who opened the ceremony of laying the personal star of Roger Ebert on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
According to Forbes magazine publications, in 2007 Roger was recognized as the most authoritative critic of contemporary film works in America.
Personal life
Roger Ebert married at a fairly respectable age - at 50 years old. Before that, for some time he was in a relationship with another celebrity - Oprah Winfrey. His official wife was Chaz Hemmel-Smith. The critic explained this late age of marriage with respect for his mother, who would be upset after his marriage. Creative life left an imprint on Ebert's lifestyle, in the late 70s he became addicted to alcohol, later joined the society of anonymous alcoholics and forever said goodbye to addiction. A close friend of Roger was a specialist in the history of the film industry and critic Leonard Maltin.
The voice of the American mainstream
Thanks to almost half a century of work on TV, the opinion of Roger Ebert had a solid weight for the average layman. His personality was perceived as the voice of the US mainstream. His impulsive-emotional approach to the evaluation of films delighted the viewer, although he often got out of the unison of other critical voices. For example, he enthusiastically praised almost all the works of Alex Proyas, although other experts were more than cynical about his work.
last years of life
In 2002, Roger Ebert underwent several complex operations due to thyroid cancer. As a result, the critic lost not only most of the larynx, vocal cords, but also the lower jaw. Despite the terrifying state, he continued the work of his life - writing reviews. Before his death in 2013, the critic released a review of Terrence Malik’s new creation of the melodrama “To a Miracle,” which was written in a positive manner and published after the author’s death. Ebert died on April 4, 2013.