Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert is a noted contributor to Encyclopaedia Britannica online. Read Britannica's biography of Roger Ebert
BIOGRAPHY

American film critic, perhaps the best known of his profession, who became the first person to receive a Pulitzer Prize for film criticism (1975). That same year he and Gene Siskel, lead film critic of the rival Chicago Tribune, agreed to appear together in a televised movie-review program. Opening Soon at a Theater near You aired on public-access television from 1975 to 1978, when it was picked up by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and renamed Sneak Previews. The show went into syndication on commercial television in 1982 as At the Movies, and in 1986, with a move to Buena Vista Television, it became Siskel & Ebert & the Movies (later Siskel & Ebert). As part of his on-air commentary, Ebert originated the famed thumbs-up, thumbs-down rating system, and the phrase “two thumbs up” was later copyrighted. Each week Ebert and Siskel carried on unscripted discussions of the films they reviewed, and their immense popularity was in part due to frequently diverging opinions and a willingness to conduct heated arguments on the air. Their programs received a total of seven prime-time Emmy Award nominations between 1984 and 1997.

Photograph: Globe Photos/Zuma Press/Alamy

Primary Contributions (1)
In 1967 Roger Ebert became the chief film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, a position he held for more than 40 years. During that time he became, in 1975, the first person to receive a Pulitzer Prize for film criticism, and he became one of the best-known American film critics through the…
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Publications (4)
Roger Ebert's Four-Star Reviews 1967-2007
Roger Ebert's Four-Star Reviews 1967-2007 (February 2008)
By Roger Ebert
Spanning the length of Roger Ebert's career as the leading American movie critic, this book contains all of his four-star reviews written during that time. A great guide for movie watching.
Awake in the Dark: The Best of Roger Ebert
Awake in the Dark: The Best of Roger Ebert (May 2008)
By Roger Ebert, David Bordwell
Roger Ebert has been writing film reviews for the Chicago Sun-Times for nearly forty years. And during those four decades, his wide knowledge, keen judgment, prodigious energy, and sharp sense of humor have made him America’s most celebrated film critic. He was the first such critic to win a Pulitzer Prize—one of just three film critics ever to receive that honor—and the only one to have a star dedicated to him on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His groundbreaking hit TV show, At the Movies, meanwhile,...
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Your Movie Sucks
Your Movie Sucks (March 2007)
By Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert's I Hated Hated Hated This Movie, which gathered some of his most scathing reviews, was a best-seller. This new collection continues the tradition, reviewing not only movies that were at the bottom of the barrel, but also movies that he found underneath the barrel.From Roger's review of Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (0 stars): "The movie created a spot of controversy in February 2005. According to a story by Larry Carroll of MTV News, Rob Schneider took offense when Patrick...
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The Great Movies
The Great Movies (November 2003)
By Roger Ebert
America’s most trusted and best-known film critic Roger Ebert presents one hundred brilliant essays on some of the best movies ever made.Roger Ebert, the famed film writer and critic, wrote biweekly essays for a feature called "The Great Movies," in which he offered a fresh and fervent appreciation of a great film. The Great Movies collects one hundred of these essays, each one of them a gem of critical appreciation and an amalgam of love, analysis, and history that will send readers back...
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