Roger Ebert Biography

Fast Facts

• Was co-editor of his high-school newspaper
• Joined the Chicago Sun-Times as a reporter in 1966 and started writing film reviews for the paper a year later
• Teamed with Chicago Tribune film critic Gene Siskel in 1975 for the weekly review program Sneak Previews, which aired on PBS for more than two decades
• Became, in 1975, the first recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for film criticism
• Wrote the screenplay for Russ Meyer's cult-classic Beyond the Valley of the Dolls; used pseudonyms for writing Meyer's Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens and Up! Founded the annual event Ebertfest, originally titled Roger Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival, in 1999
• Received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2005
• Had his right thumb trademarked
• Authored more than 20 books
• Continued to write film reviews after having survived thyroid and salivary-gland cancers and having part of his jaw bone removed; employs text-to-speech software that allows him to converse