I may or may not have met Roger Ebert exactly once in my life…I think I was in my tweens, when my Mom was working on Siskel & Ebert, and I may or may not have sat in one of his iconic theatre chairs. I may or may not have produced a promo for the revamped but short lived Ebert Presents At The Movies that aired on PBS a few years ago. And I may or may not have said hi to his wife Chaz in the womens bathroom at PBS.
But this I know for sure…he was a great man. A proud man. At times, a tough and ruthless critic. But he was one of the good ones, because he backed it up with a wealth of knowledge from past films, not Wikipedia or tweets. Awed by the future of technology but still appreciative of nostalgia, he was a rare critic that was neither loathed nor adored. He was just plain liked.
I was shocked to find out about his death. Thinking it was an Internet hoax (see Bill Nye, the science guy), I had to check the news agencies to confirm…and when NPR and CNN had reported, I went to my second news source, Facebook….where low and behold, status messages of ‘thumbs down’ were amid the blog post he wrote about death…Even his last blog entry, posted this Tuesday, ended with “I’ll see you at the movies.” How apropos, Mr. Ebert.
He wrote in his blog about death, “I hope to be spared as much pain as possible on the approach path.” And according to Chaz, his beloved wife, his passing was just that…“he looked at us, smiled, and passed away. No struggle, no pain, just a quiet, dignified transition.” A class act till the end.
In a world of IMDB and tumblr, he was one of the last irreplaceable critics out there, who didn’t need flashy video or things like “production value” to add flair to his reviews. He just need a pen and paper, his trusty MacBook Pro, and in his final years, the voice activated computer that rivaled Stephen Hawking.
Your spirit will be missed, but your legacy will forever be synonymous with movies.
See you at the movies, Roger. The balcony is now forever closed.
