Gene Siskel

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Gene Siskel

Eugene "Gene" Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was one of the world's most successful film critics. Along with on-screen partner Roger Ebert, they pioneered a popular weekly movie review TV show until Siskel's death at age 53.

1 Biography
2 Quotes
3 Trivia
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Biography

Born in Chicago, Gene Siskel attended Culver Academies, graduated from Yale University in 1967 and began working for the Chicago Tribune in 1969. In 1975 Siskel teamed up with Roger Ebert, the film reviewer for the Sun Times hosting a show on the local Chicago PBS station WTTW which eventually became Sneak Previews. Their "thumbs-up, thumbs-down" system soon became an easily recognizable trademark, widely popular enough to be parodied on comedy shows such as In Living Color and in movies such as Hollywood Shuffle and Godzilla. Sneak Previews gained a nationwide audience in 1978 when it was carried on PBS.

Siskel and Ebert left WTTW and PBS in 1982 for syndication. The new show, "At the Movies" was produced and distributed by Tribune Broadcasting (same parent company as the Chicago Tribune and WGN-TV). "Sneak Previews" continued on PBS a few more years with other hosts.

In 1986 Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert left Tribune Broadcasting for a show to be produced by the syndication arm of The Walt Disney Company which was originally titled "Siskel & Ebert and the Movies" but later shortened to simply "Siskel & Ebert." ("At the Movies" also continued a few more years with other hosts.)

In 1998, Siskel underwent brain surgery to remove a brain tumor. He announced on February 3, 1999 that he was taking a leave of absence but that he expected to be back by the fall, writing "I'm in a hurry to get well because I don't want Roger to get more screen time than I." The last film he viewed was the Sarah Michelle Gellar romantic comedy Simply Irresistible.

He died from complications of the surgery two weeks later, at the age of 53. After Siskel's death, the producers of the show he formerly co-hosted hired other film critics and began using them on a rotating basis as an audition for a permanent successor. Ultimately, Ebert's Chicago Sun-Times colleague Richard Roeper was hired and the show was renamed Ebert & Roeper.

Siskel is survived by his wife, Marlene, and their children, Kate, Callie, and Will.

[edit] Quotes

"I always ask myself, 'Is the movie that I am watching as interesting as a documentary of the same actors having lunch together?'"

—Oft-cited question used by Siskel as a yardstick by which one could gauge a movie's quality.

[edit] Trivia

Siskel's favorite film was Saturday Night Fever, which he claimed to have seen 17 times. He liked the movie so much, he bought the famous white disco suit (worn by John Travolta in the movie) at a charity auction.

The 1996 Chris Farley film Black Sheep was the first and only movie, Siskel claimed, that caused him to walk out of the theater while viewing.[1] This is actually the second movie he may have walked out of. He vociferously described how sickened he was by the 1980 slasher film "Maniac" (on "Sneak Previews"), and walked out 30 minutes into the movie, saying the film "could not redeem itself" by the amount of violence shown up to that point.

Not a walkout per se but in early 1992 Siskel and Roger Ebert had their private screening of the Italian film Mediterraneo stopped because they disliked it and felt it was a waste of their time. The film went on to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Siskel hated nothing more than to have a baby crying while trying to view a movie. He said he would pay any usher $10 to remove the baby and its parent from the theater.

Siskel was a die-hard Chicago sports fan, especially of the NBA's Bulls, and would cover locker-room celebrations for local Chicago TV news broadcasts following Bulls championships in the 1990s.

In the last panel of a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, while Calvin was watching TV and his dad commented on the show, he said "My dad. the Gene Siskel of Saturday Morning TV."