| "No good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough"
Jun 18, 1942, Roger Ebert was born in Urbana, Illinois. He started a newspaper job at 15, writing sports for the The News-Gazette, learning the tricks of the trade at a very early age. He went to the University of Illinois, and won an award for his college newspaper work there. Although the majority of Ebert's work is in print(reviews for Chicago Sun-Times for years, and several successful books on film) he's best known for his work on television, specifically that which was done with his deceased partner Gene Siskel. Siskel and Ebert were a very popular pair, mostly due to their wonderful tendency to strongly and loudly disagree with each other.
Siskel died in 1999, and after hosting the show with a special guest every week for a while, Ebert finally got what looks like a permanent co-host in Richard Roeper. He's no Siskel.
Anyway, Roger Ebert is an honest critic, despite his celebrity status and influence on movie-goers. Sure, your opinion is your own, and everyone hates critics who insult their favorite movies. Fame be damned, you can still tell that his reviews aren't coming from a studio exec's wallet.
Ebert's most prestigious credit is being the only person in history to win a Pulitzer Prize for film criticism.
Ebert also wrote some screenplays that were turned into movies, like Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (which he's oddly proud of.)
Ebert's top ten films of all time
Sources:
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/8200/ebert.htm
www.imdb.com
http://www.combustiblecelluloid.com/faves.shtml
and thanks go to sid | 
