Sooooo sad...he was a wonderful writer and film critic. He will always be remembered. Oh, and he LOVED Disney movies...I remember how happy he was to see traditional animation again when Princess and the Frog came out.
I'll never forget watching Siskel & Ebert as a boy, every week - even when the local affiliate moved the show to 1:30 a.m. on Mondays. When my family finally got internet access, I was blown away by the realization that I could also read Ebert's reviews each week. I "grew up" with Ebert; he was one of the individuals who inspired me to become a writer. So, like many other moviegoers today, I feel as if I've lost a good friend. I'm really going to miss him.
I remember wanting to be a movie critic when I was fourteen, just on watching the vintage Sneak Previews.
Later, I grew up and got to argue back and forth with Ebert on his blog column (even heard from him in e-mail once or twice), and a couple ties he said my comments were some of his favorites.
Even today, I realized there were a couple of movie and news topics I wouldn't have the chance to argue over on the blog, and there was no longer any reason go back there.
But it's good when you can reconcile yourself with your childhood influences.
In the UK in the 1980s we had just one national film critic, a great guy called Barry Norman. He *was* film at that time, but the only other people that could get a look-in on movie posters even over here were Siskel & Ebert and the legendary "thumbs up" quotes.
At The Movies played here on some early cable channels, and I would catch whichever episodes I could at the sometimes odd times they would be shown. While neither would really be "household names" over here, Ebert especially had more impact when the internet meant we could read his Chicago Sun Times reviews directly.
Since he was still going strong when his illness came back, he's one of the few that really will be missed...through his seriously entertaining and informed writing each week.