Gene Siskel | |
|---|---|
 Siskel at the61st Academy Awards in 1989 | |
| Born | Eugene Kal Siskel (1946-01-26)January 26, 1946 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | February 20, 1999(1999-02-20) (aged 53) Evanston, Illinois, U.S. |
| Resting place | Westlawn Cemetery |
| Education | Yale University (BA) |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1969–1999 |
| Notable credit(s) | Opening Soon at a Theater Near You (1975–1977) Sneak Previews (1977–1982) At the Movies (1982–1986) Siskel & Ebert (1986–1999) CBS This Morning (1990–1996) Good Morning America (1996–1999) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Relatives | Ed Siskel (nephew) |
Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for theChicago Tribune who co-hosted a movie review television series alongside colleagueRoger Ebert.[1]
Siskel started writing for theChicago Tribune in 1969, becoming its film critic soon after. In 1975, he was paired with Roger Ebert to co-host a monthly show calledOpening Soon at a Theater Near You airing locally onPBS member stationWTTW.[2] In 1978, the show, renamedSneak Previews, was expanded to weekly episodes and aired on PBS affiliates across the United States.[2] In 1982, Siskel and Ebert leftSneak Previews to create thesyndicated showAt the Movies.[2] Following a contract dispute withTribune Entertainment in 1986, Siskel and Ebert signed withBuena Vista Television, creatingSiskel & Ebert & the Movies (renamedSiskel & Ebert in 1987, and renamed again several times after Siskel's death).[2]
Known for their biting wit, intense professional rivalry, heated arguments, and trademark "Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down" movie ratings system, Siskel and Ebert became celebrated in American pop culture.[3][4] Siskel was diagnosed with brain cancer in May 1998 but remained in the public eye as Ebert's professional partner until his death the following year.[1]
Siskel was born inChicago on January 26, 1946, the youngest of three children born to Ida (née Kalis) and Nathan William Siskel, who wereRussian Jewish immigrants.[5][6] His father died when he was four and his mother died when he was nine; thereafter, he was raised by his aunt and uncle.[7]
Siskel attended DeWitt Clinton Elementary School in Chicago and nearby was the Nortown Theater where he often frequented to watch movies. This sparked his interest in films.
Siskel also attendedCulver Academies, where he experienced anti-Semitism firsthand when a schoolmate gave him a piece of toast on which jam was spread in the shape of a swastika.[8]
Siskel graduated fromYale University with a degree in philosophy in 1967. While at Yale, Siskel was classmates with poetPaul Monette and future New York GovernorGeorge Pataki.[9] Siskel studied writing underPulitzer Prize-winning authorJohn Hersey, whose reference would later help Siskel get a job at theChicago Tribune in 1969.[10]
Siskel's first print review, written one month before he became theTribune's film critic, was for the filmRascal.[11][12] His review of the film was not favorable ("Because of the excessive gimmickry, most kids will miss the tenderness," he wrote).[11][12] Prior to this, he served in theU.S. Army Reserve; he was a military journalist and public affairs officer for theDefense Information School.[13] For a time afterwards, he was acquainted withPlayboy magazine publisherHugh Hefner.[14]
In 1986, theChicago Tribune announced that Siskel was no longer the paper's film critic, and that his position with the paper had been shifted from that of a full-time film critic to that of a freelance contract writer who was to write about the film industry for the Sunday paper and also provide capsule film reviews for the paper's entertainment sections.[15] The demotion occurred after Siskel and Ebert decided to shift production of their weekly movie-review show, then known asAt the Movies (later known asSiskel & Ebert), fromTribune Entertainment tothe Walt Disney Company'sBuena Vista Television unit. Editor James Squires stated on the move, "He's done a great job for us. It's a question of how much a person can do physically. We think you need to be a newspaper person first, and Gene Siskel always tried to do that. But there comes a point when a career is so big that you can't do that." Siskel declined to comment on the new arrangement, but Ebert publicly criticized Siskel'sTribune bosses for punishing Siskel for taking their television program to a company other than Tribune Entertainment.[16] Ebert privately suggested that Siskel join him at theChicago Sun-Times, but Siskel remained a freelancer for theTribune until his death in 1999.[17] He was replaced as film critic byDave Kehr.[18]
The last review published by Siskel for theChicago Tribune was for the filmShe's All That, published on January 29, 1999, in which he gave a favorable review, giving it three stars out of four and wrote that "Rachael Leigh Cook as Laney, the plain Jane object of the makeover, is forced to demonstrate the biggest emotional range as a character, and she is equal to the assignment. I look forward to seeing her in her next movie."[11][19]
In 1975, Siskel teamed up with Ebert, film reviewer for theChicago Sun-Times, to host a show on local Chicago PBS stationWTTW which eventually becameSneak Previews.[2] Their "thumbs-up, thumbs-down" system soon became an easily recognizable trademark,[2][3][4] popular enough to be parodied on comedy shows such asSecond City Television,In Living Color,Bizarre, and in movies such asHollywood Shuffle andGodzilla.[20]Sneak Previews gained a nationwide audience in 1977 when WTTW offered it as a series to thePBS program system.[2]
Siskel and Ebert left WTTW and PBS in 1982 forsyndication.[2] Their new show,At the Movies, was produced and distributed byTribune Broadcasting, the parent company of theChicago Tribune andWGN-TV.[2]Sneak Previews continued on PBS for 14 more years with other hosts until its cancellation in 1996.[2] In 1986, Siskel and Ebert left Tribune Broadcasting to have their show produced by the syndication arm ofthe Walt Disney Company.[2] The new incarnation of the show was originally titledSiskel & Ebert & the Movies, but later shortened toSiskel & Ebert.[2]At the Movies also continued for a few more years with other hosts until its cancellation in 1990.[2]
The last five movies Siskel reviewed with Ebert on the show before his death aired during the weekend of January 23–24, 1999.[21] On the show, they reviewedAt First Sight,Another Day in Paradise,The Hi-Lo Country,Playing by Heart, andThe Theory of Flight.[22] Siskel gave thumbs up to all of them, except forPlaying by Heart.[22]
Following Siskel's death, Ebert continued the series with rotating guest hosts, which includedMartin Scorsese,[23]Janet Maslin,Peter Bogdanovich,Todd McCarthy,Lisa Schwarzbaum,Kenneth Turan,Elvis Mitchell, and the eventual replacement for Siskel,Richard Roeper.[24][25][26]
Siskel and Ebert were known for their many appearances on late-night talk shows, including appearances onThe Late Show with David Letterman sixteen times andThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson fifteen times. They also appeared together onThe Oprah Winfrey Show,The Arsenio Hall Show,Howard Stern,The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, andLate Night with Conan O'Brien.
In 1982, 1983, and 1985, Siskel, along with Ebert, appeared as themselves onSaturday Night Live.[27][28] For their first two appearances, they reviewed sketches from that night's telecast and reviewed sketches from the "SNL Film Festival" for their last appearance.[29]
In 1991, Siskel, along with Ebert, appeared in a segment on the children's television seriesSesame Street entitled "Sneak Peek Previews" (a parody ofSneak Previews).[30] In the segment, the critics instruct the hostsOscar the Grouch and Telly Monster on how their thumbs up/thumbs down rating system works.[30] Oscar asks if there could be a thumbs sideways ratings, and goads the two men into an argument about whether or not that would be acceptable, as Ebert likes the idea, but Siskel does not.[30] The two were also seen that same year in the show's celebrity version of "Monster in the Mirror".[31]
In 1993, Siskel appeared as himself in an episode ofThe Larry Sanders Show entitled "Off Camera".[32]Entertainment Weekly chose his performance as one of the great scenes in that year's television.[33]
In 1995, Siskel and Ebert guest-starred on an episode of the animated TV seriesThe Critic entitled "Siskel & Ebert & Jay & Alice".[34] In the episode, Siskel and Ebert split and each wants protagonist Jay Sherman, a fellow movie critic, as his new partner.[34] The episode is a parody of the filmSleepless in Seattle.[34]
An early appearance of Siskel, taken fromOpening Soon at a Theater Near You, the predecessor toSneak Previews, is included in the 2009 documentary film,For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism.[35] In the film, he is seen debating with Ebert over the merits of thefilm version ofOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.[35]
Gene Siskel had an abrasive review style, and claimed his film criticism was an individual exercise that should not be swayed by public taste. In an interview for the Academy of Television and Radio, his TV co-host said of him, "I think Gene felt that he had to like the whole picture to give it a thumbs up."[36]
In particular, he often gave negative reviews to films that became box office champs and went on to be considered mainstream classics:Poltergeist,[37]Scarface,[38]Beverly Hills Cop,[39]The Terminator,Aliens,[40]Predator,Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,[41]Thelma & Louise, andIndependence Day. This even extended to several films that went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture:The Silence of the Lambs[11][42] andUnforgiven.
Yet, Ebert also noted in a memoriam episode ofSiskel and Ebert that when Siskel found a movie that he truly treasured, he embraced it as something special. Directly addressing his late colleague, Ebert said: "I know for sure that seeing a truly great movie made you so happy that you'd tell me a week later your spirits were still high."[43] Some of Siskel's most treasured movies includedMy Dinner with Andre (1981),[44]Shoah (1985),Fargo (1996), and the documentaryHoop Dreams (1994).[45][46]
One of Siskel's favorite films wasSaturday Night Fever;[47] he even bought the famous whitedisco suit that John Travolta wore in the film from a charity auction.[48] Another all-time favorite wasDr. Strangelove.[49][50] A favorite from childhood wasDumbo,[51] which he often mentioned as the first film that had an influence on him.[43][52][53]
Siskel compiled "best of the year" film lists from 1969 to 1998, which helped to provide an overview of his critical preferences.[54][55] His top choices were:
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From 1969 until his death in February 1999, he and Ebert were in agreement on nine annual top selections:Z,The Godfather,Nashville,The Right Stuff,Do the Right Thing,Goodfellas,Schindler's List,Hoop Dreams, andFargo. There would have been a tenth, but Ebert declined to rank the9+1⁄2-hour documentaryShoah as 1985's best film because he felt it was inappropriate to compare it to the rest of the year's candidates.[73] Six times, Siskel's number one choice did not appear on Ebert's top ten list at all:Straight Time,Ragtime,Once Upon a Time in America,The Last Temptation of Christ,Hearts of Darkness, andThe Ice Storm. Seven times, Ebert's top selection did not appear on Siskel's; these films were3 Women,An Unmarried Woman,Apocalypse Now,Sophie's Choice,Mississippi Burning,Eve's Bayou andDark City.[54]
In 1980, Siskel married Marlene Iglitzen, who was then a producer forCBS in New York. They had two daughters, Kate (a marketing and communications executive at Convergent Energy and Power inNew York City) and Callie (a poet and writer), and a son, Will (a coordinator of major league operations for theAtlanta Braves baseball team).[74][75] Their daughters graduated from Siskel's alma mater, Yale University.[76] He is the uncle ofEd Siskel, a lawyer and formerWhite House Counsel under U.S. PresidentJoe Biden,[77] Jon Siskel, a co-founder of the documentary and film-production based companySiskel/Jacobs Productions,[78] and Charlie Siskel, a documentary film producer.
Siskel was diagnosed with a malignant terminalbrain tumor on May 8, 1998.[79][80] He underwent brain surgery three days later.[81][82] For a few weeks during his recovery, he participated onSiskel & Ebert by telephone, calling in from his hospital bed while Ebert appeared in the studio.[83][84][85] Siskel did not disclose the severity of his illness to anyone outside of his family; publicly, he said that the surgery removed an unspecified "growth" on his brain, and that he was recovering well.[86][87] He eventually returned to the studio, but was noted to appear more lethargic and mellow than usual.[88] On February 3, 1999, he announced that he was taking aleave of absence from the show, but that he expected to be back by the fall, stating, "I'm in a hurry to get well because I don't want Roger to get more screen time than I."[10]
Siskel died at a hospital inEvanston, Illinois, on February 20, 1999, nine months after his diagnosis and surgery; he was 53 years old.[10][89] Hisfuneral was held two days later at theNorth Suburban Synagogue Beth El.[7][50] He is interred atWestlawn Cemetery inNorridge, Illinois.[90][91]
Siskel was a Chicago sports fan, especially of his hometown basketball team, theChicago Bulls, and he would cover locker-room celebrations forWBBM-TV news broadcasts following Bulls championships in the 1990s.[43]
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Siskel was also a member of the advisory committee of theFilm Center at theSchool of the Art Institute of Chicago and a strong supporter of the Film Center mission.[92] He wrote hundreds of articles applauding the Film Center's distinctive programming and lent the power of his position as a well-known film critic to urge public funding and audience support.[92] In June 2000, the Film Center was renamedThe Gene Siskel Film Center in his honor.[92][93][94]
Only once during his long association with Ebert did Siskel ever change his vote on a movie during the review. He initially gave the filmBroken Arrow a "thumbs up", but after hearing Ebert's criticism, Siskel changed his mind to "thumbs down". He then tried to get Ebert to give the 1993 filmCop and a Half a thumbs down but Ebert declined.[95][96] However, he had changed his opinions on films years after his initial reviews, as withTremors, to which he gave a negative review in 1990[97] but later gave a glowing positive evaluation in 1994, stating, "I wasn't sure what I missed the first time around, but it just didn't click."[98]
Siskel said that he walked out on three films during his professional career: the 1971 comedyThe Million Dollar Duck starringDean Jones, the 1980 horror filmManiac, and the 1996Penelope Spheeris filmBlack Sheep.[49][99] When he mentioned walking out onBlack Sheep in 1996, he said it was the first time he walked out on a movie he was reviewing sinceMillion Dollar Duck in 1971; he later explained that he did not includeManiac because he did not reviewManiac as an assignment for his newspaper or part of his and Ebert's weekly TV reviews but only as a "Dog of the Week", a feature of the TV show in which each critic would single out the very worst movie they had seen that week.[95]
Both critics had specific sensitivities and feelings that would often vary in extremes regarding certain kinds of bad films.[2][100][101] Ebert was very sensitive to films about race and ethnicity; Siskel was sensitive to films about families and family relationships and had a special hatred for films likeHouse Arrest (1996) andLike Father Like Son (1987), both of which were about parents and their children.[102][103][104]
Following Siskel's death in 1999, Ebert wrote:
Gene was a lifelong friend, and our professional competition only strengthened that bond. I can't even imagine what will it be like without him. ...As a critic, Siskel was passionate and exacting. I think it was important to Gene that this was the only serious film criticism on television. That made him proud. We had a lot of big fights. We were people who came together one day a week and, the other six days, we were competitors on two daily newspapers and two different television stations. So there was a lot of competition and a lot of disagreement.[105]
Ebert once said of his relationship with Siskel:
Gene Siskel and I were like tuning forks. Strike one, and the other would pick up the same frequency. When we were in a group together, we were always intensely aware of one another. Sometimes this took the form of camaraderie, sometimes shared opinions, sometimes hostility.[106][107]
When both men appeared together onThe Late Show Starring Joan Rivers,Joan Rivers conducted a "together and separately" interview with them, which at one point had each of them wear Walkman-style headphones, playing loud music, while the other commented on his partner.[108] When asked what he thought was the biggest difference between himself and Ebert, Siskel unhesitatingly replied: "I'm a better reviewer than he is", but a few moments later, he said that anyone who read an Ebert review would read "an extremely well-written review".[108]
At the1999 Academy Awards ceremony, after itsin memoriam montage of deceased stars and film contributors (which did not include Siskel), hostWhoopi Goldberg gave a brief impromptu tribute to Siskel:
I want to take a moment to acknowledge someone we lost too recently to include in our film tribute. He wasn't a filmmaker, but he definitely was a member of our film community. Now he clobbered some of us with a great big stick and sometimes he touched us with a velvet glove. I'm talking about Gene Siskel. He was a critic but more importantly, he really loved movies, so, Gene, wherever you are, honey, here's to you.[109]
She included the iconic "thumbs-up" gesture; it received a great round of audience applause.[109]
In November 2025, theChicago Cultural Center scheduled a series of events to mark the 50th anniversary of the "Siskel & Ebert" show.[110]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1975-1982 | Sneak Previews | Host | 148 episodes |
| 1982-1985 | Saturday Night Live | Himself | 3 episodes |
| 1982-1986 | At the Movies | Host | 156 episodes |
| 1982-1993 | Late Night with David Letterman | Guest | 15 episodes |
| 1983-1995 | Nightline | Himself | 3 episodes |
| 1985-1992 | The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson | Guest | 15 episodes |
| 1986 | The Late Show | Himself | 1 episode |
| Nightlife | 1 episode | ||
| Hour Magazine | 1 episode | ||
| 1986-1999 | At the Movies | Host | 597 episodes |
| 1987 | Rated K: For Kids by Kids | Guest | Episode: "Gene Siskel andRoger Ebert" |
| 1987-1993 | Siskel & Ebert Holiday Gift Guide | Host | 7 episodes |
| 1988 | 48 Hours | Film Critic | Episode: "In Hollywood" |
| 1988-1996 | The Oprah Winfrey Show | Movie Critic | 3 episodes |
| 1989 | The Siskel & Ebert 500th Anniversary Special | Host | |
| 1989-1993 | The Arsenio Hall Show | Himself | 3 episodes |
| 1990 | Siskel & Ebert: The Future of the Movies | Host | |
| Moving Pictures | Himself | 1 episode | |
| 1991 | Big Bird's Birthday or Let Me Eat Cake | ||
| Sesame Street:Monster in the Mirror | |||
| The Howard Stern Show | Episode: "Siskel & Ebert" | ||
| The Best of Disney: 50 Years of Magic | |||
| Siskel & Ebert: Actors on Acting | |||
| A Comedy Salute toMichael Jordan | |||
| 1992 | Sesame Street | Episode: "An African Lullaby by Lillian" | |
| Diamonds on the Silver Screen | |||
| Hoffa:Siskel and Ebert | |||
| 1992-1998 | The Tonight Show with Jay Leno | Guest | 11 episodes |
| 1993 | Bob Hope: The First 90 Years | Himself | |
| Sesame Street Jam: A Musical Celebration | |||
| The Larry Sanders Show | Episode: "Off Camera" | ||
| 1994 | Bill Nye the Science Guy | Episode: "Eyeballs" | |
| Investigative Reports | Media Critic | Episode: "Prime Time Violence" | |
| The 31st Annual Publicist Guild of America Awards | Himself | ||
| The 10th TV Academy Hall of Fame | |||
| 1995 | The Critic | Episode: "Siskel & Ebert & Jay & Alice" | |
| 1995-1997 | Howard Stern | 3 episodes | |
| 1996 | Biography | Episode: "Arnold Schwarzenegger: Flex Appeal" | |
| 60 Minutes | Movie Critic | Episode: "Easy Money in Hard Times/The Mormons/Spike Lee" | |
| The Siskel & Ebert Interviews | Interviewee | ||
| 1997 | Late Night with Conan O'Brien | Guest | Episode: "Gene Siskel & Roger Ebert/Jeffrey Ross" |
| 1998 | The Sport Jerks | Himself | |
| AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies: America's Greatest Movies | |||
| Chicago Filmmakers on the Chicago River | |||
| Chicago Tonight | Guest | Episode: "Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert" | |
| 1999 | Television: The First Fifty Years | Interviewee |
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)Siskel chose the box-office flop "Babe: Pig in the City" as the year's best film, followed by "The Thin Red Line," "Pleasantville," "Saving Private Ryan," "Shakespeare in Love," "The Truman Show," "Antz," "Simon Birch," "There's Something About Mary" and "Waking Ned Devine."
Film buffs will recognize Siskel's name, too. He's the nephew of the late famed movie critic, Gene Siskel.
A friend of [my uncle Gene Siskel] had just been made president of the Travel Channel and [Uncle Gene] suggested that I push my stories to him. …[I got hired] and I moved to L.A. ... .[dead link]
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