Line #9 Creator/GeneSiskel


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3	Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was the film critic for the ''UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} Tribune'' from 1969 until his death.
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5	The son of Jewish immigrants from Russia, he was orphaned at the age of 9 and raised by his uncle's family. He attended the prestigious Culver Military Academy in Indiana, then [[UsefulNotes/IvyLeague Yale University]], where he graduated with a degree in philosophy and was also mentored in writing by [[Literature/ABellForAdano Pulitzer-winner John Hersey]]. He joined the staff of the ''Tribune'' after a stint in the Army Reserve (working as a journalist).
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7	In 1975 he began his long partnership with rival critic Creator/RogerEbert as co-hosts [[Series/SiskelAndEbert of a weekly film review show]]. The two of them rated films with a simple system: thumbs up or down, with a brief discussion of a film's strengths and/or weaknesses before presenting a verdict.
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9	The show propelled both Siskel and Ebert to nationwide acclaim, including appearances on ''Series/TheTonightShow'', and made both two of the most influential voices in American film criticism (and thus arguably ''all'' cultural criticism in the late 20th/early 21st century).
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11	Siskel died in 1999 of complications following surgery to remove a brain tumor. He'd announced a leave of absence from ''At the Movies'' two weeks prior. Ebert frequently referred to his friend and colleague in his essays until his own death in 2013.
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14	* Siskel once appeared on ''Series/TheLarrySandersShow'' AsHimself.
15	* Jay Sherman in ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic'' is visibly a gestalt of both Siskel and Ebert; he has Siskel's hairstyle and Ebert's body type. Indeed, one episode features [[InkSuitActor animated versions]] of Siskel and Ebert ([[AsHimself playing themselves]]) as guest stars.
16	* Reportedly, in ''Film/{{Willow}}'', the heads of the moat monster were nicknamed "Siskel" and "Ebert", both of which were combined to make the name "Eborsisk" for the creature. The villain of the film was also named "General Kael", after the critic Creator/PaulineKael.
17	* {{Captain Ersatz}}es of him and Ebert also appear in ''{{Film/Godzilla 1998}}'', as {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s. Both, funnily enough, felt the film [[DoWrongRight didn't go far enough with punishing them]].
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19	!!"Is this page more interesting than a documentary of the same tropes having lunch?":
20	* BaldnessAngst: His hairline began receding rapidly when he was still in his 20s, so by the time he started teaming up with Ebert on TV he tried to compensate with a huge PornStache, which had the opposite effect of making him look older. In the early episodes Siskel looks like he's in his 40s, and a good two decades older than Ebert, when in fact Ebert was 33 and Siskel was 29. He shaved it by the time ''Sneak Previews'' went national, and in the next couple of decades his baldness oddly made him look more ageless aside Ebert, whose thick mane went grey prematurely.
21	* BrutalHonesty: One of Siskel's trademarks was not holding back his opinions, which was not only true of his reviews, but also his interviews. He chided Creator/EddieMurphy for directing himself in ''Film/HarlemNights'', and flat-out slammed ''Film/GiveMyRegardsToBroadStreet'' to Music/PaulMcCartney's face, calling it "mindless music video madness".
22	* EightDeadlyWords: [[invoked]] His often-quoted riff on this concept was that if he started losing interest in a film, he would ask himself if a documentary of the performers having lunch together would be more interesting than the film he was watching, and if the answer was "yes", then the film was a failure.
23	* ExecutiveMeddling: [[invoked]] ''At the Movies'', the 1982-86 series hosted by Siskel and Ebert, was distributed by Tribune Entertainment, owned by Siskel's employer the ''Chicago Tribune''. In 1986 they left Tribune for the [[Creator/{{Disney}} Buena Vista]]-distributed ''Series/SiskelAndEbert'', and afterwards the ''Tribune'' effectively demoted Siskel, replacing him as the full-time film critic, and turning him into a "film columnist" who did features and capsule reviews. Siskel went along with it, but Creator/RogerEbert was furious, and approached the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' about hiring Siskel and teaming them up at the same newspaper, which the ''Sun-Times'' was apparently willing to do, but Siskel wasn't interested (ironically, Ebert would team with a ''Sun-Times'' co-worker, Richard Roeper, after Siskel's death).
24	* HilariousInHindsight: [[invoked]]
25	** The first film he reviewed at the ''Tribune'' was the Creator/{{Disney}} movie ''Rascal'' in 1969. 17 years later, he went to work for Disney, since their TV wing Buena Vista Television distributed ''Series/SiskelAndEbert'' starting in 1986.
26	** His 1970 review of ''Film/BeyondTheValleyOfTheDolls'' gave it zero stars and zinged it for "boredom aplenty", singling out "a screenplay which for some reason has been turned over to a screenwriting neophyte." The neophyte was, of course, Creator/RogerEbert.
27	* InsultToRocks: Discussing ''Film/{{Ishtar}}'' on their Worst of '87 special, Gene Siskel said "I just saw ''Film/RoadToMorocco'', and it is funnier than ''Ishtar''--of course, that's really, I guess, an insult to ''Road to Morocco''. Anything is funnier than ''Ishtar''--except ''Film/LeonardPart6''."
28	* MostWritersAreWriters: His criteria for judging films about writers was based on whether the viewer would actually want to read their books.
29	* RedOniBlueOni: Siskel generally came off as the Red Oni to Ebert's Blue Oni. Ebert's tastes tended to be more highbrow, and Siskel's more mainstream, as exemplified by their all-time favorite films: ''Film/LaDolceVita'' for Ebert, ''Film/SaturdayNightFever'' for Siskel. Interestingly, this contrasts strongly with their personal backgrounds--Siskel graduated [[IvyLeagueForEveryone from Yale]] with a philosophy degree, while University of Illinois grad Ebert had a working class background.
30	* RoadMovie: His rule of thumb for judging these was whether the film made him want to travel to the same places the characters were going, or else they were going to places he was familiar with.
31	* RuleOfTwo: Deliberately, giving the nature of his and Ebert's profession, and to provide ambience. On the duo's many numerous talkshow appearances, for example (mainly on ''David Letterman 's' ' "Late Night" and "Late Show"), a short piece would accompany them on stage - in the case of their Letterman spots - either "Under My Thumb" (a reference to the duo's famous "Thumbs Up/Down" rating system" or the saxophone solo from "Just the Two of Us". Understandably ceased once Ebert started making solo appearances after Siskel's passing.
32	* WalkingOutOnTheShow: He walked out of ''Million Dollar Duck'', ''Maniac'', and ''Black Sheep''.

Context Creator / GeneSiskel