As part of their year-end In Memoriam package, Time has posted a tribute to Roger Ebert from critic Richard Corliss, who also wrote Ebert’s obituary for the magazine in April. Ebert, he says, “went out fighting, and writing.”
In his 46 years as a critic, Ebert streamed millions of words, by voice and print, by digital and social media. He shared his thoughts on the Internet long before friend was a verb; rare for a critic, he was as interested in other people’s opinions as his own. More famous than most of the actors and directors he wrote about, he was at ease with his celebrity, always amiable to strangers who approached him at film festivals.
And in his last seven years, when he endured more outrages of fate than Job, he demonstrated with grace and grit — and with his beloved wife Chaz at his side — how a man’s spirit could flourish as he tried to outthink Death.
Other film and TV figures memorialized include Annette Funicello, James Gandolfini, Julie Harris, Elmore Leonard, Cory Monteith, Jean Stapleton, Jonathan Winters, Paul Walker, and Esther Williams.
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