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A two thumbs up rating became a coveted marketing tool for movies. siskel and ebert were widely recognized as the two most powerful film critics in the world. viewers loved to watch their on-air bickering and disagreements over movies. >> it's not that good. the last act of the picture i think runs on too long. he makes his point early and he doesn't -- >> i disagree. you lose all of tommy lee jones if -- >> i don't think there's much of tommy lee jones in the picture. >> you would also lose all the last business with -- you saw it, right? would you like to lose the third act? of course not. >...

Words "i'll see you at the movies." roger ebert was 70 years old. >> roger ebert reviewed films side by side with richard roper after gene siskel's death. richard roper joins me now. first, i'm so sorry for the loss of your friend and your colleague. had you known that the end was close, because just two days ago, he wrote a blog post saying he had a recurrence of cancer but he would continue doing reviews and relaunching his website. >> well, anderson, first of all, thank you very much. i thought that was such an elegant and perfect way of putting it when roger said "a leave of presence" but ...

He always said he never planned to make a career out of being a critic. but the fact is, he was made for the job. he simply loved movies. he even wrote a screenplay for a trashy hollywood film, beyond the valley of the dolls. the movie bombed so ebert finally decided to review films instead of make them. in 1975, he became the first film critic to win a pulitzer prize. >> our show is opening soon at a theater near you. >> that same year, he made his television debut on a local station with rival film critic gene siskel. >> the early years were pretty rocky. lot of fights, lot of disagreements,...

A theater, and tell the theater owners and the people that you want to see stuff other than just the "transformers 7." you want to see foreign movies, you want to see nonfiction, you want to see what independent voices are saying. people are missing great films these days, in part because we no longer have siskel and ebert speaking to a mainstream audience about films they otherwise would know nothing about. that's a huge loss. i hope that somebody is willing to step in and fill roger's shoes. >> i completely agree. be very difficult shoes to fill but i hope they try. michael moore, thea flaum...

His love the fame came as an early age. >> i started going to the movies at a child as everybody did. my aunt would take me to the grown-up movies. my dad would take me to see the marx brothers. >> he began writing reviews for the chicago sun-times in the late 60s, and in 1975 was the first film critic to win the prize for criticism. he coauthored "beyond the valley of dogs" with russ meyer. in 1976, he teamed up with gene siskel to host a weekly review program on tv. within a few years it was put into syndication, and siskel and ebert's thumbs up, items down system became their trademark. >> ...