“There is a part of me that will forever want to be walking under autumn leaves, carrying a briefcase containing the works of Shakespeare and Yeats and a portable chess set. I will pass an old tree under which once on a summer night I lay on the grass with a fragrant young woman and we quoted e.e. cummings back and forth.”

American film critic and journalist, 1942–2013. He became a defining voice of film criticism through his long tenure at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he championed thoughtful, accessible reviews that balanced rigor with warmth. His work extended beyond print to television, where his *Siskel & Ebert* show with Gene Siskel made film discussion a cultural touchstone.