Gene Siskel was an American cinema critic and journalist who died with a net worth of $5 million. Gene Siskel was born in January 1946 in Chicago, Illinois, and died in February 1999.
Siskel w as best known as a member of the film review pair Siskel & Ebert, along with Roger Ebert. Siskel and Ebert became a pop cultural phenomenon, noted for their caustic wit, intense professional rivalry, heated disagreements, and their signature “Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down” movie rating system.
How did Gene Siskel die?
Gene Siskel died on February 20, 1999, as a result of complications from his brain surgery, and his funeral was held two days later at the North Suburban Synagogue Beth El. He is buried in Norridge, Illinois, at Westlawn Cemetery.
On May 8, 1998, Siskel was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. Three days later, he underwent brain surgery. For a few weeks after the surgery, he called into the Siskel & Ebert show from his hospital bed while Ebert was in the studio. After his recovery, Siskel returned to the studio, but he appeared more sleepy and mellow than normal.
On February 3, 1999, he revealed that he was leaving the program but would return in the fall, explaining, “I’m in a hurry to get well because I don’t want Roger to get more screen time than I.”
Meanwhile, after completing his education, Siskel joined the United States Army Reserve as a military writer and public relations officer for the Defense Information School. He then landed a job as a film critic for the “Chicago Tribune.” His first film review was for “Rascal.” He was the paper’s film critic until 1986 when the “Chicago Tribune” announced that Siskel would no longer be the paper’s full-time critic and would instead work as a freelance contract writer. He held this position until 1999.
In 1975, Siskel collaborated with Roger Ebert, a film critic for the “Chicago Sun-Times.” The two began hosting a show on WTTW, the local Chicago PBS station, that became known as “Sneak Previews.” On the show, they established a thumbs-up, thumbs-down system for film reviews, with Siskel and Ebert rating each picture as either thumbs-up or thumbs-down after delivering their full assessment. The rating system quickly became a well-known trademark, so much so that it was spoofed on comedy series and films like “Second City Television,” “In Living Color,” “Bizarre,” “Hollywood Shuffle,” and “Godzilla.” When WTTW released “Sneak Previews” as a series to the PBS Program system in 1977, it attracted a countrywide audience.
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