Roger Ebert was born on the 18th June 1942 in Urbana, Illinois USA, of German (father) and Dutch and Irish (mother) ancestry. He was a famous film critic, journalist, historian, screenwriter, and author, probably best known for his work with the Chicago Sun-Times, and as a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, the first critic so awarded, and similarly the first to be rewarded with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Ebert was one of the greatest in his work, and his skills helped him to increase his net worth. Ebert’s career started in 1967, and he died on the 4th April 2013 in Chicago, Illinois.
Have you ever wondered how rich Roger Ebert was at the time of his death? According to authoritative sources, it has been estimated that Roger Ebert’s net worth was as high as $9 million. In addition to writing critiques, he also published more than 20 books that considerably improved his wealth.
Roger Ebert Net Worth $9 Million
Roger Joseph Ebert was the only child of Walter Harry Ebert, an electrician, and Annabel, a bookkeeper. Raised as Roman-Catholic, Ebert went to St. Mary’s elementary school and served as an altar boy in his hometown of Urbana. He started to develop an interest in journalism when at Urbana High School, where he worked as a sports writer for The News-Gazette. Ebert matriculated from high school in 1960 – he was class president and editor-in-chief of the newspaper in his senior year. Roger enrolled at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and graduated with a BA in 1964. He worked for Daily Illini during his college days, and one of the first film critiques he wrote was for “La Dolce Vita” in 1961.
Roger then studied at the University of Chicago where he prepared his doctorate, but quit because got an opportunity to start his career at the Chicago Sun-Times as a film critic in 1967. The same year, his first book “Illini Century: One Hundred Years of Campus Life” was published, then his review of “Night of the Living Dead” was published by the Reader’s Digest in 1969. In 1970 the script for the Russ Meyer’s movie “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls”saw Ebert as a co-writer, and he also began work as a guest lecturer at the University of Chicago.
In 1972, Ebert co-hosted the television show called “Sneak Previews” in which he reviewed films, joined three years later by Gene Siskel, and the pair became famous for their thumbs up and thumbs down reviews. They left the PBS and established syndicated a new commercial television show named “At The Movies With Gene Siskel & Roger Ebert” in 1982. Four years later, Ebert and Siskel created another show – “Siskel & Ebert & The Movies” under Walt Disney’s production of Buena Vista Television. Their cooperation lasted until Siskel’s death in 1999, and then producers decided to rename the show to “Roger Ebert & the Movies” with co-hosts who rotated. Chicago Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper joined as a new co-host in 2000, and the show was renamed once again to “At The Movies With Ebert & Roeper”. Ebert stayed with Disney until 2008, when the producers told him they wanted to change the structure of the show. However, his net worth had steadily grown.
He became an honorary life member of the Directors Guild of America in 2009, and his last television show was “Ebert Presents: At the Movies” in 2011. Ebert’s final movie review came in 2013 for the film “To the Wonder” (2012) starring Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko, Rachel McAdams, Javier Bardem. After his death, he had two reviews posthumously-published, for the Andrew Bujalski’s “Computer Chess” (2013), and James Ponsoldt’s “The Spectacular Now” (2013).
Regarding his personal life, Roger Ebert married Charlie “Chaz” Hammelsmith in 1992. He was a former alcoholic, but although he quit drinking in 1979, the years of abuse took their toll decades later, and although he survived the papillary thyroid cancer in 2002 and then several other cancers, Ebert died in 2013, 11 years after he was diagnosed.
