Variety’s Scott Foundas Remembers Roger Ebert: A Mentor to the End

5 April 2013 6:00 AM, PDT | Variety - Film News | See recent Variety - Film News news »

The first message I ever received from Roger Ebert came nearly 20 years ago, in the form of a reply to a fan letter I’d sent him with little hope of hearing back. At the time, I was a high-school student in Tampa, infatuated with movies and making my first stabs at writing about them in the school paper — reviews written with the latest edition of Ebert’s annual “Movie Home Companion” close at hand. Then there was the weekly broadcast of “Siskel & Ebert” (or “At the Movies with Siskel & Ebert” or “Siskel & Ebert and the Movies,” as it was variously known over the years) — requisite viewing in our house, even if it was sometimes challenging, in the pre-Internet, pre-TiVo era, to follow its frequent shifts of airtime and day throughout the syndication universe.

I can’t recall the exact contents of Roger’s letter, which I still have tucked away in a drawer somewhere, »

- Scott Foundas

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