Always practical with his opinions, film critic Roger Joseph Ebert (1942–2013) was born in Urbana, Illinois. A lifelong movie fan, he famously said, “Movies are windows in the walls. They allow us to enter other minds by seeing the world as another person sees it.”

Ebert published his first neighborhood newsletter at age 9. By 15, he worked as a sports writer for the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette.

In 1967, he joined the Chicago Sun-Times, where he remained for life. In 1975, he became the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize and teamed up with rival Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune.

Their thumbs-up, thumbs-down show ran for 23 years, making film criticism mainstream. After Siskel’s death in 1999, Ebert continued with Richard Roeper for another successful 8-year run.

“It is all right to have opinions and express them,” Ebert said. “An amazing number of people will say something is 'fine' because they think that's polite.”

In 2005, he became the first critic to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Even after losing his voice to cancer in 2006, he continued to write reviews in a stream-of-consciousness style.

“I just write what I think,” he said. “I don’t care what other people think.”