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Roger Ebert speaks for the first time on The Oprah Show
(AP Photo/Harpo Productions Inc. George Burns)
In 2002 and 2003, film critic Roger Ebert battled cancer in his thyroid and salivary glands leading to several surgeries. And just two days before his 64th birthday in 2006, Roger underwent additional surgery to remove cancerous tissue near his right jaw, which included removing a section of jaw bone. He hasn't been able to eat, drink or talk since. He is fed via a G-tube through a hole in his stomach.
However, that hasn't stopped Roger from pursuing his life's work. He saw 281 movies in a 10-month stretch last year. And, on Tuesday, Roger will visit with Oprah Winfrey to share his Oscar predictions and publicly debut his new voice.
Since the cancer-related surgery stole his voice, Roger had been using off-the-shelf computer voices on his laptop to speak. He wrote in his Chicago Sun-Times blog,
My wife Chaz loved a voice named Lawrence, who had a British accent and sounded like a slightly crabby headmaster. Then I found a new Mac voice named Alex, who sounded like he knew when a sentence had ended."
But one day he was "moseying around the Web" as he put it and discovered a company in Scotland called CereProc. They claimed they could build people's voices from good quality audio. Roger put CereProc in touch with Warner Bros, Criterion Collection, New Line and 20th Century-Fox. All of these studios had recorded commentary tracks of Roger's voice.
Roger calls his new voice "Roger Jr." and admits it still needs to be "smoother in tone and steadier in pacing". But the progress has made him ridiculously happy...
What will I use this voice for? I could talk with Chaz and our grandchildren — and it would be me, not Alex."
See Roger Ebert and his wife, Chaz, on The Oprah Winfrey Show on Tuesday, March 2. Check your local listings for times in your area.
For more information about thyroid cancer and salivary gland cancer, please visit the American Cancer Society.
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Comments
This is great news ! Thank you for sharing :) I remember being little and for some reason, absolutely LOVING siskel and ebert and their 'thumbs up - thumbs down'...
Roger probably doesn't remember us from the World Affairs Conferences in the lat 70s, but we have followed his work and his difficulties ever since and we are pleased that he has found a new voice that suits him. Cheers!
Phil and Barbara Bock, Albuquerque.
I'm very happy for Roger. I always loved "Ebert and Siskel At the Movies" and was very sad when Gene passed away, and equally saddened by the news of Roger's health challenges and voice loss. I respect both men's intelligence greatly, and often found myself aligning with either of them on a great many films--and disagreeing on some, too. As a budding film critic myself, they were both very powerful, entertaining, stimulating, and provocative role models for me. Way to go, Roger! Roger that!
Thank you, everyone, for your inspiring comments. I too remember watching Siskel & Ebert. I have always been a big fan. I look forward to tomorrow's Oprah Show.
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