Richard Roeper
Roeper at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival
Born	(1959-10-17) October 17, 1959 (age 52) Chicago, Illinois
Occupation	Film critic, journalist
Nationality	American
Subjects	Film
www.richardroeper.com

Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959)^[1] is an American columnist and film critic for The Chicago Sun-Times and now a co-host on The Roe Conn Show on WLS-AM.^[2] He co-hosted the television series At the Movies with Roger Ebert from 2000–2008, as the late Gene Siskel's replacement.

Personal Life[link]

Roeper was born in Chicago, Illinois, and was raised in south suburban Dolton, Illinois. He attended Thornridge High School and graduated from Illinois State University in 1982. He has described himself as a Catholic, although "not always first in line for Sunday Mass".^{[citation needed]}

Career[link]

Roeper began working as a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times in 1987. The topics of his columns range from politics to media to entertainment. In more recent years, he has been widely considered one of the finest newspaper writers in Chicago, just a notch below the city's golden-inked "Mount Rushmore" of John Kass (Tribune), Dave Hoekstra (Sun-Times), Jay Mariotti (Sun-Times) and Roger Ebert (Sun-Times).

He has also written seven books, on topics from movies to urban legends to conspiracy theories to the Chicago White Sox. In 2009 Roeper appeared on Howard Stern's show and said he had written a book on gambling, entitled Bet the House,^[3] which was released in the first quarter of 2010.

Roeper also was a radio host on WLS AM 890 in Chicago. He also hosted shows on WLUP-FM, WLS-FM and WMVP-AM in Chicago. He won three Emmy awards for his news commentaries on Fox in the 1990s, and was the film critic for CBS in Chicago for three years in the early 2000s. He won the National Headliner Award as the top newspaper columnist in the country in 1992, and has been voted best columnist in Illinois by the Associated Press on numerous occasions.

His columns have been syndicated by the New York Times to publications around the world. Roeper has written for a number of magazines, including Esquire, Spy, TV Guide, Playboy, Maxim and Entertainment Weekly. He was once named as one of People magazine's most eligible bachelors.^{[citation needed]}

Roeper has been a frequent guest on the Tonight Show, Live with Regis and Kelly, The O'Reilly Factor and countless other national programs. He is currently the host of Starz Inside, a monthly documentary series airing on the Starz network since the fall of 2007. Roeper appeared on the first episode of the fifth season of Entourage reviewing the fake movie Medellin starring fictional movie star Vincent Chase. In April 2008, Roeper was the central figure on an episode of Top Chef, in which the contestants served up movie themed dishes to Roeper and his friends, including Aisha Tyler.

In February 2009, Roeper launched his own web site, [1], which features movie reviews, blog entries about politics, sports and movies, photos and Twitter entries. For most of the year Roeper was posting print reviews and blog entries. In December 2009, he launched a video section, with on-camera reviews of movies. The video segments are produced in partnership with the Starz premium cable channel. Roeper announced the reviews will appear first on his site, then on the Starz channel.^{[citation needed]}

In December 2009, it was reported^{[by whom?]} that Roeper had signed a "six-figure" deal with ReelzChannel to be a regular contributor. He will continue to review movies online for his website and for Starz.

As of Monday, April 12, 2010, he is now the co-host of The Roe Conn Show on Chicago's WLS-AM 890 radio station from 2-6pm CST.

Work as a film critic[link]

After Gene Siskel of Siskel & Ebert died on Saturday, February 20, 1999, Roger Ebert did the show with nearly 30 co-hosts. After 10 guest stints, Roeper was offered the opportunity to permanently co-host the popular film review show with Ebert. The series was renamed Ebert & Roeper at the Movies in 2000, and shortened to Ebert & Roeper in 2002.

Beginning in August 2006, while his co-host Roger Ebert was recovering from cancer surgery, Roeper was joined by guest critics, including Clerks director Kevin Smith and The Tonight Show host Jay Leno. On Sunday, July 20, 2008, Roeper announced he was leaving the show in mid-August and would return with a new show later in the year.^[4] He continues to write his general interest column, and also contributes reviews to the Sun-Times and to newspapers across the country.

Bibliography[link]

• He Rents, She Rents: The Ultimate Guide to the Best Women's Films and Guy Movies, with Laurie Viera (1999)
• Hollywood Urban Legends: The Truth Behind All Those Delightfully Persistent Myths of Films, Television, and Music (2001)
• Urban Legends: The Truth Behind All Those Deliciously Entertaining Myths That Are Absolutely, Positively, 100% Not True (2001)
• Ten Sure Signs a Movie Character is Doomed, and Other Surprising Movie Lists (2003)
• Schlock Value: Hollywood At Its Worst (2005)
• Sox and the City: A Fan's Love Affair with the White Sox from the Heartbreak of '67 to the Wizards of Oz (2006)
• Debunked!: Conspiracy Theories, Urban Legends, and Evil Plots of the 21st Century (2008)
• Bet the House: How I Gambled Over a Grand a Day for 30 Days on Sports, Poker, and Games of Chance (2010)^[3]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Biography from TV Tome
• Richard Roeper at the Internet Movie Database