his love the fame came as an early age. >> i started going to the movies at a child as everybody did. my aunt would take me to the grown-up movies. my dad would take me to see the marx brothers. >> he began writing reviews for the chicago sun-times in the late 60s, and in 1975 was the first film critic to win the prize for criticism. he coauthored "beyond the valley of dogs" with russ meyer. in 1976, he teamed up with gene siskel to host a weekly review program on tv. within a few years it was put into syndication, and siskel and ebert's thumbs up, items down system became their trademark. >> two thumbs up had never applied to anything in history before. the phrase two thumbs up was not in use.