The most powerful voice in Hollywood came from a Chicago keyboard tapped on each day by Roger Ebert, the prolific film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times.
His death today after a long battle with cancer stunned family and friends, who had believed the discovery last week of cancer in his leg was just another setback, not the final chapter.
"I've lost the love of my life and the world has lost a visionary and a creative and generous spirit," his wife, Chaz Ebert, said in a statement.
President Barack Obama called Mr. Ebert's death a national loss, saying, "For a generation of Americans — and especially Chicagoans — Roger was the movies.” And closer to home, Mayor Rahm Emanuel credited Mr. Ebert with “championing Chicago as a center for filmmaking and critiques.”
Members of Chicago's film community say that with Mr. Ebert's death, Chicago will receive less national attention.
“It's a tremendous loss for the city. He was a Midwesterner and he was a union newspaperman who respected a picket line. In terms of film criticism, he changed the way the whole country and whole world look at film,” said Gordon Quinn, founding member of Kartemquin Films, which made “Hoop Dreams.”
Mr. Quinn was referring, of course, to Mr. Ebert's respect for a broad range of films. He democratized the craft. Where New York and Los Angeles once might have turned their noses up at out-of-the-box films, Mr. Ebert embraced them with a regular-guy sensibility.
“He realized that you didn't compare a Western movie to a classic. He developed this idea that you review movies within their genre instead of following some crazy standards. It allowed him to write about a broader range of films,” said Howard Tullman, president and CEO of Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy, a private college in downtown Chicago that specializes in teaching digital arts and entertainment.
Mr. Tullman's media team worked with Mr. Ebert on the latest iteration of his TV show, which featured young talent on the air and Mr. Ebert's expertise behind the scenes. By this time, the film critic had lost his voice to cancer — not that it stopped him.
“He'd sit in his chair with a notepad and write feverish notes. Sometimes we'd go to his home and he'd talk using the computer and he'd do some narrations,” said Mr. Tullman, who knew the film critic for some 40 years.
"There's talent in Chicago, but nothing like Roger's. Every time a movie came out, it was still the case (even recently) to get it in front of Roger Ebert and get his reaction. Movie junkets would come here just for him. To lose that is a real loss to the city," Mr. Tullman said.
Brenda Sexton, who headed the Illinois Film Office in the 2000s, remembers Mr. Ebert getting his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
“It was very heart-felt. It wasn't a Hollywood event. It was close family and friends. It felt like a family party,” she said, recalling how Mr. Ebert's visits to Chicago brought attention to the city.
Like many, Ms. Sexton says Mr. Ebert could have moved to Los Angeles or New York, where his film sources worked, but he chose to stay in Chicago.
“He was Chicago true blue and I think it really always helped in establishing Chicago as a film town,” said Ms. Sexton, who remains a close friend to Mr. Ebert's wife.
Michael Kutza, who heads the Chicago International Film Festival, remembers introducing Mr. Ebert to industry folks at the critic's first film festivals in Tehran and Venice.
It didn't take long, he said, before Mr. Ebert "was on his own. He was always a positive force for the film festivals."
Mr. Ebert's presence on Chicago's social scene also will be missed.
Back in the day, he was a familiar face at O'Rourke's, a hangout for journalists and other literary types. Friends thought he'd forever be a bachelor, until he met Chaz.
They were inseparable. She worked on the latest iteration of his TV show and he accompanied her to philanthropic events, including galas for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, whose board she sits on.
“He loved becoming a family man,” emailed Dori Wilson, a longtime friend and public-relations executive in town.
Two films are in the works about Mr. Ebert's life. One is being made by Mr. Quinn's Kartemquin Films and the other in part by producer Martin Scorsese, Mr. Kutza said.
“He was probably the most important, prolific film critic who ever has been,” Mr. Kutza said. “Though he didn't want to hear that. He worried Pauline Kael would come back and haunt him.”
Rich Moskal, director of the Chicago Film Office, talked about the legacy of Mr. Ebert.
“Not long ago, I took my sons to a screening of a superhero flick I knew they'd enjoy seeing before their friends. Roger was sitting next to us. We quietly acknowledged each other in the dark. My sons noticed the exchange and excitedly whispered to each other, 'I can't believe we're watching a movie with Roger Ebert.' After the show, bolstered by their brush with greatness, they bantered back and forth, deconstructing the filmic triumphs and failings of 'The Green Hornet' with scholarly passion and flair,” he said, adding, “I felt then as I do now, proud and lucky to have made his acquaintance. “