GENE SISKEL, WHO HELPED AMERICA ENJOY MOVIES, DIES.

Byline: Daily News Staff and Wire Services

Gene Siskel, the slighter, more cerebral half of the popular Siskel & Ebert team of dueling movie reviewers, died Saturday at a hospital near his home in Chicago, two weeks after leaving the long-running syndicated television program for further recuperation from brain surgery in May. He was 53.

With his portly partner, Roger Ebert, Siskel made their signature thumbs-up - or -down - verdicts a powerful influence over a movie's success or failure.

The crackling on-air chemistry between Siskel and Ebert, their sometimes spirited, even caustic, disagreements and, ultimately, their opinions that consistently reflected broad public tastes, quickly made them such powerful persuaders that movie ads routinely included their thumbs-up endorsements.

Bob Strauss, film critic for the Los Angeles Daily News said that together with Roger Ebert, Siskel made intelligent film criticism acceptable everywhere.

``They took intelligent film criticism out of an elitist, specialized arena and helped millions enjoy films in a deeper way,'' Strauss said.

``Gene didn't just love movies, he also loved the potential of movies,'' Strauss said. ``For someone who was essentially a mainstream television star, he championed daring innovation and distinctive individuality in films with great consistency.''

Robert Altman, director of ``MASH,'' ``The Player'' and ``Nashville,'' said from his Los Angeles home Saturday that Siskel and Ebert changed the way movie criticism is viewed by moviemakers and the public.

``I think that they were a positive thing,'' he said. ``Several shows tried to emulate them and failed.''

Paul Dergarabedian, spokesman for Exhibitor Relations Co., which compiles box office receipts, called Siskel's death a great loss.

``He, along with his partner, Roger Ebert, took film criticism into the mainstream,'' he said. ``The average person would look toward them about whether to take their hard-earned dollars to the box office.''

Siskel and Ebert were likely the most recognizable movie critics in the nation. Their trademark thumb reviews became a benchmark for the movie industry.

Their show's continuing success was largely attributed to the chemistry between the tall, balding Siskel and the heavyset Ebert. They appeared to practice a one-upmanship that was in the tradition of the rivalry of their newspapers. Ebert is a critic for the Chicago Sun-Times.

Their conflicting opinions often prompted the other to respond with biting sarcasm.

``We had lots of big fights,'' Ebert said in an interview with WLS-TV. ``We were people who came together one day a week to work together and the other six days of the week we were competitors on two daily newspapers and two different television stations. So there was a lot of competition and a lot of disagreement.''

Siskel was known for his outspoken opinions of not only movies, but of the people who made them.

He voiced objections to the Oscars, presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He once told Playboy magazine the awards were overrated and the system of selection meant the nominations can be bought with advertising.

Siskel said critics have more right than the academy to pick the Oscars, saying critics have given their lives to film and have an advantage over the people who vote - the critics have seen all the movies.

Siskel graduated from Yale University in 1967. He joined the Tribune in 1969. He and Ebert began their partnership in 1975 with the public television program ``Sneak Previews.'' They left the program in 1982, when their show went into syndication.

Siskel, a native of Chicago who was brought up by an aunt and uncle in a rollicking household that included two siblings and three cousins, did not grow up dreaming of becoming a movie critic.

Intending to be a trial lawyer, he majored in philosophy at Yale, but two years after his graduation in 1967, a letter of recommendation from a Yale mentor and teacher, the author John Hersey, secured him a job at The Tribune.

Seven months after starting as a neighborhood reporter, he was promoted to film critic.

Once he and Ebert became television stars, the two men continued their newspaper reviews and accepted solo sideline work, Siskel as a reviewer for ``CBS This Morning,'' and for WBBM-TV in Chicago.

If viewers sometimes had trouble remembering which of the two men was which (Ebert has often been known as ``the fat one''; Siskel, by extension, as the skinny one) no one would have thought they came from the same mold.

Even when they ultimately agreed that a movie was good or bad, they were sure to disagree on why, and their sometimes not-so-good-natured arguments were seen as so entertaining that the two men became favorite guests on late night television talk shows, generally taking turns sitting next to the host.

Siskel, who had returned to work shortly after surgery to remove a brain tumor last year, took wry note of their rivalry when he announced his leave earlier this month.

``I'm in a hurry to get well,'' he said. ``because I don't want Roger to get more screen time than I.''

His survivors include his wife, Marlene, and two daughters.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

PHOTO (1 -- color) Gene Siskel, left, and Roger Ebert influenced Hollywood with their thumb-up or thumbs-down reviews.

Associated Press 

(2 -- color) Siskel