Ebert was an alum of the University of Illinois, and he was the reason I was there. He grew up in Urbana, just 45 miles up the road from Mattoon, my hometown, and as a high school sophomore slowly realizing he enjoyed plunking away on his typewriter far more than any job his sleepy town would have to offer, I found Ebert to be an inspiration. Thanks to the Esquire story about him that has moved millions, and of course his prolific and hypnotic Twitter feed, Ebert is now a national icon. (This will be cemented with his appearance on Oprah tomorrow, the closest our culture comes to knighting anyone anymore.)
But to me, Ebert was glimpse of a better life: He was proof there was a ticket out. I went to study journalism at the University of Illinois, simply, because I wanted to be Roger Ebert. He was a Central Illinois kid, from the middle of nowhere, who was known worldwide simply because of his writing and work ethic.
Although his widely-read reviews are still accessible online and in print, there is one thing longtime fans of Roger Ebert have had to do without. Now, thanks to the aid of Scottish technology, movie lovers will once again be able to hear the famous critic speak again – with his own voice.
On tomorrow’s episode of Oprah, Roger will sit down with his old friend Oprah Winfrey for his first interview since leaving the air in 2006. Ebert, who was first diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer in 2002, has been unable to speak since the illness took part of his jawbone and forced him to go silent.
Using a voice simulator from a Scottish company called CereProc, Ebert will show off “Roger Jr.” on the episode, he wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times. The use of the simulator is necessary after he lost the ability to speak following a series of surgeries because of cancer. The voice was constructed from recordings of his voice, mostly DVD commentaries.
“They transcribed and programmed and tweaked and fiddled, and early this February, sent me the files for a beta version of my voice,” Ebert wrote. “I played it for (wife) Chaz, and she said, yes, she could tell it was me. For one thing it knew exactly how I said ‘I.’” That’s a whole lot better than speaking with just his thumbs.