Roger Ebert can speak again in his own voice.
In 2006 due to complications from surgery for Thyroid Cancer that spread to his salivary glands Roger Ebert lost the ability to speak. But thanks to a technology firm in Scotland Roger Ebert will speak again.
I don't have a video to embed, but if you have 90 seconds to spare I recommend watching this...
Roger Ebert's Wife hears his voice again for the first time in years.
With his jaw almost permanently agape, many pounds lighter, Roger Ebert and his wife Chaz spend their days still watching movies and writing columns (Ebert pegs The Hurt Locker for Best Picture). But Ebert, probably best known for his collaboration with the late Gene Siskel, can no longer speak.
But you can still hear what he has to say.
Ebert on Oprah
Modern technology has also given Roger a life-changing gift—his voice. A company in Scotland is using cutting-edge technology to take hours of Roger's past movie commentaries and create a new, computerized voice from those clips.
Though it won't be perfect, Roger says he's looking forward to sounding like his old self again. "It's what they call a beta. It still needs improvement, but at least it sounds like me," he says. "When I type anything, this voice will speak whatever I type. When I read something, it will read in my voice. I have got to say, in first grade they said I talked too much. And now I still can."
I remember growing up and watching Siskel & Ebert, before the Internet, before multiplexes and cable TV. The show mattered because you got a glimpse into what movies to expect and where to go for a Friday night. Roger was more attuned to the everyman or woman in his tastes. He can see a movie for what it is meant to be and not what he wants it to be. A Pulitzer Prize winner, His writing is personal and authoritative. Ebert lately has even entered into the realm of politics, where he has criticized Dick Cheney and others on the right. And while I can appreciate that, to me it will always be his thoughts on movies and the clear love he had for them that I remember.
I don't always agree with Ebert, but I still trust his opinions more than most. To hear his voice again is a wonderful and amazing thing.