GMA Film Critic Siegel Dies

Fri., Jun. 29, 2007 6:54 PM PDT by Natalie Finn

Veteran Good Morning America movie critic Joel Siegel, known for his knowledgeable and engaging reviews and his personable reporting style, died Friday afternoon after a long battle with colon cancer, ABC News and WABC-TV announced. He was 63.

Siegel passed away in New York surrounded by family and friends, according to his longtime employer.

"For 31 years, Joel Siegel has given Channel 7 viewers his honest opinion on entertainment," said Dave Davis, president and general manager of WABC-TV. "His reviews of movies and plays were written and delivered in Joel's clever style—revealing, refreshing and always filled with his smart humor.

"No one had more fun writing about a bad movie than Joel. His dedication to work while he has battled cancer with strength and dignity has been an inspiration to all of us."

The Los Angeles native and UCLA graduate got his start in radio and writing, reviewing books for the Los Angeles Times and freelancing for publications such as Rolling Stone and Sports Illustrated.

Siegel joined WABC's Eyewitness News as the station's entertainment critic in 1976. He moved on to GMA in 1981, eventually becoming one of the most recognizable critics in the business, along the lines of Roger Ebert and Gene Shalit.

In addition to his weekly appearances on GMA and reporting for ABC News and the network's Website, for the past 10 years Siegel also presided over the annual syndicated Oscar special Joel Siegel's Road to the Academy Awards.

"He was a gladiator—brave, wildly funny, passionate about [son] Dylan, [wife] Ena and his family—and completely in love with every new day," GMA coanchor Diane Sawyer said, remembering her longtime colleague.

"Film critic may have been his job description—what he really did was tell us about the wonder and heartbreak of life. The wonder was to know him. The heartbreak, today. All of us love Joel. Present tense. Without end."

Siegel cofounded the nonprofit cancer support organization Gilda's Club in 1991 with actor Gene Wilder, whose wife, former Saturday Night Live star Gilda Radner, died of ovarian cancer in 1989.

The five-time New York Emmy Award winner was diagnosed with cancer when he was 54, two weeks before he found out he was going to be a father.

Siegel, who also won a Public Service Award from the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith for "distinguished reporting and commitment to freedom of the press," was widely praised by his colleagues for the way he faced the disease head-on, reporting about cancer for ABC News and testifying on cancer patients' behalf before Congress.

In 2003, upon realizing he might not win his own fight, he authored the memoir Lessons for Dylan: From Father to Son.

"I knew my father pretty well; I was almost 40 when he died," Siegel said at the time. "I faced the very real possibility that Dylan would never know me unless I wrote a book."

"Joel was a very bright man—brilliant actually," former GMA coanchor and current World News anchor Charles Gibson said. "Joel was also a man of impeccable taste. When Joel came into your office to talk about anything, it was going to be interesting and you were going to learn something. He had an inexhaustible supply of stories—most funny, many poignant, all with a point or a punch line."

Added GMA weather anchor Sam Champion: "We were all fortunate to have known this wonderful man…and to have been the audience for reviews so artfully crafted, they were often a better experience than the event itself."

Siegel is survived by his son and his wife, artist Ena Swansea.