Joel Siegel, 1943 - 2007.

Joel Siegel, the longtime film critic for ABC News whose pithy reviews could capture the essence of a new film in a few words without giving too much away, died yesterday in New York. He was 63.

Edward Wyatt, New York Times.

From the first day I met him, when he was a network star and I was only, well, an out-of-towner, Joel was a friend.

Roger Ebert, who recalls a few stories and quotes passages from Siegel's book to his son Lessons for Dylan: On Life, Love, the Movies and Me.

Updated through 7/2.

The first movie he reviewed on the air, he told the Tulsa World in 2004, was Magic, starring Anthony Hopkins as a ventriloquist. "So I went and got a ventriloquist dummy and did the review, with me saying I liked the movie, and the dummy saying how he hated it," he recalled. "So I got to do another review the next day. And I've kept that in mind, that every day is really an on-air audition."

Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times.

He was very kind to me. Damn.

Anne Thompson, Variety.

Joel Siegel... was a real mensch and one of the nicest guys I've known in this profession.

Lou Lumenick, New York Post.

[G]iven the choice between a film critic who maintained his cool when a hypersensitive filmmaker tried to sandbag him on a radio show and that same hypersensitive filmmaker urging his audience to fill up Hollywood's coffers, I'll choose the former, if only because Siegel kept mostly silent about his personal hangups and had no personal stake in what he did other than expressing his enthusiasm."

Ed Champion, recalling the Kevin Smith incident.

Online viewing tip. Siegel reviews Carrie: The Musical.

Update, 7/2: At the Huffington Post, Harry Shearer remembers "the Joel Siegel that I knew: the pre-moustache Joel."

Posted by dwhudson at July 1, 2007 5:22 AM