Andrew M. Greeley describes himself, first and foremost, as a Roman Catholic priest. He is also, however, a sociologist, an author of more than 100 non-fiction works of theology, sociology, prayer, and poetry, a professor of sociology, a newspaper columnist, and a successful novelist, writing in several genres, including mystery and science fiction. His fiction, which often tells stories of crime and scandal in the Roman Catholic church, can be violent and lurid and is considered controversial by many Church leaders. Greeley has written on such issues as homosexuality in the clergy, pedophilia, and papal politics, and has penned a series of mystery novels starring Father Blackie Ryan.… Greeley was born in 1928 and is a native of Chicago, where he is a research associate at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. He has made a great contribution to the Chicago area by establishing a $1 million Catholic Inner-City School Fund to provide scholarships and funding to parochial schools in the Archdiocese of Chicago that have a high minority enrollment.
Roger Joseph Ebert was born on June 18, 1942 in Urbana, Illinois. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - where he was editor of the Daily Illini. He is best known for his film review column in the Chicago Sun Times since 1967 and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert and Siskel and Ebert and The Movies. After Gene Siskel's death in 1999, Roger Ebert teamed up with Ruchard Roeper for the television series Ebert and Roeper and The Movies which began airing in 2000. Ebert's movie reviews are in more than 200 newspapers in the U.S. and worldwide by Universal Press Syndicate. He has written… more than 15 books, including his annual movie yearbook whcih is mostly a collection of his reviews for that year. He became the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize. His televisio programs have been nominated for Emmy awards. In June 2005 he was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He was the first professional critic to receive this award. He has honorary degrees from the University of Colorado, the AFI Conservatory, and the School of Art Institute of Chicago. He has written a Great Movies series since 1994 whcih he sees as the most important films of all time.