Portrait of Richard Roeper

Birthday profile

Richard Roeper

Richard Roeper, American journalist and critic

Born
October 17, 1959
Age in 2026
67
Zodiac sign
Libra
Birth year
1959

About Richard Roeper

Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959) is an American writer. He is a former columnist and film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, where he wrote for 39 years dating back to 1986 until his departure in 2025. He co-hosted the television series At the Movies with Roger Ebert from 2000 to 2008, serving as the late Gene Siskel's successor. From 2010 to 2014, he co-hosted The Roe and Roeper Show with Roe Conn on WLS-AM. From October 2015 to October 2017, Roeper served as the host of the FOX 32 morning show Good Day Chicago. From 2021 to 2025, he hosted a podcast entitled The Richard Roeper Show for American Eagle. From 2018 to 2026, Roeper was a regular contributor to Windy City Weekend and its predecessor Windy City Live on WLS-TV. In 2025, Roeper joined RogerEbert.com as a regular contributor and began hosting the podcast The Movie of Your Life. In 2026, Roeper joined WMAQ-TV as a contributor. == Early life == Roeper was born on October 17, 1959, in Chicago, Illinois, one of four children to Robert and Margaret (née Slobatec) Roeper. His family came from a working-class background. In a 2025 interview, Roeper described his upbringing in a "very loving home" amid the neighborhood's close-knit, post-World War II housing developments built in the 1950s, where families like his valued hard work, education, and shared experiences such as weekly library visits with his mother to foster a love of reading.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

Richard Roeper timeline

  1. In 2009, Roeper appeared on Howard Stern's show and said he had written a book on gambling, entitled Bet the House, which was released in the first quarter of 2010.
  2. From 2010 to 2014, he co-hosted The Roe and Roeper Show with Roe Conn on WLS-AM.

The world when Richard Roeper was born

Richard Roeper was born in 1959. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1959

  • #1 song"Mack the Knife" – Bobby Darin
  • Top movieBen-Hur
  • Top TV showGunsmoke
  • Best-selling bookGoldfinger – Ian Fleming

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentIngemar Johansson knocks out Floyd Patterson for heavyweight title
  • Top headlineAlaska and Hawaii become the 49th and 50th US states
  • Technology milestoneMicrochip (integrated circuit) invented
  • Defining fadBarbie dolls
  • Notable inventionBarbie doll
  • World population2.98 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderDwight D. Eisenhower
  • Sports championLos Angeles Dodgers (World Series)
  • Also wonBoston Celtics (NBA)
  • U.S. population177.1M

1959 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Richard Roeper's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19592026
Gas$0.31$3.45/gal
Average home$12,400$435,000
Average income$7,000$67,500
Minimum wage$1.00$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.69$11.95
Postage stamp$0.04$0.73
Population177.1M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.