I will really miss Joel Siegel. I was so saddened to hear of his passing this afternoon, at age 63, after a long battle with colon cancer. He leaves his wife and Dylan, his young son. He learned he had cancer on the same day his second wife found out she was pregnant with Dylan.

You cant be from New York and not have grown up with Joel Siegel, film critic extraordinaire. At the beginning, when he had dark bushy hair and a thick black mustache to match, I often confused him with another critic, Gene Shalit. But later on I not only knew them apart, but I preferred Joel over Gene.

Here are some things I learned about Joel Siegel that were surprising, and endeared me even more:
In the 80s, he lost his wife, then 31, to brain cancer. As a result of that loss, Joel and his friend, actor Gene Wilder, founded Gilda’s Club, named after comedienne Gilda Radner, who was Wilders wife, and who had died about the same time, of ovarian cancer. Gilda’s Club is still alive in NYC, and continues to give comfort to cancer patients and ther families.

As much as Joel was quintessentially New York, he was birn in Los Angeles. But he soon became an adorer of his adopted city. I personally always felt that Siegel was as much a part of NYC as Donald Trump or Ed Koch.

Now, here’s the last interesting fact. In the 60s, Joel Siegel was a civil rights organizer. He knew Martin Luther King, and drove African-Americans to the polls.

So, here’s to Joel. Rest in peace. I based my choice of movies on Joel Siegel’s reviews. I have to find a new way to choose my films now. I will really miss Joel Siegel