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Bill Murray remembers Roger Ebert – ‘Life Itself’ doc airs Friday on CNN

The documentary, shortlisted for Oscar consideration, airs Friday on CNN. In an interview, Bill Murray remembers the late, great Chicago movie critic.

During an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, Bill Murray -- there to promote his crowd-pleasing character piece, St. Vincent, and to be feted by the whole town during "Bill Murray Day" – remembered a Roger Ebert moment from earlier in the fellow Chicagoans' careers.

"It was at Cannes, and I had done some movie like Broken Flowers which people were liking as a film, as acting," Murray recalled about the 2005 Jim Jarmusch indie. "And they said, 'Your acting is like almost invisible, it's so good' — they were being nice, saying things like that.

"And I said, `That's funny, because I was told a long time ago that I should not even be allowed to make anything but comedies -- ever.' And Roger, who was sitting there, fell right into it, and said, `Who said that?'

"And I looked at him and I said, `You did.' And I didn't take my eyes off of him. 'You did.'

And Roger looked at me and went, 'I was wrong.'"

"He was a good man, he did some great stuff. And the way he lived his life out, amazing."

To see the way Ebert lived his life out, catch Life Itself on CNN Friday at 9pm. The film, by Steve James, is on  the short list of documentaries in consideration for the 2015 Academy Awards. Given the love people like Murray had for the prolific critic, Life Itself is more than likely to be among the five final doc nominees.