Widely regarded Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert died today at age 70 after a lengthy battle with cancer, according to the Sun-Times.
This comes just one day after he announced he’d be taking a “leave of presence” from his writing duties with the Sun-Times website, a post that marked his 46th anniversary with the Sun-Times and announced a number of different endeavors he’d be undertaking, from relaunching his personal website, to apps, to his movie festival.
He also noted that the reasoning behind his leave of absence was health-related, as what was originally considered to be a hip fracture turned out to be cancer, which was just another setback for a man who had fought thyroid and salivary gland cancer, losing part of his jaw in the process.
Still, he carried on, reviewing more than 300 films last year, and writing constantly on his blog at the Sun-Times and at rogerebert.com.
Ebert’s last words in the post, which sound oddly prescient, were: “…thank you for going on this journey with me. I’ll see you at the movies.”
See you, Mr. Ebert.
[Roger Ebert’s Sun-Times Obituary]
This article appears in Apr 4-10, 2013.
I wonder how Vincent Gallo is taking this?
He was a class act. He will be missed.
So long Mr. Ebert….I loved your cranky, sometimes arrogant, intelligent personality and spirit. St. Peter is waiting at the gates w/his review…God bless your soul and peace to your family. From a long time fan…<3
So long Mr. Ebert. This long time fan will miss your intelligent, sometimes arrogant personality and spirit. St. Peter is waiting at the Gates w/his review…Peace to your soul and strength and healing to your family. <3
I sat desk to desk with Roger at the Chicago Sun Times for five years, and he remained my friend and biggest “fan” to the very end of his life. I’ll miss not seeing his name in my list of email messages ever again–it was always the first message I read, to see what new treasure he’d found or how he felt about something I’d written. What an honor it was to be part of his world.
Would anyone care to say what kind of cancer he had and the possible cause?
Yes Bob: You mean aside from the mentions of thyroid and salivary gland cancer which seemed to have metastasized?
No. I mean did he smoke?