Roger Ebert Dies At 70 After Battling Cancer
Roger Ebert was known for his mastery of reviewing films as the Chicago Sun-Times film critic. On Thursday he died, a day after announcing his leave due to the recurrence of cancer. He was 70 years old.
Ebert's feat and love for writing began since high school and hasn't left since struggling with cancer.
Amidst announcing his absence from the movie market, he took to his online journal and calmly expressed his future plans.
According to The Chicago Tribune, he was expected to host long-awaited the 15th annual Roger Ebert's Film Festival, or "Eberfest" as he called it, later this month at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, his hometown.
"Last year, I wrote the most of my career, including 306 movie reviews, a blog post or two a week, and assorted other articles. I must slow down now, which is why I'm taking what I like to call 'a leave of presence,'" Ebert said on Tuesday in his online journal.
He's survived by his wife, Chaz Hammel-Smith who was assigned the publisher role for the launch of ebertdigital.com.
He was diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer that lead to abnormal growths in the salivary glands. He had to follow-up the devastating news with severe reconstructive surgery, which left him without a lower jaw and the ability to eat or speak.
He also hinted at writing more about health issues in the future.
"It really stinks that the cancer has returned and that I have spent too many days in the hospital," Ebert said. "So on bad days I may write about the vulnerability that accompanies illness. On good days, I may wax ecstatic about a movie so good it transports me beyond illness."
While he lost his voice, he maintained a passion for reviewing films and joined the online world of blogging with his journal entries and persistently captivating critiques.
His favorite film was "Citizen Kane" and awarded four stars to films with highest quality. Ebert listed movies such as "The Godfather," "Schindler's List" and "Argo" on his best movies of the year.
Ebert attended University of Illinois, majoring in journalism and pursued his PhD. in English while he freelanced stories and book reviews for Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Daily News. He became the paper's Midwest magazine writer in 1966 and within six months he was hired as the Chicago movie critic.
In 1975, he became the first film critic to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize. He was most notable for co-hosting "At the Movies" with Gene Siskel until his death in 1999.
His signature sign-off for his former TV series, were also his last words online that reach many of his followers in film and writing:
"So on this day of reflection I say again, thank you for going on this journey with me," he wrote. "I'll see you at the movies."