Legendary film critic Roger Ebert has died at the age of 70, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.
On April 2, Ebert revealed on his blog that his cancer had returned and that he would be reducing his reviewing duties at the Chicago Sun-Times.
Ebert wrote that he would be taking a “leave of presence," as he underwent radiation treatment, but it appears the cancer was too far gone already.
“It means I am not going away,” Ebert explained. “My intent is to continue to write selected reviews but to leave the rest to a talented team of writers handpicked and greatly admired by me. What's more, I'll be able at last to do what I've always fantasized about doing: reviewing only the movies I want to review.”
The 70-year-old film critic was first diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2002, and cancerous growths were found on his salivary glands a year later, forcing him to undergo surgeries that left him without the ability to speak.
Ebert began working as the Sun-Times film critic exactly 46 years ago, and became a household name after winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1975 and hosting several movie-review TV shows with Richard Roeper and the late Tribune film critic Gene Siskel.
Though Ebert was best-known for his film review program, his cancer and subsequent inability to speak didn't stop Ebert from doing what he loved -- writing columns, reviewing movies and connecting with readers. In recent years, he has built a huge audience on Facebook and Twitter, where he frequently comments on a wide variety of topics.
Cancer took Ebert's ability to talk, eat or drink, but he refused to be pitied after all he'd been through. In a lengthy 2010 profile, Esquire writer Chris Jones noted the following scene:
"There is no need to pity me, he writes on a scrap of paper one afternoon after someone parting looks at him a little sadly. Look how happy I am."
