Beloved Film Critic Roger Ebert Dies at 70
Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert died Thursday after a battle with cancer. He was 70.
Ebert was known for his thumbs-up, thumbs-down television reviews that influenced moviegoers across the nation.
On Tuesday, Ebert announced on his blog that he was taking a "Leave of Presence" to undergo radiation treatment after a recurrence of cancer.
Ebert was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2002 and later had surgery for cancer of the salivary gland. He lost his chin and his ability to speak. But he later resumed writing full-time and eventually even returned to television.
Ebert joined the Chicago Sun-Times, who broke the news of his death, part time in 1966 while pursuing graduate study at the University of Chicago. He got the reviewing job the following year.
His reviews were eventually syndicated to several hundred other newspapers, collected in books and repeated on innumerable websites, making him one of the most influential film critics in the nation even without his television fame.
His 1975 Pulitzer for distinguished criticism was the first, and one of only three, given to a film reviewer since the category was created in 1970. In 2005, he received another honor when he became the first critic to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Ebert's television career began the year he won the Pulitzer, first on WTTW-TV, the Chicago PBS station. His career continued nationwide on PBS and later on several commercial syndication services.
He and film critic partner Gene Siskel became famous for their film criticism on television. Ebert and Siskel even trademarked the "two thumbs up" phrase.
Ebert also launched a film festival called EbertFest at his alma mater University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1997. The film festival will continue on in his name, with the 2013 festival taking place April 17-21.
