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Chicago's Sun-Times announced the news Thursday afternoon, tweeting: "It is with a heavy heart we report that legendary film critic Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago) has passed away."
Ebert announced on his website Wednesday that he was "taking a leave of presence" due to health issues. He had previously battled cancers of the thyroid and salivary gland.
"I'll be able at last to do what I've always fantasized about doing: reviewing only the movies I want to review," Ebert wrote. "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."
Courtesy of Esquire Ebert had been in poor health over the past decade, battling cancers of the thyroid and salivary gland.
He also planned to launch a Kickstarter campaign to bring "At the Movies" back to TV.
Ebert reviewed movies for the Chicago Sun-Times for 46 years and on TV for 31 years.
He was was an early investor in Google, had nearly 840K Twitter followers, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1975, has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and his reviews were syndicated in hundreds of newspapers worldwide.
Ebert leaves behind his wife of 21 years, trial attorney Charlie "Chaz" Hammel-Smith.
In an obituary for Ebert, the Sun-Times wrote:
For a film with a daring director, a talented cast, a captivating plot or, ideally, all three, there could be no better advocate than Roger Ebert, who passionately celebrated and promoted excellence in film while deflating the awful, the derivative, or the merely mediocre with an observant eye, a sharp wit and a depth of knowledge that delighted his millions of readers and viewers.
Read the full Sun-Times' obituary for Ebert here >