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Film Critic Roger Ebert Dead at 70

Apr 4, 2013  •  Post A Comment

The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that famed film critic Roger Ebert has died. Ebert, 70, had just announced that he was cutting back on work, as previously reported, as his fight with cancer had taken a turn for the worse.

Ebert’s film reviews appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times since 1967, but he was probably best known for his work on TV, including with longtime partner Gene Siskel, who died in 1999. The two critics popularized the thumbs-up, thumbs-down rating system as they argued over movies on “Sneak Previews,” “At the Movies” and “Siskel and Ebert and the Movies.”

Following Siskel’s death, Ebert carried on with a new show, bringing in critic Richard Roeper for “Ebert & Roeper & the Movies.”

Ebert also wrote more than 15 books, becoming the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.

The Chicago Sun-Times website appeared to crash soon after the news broke of Ebert’s death, presumably because of a high volume of traffic from people wanting to read about Ebert. Here’s a link to another story on Ebert’s death, in the Chicago Tribune.

roger-ebert.jpgRoger Ebert

2 Comments

  1. “Following Roeper’s death, Ebert carried on with a new show, bringing in critic Richard Roeper…”
    I believe it should be edited to say “Following Siskel’s death.

  2. Thanks, Taylor…It’s been fixed.

    Chuck Ross

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