Roger Ebert, a Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic who reached celebrity status in the 1980s and '90s hosting popular syndicated film review programs, has died, The Chicago Sun-Times reported. He was 70 years old.
Since 2002, Ebert endured several bouts with cancer, resulting in invasive surgeries that left him severely debilitated.
"We were getting ready to go home today for hospice care, when he looked at us, smiled, and passed away," said his wife, Chaz Ebert , in a written statement. "No struggle, no pain, just a quiet, dignified transition."
In 2006, complications from thyroid cancer treatment took Ebert's jaw, stripping him of his ability to talk, eat and drink.
"I looked like the thing that jumps out of that guy's intestines in 'Alien,'" Ebert jokingly wrote of his condition in his 2011 memoir, "Life Itself."
On Wednesday, Ebert announced that he was taking a "leave of presence" after a"painful fracture" that made it difficult for him to walk revealed new cancer.
Though he established himselfas a film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times during the late 1960s and early '70s, Ebert thrived at television.
During a span of 23 years that began in 1975, he co-hosted "Sneak Previews,""At the Movies" and "Siskel and Ebert," with fellow film critic, the late Gene Siskel. The programs cultivated an ardent following and were nominated for numerous Primetime Emmy Awards.
PHOTOS: Roger Ebert Through the Years
Each show was popular with TV audiences and film buffs and widely syndicated, establishing Ebert as America's movie critic. Unlike print, the television format highlighted Ebert's on-camera persona. And the show's format of dueling narrative critiques from reviewers at opposing newspapers suited him perfectly.
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