14 DAY TRIAL // Roger Ebert, the most well-known film critic who, just the other day, celebrated 46 years of work in the industry, has died after a very long battle with cancer. He was 70. The sad news is confirmed by his wife, partner and good friend Chaz Ebert in a statement on his Chicago Sun-Times blog.
Ebert, who was just as known for his insightful film reviews as he was for the courage with which he’d been fighting cancer since 2002 (in 2006, he lost part of his lower jaw, including the ability to speak or eat), had just announced that his cancer had returned.
In a statement on his website the other day, he revealed that the hip fracture for which he’d been hospitalized in December was actually a cancer, so he was taking a “leave of presence” to receive treatment.
He seemed in good spirits, optimistic but, then again, if he ever lost hope, he never showed it.
Chaz writes that he passed away quietly, in his hospital bed, just as they were making preparations to go home. He had grown tired of fighting cancer, she says.
“Roger was a beloved husband, stepfather to Sonia and Jay, and grandfather to Raven, Emil, Mark and Joseph. Just yesterday he was saying how his grandchildren were ‘the best things in my life’,” Chaz writes.
“He was happy and radiating satisfaction over the outpouring of responses to his blog about his 46th year as a film critic. But he was also getting tired of his fight with cancer, and said if this takes him, he has lived a great and full life,” she adds.
“We were getting ready to go home today for hospice care, when he looked at us, smiled, and passed away. No struggle, no pain, just a quiet, dignified transition,” Mrs. Ebert continues.
She also thanks the film community and Roger’s loyal readers for the constant support and outpouring of love following the announcement that the cancer had returned.
As Chaz puts it, she lost her best friend, her “partner in crime,” her one true love and her confidante. At the same time, the world lost a brilliant mind, a film critic who always strove for excellency in everything that he did, in the hope that it might lead to excellency in film as well.
“Roger Ebert loved movies. Except for those he hated,” Neil Steinberg of the Chicago Sun-Times writes.
He will be missed.