Jan 22, 2011 10:20 GMT  ·  By
Film critic Roger Ebert lost his voice and the lower half of his face to cancer
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   Film critic Roger Ebert lost his voice and the lower half of his face to cancer

Esteemed film critic Roger Ebert lost more than his voice in his determined battle with cancer, he also lost half of his face, as all his fans must know. Now preparing to return to television, Ebert is happy to announce he’s gotten a prosthetic chin.

In a post on his official blog, Ebert says this is no vanity thing either: it’s not like he’ll ever be the same man he was before cancer. Neither is this about fooling people, he adds.

After surgery, he simply refused to look in the mirror, choosing instead to believe and imagine himself as “whole” again, the critic writes.

Shortly after, Dr. David J. Reisberg from the University of Illinois in Chicago, a specialist in facial reconstruction, started work on what is today his new prosthetic chin, one that would enable him to remember the man he “was for 64 years.”

Several materials were tried and, one by one, discarded for not being suitable for Ebert’s needs. Similarly, assurances was given that Dr. Reisberg had seen “much worse” and his case was actually a happy one, since much could still be done about it.

Two years later, Ebert has a new chin made of silicone colored in a shade that matches his skin, he writes on his blog.

“This device would fit over my lower face and neck and, colored to match my skin, would pass muster at a certain distance,” Ebert says.

“I will wear the prosthesis on the new television show. That’s not to fool anyone, because my appearance is widely known. It will be used in a medium shot of me working in my office, and will be a pleasant reminder of the person I was for 64 years,” the film critic explains.

“Symbolically, it’s as if my illness never happened and, hey, here I still am, on the show with these new kids. When people see the ‘Roger’s Office’ segment, they’ll notice my voice more than my appearance,” he adds.

By that, he’s referring to his actual voice. As we also noted a while back, Ebert is now using a new text-to-speech application, one that uses samples of his own voice, taken from older recordings.

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Film critic Roger Ebert lost his voice and the lower half of his face to cancer
Film critic Roger Ebert shows off his new prosthetic chin
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