The film critic had recently announced a leave of absence.
Charles Rex Arbogast/AP
It's a sad day for movie buffs everywhere. Roger Ebert, who spent 46 years reviewing movies for the Chicago Sun-Times, passed away Thursday at age 70. The reputable film critic had just announced he would be taking "a leave of presence" to battle his second bout of cancer. "It means I am not going away," he wrote in a blog post late Tuesday. "I'll be able at last to do what I've always fantasized about doing: reviewing only the movies I want to review." In 2006, he battled cancer in the thyroid and salivary glands, causing him to lose the ability to speak and eat, though he kept reviewing.
