Roger Ebert, the longtime film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times has died. Ebert, 70, died from complications after a long battle with cancer. Ebert brought film criticism to TV with the shows “Sneak Previews” and later “At the Movies” alongside fellow Chicagoan, Gene Siskel, film critic for the Chicago Tribune. Siskel passed away in 1999 at the age of 53. The news was first reported on the website of the Sun-Times which saw a tremendous influx of traffic around 2:45pmCT, causing delays for users. From Neil Steinberg‘s obituary:
On Tuesday, Mr. Ebert blogged that he had suffered a recurrence of cancer following a hip fracture suffered in December, and would be taking “a leave of presence.” In the blog essay, marking his 46th anniversary of becoming the Sun-Times film critic, Ebert wrote “I am not going away. My intent is to continue to write selected reviews but to leave the rest to a talented team of writers hand-picked and greatly admired by me.”