ROGER EBERT DIES - RIP - FAMOUS MOVIE CRITIC - WAS CATHOLIC

Roger Joseph Ebert died on April 4, 2013, due to complications from Thyroid Cancer. He was born on June 18, 1942 in Urbana, Illinois, USA. He is most famous for his show of movie critiquing entitled "Siskel and Ebert". That show ended in 1999 when Gene Siskel died with a brain tumor. Ebert continued the show with co-host Richard Roeper until 2006. He worked for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967-2013 as a film critic. Ebert was an author, journalist, film critic and screenwriter. 

In 1992 he married Chaz Hammelsmith. The two had no children together. His ancestry was German, Dutch and Irish. He was diagnosed with Thyroid cancer in 2002 and underwent surgery in 2006 which left him unable to eat or speak. He therefore continued to work by writing. He was the first film critic to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. As a child he was deeply affected by the education he received from Nuns in a Catholic Elementary school. 
He writes, 
"I received a first-rate education. At St. Mary's Grade School in Champaign, one block across Wright street from Urbana, were we taught by Dominican nuns who knew their subjects cold, gave us their full-time attention, were gifted teachers and commanded order and respect in the classroom." (Source: http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/08/o_mary_we_crown_thee_with_blos.html)
He also served as an altar boy. (pictured in middle) (Images shared from GOOGLE)

He was open about his opinion of Pro-Life issues, "My choice is to not support abortion, except in cases of a clear-cut choice between the lives of the mother and child. A child conceived through incest or rape is innocent and deserves the right to be born." 
(Source: http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2013/03/how_i_am_a_roman_catholic.html)