The nation's best-known and arguably most influential movie critic has announced he will undergo cancer surgery on Friday.
"I am having surgery to remove a malignant tumor on my thyroid gland. I am told this type of tumor is slow-growing and not aggressive, and that my prognosis is excellent for a quick and complete recovery," Ebert says in a brief statement.
"We have taped a few Ebert & Roeper programs in advance, and I have written advance reviews for the [Chicago] Sun-Times, so I hope to be back on the beat soon, without missing a movie," Ebert says.
But don't expect the pudgy Pulitzer Prize winner to be MIA from his aisle seat for very long.
According to the Sun-Times, Ebert's home base since 1967, the thumb-happy critic only expects to be hospitalized a few days. He and his tube partner, Richard Roeper, are still on track to host a "floating film festival" for Disney Cruise Lines, attend the ShoWest movie exhibitors' confab in Vegas March 4-7, cover the Academy Awards ceremony in Hollywood on March 24 and appear on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno the following night. He's also still booked to host the 4th Roger Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival April 24-28 at the Virginia Theater in Champaign, Illinois.
The 59-year-old movie aficionado has been through this before. In 1987, he underwent a similar procedure and made a full recovery.
Roeper tells the Sun-Times that "Roger was in high spirits and prime form" during a weekend taping session last week. "He was passionate about his Oscar selections for the [duo's Academy Awards] special, combative and feisty when we disagreed about new movies for the review shows--and he was telling corny jokes during breaks."
The timing of Ebert's announcement is somewhat curious--coming exactly three years after the death of his original TV sparring partner, Gene Siskel. Siskel, a reviewer for the rival Chicago Tribune, never fully recovered after having a brain tumor removed and died at the age of 53.