Ebert gives the thumbs-up after receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood in this file photo taken on June 23, 2005.

AFP/DPA/Los Angeles

Film legend Martin Scorsese and President Barack Obama led tributes to US movie critic Roger Ebert, the first cinema pundit to win a Pulitzer Prize, who died on Thursday from cancer aged 70.

Scorsese, who has been working on a film about the reviewer famed for his trademark thumbs up and thumbs down accolades, called Ebert’s death “an incalculable loss for movie culture and for film criticism”.

“It’s a loss for me personally. Roger was always supportive, he was always right there for me when I needed it most, when it really counted – at the very beginning, when every word of encouragement was precious.”

Fellow Chicago native Obama also hailed Ebert, who wrote reviews for the Chicago Sun-Times for over four decades and hosted a hugely popular long-running TV show.

“For a generation of Americans – and especially Chicagoans – Roger was the movies. When he didn’t like a film, he was honest; when he did, he was effusive – capturing the unique power of the movies to take us somewhere magical.”

“Even amidst his own battles with cancer, Roger was as productive as he was resilient - continuing to share his passion and perspective with the world,” Obama added in a White House statement.

Ebert – who just two days ago announced in a blog post that he was taking a break from his main job – succumbed to cancer after a long battle, said his newspaper, announcing the critic’s death in Chicago.

He “promoted excellence in film while deflating the awful, the derivative, or the merely mediocre with an observant eye, a sharp wit and a depth of knowledge that delighted his millions of readers and viewers”, it said.

The print, television and online critic, whose “two thumbs up” accolade was a stamp of excellence coveted by filmmakers, started working for the Chicago Sun-Times in 1967.

He won a Pulitzer in 1975 for distinguished criticism, the first and one of only three such honorees, and hosted long-running movie review television shows, with a thumbs up or thumbs down as the main logo.

His column was syndicated in newspapers across the country, and his first television programme co-hosted with friendly rival Chicago Tribune critic Gene Siskel made Ebert a celebrity in his own right.

The portly Ebert and slender Siskel became something of a Laurel and Hardy pair during the 23 years they worked together, each giving movies a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Siskel died in 1999.

Ebert continued the television programme with critic Richard Roeper, but had to give up the show due to his cancer complications.

Surgeries for thyroid and salivary gland cancer left his face and neck disfigured in recent years. He had been unable to speak or eat since 2006.

Ebert noted how a “painful fracture” had recently been revealed to be a cancer.

“It is being treated with radiation, which has made it impossible for me to attend as many movies as I used to,” he said.

Addressing his readers for a last time, he recalled how he became the Chicago Sun-Times’ film critic almost 46 years ago to the day, on April 3, 1967.

“Some of you have read my reviews and columns and even written to me since that time ... however you came to know me, I’m glad you did and thank you for being the best readers any film critic could ask for.”

Ebert reviewed 285 films a year, even scheduling his cancer treatments around important new releases, the Sun-Times said.

His reviews were gathered into several books, and he published a novel and a cookbook, the newspaper reported. He co-wrote a screenplay for the 1970 film Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.