Screen writer, film critic and journalist Bob Ellis announces he has ‘weeks to live’
One of Australia’s best known screenwriters and film critics Bob Ellis has announced he has just weeks to live.
Writing on his personal website over the weekend the 73-year-old gave an update from his hospital bed on Saturday saying: “The news is very bad and I may have months to live but it is more like weeks.”
Ellis won an Australian Film Institute Award for best screenplay in 1978 for his film Newsfront. He told Fairfax newspapers last night he has an “aggressive liver cancer”.
As a screen writer Ellis’ work includes the Nostradamus Kid, Cactus and My first Wife and plays including The legend of King O’Malley, Whitlam Days and Down Under with his wife Anne Brooksbank.
He was also well-known as a critic, having written for many publications including Encore as a columnist, and has written a slew of novels and non-fiction books.
His Table Talk blog has an avid following and deals with critiques of film and plays, as well as political columns opinions.
He’s been wrong on most things so let’s hope he’s wrong this time.
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Bob, you’re a Living National Masterpiece who lent your voice to the Everyman. I hope you hang in for as long as you’re able. It’ll be a bloody long silence if you go. Thanks for all those wonderful words. They were – and still are – a gift to us all.
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