CHICAGO – Film critic Roger Ebert, who has battled cancer in recent years, was in serious but stable condition Sunday following an emergency operation to repair complications from a previous cancer surgery.

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper – co-host of the “Ebert and Roeper” movie review show – told the paper that Ebert’s vital signs appeared to be good after the hours-long operation.

Ebert’s family told WLS-TV, one of his employers, that they expected the University of Illinois alumnus to make a full recovery after surgery June 16 to remove a cancerous growth on his salivary gland.

Ebert told Sun-Times columnist Robert Feder at the time that the condition was not life threatening and he expected to make a full recovery.

At about 8 p.m. Saturday, a blood vessel burst near the site of the operation, the Sun-Times reported Sunday on its Web site.

A Northwestern Memorial Hospital spokeswoman declined to comment Sunday afternoon.

The 64-year-old has undergone cancer surgery three times before – once in 2002 to remove a malignant tumor on his thyroid gland and twice on his salivary gland the next year.

Ebert has been a film critic at the Chicago Sun-Times since 1967.

He won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 1975, the same year he teamed up with Gene Siskel of the rival Chicago Tribune to launch their movie-review show.

Siskel, a lifelong friend of Ebert, died Feb. 20, 1999, from complications resulting from a surgery to remove a growth from his brain.