Joel Siegel, the Emmy Award-winning longtime film critic and entertainment editor for ABC’s “Good Morning America” and WABC-TV in New York, died Friday. He was 63.

Siegel, who continued to work until two weeks before his death, died in New York after a long battle with colon cancer, ABC News said reports the Los Angeles Times.

The mustachioed Siegel, who joined “Good Morning America” in 1981, was remembered by his ABC News colleagues for his wit and passion for the arts.

“Joel was an important part of ABC News, and we will miss him,” ABC News President David Westin said in a news release. “He was a brilliant reviewer and a great reporter. But much more, he was our dear friend and colleague.”

ABC anchor Charles Gibson described Siegel as “brilliant” and “a man of impeccable taste.”

“When Joel came into your office to talk about anything — it was going to be interesting and you were going to learn something,” Gibson, former co-anchor of “Good Morning America,” said on the ABC News website. “He had an inexhaustible supply of stories — most funny, many poignant, all with a point or a punch line.”

Read it here: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-siegel30jun30,0,6151350.story?coll=la-home-center