Bernie Mac dead? Previously an Internet rumor, but sadly, now a confirmed fact. Actor and comedian Bernie Mac’s death has been confirmed by the Chicago Tribune.
Comedian and Chicago native Bernie Mac died early Saturday morning from complications due to pneumonia, his publicist confirmed.
Mac, 50, had been hospitalized for about a week at Northwestern Hospital, according to his spokeswoman. A few years ago, Mac disclosed that he suffered from sarcoidosis, a rare autoimmune disease that causes inflammation in tissue, most often in the lungs.
The comic born Bernard Jeffrey McCullough could cut an imposing figure. He stood 6-foot-3, was built like a fullback and carried himself with a bouncer’s reticence. But perhaps the strongest weapon in the Chicago comedian’s arsenal was that voice, that amalgam of thought and a delivery that could rise like a tidal wave, outpace a Gatling gun and remained, to his last days, loud and unapologetic.
He wasn’t scared, he told us time and again, to tell anyone what he thought, to say what others were afraid to say. That fearlessness wasn’t always welcome, considering Mac didn’t get his big break until his 30s. But when he did, the comic skyrocketed to success in stand-up, television and the big screen.
Mac shared screen time with some of Hollywood’s larger-than-life leading men, co-starring with Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Matt Damon in the “Ocean’s 11″ remake and subsequent sequels.
Most recently, Mac garnered attention for making unsavory comments at a Barack Obama benefit that the presumptive Democratic candidate had to distance himself from.
Source: Bernie Mac dies at 50 (Chicago Tribune)
Scene from “Ocean’s Eleven” (2001) (L-R)Eddie Jemison as Livingston Dell, Don Cheadle as Basher Tarr, Carl reiner as Saul Bloom and Bernie Mac as Frank Catton. Photo credit: Bob Marshak/Warner Bros
Bernie Mac as Elston in a rare dramatic role in “Pride” (2007) Photo credit: Lionsgate Entertainment
In 2001, the Fox network took a gamble on “The Bernie Mac Show,” an unconventional family comedy in which Mr. Mac portrayed a childless married comedian who reluctantly takes in his sister’s three youngsters when she goes into a drug-treatment program.
The irascible Mr. Mac made a different kind of TV dad, “more Ike Turner than Dr. Spock,” Chris Norris wrote in a 2002 profile for The New York Times Magazine. Mr. Mac’s special style of tough love — ”I’m gonna bust your head till the white meat shows,” he warned his surly teenage niece — set the show apart from other family sitcoms and raised a few critical eyebrows. But audiences saw enough of the character’s soft center to find the show touching.
“The success of my comedy has been not being afraid to touch on subject matters or issues that everyone else is politically scared of,” Mr. Mac told The Times in 2001. “It’s a joke, believe me. I’m not trying to hurt anybody.”
Bernie Mac, Comic From TV and Film, Is Dead at 50 (New York Times obituary)
See also:
Here is a sample of Bernie Mac’s edgy comedy; a scene from “The Original Kings of Comedy” (2000) a stand-up comedy film, directed by Spike Lee. Strong language.
Bernie Mac Dead? Bernie Mac Dies At 50, Chicago Tribune Confirms
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