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Date: Wednesday 13th August, 2008
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Author: Neil-One
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Genre: Film
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Award-winning Actor/Comedian, Bernie Mac, Dies
Award-winning actor and comedian Bernie Mac died on Saturday, Aug. 9, at the age of 50.
``[He] passed away this morning from complications due to pneumonia in a Chicago area hospital,`` his publicist, Danica Smith, said in a statement from Los Angeles. ``No other details are available at this time. We ask that his family`s privacy continues to be respected.``
On Aug 1, Mac was admitted to a hospital at Northwestern Memorial hospital with pneumonia, said his rep, adding that he was expected to recover, despite widespread rumors about the seriousness of his condition.
Mac suffered from sarcoidosis, an inflammatory lung disease that produces tiny lumps of cells in the body`s organs, but had said the condition went into remission in 2005. He recently was hospitalized and treated for pneumonia, which Smith said was not related to the disease.
Born Bernard Jeffrey McCullough in Chicago, Mac began his career as a stand-up comedian in the small comedy clubs in 1977, at the age of 20.
Mac would go on to become a fixture on the national comedy scene, performing on shows like the popular Def Comedy Jam on HBO.
His film career started with a small role as a club doorman in the Damon Wayans movie ``Mo` Money`` in 1992. Mac went on to star in the ``Ocean`s Eleven`` franchise with Brad Pitt and George Clooney and with Ashton Kutcher in 2005`s ``Guess Who?`` — a remake of the Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn 1967 classic ``Guess Who`s Coming to Dinner?`` — which topped the box office.
Mac also had starring roles in ``Bad Santa,`` ``Charlie`s Angels: Full Throttle`` and ``Transformers.
Mac was a founding member of the Kings of Comedy tour - the success of which spawned Spike Lee`s 2000 concert movie The Original Kings of Comedy (also starring Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley and Cedric the Entertainer).
The comedian drew critical and popular acclaim with his Fox television series ``The Bernie Mac Show,`` which aired more than 100 episodes from 2001 to 2006.
The series about a man`s adventures raising his sister`s three children often poked fun of Mac`s own life and proved a favorite of both critics and audiences - receiving a prestigious Peabody Award, as well as honors from the Television Critics Association (for best individual achievement in comedy).
Last spring, Mac wrapped the upcoming film Soul Men, a comedy costarring Samuel L. Jackson about a former singing duo staging a comeback
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